Sermon - Living Wisely (Proper 15B)

12th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 15B) August 15, 2021

Ephesians 5:15-20 Panzer Liturgical Chapel

Today’s lesson gets us as close to a checklist as we ever get from Paul. But it’s not the same as the rules that Jewish believers religiously followed – one of the problems that Israel eventually developed was a worship of the rules or commandments, rather than worship of God. Paul does list a number of important rules for living throughout his letters. But at the end of this passage, he also reminds us of the attitude that is necessary to be successful in their living.

In verse 15, Paul reminds us to live wisely. And then he elaborates on what that might look like for us.

First, we are called to make good use of our time.  The word that Paul uses isn’t framed in the negative – he’s not accusing the Ephesians of being lazy. The verb exagorzomenoi is more related to taking advantage of all the chances you have a something – like grabbing bargains at the market or taking every opportunity to perform an action or deed. Paul is assuming that those who live in the Way of Jesus want to use our time the same way we portion our resources. We are called to invest our energy in occupations and avocations that are beneficial to the family of God. Faith isn’t just what we do on Sunday morning, or in our private devotionals time. Faith is lived out in every aspect of our lives, to serve the common good.  

Second, don’t be ignorant – use your head.  This goes hand in hand with understanding the Lord’s will. It’s important to remember that faith and knowledge go hand in hand. One of the most famous scientists of the 16th and 17th centuries was the astronomer Galileo Galilei. So much of what we know and love about the world today has its roots in his discoveries, observations, and hypotheses. He developed a 30x refracting telescope, which then gave him the ability to see the planets in our universe and beyond in ways they had never seen before. He made significant observations about the moon, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Neptune, even hypothesized the shape of the Milky Way and galaxies outside our solar system. But the thing that got him in the most trouble was his observation in 1608 that the Earth rotates around the Sun, rather than the Church’s assertion of the opposite.

In 1615, he was brought before the Roman Inquisition, and the inquisitors found that his ideas were ridiculous and in violation of the lessons taught in the Holy Scriptures. He was ordered to refrain from the publication of anything related to the topic – and he did that for 16 years. But eventually, Pope Urban VIII asked him to debate both sides of the argument, which papal advisors took as advocacy. He was eventually found suspected of heresy and held under house arrest for the remainder of his life. Fortunately, he was able to continue other work during that time but never worked on the scientific principles of heliocentricity again. Upon his death in 1642, he was not allowed to be buried in the Cathedral in Siena. It was in 1737 that the Church allowed him to be reburied in the church, and it was not until July 1981 that Pope John Paul II reinstated Galileo’s status and allowed the publication of all documents related to his work four centuries before. This was the Church’s way of offering an apology. 

The church leadership and biblical scholars of the 17th century were threatened by Galileo and other scientists’ works because they believed it was contrary to their understanding of scripture. But here’s the underlying truth. Their disbelief didn’t make his work untrue. Sometimes there is a gap between what we understand about science and what we understand about God. But that doesn’t mean it’s one or the other. Pope John Paul II said at the closing of the Galileo commission, 

"From the Galileo case we can draw a lesson which is applicable today in analogous cases which arise in our times and which may arise in the future. ... It often happens that, beyond two partial points of view which are in contrast, there exists a wider view of things which embraces both and integrates them."  

As we see the resistance around the world and the church to the application of medical science which challenges some people’s understanding about faith, we can see this fundamental problem has yet to be solved.

Thirdly, the ideas presented in verses 18 & 19 are practical ways to make sure that we keep our faith journeys the most important thing. He presents opposites and pairs of ideas and behaviors. Don’t get drunk on wine – instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Speak to each other with songs, and psalms – that is worship together, but also reminds them to make music in the heart. It’s a reminder that worship is not just what we do when we gather together, but also the song of that the Spirit generates in our hearts and minds as we seek knowledge and grow in our faith journeys. The writer reminds us that our faith is at the same time communal and personal. And sometimes, the thing that makes us feel the most uncomfortable is the thing that God is calling us to do.

All of this leads us to Paul’s last request in this passage. We are called to give thanks to God for everything. This is not only remarkably hard but often feels impossible. It’s easy to be thankful for the good stuff, but how can we feel the same way about the difficult things that happen to us? What do gratitude and thankfulness look like in a world filled with pain, disagreement, and an emphasis on individuality and independence? Dietrich Bonhoeffer asked that question and came up with this answer: if we’re not careful, it looks like cheap gratitude to go with cheap grace.

He began to preach about something different: how costly faith will transform our understanding of what it means to be truly grateful. These teachings and sermons were reflected in his book, The Cost of Discipleship, written in 1937. Later, when he was in prison for resisting Hitler, Bonhoeffer experienced this costly gratitude, a sense of humility and dependence on the gifts of others, more profoundly than ever before. He wrote, “In normal life, one is not at all aware that we always receive infinitely more than we give, and that gratitude is what enriches life. One easily overestimates the importance of one’s own acts and deeds, compared with what we become only through other people.”

Sometimes, our thankfulness comes, not for the tragedies themselves, but for the love shared with those who go through the tragedy with us. Our thankfulness is grounded in the presence of God in the midst of the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of life. Our thankfulness is nested in our revelation that crisis and opportunity are often two sides of the same coin.

Christian historian Diana Butler Bass wrote a wonderful book, Grateful: The Subversive Practice of Giving Thanks. In the introduction she says this: 

…gratitude is not a transaction of debt and duty. Rather, gratitude is spiritual awareness and a social structure of gift and response. Committing ourselves to exorcising the ghosts of the old model and embracing and practicing gift-and-response gratefulness will empower both personal and social change. And it might be what saves us, as individuals and as communities.

Gratitude – thankfulness – are not about how we feel about the gifts that we receive. They are ultimately about what we do in response. They are not just about how we act as individuals, but how we put that gratitude and thankfulness to work together in the world beyond ourselves.  

When NC novelist and essayist Reynolds Price was diagnosed with cancer in 1984, he thought the worst thing might be that the cancer would kill him. Instead, through surgery and radiation therapy, he was able to beat the cancer, but lost the use of his legs and spent the next 25 years in a wheelchair. In the beginning, he raged and was understandably depressed. But then he heard God say, just because the old Reynolds is dead – that doesn’t mean there is not still work to do. He saw his new life as a stripped-down version of his old self. God’s new call was for him to show the world that God wasn’t finished with him yet – and there could and would be triumph in this circumstance that was not of his choosing. The years that Reynolds wrote from a wheelchair were the most productive years of his artistic life, so much so that even as a paraplegic he was able to say, “Thanks, even in this.” 

Lastly, is the reminder that we do none of this alone. Verse 20 isn’t just about being thankful. It says: giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are not in this alone. At our baptisms, we received the gift of the Holy Spirit. And grounded in that belief and reality, nothing is really left only up to us. In good times and bad, the Spirit helps us live our lives as gifts, grateful for the gifts and opportunities – even crises – that we are given. This morning’s lessons remind us that our gratitude is not just for the blessings in our lives, but for the whole package. Paul encourages us to pray for the Spirit’s help in leading a life of gratitude and thanksgiving so that in all things, good and bad, we might be able to say, “Thank you, God – thanks for everything.” 

I don’t know what that looks like for you – most days, I don’t know what that looks like for me either. I have shared the circuitous route of my own faith journey, and how I felt a tug to make the church my life’s work in my teens and in college, but ignored it to take a more socially and personally acceptable path. Eventually, I ended up here, a military spouse and preaching in an Army chapel, which is about as far away from what I expected as you can get. One Sunday, a confirmation student asked, do you wish that you had answered the call earlier – taken a different path? 

And my answer was then, and is now, no, I don’t wish I had done it differently. Because if I had, I probably wouldn’t be here now. I’m pretty sure that I would be somewhere else serving God and loving people, but the road to this place came through all of that indecision and rebellion, and all of the gratitude I have for the life that I have already led, and especially for the friendships made along the way. If there is anything I have learned in this circuitous journey of faith it is this: God is down every road. And this is the best gift of all.

Peace in Christ, Deb

(c) Deb Luther Teagan

Resources: 

  Pulpit Fiction Podcast: https://www.pulpitfiction.com/notes/proper15b/#Ephesians5%3A15-20=
  Ralph Martin, Interpretation: Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon, p. 66
  http://www.vaticanobservatory.va/ content/specolavaticana/en/research/studi-galileiani.html
  Diana Butler Bass, Grateful: The Subversive Practice of Giving Thanks, page xxiv).
  Willimon, Pulpit Resource, AUGUST 15, 2021: IN ALL THINGS, THANKS

Sermon - Love Like That... (Proper 14B)

 11th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 14 – Year B)                August 8, 2021

Ephesians 4:25‑5:2; John 6:35; 41‑51                            Panzer Liturgical Service

Last week, we talked about how Ephesians Chapter 4 is a pivot point in this letter. Paul switches from philosophical to practical theology. This week’s passage starts with ideas on how we are to live out our faith… “Putting away all falsehood, let us speak the truth to our neighbors because we are members of one another” (v25). But what is this truth that we are speaking of and living out?

The last few weeks our gospel lessons have come from John 6. The crowds following Jesus have grown and there is almost no place to find relief from their needs and expectations. Jesus feeds a large crowd, starting with meager supplies, that once multiplied and shared, yield many more leftovers than they started with. And it wasn’t just this miracle of multiplication that kept the people coming back. Jesus’ teachings were reorienting the world. He was calling them to see God and themselves in a new way – in a new relationship.

When Jesus says, “I am the bread of life,” this brings up memories of another time God provided bread – the children of Israel wandered in the desert and God provided exactly the right amount of manna for each day… and twice as much before the Sabbath so that they would have a day for rest. Believing that God would provide sustenance became an exercise in trust. The people following Moses were not well-known for their patience if you remember. But eventually, they did come around, at least for a while. Jesus is expanding on this idea. He isn’t just the one who breaks bread and hands it to the people – he becomes the bread they need to survive, and not just survive, but to gain eternal life. Faith in God and Jesus is no longer just about trusting that our physical needs will be provided for. No, Jesus gives us much, much more.

Even so, there were grumblers among them, from people who remembered Jesus – maybe as a child or a young apprentice carpenter. You can almost hear them saying, “Who does he think he is?” Jesus is not gentle with them.

In verses 36-40 (which the lectionary omits, for some reason) He calls them to task and drives his point home… “I am not like anyone you have ever seen or known. I am the one who was promised by the prophets… and nothing will ever be the same again.” And then Jesus speaks to their future. When he says, "whoever believes has eternal life... Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." Let’s be clear – this is dramatic, important, and significant – all wrapped in one package.

Changing the way that we understand who Jesus is is the hard part of being a disciple of Christ. It's easy to see Jesus as a good man, doing good things and setting a good example for us all. It is much harder to see Jesus as the one who saves our souls. So how do we move from seeing Jesus as just a good man, in fact, a really good man, and move toward an understanding of Jesus as Savior, Redeemer, and King?

That’s the truth the writer of Ephesians is talking about. When we see ourselves as chosen, and when we respond to live out the truth that Jesus proclaims to us, we can put that faith into practice in everything we do. Our lives are the witness – the proof – that Jesus was who God promised. If we are not willing to live that truth in everything we do, then it’s not the witness that reflects who Jesus really is.

In this portion of the letter, Paul sets for us a few guidelines for living a faithful life. And while we would all like for him to spell everything out to the nth degree, he is just a covering of the basics of a faithful life. For the Jews, faith lived out was all about following the rules. And while Paul’s dos and don’ts may seem like rules, they are not the rules of dogma or regimentation. Paul is asking us to internalize our faith in Jesus… to live it as our second nature – as natural as breathing out and in.

Some of the things that Paul lists are easy to interpret and understand. No more lying... Do not let your anger lead you into sin... (which by the way is not the same as do not be angry) … revenge is no longer an option ... earn an honest living so that you can help the poor... do not use harmful words ‑ ­instead build people up and say things which will do good in people's lives, not hurt them in their walk of faith.

But some are hard to understand and harder to put into practice. Paul writes, "Do not make the Holy Spirit sad." And then he goes about helping us to understand what that might mean for each of us. By getting rid of bitterness, unhealthy passion, and anger, by pushing hate and hateful ways out of our lives, by forgiving others, and learning to accept forgiveness from others, just as we have been forgiven by God through Jesus Christ – those are the practices of faithful believers. Naming those things – easy peasy – but living… how do we go about accomplishing even a fraction of all of these?

Paul says it best at the beginning of Chapter 5: "Be imitators of God... Live in love." (NRSV) One of my favorite family memories is a Christmas when my oldest niece (now the mother of two) was about 2 ½. She opened a package that contained a kid-sized backpack. It was her mom’s way of helping her graduate from a diaper bag to something more mature, because everyone wants a teddy bear backpack, right. But when we tried to help her put it on, she didn't understand what it meant to wear it like a backpack, on her back. Instead, she insisted on carrying it over her arm, like a purse, because she had seen her mommy do that, and she wanted to be just like her.

As much as we may want to, we are never going to do this faith thing perfectly – we are human – we’re going to make mistakes – choose wrong paths – and hopefully learn the lessons that these things teach us. I hope that each of us has a person of faith who inspires us – someone that we would like to imitate… someone who has taught us something about our faith journeys … someone who encourages us to dig a little deeper and love a little better every day. Paul wants that for us, and more.

Some days are really good and faith is easy to live. Others are a struggle from the moment that we climb out of bed and we can’t wait for the day to be over. Some days faith feels like a soothing lotion that cools a sunburn or quiets an upset stomach. Other days, faith feels like a wind that can break branches from trees or a small stream that grows exponentially to flood places that have never seen water before.

No matter what, God is present – in the big crises and in the daily minutia that we often perform without even thinking. If we are faithful and diligent, we gain a little ground every day. We learn a little more about love. We understand a little more about ourselves, and we seek out the love of God more and more as we go along. The Christian life is a journey, not a destination, and there are always things for us to do and learn along the way.

The other day I was thinking about training days. And how they often feel inconvenient to us. Military personnel spend an inordinate amount of time training for things that usually don’t happen… until they do. First responders, doctors, nurses, teachers, preachers… almost anyone who has ever had to do any kind of training finds all that training tedious and monotonous and boring… until you need it. Ever need to provide emergency first aid – or the Heimlich maneuver – or give CPR? It turns out, once we realize that our training might come in handy one day, we don’t mind doing it so much. In fact, we crave it, because we know how good it feels to see all that practice pay off by making a difference in a time of need.

That’s what Paul is talking about. As we practice loving people, unlovable ones – and being kind – and forgiving, even when we don’t want to – we find that these things get a little easier each time. And even when we have a setback or a failure, we know God’s love has not left us behind. We are called to be the beneficiaries of grace as much as we are to be imitators of the One whose life defines what love and grace are all about.

The Message paraphrase ends like this:

Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that. (Ephesians 5:1-2)

See how Jesus loved us…. And then love like that. That’s what faith and grace are all about.

Peace in Christ,

Deb

(c) Deb Luther Teagan, August 2021

Sermon: The Quest for Unity (Proper 13B)

 10^th Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 13B                                     August 1, 2021

Ephesians 4:1-16                                                                 Panzer Liturgical Chapel

The Quest for Unity

In 1998, Shawn and I bought a new SUV. Imagine my surprise when I got up the next day to drive it to work and found the instruction manual at my place at the breakfast table, complete with tabbed pages to read before I headed out on my maiden voyage. Because apparently that’s what you’re supposed to do… read the instructions before you start … who knew?

We are halfway through the book of Ephesians and we have reached a turning point in this letter. In the first three chapters, Paul has been building up this faith community, keying in on the universal nature of Christ’s call. It’s an exercise in identity reinforcement. To the Gentiles, he says echoing familiar the Old Testament messages, once you were no people, now you are God’s people, unified with all who call upon the name of the Lord. You are travelers together on the Way. Common identity is found in our oneness with Christ, which compels us to live out oneness with each other.

The opening word in Chapter 4 provides the pivot point… therefore. Paul says, because of all that stuff I said earlier, we are moving on what this looks like practically. In essence, he’s given us an instruction manual for living out faith in Jesus Christ. The first problem to overcome – figuring out how to see ourselves as a cohesive body of Christ. Even more practically, how do we live as one? Paul gives simple, difficult instructions - he tells us to bear one another in love, our first and greatest challenge.

That’s not to say there these are not theologically important words. In verses 4-6 we see the beginnings of Trinitarian theology and basic building blocks for the first creeds of the Church. Hear that when Paul writes, “You are one body and one spirit, just as God also called you in one hope. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all.” It’s ironic that at the beginning of the practical theology section of the letter, Paul writes one of the most defining theological truths we can know.

This is the foundation of Paul’s call to unity. Sure, we can understand why showing a united front would be important. But practically, we have to figure out: what does look unity like in a world that seems to value individuality and independence over everything else? Here’s a hint: this is one of our first clues that living a Christian life is a counter-cultural experience.

Additionally, unity isn’t about being or thinking just like everyone else. Our unity is evidenced in how we live out the most basic parts of faith. How does claiming Jesus as Lord and Savior change the way we live? What must we do to make that unity visible to the world around us? In two short words, Paul is telling us to grow up.[i]

When we hear that word – church – we think of buildings or denominations. We think of all the things that make us different from one another, like the color of our skin, our nationalities, our worship styles, or the ways we interpret scripture. At some level those things are important, but they distract or are even in opposition to, the instructions that Paul is giving here.

Unity is about something more. It doesn’t come cheaply or easily – it requires us to learn to live with one another. Sometimes this means compromise. Sometimes this means admitting we made a mistake. Sometimes it means forgiving others even when we don’t want to.[ii] And when we are really brave, it requires us to tell the truth – the truth about God, the truth about ourselves, and the truth about how we are called to live – as one.

These days, truth-telling often feels like walking a razor-thin fence with alligators on one side and rattlesnakes on the other. The questions we have to ask ourselves are these: How can I be honest about the injustices I see without seeing others as the enemy? And likewise, how do we hear someone sharing their truth and assume their behavior is intended to be divisive, or even predatory?

We start by remembering that we are one – that is the truth that Paul teaches. Our biggest challenge will always be seeing ourselves that way. Unity is hard. It takes effort – building bridges and tearing down walls. In these efforts, we can maintain, defend, and develop the small glimpses of unity that we already enjoy – and break down the barriers that create the disunity that creeps in when we are not attentive. Our work must always be centered on becoming the unified and cohesive people we are called to be.[iii]

Every week we open our worship celebration with a reminder of what Jesus taught as the greatest commandment – love God and love others as we love ourselves. Simple yes, easy no – partially because it’s just so hard to keep them in the proper balance. These tasks are meant to be connected and evident in everything we think and do. These are the places where we are called to use our gifts – to love and serve God and one another - even when it’s harder than we imagined – and always surprised at the joy we experience along the way.

Before we close, I want to talk about two ways we can misuse Paul’s words, sending us off on wild goose chases that distract us from our mission. First, in verse 1, we can put the focus on the wrong word. In most English translations, we hear this: “Therefore, as a prisoner for the Lord, I encourage you to live as people worthy of the call you received from God.” We focus on the word “worthy” and in our heads that can become “deserving.” And let’s face it… we are neither worthy nor deserving of the great love and gifts we receive from God. The Greek word used here is axios, which does translate into English as “worthy” but in way more related to economics than anything else.

Think about a scale. For a large part of our history, people were paid for the goods they brought to market by weight. The items were put on a scale, and they were brought into balance with reference weights worth a predetermined value.[iv] This is the kind of worthiness that Paul is talking about. Are we living our lives in a manner that is in balance with the gifts that we have been given? Are we holding up our end of the bargain? Are we even trying?

Second, I am always wary of people who claim that they are telling the truth in love (verse 15). The phrase, “Hate the sin, love the sinner,” falls into this category. When we hear that, it sounds really good. But too many times, I have heard people use this to force or keep people out of the circle of grace. Many have been driven from life in the Church with a poor understanding of this verse.

The solution, of course, is to hear the verse in context. Paul writes, Instead, by speaking the truth with love, let’s grow in every way into Christ, who is the head. The whole body grows from him, as it is joined and held together by all the supporting ligaments. The body makes itself grow in that it builds itself up with love as each one does its part.”  Love covers truth, two to one…

Speaking the truth in love doesn’t mean telling people they are doing faith wrong or poorly. Instead, truth-telling is a way of building up the body of Christ – of making it stronger and more unified as we work and witness together. Earlier in the passage, Paul is emphatic in his understanding that our oneness is found in our humility… no one of us is better than anyone else. We all have different gifts, required and necessary in different times and places. None of us is on the same path… but we are all called to live as one body, in Christ.[v]

On the flip side, truth-telling can also be offered in love but received with hostility. Many preachers will spend a lot of time trying to craft a sermon that won’t offend anyone… a dauntless and fruitless task, for sure. When we tell the truth in love, to create a path to unity, someone will take offense. Someone will speak out in opposition. Someone may even take revenge.

Simone Biles has dropped out of most of the events she was planning to participate in at the Tokyo Olympics because she has developed “the twisties,” an extreme disorientation of body and mind. It’s one of the most dangerous things that can happen to a gymnast or diver. Their minds can no longer process information about what their bodies are doing when they tumble or spin. Everything they thought they knew about their craft is called into question.

If you’ve ever had vertigo, I bet you can relate. I know someone who was treated for an ear infection. For months after antibiotics, she was disoriented by the floral wallpaper in her bathroom. One day, she fell off the toilet and into the sliding glass door of her tub, damaging the door and her shoulder. And so, until she moved out of that house, she didn’t use that bathroom again. The disorientation was still real, even when everyone said it was all in her head.

Now imagine that for someone doing multiple flips and twists onto a hard surface or into a pool of water. That kind of disorientation is not only dizzying but can be life-threatening. Kudos to everyone who has stood up for Simone when she said “It’s OK not to be OK – my value as a human being is not determined by how many medals I win or even if I compete.” And yet, some call her every name in the book - quitter, loser, traitor. Love of country, love of sport, love of competition – none of that is more important than our call to love of people, even if we don’t understand their truths.

Disorientation – that’s what four law enforcement officers talked about on Tuesday in the halls of Congress… their mission was to keep the national’s capital and lawmakers safe. Almost seven months later, they still cannot come to terms with the violence, hatred, and anger that confronted them. But because they believed in their mandate, they pressed on, unified in their determination to protect, serve, and defend.

Another example: it’s hard not to be frustrated when you’ve done everything you can to combat an unseen enemy. Quarantined, self-isolated, masked, and vaccinated – many of us have done all we could to keep COVID-19 in check. But it wasn’t important to everyone, and so we are stuck. I am among those church leaders who believe that these are not just healthy behaviors – they are a part of how we are called to live out our faith in love. And as hard and annoying as it feels today, we are called to keep masking up, social distancing, and taking care, without complaint, because we are called to love and serve one another, even when we don’t want to.

The truth that Paul wants to speak is not OUR truth, but the truth about who Jesus is. When we hear “church growth,” we think about putting more bodies in the pews. That is not primarily Paul’s focus. Instead, Paul wants the people who already believe to grow in their faith. He taught that when faith is made evident in the ways that people live and serve, it is the best kind of advertisement for why people would want to follow Jesus, too. The faith, truth, and gifts that Paul teaches are only fully understood when they are seen through the eyes of love.[vi]

Paul believed that this kind of truth-telling grows into mature Christians. It requires a lot from us. We have to be willing to be vulnerable and willing to be rejected if we are the speakers. And if we are the listeners, we need to remember that while we want to think of the church as a place of peace and comfort, that may not be true all the time. It’s OK to see the church as a shelter from the storms of the world around us… everyone is looking for sanctuary at one time or another.

But somedays we will find that comfort is hard to find, because the truths we hear from God’s word may make us squirm in our seats. That truth might require something extra, even painful, from us. Our willingness to grow as individuals and as a body of believers will determine how much influence we will have in the world to support the people we have and draw in more people to join us.

Dr. Eugene Peterson was a Presbyterian biblical scholar who is best known for his modern paraphrase of the Bible. It’s not a translation – he didn’t attempt to match closely word for word the ancient texts he studied. Instead, he did something more nuanced. He thought about these ideas in phrases and paragraphs, often including 20^th-century language, to capture the ideas that were intended for our present-day audience. When we read scripture from The Message, Dr. Peterson doesn’t allow us to get caught up in the exact verses we memorized as children. He often shocks us with his insistent truth-telling. It’s a great addition to a study library, and very relatable for families. I’ve printed our sermon lesson for today on the back of your scripture insert. I challenge you to take it home and read it out loud. I think you’ll be challenged, in a good way, with what you hear.

Our first calling is to present a unified front – speaking the love of God with one voice – showing concern and offering care for those in need, even if they are not our needs – in balance with the love that God showed for us in the life death, and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. That might mean that life and faith and church don’t look the ways we expect. Maybe in their unexpectedness, they will prove to mean even more.

I close with the unattributed prayer from a Civil War soldier and published in the Oxford Book of Prayer. Today it reminds me that unity will come only when I am willing to give up thinking I know best.

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve,

I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked God for health, that I might do greater things,

I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy,

I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,

I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,

I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am among men, most richly blessed.

Peace in Christ,

Deb

(c) Deb Luther Teagan, August 2021

 

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[i] Will Willimon, August 1, 2021: Grow Up, Pulpit Resource, Vol 49, no 3. Year B, www.ministrymatters.com

[ii] Willimon

[iii] NT Wright, Ephesians: Living Our Calling – Chapter 7, IVP Connect.

[iv] Richard Carlson, Commentary on Ephesians 4:1-16, August 1, 2021, www.theworkingpreacher.com

[v] Carlson

[vi] Carlson

Sermon - Rooted and Grounded in Love (Proper 12B)

 9^th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 12B)                                                  July 25, 2021

Text: Ephesians 3:14-21                                                Panzer Chapel Liturgical Service

When I read through the verses from Ephesians 3 today, I keyed in on one particular phrase… Paul’s prayer is that we be rooted and grounded in love. And it immediately made me think about gardening.

My dad grew up on a farm in Western North Carolina. 90% of the land was covered in timber, but there was plenty on land by the New River where my grandparents tended a very large garden, probably a little over an acre. I worked in that garden until I was in high school, and then transferred those skills to working the smaller garden we had a home. My parents took this hobby very seriously – tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, corn, okra, squash, peppers… if we weren’t pulling weeds or harvesting a crop, then we were trying to figure out what to do with all the veggies we grew. It never paid to leave your car unlocked if you came to visit us in the summer – you were taking something home whether you wanted it or not.

I didn’t think that I learned much from that experience because I really didn’t like gardening very much. I didn’t like being hot. I didn’t like being in the sun. I didn’t like how scratchy the leaves of many of the plants felt against my skin. And I didn’t like eating green beans at almost every meal in August and September.

I’m happy it only took a few years to have the joy of gardening return. It started with flowers, but about 10 years ago, we started growing vegetables, too. Every year we observed our successes and our failures. We read up on what to use to get rid of destructive pests and what kinds of additives and fertilizers would give us a good crop while maintaining a healthy environment for bees and other helpful insects.

We learned that crushing up eggshells in the hole before we planted our tomatoes and zucchini would help prevent the ends from rotting before they were harvested. We have a great harvest of radishes this year because we figured out that mixing peat with dirt gives us just the right soil texture for an optimal harvest. We learned which flowers need the most sun, and which ones like the shade. Our terraced perineal garden blooms from March to October because we have studied, experimented, and paid attention as our way of making our garden grow.

Much of Paul’s writing to the churches under his care is about teaching and instructing… his call is to welcome people into the circle as God has welcomed them. Today’s verses from Ephesians are as much pastoral prayer as they are a lesson in theology. His prayer is that we be grounded in Christ… and not just in the ways we understand faith, but also in the ways we live it… not just in what works for us as individuals, but also to discover what works for us as a community.

Here in Ephesians and also in Philippians 2, Paul uses the action of kneeling in prayer for two purposes. First, to subjugate ourselves to the Triune God. It’s a big thing to realize and then live as if the world does not revolve around us. Once we become followers of Christ, we are connected to him through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our very character is empowered by this relationship – very much in the way we talked last week about the vertical nature of our relationship with God. Our strength comes from this relationship – not from our wants or abilities.

Second, when we allow Christ to infuse our lives in and with faith, we enter into new relationships. Prayer is one of the ways we communicate with God – prayer that is both speaking and listening – prayer that calls us to quiet and to action. Service is how our relationships with others get lived out. We are called to love one another, not because we are the same, but because we worship one God, together. Sometimes we call this family… sometimes we call it church. Last week, we use the word, ekklesia, citizens of a community built on love. Within these relationships, love can grow and flourish, bear fruit and beauty.

So how does this relate to gardening? Before we talked about how we must understand the ways that soils, nutrients, and growing conditions affect the ways our gardens grow and provide crops or flowers as we work. Think of it this way, in the same way, that plants need good soil, we need good community, a place to plant deep roots and be nourished as we move toward fruitful harvest. When we participate in spiritual disciplines like prayer, worship, and as we study about faith, we are nurtured in the same way that plants need different kinds of nutrients and treatments to help them grow stronger, yielding good fruit.

For instance, this year, we will have plenty of zucchini, but our tomatoes have fallen ill with a blight that has affected many in our area… too much rain, too little sun, and temperatures better suited to a fungus than the setting of fruit on our vines. We have realized that just because our tomatoes have flourished in the same garden for the last five years, we cannot rest on our laurels or give up on our garden altogether. We will take this years’ experience under advisement when we think about what to plant next year and we may make changes we haven’t ever considered before.

Up to this point in the letter, Paul has been focused on the concept of God’s immeasurable grace. What does that grace look like? Well, I think he’s telling us that it’s bigger than we can even imagine… love to the fourth dimension. He says it this way: “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

God’s love and power surpass our ability to know how big that love is. And that is an invitation to love and dream and work bigger than we can imagine for ourselves. Or in Paul’s words, “Now to him who by the power at work within us can accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine…”

Our faith journeys are as different as each of us is. Our histories, our experiences, and our dreams for the future are unique to our own lives. What a blessing when these lines intersect and even travel together for a time. Our walks may look different as we grow and travel and experience faith in new ways. The spiritual disciples that work for me may not be as meaningful to you, or vice versa. The ways of praying or studying or being a part of the Christian community may change for us as we grow in faith. And all of that is OK, as long as we keep ourselves centered on the One who gives us the faith and gifts to serve him.

I know a family that adopted a child from overseas. The process was difficult, tedious, and there were delays and roadblocks at almost every turn. The mom was allowed a 1-week visit with the child to start bonding with him and to attend to the required paperwork. She then had to return to the US and wait for several months before she could return to bring him home to his new family. Those months were agonizing.

There were many people shocked at how much time, money, and energy they were willing to expend to bring a new member into their family which included three teenaged boys. When it was suggested that maybe it wasn’t meant to be, my friend replied, “This is my child and I will do whatever it takes to bring him home. If something were to happen to him or this adoption was not to go through, it would be the same as if one of the children I birthed from my own body had died. God called him to be our child and us to be his family, and God will see this through.” That, my friends, is love without bounds… love for an unknown child, and trust in a God who can make impossible things happen.

God loves us even more than that, evidenced in ways that we might not recognize at the time. Sometimes we must look back and see the powerful hand of God at work in our lives. This working out can have an ethereal, other-worldly nature, but often as not, it happens people-to-people. This love is both eternal and earthly, not one or the other.

And in the midst of it all, we are called to this life together. We have our personal relationships with Christ, but we are also called to live with one another.

God wants us to be like Monika and her family, who welcomed a new son and brother and loved him before they even got to touch his hand. God wants us to be so filled with love and joy and happiness that we give those feelings more power over us than the concerns and worries and needs that might make us afraid or hesitant in the ways we live out our faith. God’s love keeps us going when we want to give up. God’s love pushes us farther and deeper when we want to play it safe. God calls us to a new way of life, of being, of loving out our lives because that’s what love is all about.

Paul calls that the fullness of God… blessing and possibility mixed with suffering and disappointment, but God is always there. God does not call us to an easy life. It may not be as fruitful in the ways we hoped – like tomato plants that drop their leaves before the fruit can even get big enough to harvest. But we are called to live deeper lives, knowing that even in our struggles, love is the better choice.

Some days, we don’t know how it’s all going to work out. But we don’t have to always know. In these times – at all times, we are asked to trust in the One who sees more and who can work miracles in ways we never imagined or asked.

Shawn and I love sunflowers, and for the last few years, we have planted several varieties of seeds in little pots and nurtured them until we could plant them at the back of our garden, along the fence. But this year the seedlings kept dying. So, Shawn took the seeds we had left, mixed them up, used a hoe to make a small trench, poured the seeds in, and covered them up, hoping for the best. It took a few weeks, but we eventually had a whole line of seeds germinate, and now, along our back fence, we have over two dozen sunflowers almost ready to bloom. They are different heights and shapes, and we have no idea what varieties we have. Normally at this time of the season, we would be staking the plants up to help them make it to the end of the season before their stalks break. But this year, the plants are so close together that they are holding each other up… no assistance from us is needed.

In our gospel lesson, Jesus once again hosted a meal… a very big meal… a miraculous meal. At first glance, it feels like only Jesus and the boy with the loaves and fishes thought this was even possible. But as the disciples followed Jesus’ instructions to have the people sit down, and as they passed around the blessed bread and fish, everyone believed. The miracle wasn’t just that Jesus made that little bit of food go so far. It was also in the faith of those who sat and waited for the food to come to them. No one went away hungry, and there was an unbelievable amount left over at the end – many times more than what they started with.

We live life better together. Loving, learning, hoping… we do it, we know it, we experience it all better together as long as we are rooted and grounded together in love. This very thing - being rooted and grounded in love is the very essence of what God is calling us to be and to do. Love is at the center of it all…love for God, love for one another, and love for all of God’s people.

Thanks be to God.

(c) Deb Luther Teagan, July 2021

 

Sermon resourced from UMC Discipleship – Derek Weberhttps://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/geared-up-for-life/ninth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-b-lectionary-planning-notes/ninth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-b-preaching-notes

Sermon - He is our Peace (Proper 11B)

 Pentecost 11B – July 19, 2015                                                              July 18, 2021

Ephesians 2:11-22 & Mark 6:30-34, 53-56                        Panzer Liturgical Chapel

He is our Peace

I thought when I decided to preach a series on our epistle texts there might be questions… turns out the first one came as we were leaving church last week. Why not preach on the whole epistle – why leave out large portions? Those are important and worthy of study, too – right? Worthy of study – absolutely, and I will refer to some of those passages as we work through the letter. The verses we read earlier are the chosen ones for today. That leads to the natural question of who chose these texts in the first place.

We use the Revised Common Lectionary in worship each week. Broken into a three-year cycle, the lectionary attempts to touch all of the major stories of the Old Testament, t
he themes of the letters to the early church, and the Jesus story as recorded in all four gospels. The lectionary that we use in our service is the same one used by many churches in our own traditions. It is the product of painstaking work begun by Protestant church leaders in the Consultation on Church Union in 1974, mirroring the lectionary that came out of the 2^nd Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church in 1969. The readings have changed a little over the years, but since 1994, many congregations, both Catholic and Protestant, have heard the same lessons read each week, an exercise meant to display a measure of unity in our identity as the church of Jesus Christ, together.

So, this week, we skip over some of chapter 1 to focus on this passage from Ephesians 2. It’s a little unfortunate that we receive this chapter divided the way it is because it is also good to see these 22 verses as two halves of a whole. It’s a reminder that none of what we have now as chapter and verse in the Bible was written that way. It was narrative, like a good book. It was conversational, a teacher encouraging and molding students to a new way of life and thinking.

In the first 11 verses, Paul speaks of the vertical nature of our faith. While we are tied to our pasts by the things we have messed up, once we are in relationship with Christ, they do not define our future. Because of God’s mercy, we get to turn over to a new page and begin again. The rich mercy of God brought us to new life through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And because of that, we are connected to God through Christ. This vertical relationship is the very definition of grace. God took our sin-dead lives and made us newly alive in Christ, all on his own, with no help from us. Through faith, we become God’s great accomplishment. We are God’s forever. But that doesn’t mean something isn’t required of us.[i]

Once we have accepted the gifts that God gives us in the process, we now have new responsibilities. We are citizens of a new community. And this community calls everyone who shares these faith gifts to be a part of our new tribe. People who were once our enemies are now not just friends, but brothers and sisters in faith. There’s nothing in this covenant that requires us to believe in or experience God and Christ the same ways.[ii]

For the Christians of Paul’s day, this meant that Jews, who had been taught that they were God’s chosen people, and Gentiles, who had been considered outsiders, even un-chosen, were now in the same family. Talk about seismic change. It was a source of great debate and disagreement for much of the books of Acts. And Paul spent most of his time teaching this new model of community, as shown in the volume of letters he penned and inspired.

Our gospel lesson gives us a clue to this new reality. Jesus continues his journey in the regions outside Jerusalem. In both Jewish and Gentile communities, he teaches and preaches, and heals without distinction to prior religious affiliation. Everywhere he went, even when he was trying to get away for a little rest and respite, people followed because they knew that he could change their world. And in verse 34 it says he had great compassion for them and began to teach all who would listen and heal all who had need.

Today’s verses 11-22 in Ephesians give us the horizontal dynamic of our Christian identity. Faith in Christ does not just ask us to change our way of thinking and believing. It asks us to change the way we think about one another – about how we think of everyone. And we can only do that with Christ as our peace. Our ability to love one another – to love our neighbor as ourselves – is not dependent on our ability to love. We can’t do that by ourselves. Our ability to truly love others is a gift we receive from God.

The Hebrew bible tells the story of how the Jewish community depended on the Law to define their behaviors. It was developed in the beginning to help people get closer to God. Over time, the law became the focus of the relationship, and strict adherence to the law became the definition of what it meant to be a good Jew. Jesus changed all of that. He tore down the wall that we used to keep each other at a distance. Instead of getting bogged down in fine print and footnotes, he asked us to start fresh, depending on him and then on one another. New day. New journey. New family. One church.

This is not easy. We don’t do a great job at rejecting division – in the church or the world. We defend our own beliefs by defining what faith should be like for everyone. It’s as if different or opposing views call our faith into question. In fact, we are very good at defending our faith identity to the exclusion of others, even if it puts their life and faith into question.

Look at the news and we see all the places where we allow division to define us. And this grieves God. Instead of putting Jesus’ crucifixion in the past, it keeps it right before us and sets up barriers to accessing the new lives that Jesus sacrificed for us. We give in to our fears – fears that the gifts of our past will crumble around us – fears that our hopes and dreams for the future will never be fulfilled. Our inability or unwillingness to step into a brave new future is evidenced by all the walls we have erected.

Drive a few hours from here and we can see the remnants of the Berlin Wall. Expand our vision and we can see the broader Iron Curtain and fear that remains in some communities because ideas of democracy and community are such a challenge to the imagined security of the past. Current walls in Israel and between the US and Mexico seek to make inviolate divisions between communities that previously were connected. Even a railroad track or a highway that cuts through a community can separate people who used to think of themselves as one town or city. And the ways we label people as “other” say as much about us as it does about them.

Jesus says, “No.” We are no longer strangers to one another. We are no longer enemies. As members of God’s tribe, God’s household, we are all built into the foundation of everyone who came before with Jesus as the Cornerstone. He defines who we are. And this is not something that happened in the past. It still happens every day. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul writes that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit… not just swirling around us like a mighty wind, but living in all of us. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul says that we all have a purpose and that we are not created to be alike, but with different gifts - on purpose - for building up the Kingdom of God.

Before Jesus came, the Temple in Jerusalem was not only the religious heart of the nation, but also the pollical, social, and cultural center of Jerusalem. People remembered that Israel’s God has promised to live there – it was in some ways the place where heaven and earth met. But Paul turns that idea upside down. In these last verses of the chapter, Paul states that the living God is building a new Temple - not of stones and mortar, but of human beings. God’s dwelling place is no longer a building – instead, it is a community of people who allow God to take up residence in their hearts – and always becoming something new.[iii]

The Sagrada Familia – the famous Gaudi Basilica in Barcelona is one of the most famous churches in the world, and is still a work in progress, its cornerstone laid in 1882 – it might be completed in our lifetimes. I hope you can see it, because in my experience, it is one of the most exquisite buildings I have ever seen inside, and even in its perpetual construction state, I felt drenched in the Spirit as I stood in the glow of its stained-glass windows and highly arched ceilings. In its completion, it will be glorious, but even now, with scaffolding dotting both the interior and exterior construction, the Spirit is at work in the building itself and in the work of the congregation who worships there each week.[iv]

We are also a work in progress. Our progress and our failures are simply a snapshot of any day in time – the real question is are we moving forward? Do we allow the peace of Christ to be a defining principle as we live out our faith as individuals and as communities gathered for worship and work?

The real test might be in how we understand this kind of peace. We often think of peace as calming, soothing, comforting… but I’m not sure that is what Paul is talking about. Sometimes Jesus’ peace comes in like a wrecking ball, asking us to tear down – destroy – and eliminate the barriers and walls that separate us – just like Jesus did. For Jesus, it wasn’t an easy battle. Jesus became the enemy of the religious community and they did everything they could to weaken his message of unity and hope. Ultimately, it took death – everything he had to give – his life poured out for us. But he did it. He came in like a wrecking ball and got wrecked in the process. And because of that love, the walls came down. In the stillness of an open tomb, everything was made new.[v]

Our task is to receive Jesus’ gift of peace, and welcome both the comfort and disruption it brings to our lives. Jesus’ peace comes to us in an endless cycle – peace for the courage to encourage change – peace and trust that disrupts the walls already built and discourages the ones that get erected in their place – and peace to sit amid that change, knowing that if we don’t help bring the unity that Jesus inspires and demands, we will never know what peace is all about.

Our hymn of the day proves that words written over 230 years ago can still mean as much today as they did when they were written. We don’t know the name of the author, just that they were published in a collection of hymns from Carter Lane Baptist Church in London in 1787. I guess if I had to preach a sermon in five verses, this would be it.[vi]

1 How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he has said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

2 “Fear not, I am with you; O be not dismayed,
for I am your God, and will still give you aid.
I’ll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

3 “When through the deep waters I call you to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow,
for I will be with you, your troubles to bless,
and sanctify to you the deepest distress.

4 “When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie,
my grace, all-sufficient, shall be your supply.
The flames shall not hurt you. I only design
your dross to consume, and your gold to refine.

5 “The soul that on Jesus still leans for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes.
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!”

Thanks be to God! Amen.

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[i] James Howell, James Howell's Weekly Preaching Notions, “What can we say July 18? 8th after Pentecost, July 1, 2021,  http://jameshowellsweeklypreachingnotions.blogspot.com/

[ii] Paraphrased from The Message by Eugene Peterson, Ephesian 2

[iii] NT Wright, Ephesians Bible Study, IVP Press, pg 21.

[iv] James Howell, ibid.

[v] Derek Weber, He Is Our Peace, UMC Discipleship Sermon Series – Geared Up For Life - https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/geared-up-for-life/eighth--after-pentecost-year-b-lectionary-planning-notes/eighth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-b-preaching-notes

[vi] https://hymnary.org/text/how_firm_a_foundation_ye_saints_of

Sermon - Standing on Hope (Proper 10B)

7th Sunday after Pentecost (10B)                                                  July 11, 2021

Ephesians 1:3-14                                                                 Panzer Liturgical Chapel

Starting this Sunday, we’re going to do a new thing. It feels a little risky to me, but I’m going to give it a shot. For the next seven weeks, I’m going to preach from the appointed texts from the letter to the Ephesians. This letter is sometimes called the “Queen of the Epistles” because it gives a concise explanation for the gospel message in one brief package. Maybe it feels funny to have a sermon series in the middle of the summer, given that we are coming and going as travel opens back up. The good news is that these sermons will be connected, but not serial… if you miss a week, it’s OK. Each one will have its own singular theme. And they will be posted on our Facebook page, so you can always catch up there if you miss out on Sunday morning.

So. Ephesians: The book of Ephesians is attributed to Paul. Scholars are divided on the question of his authorship. It is possible that he did write these thoughts to the church in Ephesus while he was imprisoned in Rome in 60-62AD. It’s also possible that his own disciples compiled his teachings into a concise document after his death. Whichever is the case, the writings certainly fit the style and theological teachings of Paul in his other pastoral letters and early church leaders would not have been concerned so much that Paul actually wrote down the words himself.

Early church councils felt strongly that Paul had enough of a hand in its development that they were comfortable assigning authorship to him. For our purposes in these next weeks, I will refer to this as Paul’s letter because it though it lacks the personal touches that early Pauline letters contain, like addressing or thanking specific leaders in the church, and uses language and terms that Paul does not use in any other letters, it certainly fits into the standard of other letters written by him.

If we look closely at its contents, we see two connected messages. Chapters 1-3 provide a theological underpinning for faith in Jesus Christ. Many of our most basic understandings come from Paul’s explanations here – here we define belief. They contain some of Paul’s most beautiful and poetic language. Chapters 4-6 go on to explain the ethical dimensions of the faith journey. In these verses, Paul shows us how to apply our faith. Being on this journey is not just about believing. It must be followed by living out our faith. This book not only teaches us the WHAT of faith but also answers the question SO WHAT?

So where do we start? At the beginning is a good place. And that’s exactly what our writer does. Beginning in verse 3, our writer takes us back to the beginning of the world.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ … (Eph. 1:3-5, NRSV).

From the beginning, God gives us good news. Christ was chosen for us before the foundation of the whole world. And we were chosen to be members of his family – adopted in love before we even existed. Being chosen may not seem like much, but it gives us things we often don’t recognize we need – grace, redemption, and forgiveness, to name a few. And because God made this choice at the start, the boundaries that we set up to decide who are in and out of God’s purview – they are all artificial as far as God is concerned. Jesus came for everyone – for the whole world. All are invited to be a part of the beloved community.

The hope and will of God is that all will be included in the covenant. Our job is not to build fences and walls to keep people out, but bridges and bigger tables to draw God’s people together. This is God’s good pleasure, that as we receive the mystery of Christ to our realities, we also share it beyond our walls, beyond our own needs and wants. We who are included become the includers. We who are blessed become the blessers. This was the purpose for Christ coming at all, and now it is our purpose as well. Like the impact of a pebble dropped in a still pond or puddle, the ripples peel off from the center bringing transformation to a world so in need of the grace and love of Christ.

And on this journey, we are promised sustenance. We are not alone.

In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14 NRSV)

The journey of following Christ is one of discipleship – learning to be a disciple of Jesus. It is a life-long journey, one only completed as we are united with Christ in glory. This message is sometimes hard to accept. We want to get it right. We are depressed and disappointed when we make mistakes or stray from the life Jesus calls us to follow. The good news is that you don’t have to read very far in any of the gospel accounts to know that the disciples, the very ones Jesus called himself, were just like us. They didn’t get it right all the time – we could even say they spent more time confused than convicted. Hear this: Jesus isn’t asking us for perfection in our journeys. He is asking us for faithfulness. When we make a mistake, we admit to it and ask for forgiveness. When we make bad choices, we put those aside and choose something better. And to demonstrate that he believed in us, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit – sealing the promises made to us in the covenant of our faith.

On Pentecost Sunday, we retold the story of the Holy Spirit coming as a mighty wind and tongues of fire on those gathered in the Upper Room. This same Spirit pushed them out of their safe place and into the market square, compelling them out of hiding and into the world. There they told the story of Jesus, and no matter where people were coming to Jerusalem from, they understood the testimony that Peter and the others gave, each in their own language. And thousands believed and were baptized that day, entering into life with one another in the ecclesia, the gathered community we now call church.

When we celebrate a baptism in church, we give thanks over the water, and perform a ritual where water is used to symbolize at least three things: the cleansing power of God’s grace, the refreshing of our souls like gardens thirsty for afternoon rain, and as if we are being rescued from drowning, we are taking
our next breath in a new life, forgiven of and free from the power that sin holds over us.

But we also do something else in that baptismal celebration. After the words of baptism in the name of the Triune God, we invoke the Holy Spirit, promising the baptized person the power to live faithfully the kind of life that water baptism signifies – a life committed to Jesus Christ, and striving to live out the love of God and neighbor in all we do. As the service ends, we recommit ourselves to the promises made at our baptisms, promising to be there for one another.

In her book, Searching for Sunday, Rachel Held Evans writes about the historic sacraments of the church as she moves from her conservative evangelical roots to a more emerging, liturgical expression of faith. As she begins to close out the book, she ponders what it means to be ecclesia – church. She reminds us that we are a gathering of citizens, called out from our individuality, our sins, from the way things have always been to participate in God’s new creation and in community with each other. She says this:

I’m not exactly sure how all this works, but I think, ultimately, it means I can’t be a Christian on my own. Like it or not, following Jesus is a group activity, something we’re supposed to do together. We might not always do it within the walls of the church or even in organized religion, but if we are to go about making disciples, confessing our sins, breaking bread, paying attention, and preaching the Word, we’re going to need one another. We’re going to need each other’s help.[i]

These next few weeks we will continue thinking about the lessons that this letter has to teach us. Here’s a hint: It is a call to make sure that we have the tools we need as we prepare to live faithfully. As much as anything, we are reminded that our faith is not an intellectual exercise or only about our personal relationship with Jesus. It’s also about living out that faith, day by day, in every situation and every relationship. Even so, we are blessed with the days that living out our faith begins with the celebration of the foundational belief that we are blessed no matter what our circumstances because we are adopted into the family of God. We belong – we all belong. And even better, we are not alone. We are a part of something bigger than ourselves. Even when we can’t see the whole picture, we are standing on hope.

I couldn’t have written a better hymn to sing after the sermon today than this one by Brian Wren (1973 – ELW #358). As you sing, really hear these words:

Great God, your love has called us here,
as we, by love, for love were made.
Your living likeness still we bear,
though marred, dishonored, disobeyed.
We come, with all our heart and mind
your call to hear, your love to find.

Great God, in Christ you call our name

and then receive us as your own,

not through some merit, right, or claim,

but by your gracious love alone.

We strain to glimpse your mercy seat

and find you kneeling at our feet.

Great God, in Christ you set us free

your life to live, your joy to share.

Give us your Spirit's liberty

turn from guilt and dull despair,

and offer all that faith can do

while love is making all things new. (

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Peace, Deb 

(c) Deb Luther Teagan July 2021

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Sermon prepared using resources from UMC Discipleship Resources – Sermon series on Ephesians, Geared Up For Life, by Derek Weber www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/geared-up-for-life

[i] Evans, Rachel Held. Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church (p. 273). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.