GRACE...according to the measure of Christ's gift.

8/5

With Elder Geraldine after worship

On a hot and sweltering August day, I made my way to Beverley Church...

Here was my reflection on the day....

It's getting to be that time of year.  August. A very quiet time of year.  The streets are somehow emptier. Most summer camp experiences are winding down. And any one who can leave town has left town leaving things quieter for the rest of us. It's always a good time to be here. There's still Shakespeare in the Park. (Actually lots of parks!) And Lincoln Center out of Doors. Our summer lasts longer than others. I went to visit my brother in Toledo and they've started fall sports practices because their school year begins in about two weeks. So we hold on to summer just a little longer.

It seems like some pretty important communications come from prisons. Martin Luther King, Jr's Letter from a  Birmingham Jail is one of his best known and most important writings. Nelson Mandela sent messages from behind the walls of Robbens Island that sustained his people together in hope. My good friend Peter Heltzel found himself behind bars in Albany this spring during the Poor Peoples' campaign. I've been in a few times myself buy never long enough write a letter.

So if you are wondering, Ephesians is one of Paul's prison letters.
It was during this time that Paul sat in Rome undergoing his first Roman imprisonment (Ephesians 3:1; 4:1), making Ephesians one of the four epistles commonly known as the Prison Epistles. The others are Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.

So he is in prison, writing to Ephesus. I also need to tell you that Paul is usually writing to a church is at a point of crisis with specific answers for specific problems. And when he doesn't, like in this letter, he is seeking to build up the body for when crisis will come.

Maybe that's kind of like where you are.  I mean as I know you, you do have some big picture issues to deal with. But you are not at a crisis point.

(So you know that old story about how if you've got a frog in a pot of water and up the temperature 1' at a time, he won't jump and will boil because each increase is so small? Not dealing with why you'd want to do that in the first place, but.... I have a friend who thinks that's where we are as a nation. One day, one degree at a time.  He wants to write a song about feeling like a frog in the water....)
So what's Paul got to say? Or what if this  was Paul's letter to Beverly Church?

4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

My sense is that you all do  bear with one another pretty well...but you might want to answer that for yourself...unity of spirit, bond  of peace...Believe me sometimes it is easier said than done...I have seen churches where people choose up sides over the smallest of things. Next thing you know, people are fighting and saying bad things about each other....somehow thinking that they can continue to serve God while they do that?

We celebrate communion today. We used to have a part of our service where  we declared that if anyone has something against anyone in the community, you were asked to go and not come back until it was taken care of. Could  you do that today?


4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.

I love this part.... 7 But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 

So this is where I remind you that each of you has a ministry that is given to you at our baptism, not your ordination...we are, as Luther said,  a priesthood of all believers...

And what are these?

And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
for what purpose?

12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

that is the purpose...the building up of the body...
which of these are you? How do you live that out?


13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; 14 so that we may no longer be children, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love.

Paul wants us to be mature in faith....not bounced around by every new thing that comes around...

Now you all seem to me to be mature Christians...you have all been here awhile...you're not going anywhere...BUT...IF you have in this room, right today, apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, ....what might you be able to do with all of that?

I know how  frustrating it is to have lost what you've lost...but what if you walked in here today and saw what you have? What more might you become?

Can you begin to  imagine?

GRACE...according to the measure of Christ's gift...what is the nature of his gift to us right now? 

That is my question for you today.

We share communion. And Geraldine introduces a prospective new member which would be cause for celebration. And our worship comes to an end for today....

Outside, the sun...and the heat....summer ...is waiting....