| |
|
|
| |
"Members Of One Another"
PENTECOST 10B
August 8-9, 2009
Ephesians 4:25--5:2
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.I have talked with so many people over the years – church members, former church members, non-church-members, pastors, former pastors – who share with me their experiences which have left them so disillusioned with the church, to the point that they see no real reason why they should be a part of it any more. I have had more than a few such experiences myself, one of the most disturbing ones being in a congregation in another state where I was called as Associate Pastor, with a Senior Pastor who had been the sole pastor there for 14 years prior to my coming. I quickly discovered that he preferred to flirt with women rather than serve with women. And he would roll around on the floor “wrestling” with some of the middle school and high-school aged girls, particularly those whose moms were divorced, saying he was serving as a father-figure for them. If a mom questioned this rolling around on the floor with her daughter, she was labeled “an angry woman,” and everything she said and did from that was interpreted through that lens and discounted. Regarding worship, the congregation practiced “common cup” so everyone drank out of the one cup. He had the habit of drinking, at the altar, whatever wine remained in the Communion chalice before offering the post-Communion blessing. He did that when he presided. He did that when I presided. I finally suggested that when I presided, it was out of place for him to move me aside like that, and finish the cup. He thought a moment, smiled, and agreed. The next Sunday morning, I was scheduled to preside. When there were only the four ushers left to commune, I went to pour a little more wine in the chalice, as there was not quite enough, and you never want anyone to feel they are drinking the “dregs” of Holy Communion! The senior pastor quickly took up the flagon (pitcher) to pour, and proceeded to fill the chalice full. I stared at it for a moment, realizing what he was doing. I communed the four ushers. When I returned to the altar – a free-standing one like ours, so we were facing the whole congregation – I turned my mike off and whispered, “You know there’s NO WAY I can finish this.” While the whole congregation watched, he proudly took the chalice from my hands and, just before drinking it all down, said quietly to me, “That ought to separate the men from the boys!” The whole meal had been desecrated by his turning it into a drinking contest. Yes, I was more than a little disillusioned, and very angry. Every Communion Sunday after that, he relished stepping in front of me and finishing the cup, no matter who was presiding or how much remained in the cup. Needless to say, that “pastoral team” did not last long. I eventually gave up the Call, but he never was called to account for his behavior. In last week’s Second Lesson, which immediately proceeds this morning’s, Paul reminds us that neither the unity nor the health of the church is something we achieve with constitutions and membership rosters and rule books. “There is one body and one Spirit,” Paul writes, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” And then he goes on with this morning’s lesson, “…we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil…Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God...Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” When Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, to the Ephesians, there was, as there is now, great diversity among the individuals and the congregations who were named by the name of Christ. THAT is not a problem, Paul declares. In fact, it is a divine gift. We have each been given some gift or combination of gifts to “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Paul uses the image of the body as an illustration of the church. We are a society, now, which spends lots of energy and money and sweat in proving the health and appearance of our bodies. Our bodies are affected each time we choose to take care of it, or to abuse it; to disregard its needs or to treat it with love and respect and tend to its needs. Our bodies are affected when we exercise, and when we don’t exercise; when we fuel it with a wholesome diet, or with junk; when we suffer it to endure alcohol or cigarettes, or healthy substances that are more “user friendly;” when we subject it to unrelenting stress and inadequate sleep, rest, and recreation; or when we learn to say no, to be less driven, to slow down. This same fact of life applies to the most holy of bodies, the body of Christ. Look around you – you’re it! YOU ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST, AND EACH ONE A MEMBER OF IT, AND MEMBERS OF ONE ANOTHER. Each of us contributes to the health of Christ’s body, or to its malaise. Each of us adds to its hope for the future by our presence and participation and offering back to the Lord from the gifts the Lord has given each of us; or to its being mired, stuck in a romanticized past, going absolutely nowhere. Each of us lights the light of faith in a dark world by our faithful participation; or diminishes it by our absence. The body of Christ, just like our own bodies, cannot be healthy and vibrant and growing if it is not exercised and fed, nor if it is missing parts because we are angry, or disillusioned, or have been spoken to or treated poorly. Remember the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 (not counting women and children)? One small, poor boy offered his meager lunch – barley bread and fish – to Jesus. And what did the Lord do with such a common, uninspiring offering as barley bread and smelly fish from a poor, unnamed little boy? He worked a miracle! Did the boy know that when he offered his gift? Of course not. Do we always know ahead of time what God is going to accomplish when we offer ourselves, our time, or our money to Christ? No. The body of Christ is healthiest when we treat one another as indispensible parts of Christ’s body; when we do not make room for the devil…Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, [the kind of talk that tears others down] but only what is useful for building up; [when our words give, not] wrangling, slander, and malice, but grace to the hearer. I don’t care what you have heard, or learned, or experienced in the past. The church of Jesus Christ is not a social service agency, nor one of any number of volunteer service organizations, nor is it a business. You, the church, the body of Christ, are the precious children of the living God, living members of Christ’s own body, redeemed from sin and the powers of hell by the blood of Jesus. THAT is who you are. YOU are the church. YOU are the body of Christ. So, do we join an aerobics class to watch the leader and a few others do the exercising, and expect to benefit by it? (By the way, did you know that actuarial tables indicate that clergy live longer than any other group? I guess we can conclude that if you want a long, slow death…go to seminary!). You are not observers; you are not religious consumers, you are not church “volunteers.” You are Christ’s living body, called, gathered, and enlightened by the Holy Spirit to continue the ministry of Jesus in the world Jesus died to save. There is much more at stake here than “volunteerism,” or even meeting the budget. Each of us, like the little boy with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish, are the stuff of which miracles are made when offered to Christ. “Therefore,” Paul says, “be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Christianity, the life of the church, is often a difficult journey, with deserts to cross and mountains to climb, and hard-to-like people to love. Hard as all of this is, we are assured by Jesus, in this morning’s gospel, that we do not walk the way of Jesus alone. We are members of one another. Not only that, but Jesus draws near to us to give us his very self. "Yes, I am the bread of life!" Jesus says. "Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. However, the bread from heaven gives eternal life to everyone who eats it. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; this bread is my flesh, offered so the world may live.” It doesn’t end there, but that’s where it all starts. Even as we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus,” we say to one another this morning, “Go in peace. Christ is with you. Thanks be to God. Amen.” Rev. Joan Gunderman, Senior Pastor
Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota |
|
|
See the index of our
online sermon collection |