To Lead A Life Worthy Of The Calling To Which You Have Been Called

 

Ephesians 4:1-16

Pentecost 11 Lectionary 18 August 4, 2024

Epiphany Lutheran Church Richmond, Virginia

This is my last Sunday with you during this interim period, so I want to be real Lutheran! Ready for some counter-cultural, radical grace?

It all begins with God’s love, and we have done absolutely nothing to earn or deserve it. God loves us, simply because God created us. It’s important to practice sabbath and listening prayer –to rest in the realization of how much God loves us. What is our response to that experience of God’s love? It is to love God back! And loving God back means loving other people.

It all begins with God’s initiative, with God’s love, which is pure, unmerited grace. On our best days, we respond out of pure thankfulness and joy! Is that always the case for you? No, not for me, either. That’s because we are broken – from God and from other people. Brokenness is another word for sinfulness. And, to use liturgical language, we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.¹

That’s why God commands our response! Do you remember that Jesus was asked by his inquisitors, “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus replies by quoting from the Hebrew Scripture, Deuteronomy and Leviticus: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”²

Can love be commanded?! Well, you know that this doesn’t have anything to do with love that is romantic, right? Or even love that is reciprocal. In fact, this love, which is commanded, means loving people that we don’t even like!

What does this resulting life of faith look like? For me, the best description is in the lists that are included in the New Testament letters to the first generation communities of Jesus people, letters written by Paul and attributed to Paul. Loving God by loving others looks like this, according to Paul, writing to the Jesus people in Galatia: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.³ These are the fruit of the Spirit, Paul writes. How we respond to God’s entirely unmerited love, as the Spirit empowers us to do so. As the Spirit bears fruit among us, others see in us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

In another letter Paul writes this to the Jesus people in Colassae: As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience….[J]ust as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.⁴

Paul loves lists! Do you hear some common teaching that Paul is sending out to the different ancient communities of Jesus people? These pertain to all communities of Jesus people of all times and all places – including us!

We read the same kind of teaching in this morning’s verses from the letter to the Jesus people in Ephesus. I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

So, to put together all the lists: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, peace, thankfulness, forgiveness, humility, gentleness, patience, love, peace. Do you hear some repeats? Humility is in two of the three lists; so is love, and kindness, and peace. What gives me a kick is that patience is in all the lists! (I don’t understand why! I don’t have any trouble being patient, do you?)

Here’s what’s real, real Lutheran: not one of us can achieve any of these behaviors on our own, by our own effort, by working harder at some program of self-improvement. They are produced by God the Holy Spirit, bearing fruit within us. Of course, we engage in practices of the faith that encourage the growth of this fruit! And, living in the Spirit means getting better at any of these counter-cultural practices, as they become our way of life. But it all begins with God’s initiative, with God’s love, which is pure, unmerited grace. And, as God the Holy Spirit moves within and among us, producing faith, the Spirit produces our response: We love God back by loving other people (even those we don’t like!), and that looks like this: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, humility, gentleness, patience, love. All of this describes a life of joy! And, according to the writer of Ephesians in this morning’s reading, this is what it looks like to “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you [and I] have been called.”

Can any of us do this on our own? The only way we can be this counter-cultural in our behavior is with the help of others along the Way of Jesus, by gathering in community – in a community such as Epiphany Lutheran Church. Think of this. Not only in worship or in Bible and book studies, but also while grabbing coffee and lemonade in the Commons area, and gathering together in pubs and restaurants, and at Flying Squirrels games, and even in committee meetings, God the Holy Spirit calls us into what Luther named “mutual conversation and consolation,”⁵ mutual support and encouragement. Because the Way of Jesus is so counter to the way of the world, we need each other to remind each other to “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”

That’s why Paul considers the health of the community of Jesus people to be of the highest importance. This comes through in all of his letters. Look at this morning’s reading: I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

That grace shows up in our talents and abilities for the benefit of the community: The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. Do you see how some of your gifts are for the outward-facing mission of the community – for inviting others into the love of Christ? And do you see that some of your gifts are for strengthening the community itself, so that we can go out in mission? And do you see the word, “maturity?” This is describing life-long growth, isn’t it?

But still, there is brokenness. We are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves. And so, we read this: We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

So – are there disagreements among people in a congregation? Of course! In a healthy congregation, we surface and work through disagreements. We’re able to do that when we love each other, when we are conscious that we are fallible and in need of forgiveness, and when we are proceeding with humility, desiring to discern together what’s best for the health of the community. But what about when that’s not the case? What about when there is “trickery,” and “craftiness in deceitful scheming?” In other words, what about when someone, or a faction, is engaging in a power play, pursuing their own interests, above the health of the community? Then is the need for “speaking the truth in love.”

As I looked at the appointed readings for this last Sunday before Pastor Phillip returns from sabbatical, this passage from Ephesians struck me as the perfect one to focus on, to conclude the preaching that I’ve been doing. Because you all are such a wonderful congregation of Jesus people, gathering as you do in this base camp for mission called Epiphany Lutheran Church, supporting each other in the life-long process of growing to maturity in lead[ing] a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

What a counter-cultural way to live! Blessings to you, as you encourage each other along the Way of Jesus! Blessings to you, in your life as a congregation!

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pastor Andy Ballentine

1Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Order for Confession and Forgiveness

2Matthew 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-28. Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.

3Galatians 5:22-23

4Colossians 3:12-15

5Martin Luther, The Smalcald Articles III 4: “Concerning the Gospel”