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Sunday August 6, 2006 - Proper 13, Year B

"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."

Do you recognize those words?
We say them, or at least, something close to them
at the beginning of every baptism service.

And they come, as you might have noticed, from our second reading today, from Ephesians chapter 4.

We've spent the last few weeks working our way through this letter in our second readings.
As best we know, or at least, according to the opening words,
it was written by the apostle Paul,
to the church at Ephesus in Asia Minor, in the western part of what we know today as Turkey. to the precious wisdom it contained.
The church in that area was just beginning: most people
had probably only been Christians for a few years, and there was no New Testament as we know it
to give them guidance.

But Paul, the one who had first brought them the gospel, the good news of Christ,
who is like a grandfather in the faith was stuck in prison,
and couldn't come to help them out. And so he did the next best thing; he wrote this letter.
It probably circulated round, not just in Ephesus but across that part of the Aegean coast, passed from one town to the next,
so that everyone had a chance
to hear Paul's wisdom.
He was trying to teach them the basics — from what to believe
to how to run their households.

Today we're a bit over halfway through the letter.
So far
Paul has been focusing on what they should believe.
He's reminded them about all they know
about Christ, all that Christ has done for them.

And what he focuses on
is their unity in Christ.
"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"

They are united, they belong to the one community, they are one church,
not because of anything they've done, not because they are some idyllic community,
but because Christ has brought them together.

And now, Paul says, it's time to live out that unity. And he suggests
two ways to do that.

First, he says, "Live a life worthy of your calling."
"Live with 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."

Humility, gentleness and patience. If you were going to choose the three qualities
that should mark a person,
you'd be unlikely to come up with those three.
I think I'd be more likely to choose strength, courage and passion.
But for Paul, and for the early church, the three that mattered
were humility
gentleness and patience.
Why? Because those three qualities are the ones
that make it easy for people to live together without getting into fights.
Those are the three
that help you live out that unity.

There's no point
in being united in Christ
and then not acting like it. Especially
when you were a minority.

Remember, Christianity was brand new when Paul wrote this letter. They didn't have generations upon generations who had followed this faith before them, they didn't have beautiful buildings to set them apart, or even a book that defined their beliefs, because the New Testament as we know it
was still being written.
From the perspective of the people around them,
they were just a group of people who for some bizarre reason
had decided that this guy from Israel
was God incarnate, and who worshiped him.
They were a little group of people who believed something different from everyone else in their town, who had turned away from the faith of their parents and grandparents.
The last thing they needed
was to be divided, to have fights among themselves
about trivial things.
That wasn't going to attract anyone
to this new gospel.

And so Paul reminded them,
their behavior mattered. It should respect the unity they had in Jesus Christ, it should be worthy of him.
And so humility, gentleness, and patience
were crucial.
Being humble, being willing to admit that they didn't know everything, that they had limitations and weaknesses as well as strengths,
being gentle, not riding roughshod over others,
being patient, being willing to wait for the right time, even when it was costly to themselves,
all those things
were important
when it came
to keeping relationships working.
Because that's what mattered, in Paul's opinion. Because they all followed one Lord, Jesus Christ, and the small stuff that might divide them
was nothing
compared to what united them,
their faith in Christ.

So that's the first thing. Because you are one body, act like it. Be humble, gentle, patient, do every thing you can
to live out that unity.

Because "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"

There is a second thing that Paul wanted to point out as an implication
of this unity in Christ.
Although they are one body, each person has individual gifts.
One of the things the Holy Spirit does
is to give gifts to each and every Christian. Gifts that range from preaching and teaching and prophecy
to encouragement, generosity, hospitality, administration, and evangelism.
Each and every one of them
is given gifts by the Holy Spirit.
And the point of these gifts, said Paul,
is for benefit of the community of faith.
They were to use their gifts
to serve each other,
they were to use their gifts
to build one another up,
so that all members
are strong in their faith, and together
they are united as one in Christ.
Just like a body
has many different parts, and each part
does a different job,
and even more importantly,
each part needs all the others to do their jobs
for the body to survive,
so they were to use their unique gifts
for the sake of the church,
so that it would be a healthy body
with Christ as its head.

"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"

Paul's advice to the early church was good. It helped them to become strong, healthy
communities.

And it's just as good for us today. Because while our culture has changed,
the essential nature of the church has not.
We are one body, shaped by the one Spirit. We believe in the one Lord,
hold to the one faith, have received the one baptism, and worship the one God.

And at the heart of all this
is our faith in Jesus Christ. That's what we have in common, that's what makes us Christians,
here at Trinity,
in the Episcopal Church,
and in other denominations as well.
We are followers of Christ.

And if we are one,
then we should act like it, just as much as the early Christians did.
We need to work on being humble, being aware
that each of us is not always right,
even being willing
to put aside our own desires and needs for the sake of others.
We need to be gentle,
not forcing our own way;
we need to be patient with one another,
sometimes waiting for others
to catch up
with where we're at.
Because our relationships matter; it's the most obvious expression
of our unity in Christ.
When we are divided, when we're fighting
or simply grumpy with one another,
when we talk negatively about other people,
we're undermining
our unity.
It makes it look
like the faith in Christ that we all share
isn't that important after all.
A bit of humility, a bit of gentleness, a bit of patience
goes a long way
in helping us to live out that unity.

And the second part of Paul's advice also applies.
Each and every one of us
is given gifts by the spirit,
and those gifts are given
for the benefit of the whole church.
All of our gifts are needed
to make the church healthy.
When we use them
the whole church is made stronger.
When we just sit back and let others shoulder the load
the whole church is weaker.

So it matters,
that each of us respond to Christ's calling and the Spirit's giving
by offering our gifts to the church community,
looking for ways
in which we can serve,
and when we do that
we are serving not only one another,
but Christ himself.

Be humble, gentle, patient;
use your gifts for the sake of the church.
That's what the apostle Paul tells the early church;
that's what he tells us.

Please turn to page 299 of the Book of Common Prayer,
and join me at the bottom of the page,
as we remind ourselves and one another
of our unity in Christ.

Celebrant: There is one Body and one Spirit;
People: There is one hope in God's call to us;
Celebrant: One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism;
People: One God and Father of all.

Sermon ©Raewynne J. Whiteley 2006