Sermon for July 30th

The reading 

Ephesians 4:1-16

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,  making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.  But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift.  Therefore it is said, "When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people."  (When it says, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?  He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.)  The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.  We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.  But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love

The message

This can be a very difficult reading.  I do not say that a lot. Usually, I reserve the word difficult for scripture passages like Jesus telling the crowds “"If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple”, or the sexual violence throughout the story of Lot and his family. Those are the types of readings I call difficult.  Comparatively, Ephesians 4 might not sound that challenging.  Today’s reading is simply a description of what church should be like, the unity we should live with in God’s church.  The difficult part of this reading is just how far we are away from that vision. There is a great amount of dissonance when we say “there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all, and look at how divided, angry and separated the family of God is.

The church is separated by race and ethnic identity.  Back in the 1950s Billy Graham stated to readers digest “Sunday morning at 11:00 am was the most segregated hour in America” (Later on this quote was used by Martin Luther King many times and often gets attributed to him).  Over the next decades, this has not changed much.  Even here today, I often refer to the churches that share our space with us by their ethnic identity, the Indonesian church is having a special event, the Filipino church will be in from 7 to 10,  I am teaching the English program for the Fujianese church for the next few weeks.  The church is divided by theological differences like what happens in Baptism, what the role of Mary and the Saints are, the source of the Holy Spirit (this one led to the great schism in 1054 that split the Roman Catholic and Orthodox church) the meaning of Holy Communion (that’s why I’m officially not welcome to receive Communion in the Roman Catholic church I grew up in or a Missouri Synod Lutheran church with whom we share the word Lutheran), what the authority of the church is (this one led to the Protestant Reformation)  or the inspiration and inerrancy of scripture (this one is what lead our church, along with 1000s of others, to leave the Missori Synod in 1974) . The church is divided by political affiliations (to see this one, just pick up a newspaper or check the news feed on your phone) . The church is divided by social issues, perhaps we have the same goals, but we certainly have different priorities and ideas on how to get there.    

In Ephesians 4, we get to the logical conclusion of Paul’s attack on division, an argument about God’s radical welcome and acceptance.  Paul gives 7 reasons why the church should be united and work together.  They are that there is one body and one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. To be united is to share the Gospel by being organized in a way that points to one Spirit, one faith, one God.   All people have God’s gift of salvation through Christ’s death and resurrection.  It does not stop there, all people have value, all people have something to say, to contribute and share, Today, we live in a divided world where religion, economics, space, education, technology and history separate us as well.  We are divided by a sense of individualism, There are many people fond of saying “there is no I in team” during motivational speeches but someone will quietly think “but there is a me, its right there, just take that last letter and second letter and you have me ”. The difficult part is that church needs to be a place where “its not about you”. Church is not about us, it’s about Jesus, it’s not about one person, it’s about a community, it’s not about one place, it’s about the kingdom of God.  That is where our attention should be.

My time and attention has been divided. I have been all over the place this week. I have spent the week dealing with the fire alarm and people keep telling me it’s urgent (expect the person repairing it, he’s not in a hurry).  One of the churches that share the space with us held a large special event on Friday night and Saturday. As we moved people around to make room, I was reminded that this event was a large investment of their limited resources and things going well was urgent.  I got an email a few days ago from Rainbow, letting me know new vendex reports may be due, we need to be ready to fill then out immediately, Its urgent.  I have been announcing that the 150th anniversary journal is being assembled and if you want something included, it has to be done as soon as possible. Again, its urgent.  Like my week, this sermon was all over the place going on from page to page and tangent to tangent, with a whole page of great stories, that didn’t really say anything. (even now, I wonder why I spent so much time explaining the world is divided, I mean, was that news to anyone).  There is a local answer to all this division, there is a daily way each of us can live out all people are undeserving sinners saved by God’s grace,

 It’s a single word, awareness.  I need to be aware that sharing the Gospel is urgent.  I need to show you its urgent.  when I go out of my to explain to new people, I’m not one of those “Christians”, if you call them that, who thinks all gay people are going to hell, Jesus died so you can be rich or a community of special people that excludes all others.  Its important to me to say that, so people know.  I also need to realize that is increasing division.  I need to be aware that I can be wrong (not about God’s love but how churches work, how it’s lived out). We need to be aware that everyone has something meaningful to contribute. 

I think of a homeless man who would stop in for clothes, prayer, someone to talk to and any support.  He would often stop in during very inconvenient times, when I was in the middle of doing 15 different things. Of course none of those things were as important as following Jesus command to care for the least of us, but they all felt like they were.  One morning he stopped in and I was in the middle of fixing this cabinet in the church kitchen for the 20^th time.  A piece of wood had fallen off and I was trying to put it back on.  I tried all different things and nothing worked for more than a day or two, Everyone was complaining about it and I hated looking at it. It was almost Easter so I wanted to make sure it was fixed by then.  He saw me trying to nail this piece in and asked “what are you doing”. I said “this stupid thing keeps falling off, I tried everything”. He looked at it for minute and said “why don’t you just get a good wood glue and put it around the edge”.  I thought “whatever, that won’t work”.  A few days later, the piece fell off again so I tried the glue. It’s now been up for 2 years plus.

It is about how we see each other, as children of the same one, loving God. When we do that, things change.