Why We Gather

 

Text: Ephesians 4:1-16

Focus: The Church

Function: to see why we gather

4:¹I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ²with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: ⁴there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

⁷But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. ⁸Therefore it is said,

“When he ascended on high, he made captivity itself a captive;
he gave gifts to his people.”

⁹(When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) ¹¹He himself granted that some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers ¹²to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³until 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. ¹⁴We 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; ¹⁵but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶from 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.

Good morning!

I saved my God moment for the beginning of the sermon to tell you that God did a great job reminding me of the text and the importance of the text throughout the week. I generally choose my text early Monday morning so that it can stew until Saturday when I write the sermon. And I believe the Holy Spirit leads me in a theme for that passage. For today, it is the importance of the Church and why we meet because we are a literal body and the whole body suffers when a part is missing or hurting. We gather to encourage and equip each other.

And God reminded me through showing me the diversity of thought in this world, and the different perspectives of spirit led individuals actually means that we are one body connected by the Holy Spirit.

And it was amusing to me now God did it. There is a tiny Lutheran Church in Miamisburg at the corner of Gephart Church Rd and Maue and the sign is the pastor’s completely different take on this same lectionary passage.

The Church sign reads: “We Checked. You are part of God’s family.”

The first time this week that I passed the sign Uber driving I just thought it was clever.

But then, I realized that the pastor of this Church sees the phrase from our text about how God is the indeed the Father of All and chooses to emphasize the importance of breaking down the barriers between the races to prove that we indeed are known by our love for each other.

Now, I didn’t change the train of thought, but I realized it was God showing me that although there is indeed one Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, and yet many denominations, it is because God honors diversity.

So, as I pondered the lectionary choices for today, what stikes me from this passage is the incredible gift the church, or the gathered body of believers, is for each and every one of us.

I want us to look at the joy of our fellowship and understand better why we gather together.

And I believe the first aspect is for us to encourage one another to walk like people whose lives are changed by their relationship with God through the Holy Spirit which is poured out on us as we trust in Christ and his way of living.

He talks about that way of living as people who live in unity, love and fellowship with one another.

And, I believe, like a marriage, it doesn’t mean a lack of conflict at times between competing ideas, but it means that there is a commitment to finding a solution because there is a commitment to one another through the Spirit of God.

He calls it “walking worthy” of the calling. He identifies walking worthy with some words that are self explanatory: Gentleness, Humility, Patience, and finally, forbearance of one another.

Forbearance means we forgive each other for their imperfections and things that we might call sin.

We love and forgive each other and we make that a spiritual discipline.

It is contrary to our inherited sinful nature and it is one of the things the Spirit of Christ is working on in our lives.

He then tells us to make every effort to preserve the bond of unity. That means some personal sacrifice of our ego as we learn to love and forgive the other.

Or, as Paul says in Romans 12:8 As much as it is possible for you, live in peace with all men.

Because he first mentions forbearance before unity, he is indicating to us that this unity that we have does not mean an absence of all conflict, but a way through the power of the Spirit to work through it.

I believe more than anything it takes a willingness to forgive. Forgive even if we are sure they are in the wrong. God is the one who judges.

This is a different way of living our Christian lives than the system of retribution that we have falsely identified as a Christian way of life.

In the New Testament, contrasted with the Old Testament, we find the God of restoration and inclusion, and as Carol and I learned at Annual Conference, the God who is also the God of diversity. Yes, God is the God of Equity between all peoples when Paul said that we are called by God to be the agents of reconciliation between God and man and God and each others.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons and daughters of God.”

So, what about all the denomination and sects of Christianity, most of which believe they got it just right?

I ask that because he says something that seems a little bit odd concerning the history of the Church. He says, there is one faith, one baptism and yet there are thousands of Christians denominations who all have their own individual practices and beliefs that sometimes vary widely from the other groups.

And, he says, they are all one in Christ.

That is hard for me to fathom.

Bu the passage calls us to walk worthy. Walking worthy, then, is walking in love toward the “other” in our lives.

Okay, so the Church encourages us walk in love toward others, a manner worthy of Christ, and it also does that through the power of its community and gathering.

And he tells us then, as I mentioned before, of how the Church is the gift of God to the community of believers.

He says the purpose of the Church is to equip us to be Christ’s representatives, Christ’s body, Christ himself, to the world.

We gather to be equipped.

And that is something, I believe, that happens mysteriously through the power of prayer and fellowship with one another.

And I see that the apostle is reflecting God’s desire that we become mature believers, not tossed about by all the different doctrines, but mature because we strive to love those who are different from us.

Doctrine can divide us. It is important to me, but it is personal and I believe that God’s Spirit is alive in all, especially those who trust Christ.

And that Spirit is love. Paul is calling us to unity even though there were already doctrinal differences that were massive in the early church, and we get most of the Epistles to sort them out for us.

But I am convinced that that mature faith he is talking about is the one that practices love over the pride of its own doctrine.

We gather, then to encourage each other and equip each other to love like Jesus loved.