Trinity 17 (Eph 4)

Although I have never said it from the Pulpit, I cant imagine it will shock anyone to find out that I am a mondo Star Wars fan. Pause for the Gasps to stop...

Now if you remember back around 2013ish Disney bought the Star Wars Property and immediately set to work expanding what had been made by hiring teams to make movies. If you read articles that have come out over the last ten years you will see a waining enthusiasm, in the media, a string of underperforming movies and so many creative teams getting fired for lack of creative cohesion with the head of the Star Wars…Kathleen Kennedy.

Some how all these teams have had a lack of creative cohesion or a lack of unity in vision and have been dismissed and movies have been rushed to the theaters by replacement teams leaving a stream of movies that have been over budget, and underperforming, and the whole Star Wars property is at risk of being shut down. …Star Wars.

The problem is there is no cohesion amongst the team…everyone is pushing the mission in different direction and the fans are not sure if they even want to care about what is being made.

Now in the life of the church God in the power of the Holy Spirit is the place we look to find our coherent and if we fail to rally in the way Saint Paul has encouraged us to day we may also find ourselves like the Disney Corp. holding the ruins of something that could have been far reaching and wonderful.

The thing I would like to focus on to day from our text is that we are one part of the larger body, working with the larger church, lead by the spirit to Glorify God in all places.

So first off the text.

Ephesians starts out with this wonderfully poetic description of God’s work in the world by Saint Paul. He prays that the work of God among the church would give them strength, that they would be filled with power and the Spirit.

When we get to Chapter 4 St. Paul switches over and begins to direct the church into a new way of being. So thing the Beginning of the letter is an explanation of God, his character and his work, we are picking up in the second half where we hear about what that should mean for the life of the church.

So ver 1 and 2: We get a “therefore”…meaning because fo this Gospel that Paul has explained we are going to comport ourselves in a certain way. Verse 2 with humility gentleness, patients, bearing one another in love…not resentment by live, ...

Humility means the removal of self importance…that what you expect you deserve becomes less the priority. This makes us others focused…hopefully most focused on Christ and his wants. Then there is gentleness…this I call strength under control. God can move the bodies of the heavens and yet craft our DNA, he is all powerful and yet his strength is under control. We two need to be a strong community and strong members init, but we may have to have a gentle touch in how we love one another. Not forcing the agenda recklessly but gently bringing people along with us. This will require the third things Paul mentions…patients…not being hurried, allowing God’s timing, along other the space they need to see what needs to be seen. Communities need both the type A person that keeps things getting done but also needs patients members to help it remember that not everyone sees it all at the same time. And while a body moves forward it needs to care for those who are already in the community Bearing one another burdens as St Paul commands. We get the why of these commands in verse 3...

Verse 3- In behaving this way we show our eagerness to maintain unity in the bond of peace.

We can have what Disney did not have unity and peace. That means that we are moving the same direction and we are dealing with conflict when it is small so that it does not grow and create storms. We are a community of human beings, there will be conflict. We cannot pretend that we will always see eye to eye. Feelings get hurt folks left behind, strong wills get frustrated. The beauty of the the church is we can be a place that deals with that differently and shows God to be glorious. And if we live those values we will show the wonder of our Triune God.

Verse 4 the many parts of this one Body will reflect the God that St. Paul describes in 4,5,6

Verse 4 - the One body shows the God as Spirit, and the spirit give us Hope, the certain knowledge that God is moving us towards the woderful work of Christ redeeming the whole world.

Verse 5 One Lord for whom we have faith and in whom we are baptised, that Is the Lord Jesus Christ. The God who became a man and walked in the way we walk to show us how.

Verse 6, God the Father of us all. In whom we can rest, he is not an absent Father, he is over all and through all and in all. There is no place God is not. Our community does not tread any space where God is not already. We can rest in his wonderful plan and care. Unlike the team at Star Wars we dont need to fear outcomes and back bite…God goes with us and before us.

The thing I would like to focus on to day from our text is that we are one part of the larger body, working with the larger church, lead by the spirit to Glorify God in all places.

Now it is worth taking a moment to reflect on the failure of church communities to live this out. We know that there was a time that even this community was larger and we could not maintain the unity that we are called to in Eph 4. And that even causes some people to doubt is there any Spirit or any God working for the sake and benefit of his communities.

Some people even walk away from the church wondering if the community out side the church is superior. Maybe I would be better our there, its too contentious in here. I would issue a word of caution to those friends. School board meeting can get ugly, folks have gotten violent with little league umpires. Business partners have stolen from one another, Apple fired Steve Jobs in the 90s and Kathleen Kennedy has fired more creatives teams for Star Wars that I can even count right now.

Yes the church limps with the ache of Divisiveness, but she is not alone. Where she is alone is the church is saddened by our lack of unity. We know to mourn the end of vibrant community lost to splits.

There is no morning at Apple, they make too much money. No one seems to give up on youth sports just create new rules to protect umpires…then they move on.

In our grief about disunity we need to fight on for the family.

The good news is Jesus having displayed humility, gentleness, and patients, was then sent to die. And in dying he bore our burdens. That is he carried our debt to God, our brokenness from one another and he paid its price to God giving us the joy he had having perfect relationship with God in the Trinity. Jesus only ever know what it ment to perfectly love God the Father and to be perfectly loved by God the father. On the cross he allows us to be part of that perfect love through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Yes there is a sense in which communion is where God meets us weekly at the table, but it is also the place where he calls his church together, the disunified body of sinners is made a unified family, a body, here at this table and displays his Glory. That is why we pray at the end of the service.

ALMIGHTY and everliving God, we most heartily than thee, for that thou dost vouchsafe to feed us, who have duly received these holy mysteries, with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ; and dost assure us thereby of thy favour and goodness towards us; and that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, which is the blessed company of all faithful people; and are also heirs through hope of thine everlasting kingdom, by the merits of his most precious death and passion.

Brothers and sisters let us look to God and his uniting Spirit so that we might work together in all humility, gentleness, patents, forbearance, so that the we would display the glories of our Triune God to Wast Chester, Mason, the surrounding towns the to the ends of the earth.

Amen