St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday sermon – Ninth Sunday after Pentecost - August 2, ’09
“Encouragement: One In Spirit!”
Text: Ephesians 4:1-4
The question I’m asking and addressing this month of five Sundays in August is the question: Is religion good or bad for you? Does the Christian religion get in the way of people living the good life? Or does the Christian religion help people find their way to experience and be encouraged to live a cross-centered, Christ-like, meaningful, purposeful life?
This first Sunday in August the emphasis is on encouragement and great is the encouragement for Christians in what the apostle Paul writes in the epistle reading for this Sunday, Ephesians 4:1-3.
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
When it comes to the practice of religion in general and the Christian religion in particular, St. Paul places a strong emphasis on encouragement, eagerness, God’s saving grace in Christ energizing new believers to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.’
Is there a need for encouragement? First, there’s the environment we pastors & parishioners live in. The challenge of it all!
One of my favorite authors and a good story-teller is Dr. Fred Craddock, a retired Disciples of Christ minister & former professor of Preaching and New Testament at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Craddock recalls a challenging conversation he had about setting up a baptism. He writes: “It is not with the blink of the eye that a thirty-something year old will say to me, ‘Let’s see now, was it next Sunday that my daughter was going to be baptized?’
Yeah, next Sunday’ said Dr. Craddock.
‘Well, says the 30-something year old, ‘my daughter has dance lessons next Sunday.’
‘But,’ said Dr. Craddock, ‘I’m thinking it’ll be Sunday morning.’
‘But dance lessons are at 10:30,’ says the mother.
‘On Sunday morning?’ said Dr. Craddock.
‘Yeah. The dance studio has classes on Sunday morning.’
‘On Sunday morning?’ said Dr. Craddock to himself. That’s what she said, Sunday morning.’ To which Dr. Craddock replied, ‘Then we have a decision to make, don’t we?’
Are there decisions to make when it comes to the purpose & practice of the Christian religion? Are there parents here this morning who will nod their heads in agreement because they know Dr. Craddock was not exaggerating or making any of it up.
Unlike the environment of our parents and grandparents, we today live in an environment in which any kind of permanent tie or commitment to church, faith, “unity of Spirit in the bond of peace” is treated as an option.
Coaches tell kids that they cannot be on teams unless they show up for practices and games on Sunday morning.
Parents want their children to go to Youth classes, Confirmation Classes, Awana, CC classes, have their children get a taste of religion, but those same parents are unwilling or unable to see themselves or their children going to church regularly and being a part of a worshipping community on Sundays.
30-something year olds, 40-something, 50-something year old adults think nothing of ditching a community or church meeting or even a social event if something else they would rather be doing comes along.
The challenge, the need for encouragement is that we pastors & parishioners live in an environment where there is so much individualism, so many people doing their own thing, having it their way, having what they want, where they want, when they want.
Not that there is anything wrong or sinful with people being unique individuals who like to do some things and not other things. But there is a world of difference between individuals who are stuck on doing their own thing and individuals who see their individuality as a blessing, as a gift, as a God-given gift which they can use together with other unique, gifted individuals for the good of helping others
So my second point is encouragement. The wonder of it all.
Listen to the way the MESSAGE paraphrases the apostle Paul’s words of encouragement to those Christians living in a challenging environment in Ephesus
“While I’m under house arrest here in Rome, (Paul writes) prisoner for the Lord, I want you to get out there and walk – better yet, run! – on the road God called you to travel.
I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere.
And be sure that you do this with humility and discipline – not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.”
Never under-estimate the power of encouragement, encouraging each other in Christ toward unity of the Spirit and the “wonder” of it all
A boy named Steven Morris was a special needs child in a class taught by a teacher named Mrs. Bernaducci.
Steven was a thin African-American boy who was blind. His blindness negatively impacted his self-esteem. However, over a period of time, Mrs. Bernaducci realized that Steven had exceptional hearing.
One day Mrs. Bernaducci put the class mascot, a mouse, into the waste-paper basket near her desk. The sound of loud scratching created a minor panic in the class until a blind Steven located the mouse. Mrs. Bernaducci exclaimed: “Steven you are truly a wonder.”
The nickname caught on. The next year little Steven “a wonder,” full of a sense of his own value, began playing the piano. Stevie ‘Wonder” would go on to influence and change American music all because of Mrs. Bernaducci’s faith and encouragement.
How does it happen that all those who are baptized into the body of Christ, all who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior & Lord, should be about the business of maintaining, encouraging, building, building up, building together; building character; building community, cultivating oneness & togetherness for the glory of God & for the coming of God’s Kingdom?
It happens, writes the apostle Paul, wherever & whenever Christians see themselves, amaze themselves, give of themselves – not as a bunch of piously-motivated, self-righteous individuals for whom religion is only one small part of their lives.
But rather, the apostle Paul puts a great emphasis on Christians seeing ourselves & giving of ourselves as members of God’s family -- who together are each a “wonder” -- energized by God’s Spirit – living, walking, behaving in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called, doing so with humility and gentle-ness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Which brings me to my third and final point. Where & when we Christians are encouraged to walk worthy of the high & holy calling of oneness in Christ to which we have all been called, when there is plenty of positive, grace-based, cross-centered encouragement from God and His Word helping us put our unique God-given individuality ahead of our individualism, what hope there is for us all.
A professor of New Testament out on the east coast at Boston College in Massachusetts writes:
“At our college, the most popular spring break activity is not getting drunk on Florida beaches.
It is the volunteer option, spending the week in some poor area of the East Coast, from Maine to North Carolina, building housing, cleaning out old houses, painting houses for the poor, fixing parks for children, and the like. Even students faced with 24-hour bus rides, rusty cold showers, rats, bats, and garbage come back encouraging their friends to sign up. What did they discover that made such an impact?
“They discovered,” writes the professor, “a spirit binding people together in a common effort to build up the human & church community,” Those who never used tools before discover gifts they never knew they had. (Pheme Perkins)
It’s true. It’s good when it happens. It’s incredible to see this happen, and to be a part of it when it happens.
On the Thrivent for Lutherans website, when I get to looking thru all the volunteer options Thrivent makes possible, I see a sentence that says: Thrivent members can use Care Abounds in Communities money to add to the funds they raise at an activity or to purchase materials for service projects, while energizing other members & volunteers to provide help that otherwise would not be available.”
The key word in that sentence for me is not money or resources or opportunities available, but the key word is energizing, “energizing people, energizing other members & volunteers to provide help that otherwise would not be available.”
Bottom line; what a blessing! What a beautiful, powerful, amazing encouraging blessing, when God’s redeemed people; when Christians young & old alike, skilled & unskilled, men & women, high school students & graduates, moms & dads, leaders & followers; when ordinary people are blessed by God, redeemed by God, energized by God, as the apostle Paul writes, “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” And, I might add, eager to do so in practical, Spirit-filled, Christ-like ways; “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.”
Amen
