Sermon
August 5, 2012
2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
Psalm 51:1-12
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-35
“Unity in Community”
“The
place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the
world’s deep hunger meet.”1
When we stepped onto the road of discipleship, we stepped onto a road
that probably began at our baptisms, our confirmations, wherever we
place our acceptance and commitment to Jesus Christ as our Lord and
Savior of the world and of our lives. Whenever and however that
commitment began, the acceptance of our discipleship of Jesus Christ
isn't the end of the road, it's the first step on the journey of a
lifetime.
I
truly believe that each one of us is called through our discipleship
to a purpose that suits us as joint heirs with Jesus within the
household of God. When we take on the mantle of salvation we join
together with others who have made the same commitment—disciples of
Jesus who are a part of this congregation and disciples of Jesus who
are outside of it. We share the road of discipleship with folks who
accept us as fellow disciples and some who don't. We even share the
road with folks who seem strange and weird, hardly like us at all,
but who share that one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and
creator of us all.
Within
our own congregations and within our denomination, we are called to
be one, to be reconciled, to be strong, to strive to be worthy of our
calling. . . . we are called to seek that same unity across
congregational and denominational lines, too, to reach out to our
Christian sisters and brothers and to find common ground, common
hope, common calling. All of this is to bear witness to the loving
God who "laid down the earth's foundations," thinking of
us, focusing an immeasurable love on us, intending for us to be whole
and holy through the power of that love.2
The
writer of this letter to the Ephesians uses the metaphor of body to
describe the church of Jesus. And so the writer affirms the
importance of bodies to God. In the humanity of Jesus, we are also
reminded that God loves the human body. Because what we do with our
bodies matter, as believers and disciples, we are the embodiment of
Christ in the world. What we do, how we live out a call is important
because we represent Christ—especially as we relate to the world as
a church a more clear representative of Christ than any one of us
alone. Yet each one of us has a particular calling via our particular
set of talents and gifts and skills that is exactly like no other
disciple of Jesus.
And
within that particular set of talents, gifts and skills, I think our
calling shifts slightly as we go through life. I wasn't much of a
preacher at the age of 10 or 15—I would have died of embarrassment.
Now, I hope that I fulfill that calling with some giftedness and
talent, and with at least a little bit of skill that can only come
from experience.
The
quote at the beginning of the sermon today comes from Frederick
Buechner whose writing boils things down poetically and helps us to
hear things somewhat differently than maybe we've heard them before.
If we are called—and here and in other places the bible says we
are—then there are times when we need to clarify for ourselves what
it is we are called to do. At one phase in life, we may have been
called to scale ladders and paint buildings for those who cannot do
it themselves. Or rake leaves or make meals or other such activity.
At another point in life, that may no longer be true. But that
doesn't mean the calling is gone, today the calling may shift from
climbing to writing to driving or from driving to phoning or from
phoning to climbing those ladders with paint.
What
do we do that makes us glad deep inside and how can that fill a need
for another person, fulfilling their hunger? And how could what we
need, a deep hunger within ourselves, be met through the actions of
another? Are we ready to be taught for a few hours so that we can
minister to others for years?
What
is just as important about this text from the letter to the Ephesians
is that call to unity within those gathered as disciples of Jesus
Christ. We are called to reach out to those in need—as our talents
and skills and gifts warrant our reaching out. And we are called to
do it in humility—not believing ourselves to be without talent, but
with gratitude that only God gives us what we need to share with
those whose giftedness is developing or lies elsewhere.
We
are called to minister to one another, certainly, but to minister
together as well. And to minister with the power of God within us.
God's own power "at work within us is able to accomplish
abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine" (Ephesians
3:20, last week's Epistle reading), so we never need to feel
overwhelmed or overpowered, because God's power is limitless and it's
at work within us, always. We may think we dream big and aspire for
great things, but God's power is already working towards a dream far
bigger and greater than anything we've thought of or imagined. What
an incredible statement that is – and it sets up today's reading,
which begins with such a significant "therefore": "I,
therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of
the calling to which you have been called…"(4:1 NRSV).
And
it's a calling for which we have been gifted—we may have to
practice, A LOT, to be skilled, but we have the gifts we need. And to
practice, we start small. We start with baby steps. This Sunday, I
put a small chart up on the wall in the narthex with some service or
mission ideas. These are places where some of us could put our
energy. If you have an idea and a person to call to find out more,
then write that down.
A
couple of you have suggested some of what I have put on the chart—I'd
like you to put down a phone number or some contact information for
those ideas. I hope that this is a way of connecting us—our gifts
and needs—with others who have gifts and needs that match.
And
you know what? You don't have to keep doing one thing, making one
response or sharing one gift if you know that you have others to
share. You can try something else—see if you can find where your
deep gladness can meet some hunger out there. And we rejuvenate our
gladness when we take time occasionally to spend time with God and
with friends and family.
I
think that's where we find the humility and the gentleness, the
patience, the forbearance, the love and the unity—when we find the
place where we are glad to be serving, glad to be doing the mission
of the body of Christ, glad to be meeting some need. That's not to
say that we will never be impatience or difficult or that folks we
serve or who serve us won't have a bad day. But the depth of
gratitude we feel for the opportunity to walk the way of Jesus Christ
alongside him will still spur us on.
That
kind of gratitude helps to knit us together, to work together well,
to grow into one another well—not blurring our distinctions, but
allowing us to see better the direction we're moving. That is my
prayer. Let us be built up in love, the love of Jesus Christ, evident
in all that we do and all that we accomplish beyond what we could
ever ask or imagine. Amen.
1Frederick
Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC, San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1993, page 119.
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