10^th Sunday after Pentecost

Proper 14B

 

Seminary is a fascinating place to be. For the past three year I spent much of my waking time at the Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) in Alexandria, Virginia. One of the basic requirements of seminary life at VTS is that students live together in community. That meant that every morning at 8:15 we went to chapel together, every day at noon we ate lunch together, and every day we studied together in our respective classes. The fact that my seminary class had only 35 students in it guaranteed that we got to know each other very, very well. In the course of getting to know each other you learned how strongly you agreed or disagreed with each other. Maybe the disagreement centered on small things like music and what baseball team is the best in the majors, or the disagreement centered around more important issues like the use of force or politics or theology. Only one thing was certain, you knew that on some issue you and your fellow classmate would disagree on something. That said, one of the most important things that I learned in my three years at VTS was not how I agreed or disagreed with others but instead it was that in spite of all the strong disagreements I had with friends, in spite of all our differences, we belonged together, we were united by a common bond in our faith and in our vocation. In some strange way we were members of one another, joined together in a common task to prepare to be priests in the Episcopal Church, bound together in the fact that day in and day out we worshiped, ate, and studied together. No matter what our differences, no matter what our pet peeves, no matter what our extreme annoyances, we were members of each other and, as such, our unity in Christ could not be denied.

 

This morning St. Paul paints a striking and challenging picture of what the life of a Christian community is supposed to look like. This list challenges us and every Christian community as we are enjoined to speak truth to our neighbors, to share with those in need, to speak only what is useful for building up the Church, to shun bitterness, anger, wrath, slander, and malice, to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving. Paul sums up this long list by challenging us to “be imitators of God” and if that weren’t enough he then says “live in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”. Living as a Christian community is an intense and challenging thing. Paul has given us no small task this morning when he describes what the life of the Christian community is supposed to be like.

 

What is so fascinating about this challenge to live in Christian community is the fact that Paul calls us to be people who speak the truth to each other, who love each other for one basic reason: we are members of one another. We are called to be people of truth, people of love, people who give to the needy, people who build up what is broken and hurting because we belong together, because we are deeply and intricately connected to each and every one of our neighbors both near and far. It is because of and through this deep connectedness that we are to become the community that Paul has described this morning.

 

Earlier in Ephesians, just a few verses before where our reading started this morning, Paul explains this connection that you and I have with one to another. This connection is not simply a sentimental, warm feeling; it is much more than that. Using the image of the Church being the Body of Christ, Paul writes these words about Christian community, “speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From Christ the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” This is the basis of our connectedness; it is this vision of the Church as the Body of Christ, held together in Jesus’ love and presence, which underlies Paul’s vision for what Christian community should look like. It is this vision of all of us being held together, just as our bodies are knit together in a miraculously intricate way that demands that we be a community of love and truth a community seeking to be imitators of God. In this vision of the Church we are called to respect and love each other because we belong together, because we are members of each other, because we support each other, because we cannot truly live without each other. We are called to be a community of truth and love because we are all headed to the same goal, that is to grow up into Christ Jesus.

 

It is out of this belief, this context that Paul calls the Christians in Ephesus to be truth speakers, to be imitators of God, to be people who live in love as Christ lived in love, even to the point of giving his life for the sake of the world. This is the amazing, life changing, transformational call that Paul is issuing to the Ephesians and it is the amazing transformational call that continues to echo down throughout the centuries to the Church here and now, gathered in this beautiful sanctuary in Plymouth, Michigan. 

 

Such a calling, a calling to be a community of truth and love, a community that imitates God in all that we do, is no small calling. It is a calling that is incredibly difficult, a calling that is incredibly counter-cultural, it is a calling that will and does transform us, this church, and the world. This calling is one that we cannot fulfill on our own. All of our human powers are not enough to create a world of peace, love, truth, and compassion. Just stop and think for a moment of all the governmental resources that have been spent on making the United States and the rest of the world safe, only to come within days of a few fanatics killing yet again, because the root causes of terrorism and violence have not been addressed by any government.

 

Human-will alone is not enough to create St. Paul’s amazing vision of community. It is only through the grace of God, only through God’s power working in us that we will ever be able to begin to live up to the high standard set for us today. It is only through coming to this Table where we are fed by Jesus himself with his Body and Blood, the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation, that Paul’s vision will come closer to reality. It is only through realizing that we are joined together by faith, joined together by our common Eucharistic meal, joined together by the Spirit of God, it is only through living in this reality that we will ever begin to become the community that God desires us to be. As radical and as difficult as this calling to interconnected Christian community is it is the only way for us to truly live.

 

At seminary there were many people who became my dear and close friends. There were many people with whom I shared similar opinions and beliefs, but there were also many people with whom I disagreed, many people who challenged me, and drove me crazy. And yet try as I might to remove myself from those with whom I disagreed, try as I might to insulate myself from their beliefs God pulled me back into relationship with them time and again. Every Wednesday morning as I walked down the Seminary Chapel isle to receive the Bread and the Wine God called me, and those with whom I agreed and disagreed back, back to the table, back to himself, back to relationship in the Bread of Life, which is Jesus Christ. The bread which brings us eternal life, life ever-lasting.

 

Did it always feel like I lived in a perfect Christian community of truth and love at seminary? Absolutely not. Will it always feel like St. John’s is that kind of community? No. Did it feel like the church in Ephesus was a perfect Christian community of love and truth? No way! Otherwise Paul never would have penned these words to the church there. And yet, when we get down to it, no matter what our difference we are united one to another. We are, in St. Paul’s words, members of one another despite our disagreements. In spite of all that would divide us we are members of one another through faith, members of one another through the Bread of Life which we share week in and week out, members of one another through the fact that we are all called to grow more and more into the image of Christ, who is our head.

 

And so my brothers and sisters, people of faith who are united together in Christ, united by this common meal that we share, as you come down this isle this morning to receive the Bread of Life, to receive Jesus himself, realize that he is the One bringing you here. Jesus is calling you to communion with himself and with every other person in this room and every other person outside of this room. Jesus has united us whether we realize it or not. Jesus has united us as our head, our goal. Jesus has called each and every one of us to realize that we are united in a common bond of faith, love, truth-telling, and evangelism and in realizing this we are called to live this truth, this reality in a powerful and earth-transforming way. We are called to be fully alive as the united Body of Christ in the world. As you come forward to the Table this morning bring your whole self, bring your disagreements, your anger, every emotion that would divide you from anyone else. Bring that to God this morning realizing that God is calling you back into relationship. God is calling you back into community, God is calling you, God is calling us as a united body into a deep and abiding unity where everything we do will be done to the Glory of God and for the sake of the love of Jesus Christ. 

 

Amen