Welcome to Wednesday’s podcast.

Our reading today is Ephesians 4: 11-16. Today I will focus on verses 11-12:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.

REFLECTION

I am fortunate enough to own an iPad. What a wonderful piece of kit it is…

I can still remember the first time I turned it on. It was an awesome feeling. Pressing the screen and using the apps for the first time. Wow…

What I love about the iPad is that all the faffing about is removed. For a technophobe like me you don’t have to sit and read an instruction – who has time for that – and download stuff to get it to work.

It’s simple – it’s hard-wired to work from the off. I love it.

This is no accident.

It’s said that Steve Jobs once watched a foal being born – after a while it took its first steps and Jobs later reflected it was as if the foal was hard-wired – pre-determined – in-built – or as my friend Duncan points out – ‘hard-coded’ to take those steps.

I want to suggest that these two verses – of which there is so much to say – is St Paul saying we are hardwired or hard-coded to do the works of Jesus.

Let me explain…

Community is God’s idea. It’s his creation. Some say that God is the very first community – as Christians believe God is trinity – 3 persons in one.

Before I bore you I’ll just say this – community is God’s heart, God’s plan and that’s why St Paul says that his church is a body. When we live as community we are the collectively God’s representatives on earth.

And he’s hardwired us with specific gifts and when we use those in the context of loving each other and building community we’re doing the work of Jesus.

St Paul says some are hardwired to be apostolic (start new things e.g planting), prophetic (passion for justice – God’s presence), evangelists (sharing faith, sales people), some are teachers (explaining things) are some are pastors(looking out for people). This is known as the 5-fold ministry and I believe God has wired us all differently with one or two of these particular gifts. When we discover them – we discover what our contribution is to the world.

But there’s another aspect to the 5-fold ministry. It can help us appreciate each other a bit more.

For example if you go to your Cluster community and you’re suddenly aware that there’s someone there who is going through a rough time. You can’t explain it – you notice their body language and you just sense that they’re not in a good place – and you feel drawn to help that person it may well be that’s because God has wired you to be a pastor. It’s your gift. Your contribution.

It might also explain why you might get frustrated with other people if they don’t notice that person the way you have. It’s clearly obvious to you!

I have a friend who is a natural evangelist. He’s like a heat seeking missile to someone who isn’t a follower of Jesus. He has a natural bias towards people outside church. Now he wouldn’t notice the person in the Cluster who wasn’t in a good place. He’s not that way wired. It’s not to say he doesn’t care – it’s not the way God has wired him.

These two passages suggest we are hardwired to function in a particular God given way. It also suggests we have a unique contribution – when we find that (which can take time) we realise that we have a part to play in building communities. It also gives us grace for people who aren’t like us – they don’t need to be – but we do need each other.

As you listen to me you may well think – I don’t know how to find out how I’m wired. True, it takes a while – but I would say sometimes our frustrations are the greatest indicator for finding out how we’re wired. Discovering our unique contribution is often found in us identifying the gaps around us – and as we reflect mor...