1 John 1:1-4, Psalm 133 "Life in Tune"

On Palm Sunday afternoon, I found myself at the Church listening to the community band practice for the evening worship service. I’ve got to say I absolutely loved the way the sound filled our sanctuary… I got my own personal concert and it was amazing. One thing that I got a kick out of was that when the instruments were tuning, they brought around a sensor that would listen to each of the instruments and tell them when they were in tune. I have a similar thing for my bass guitar. It allows me to trust that the instrument is tuned properly and I don’t have to rely on my imperfect ear to get it right.

This is a lot different than it was done when I was in band in junior high and high school. I remember that one of the trumpets would tune to the piano and then the other trumpets would tune based on the first trumpet. The same would then happen with the flutes and the French horns, then the clarinets and the oboes. Being a percussionist, I never had to participate in this long and drawn out ritual.

Being in tune was important. If instruments were not in tune they would ruin the music for the whole band. But there was a certain amount of human error that came into effect. The trumpet that tuned to the piano would be the one that was most in tune. But the other trumpets, which tuned off the first one wouldn’t quite be as accurate. It’s kinda like the old game, telephone, which tells us that as something is passed from person to person it gets off of it’s original message. That’s why this sensor that the band was using is so great. It made sure that the human error got minimized and therefore we had a band playing at our holy week service that truly was in tune with each other.

We try to live our lives in tune with each other and with the life that God calls us to. But sometimes we aren’t going back to the source. Sometimes we allow ourselves to listen to what somebody tells us they heard somebody tell them the Bible says. If we truly want to be living our lives in tune with God, we need to be going back to the source. So this morning we are going to do that very thing. We’re going to look at what the Bible has to say about unity. We are going to look at what the Bible says about fellowship. And then we can live our lives in tune with what the Bible says.

I. In Tune

Last week we talked about what it means to live your life in tune with the Resurrection. I argued that though we play lip service to the resurrection, most of us don’t truly live lives that say that we believe in it. We don’t allow the resurrection to be a central part of our lives and therefore affect decisions we make. Our belief that God raised Jesus from the dead and will do the same for us doesn’t change our behavior. And after all, it is our behavior that really shows what we believe.

As you can tell from my introduction, I really like this imagery of being in tune with the resurrection. You can tell when an instrument is out of tune. It is disjointed, it is sour. Though the fingers are playing the right notes, the sounds coming out of the instrument are all wrong. No matter how correctly you play the music, if your instrument is out of tune, it will sound like you are playing the wrong notes.

And we are called to live lives that are in tune with the resurrection. And if we each take up our instruments and tune them to be in key with the resurrection, we will discover that they are also in tune with each other. And this is what we are to be about as Christians, living lives that are in tune with each other. This is what the scriptures we read this morning were about. They were about living lives in tune with each other, they were about Christian fellowship and brotherhood.

We begin with Psalm 133, which tells us that it is good when kindred live together in unity. The psalm uses its own allegory, instead of talking about music or being in tune, the psalm talks about oil running down the beard. It is not an allegory that speaks much to us today. But when you look at the last verse in Psalm 133 you get a piece of what the allegory is all about. In verse three it tells us that it is when we live in unity, that is where the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. Living in unity as Christian brothers and sisters brings blessing from God. This is what the oil being poured on the head was all about. It was a sign that God was giving his blessing to someone. Kings had oil poured on their heads when they were chosen by the prophets to be king. It was a way of showing God’s favor. And here the psalmist is saying that living together in unity, in fellowship, also shows God’s favor, it also shows God’s blessing.

Part of being in tune with the resurrection; part of being in tune with God is found in getting along with Christians around you. This is something that the church as a whole has really messed up ever since the Reformation. Don’t get me wrong, the Reformation was a vital part of our church history. With the Reformation, Christians were able to get back on track about what it means to follow Christ. But one of the repercussions that came out of the Reformation is that when someone doesn’t agree with another Christian they just go off and form another church. Unity is no longer truly valued in a church setting.

II. Disunity

I had a friend in junior high whose father did this. They were part of a Baptist church out in the country near where they lived. Their faith took up a large part of their lives. I remember visiting my friend and there were regularly Bible studies going on at his house. But at some point, there was a schism in my friend’s church. I have no idea what the argument was about, but my friend’s father left the church with about a third of the members and they started their own non-denominational church.

Now I don’t know exactly how this happened. I was an outsider and a child and don’t know the specifics of the situation. I do know that my friend’s father did have the call of God on his life to ministry. But I don’t think much of how his church formed.

Now another story: there was a Covenant church in northern California that felt that they could reach their community better. They prayed about it and invited families from their congregation to leave their church and begin worshipping together on the other side of town. This church ended up splitting, but it was a totally different experience. For though this church sent members of their congregation away to begin worshipping in a different place, they did so with their blessing and their support and their prayers. Instead of having people split from their church, they planted a daughter church.

Both of these churches had the same thing happen to them. Where there had been one church there were now two. But one of the churches did it in unity. One of the churches did it with love. One of the churches allowed the spirit of brotherhood to foster their relationships with each other rather than a mood that placed themselves as being better than those around them. Churches tend to be the most segregated place in America. We want to worship around people who are like us. We want to worship around people who are the same color, the same class, the same education, the same values as us. But this isn’t the unity that God has in mind for his church. Unity means that even though we don’t all worship the same way we are worshipping the same God and are working together to further his kingdom.

I went to a Lutheran college in Washington State. At the time the Lutheran church was looking at coming together with the Episcopal church. They weren’t going to join together completely, but they wanted to be able to share communion and share their pastors. There was a forum about this topic at our college. Pastors from around the area were there to discuss what this would mean. The bishops came to answer questions. And us students were invited to sit in on the discussion. It was an interesting discussion, to say the least. Both sides of the issue had good points to make. Those against the merge were worried about the Episcopal elevation of the pastor, which went against their understanding of the priesthood of all believers. Those for the merge talked about how ministry could be improved if the denominations worked together. I specifically remember one argument made along these lines.

A Lutheran mission was described in downtown Seattle. It was a homeless shelter that reached out to the lost in a bad part of the downtown. It was across the street from an Episcopal church. The person speaking about this mission and this church talked about how if the merge happened, these two entities could begin to work together and increase their impact on the community around them. It was a powerful and a practical argument for bringing these two denominations together. But then I realized something. If these two groups of Christians who were across the street from each other couldn’t put their differences aside to work together for the community around them, I’m not sure what the merge would do for them. If they aren’t working together already, a piece of paper won’t make them work together.

Unity doesn’t mean that we have to believe exactly the same thing. It doesn’t mean that we have to go about doing church in the same way. But it does mean that we have the same goal in purpose. And what is that goal? That goal is to bring Christ and his resurrection to those around us who need to know him.

III. Unity

God wants unity between his churches. But God also wants unity between individuals in his churches. God doesn’t want us thinking that we’re better than other Christians in our community and he doesn’t want us thinking we’re better than others in our church.

So how do we find that unity with our fellow Christians? The answer is found, at least in part, in 1 John 1. In 1 John we are shown the path to this unity, this brotherhood, this fellowship with our brothers and sisters. It’s right there in verse three. “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” We find our fellowship in the proclamation of the Gospel. We find our unity in our relationship with God the Father and with Jesus Christ. 1^st John is a book that is all about relationship. In it we see that God: the Father, the Son and the Spirit all model relationship for us. They are doing this God thing that is the ultimate of what community is about. They are so much into relationship that they are three and one at the same time. They each have their role in the Godhead, but they share all the glory and praise equally. They have community down in a way that we can never come close to. They don’t have to have business meetings to figure out what to do next because they are of one mind. God is a God of relationship, but it is not enough that the Trinity lives in relationship with itself. God reaches down to us and invites us into that relationship with him. God gives us his unconditional love, his agape, selfless, giving love. And God gives us this love freely and completely. 1^st John makes this love of God so very clear. It tells us that God loved us so much that he gave us the Christ. And all we need to do is believe that Jesus is the Christ and we will be born of God. Jesus is the Christ. He is the Son of God. And in 1^st John we are told that God wants us also to be Children of God. Now this isn’t the same. But it does show how God is inviting us into the community of the Trinity. God wants to give us his love, and in doing this we will learn to love each other. 1^st John 4:7 and 8 are some of the earliest verses I memorized as a child. I think this is mostly because I learned them as a song. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God and everyone who loveth is born of God, and he who loveth not, knoweth not God for God is love. Beloved, let us love one another.”

We are called to follow the example that God puts before us. God loves us even when we are turned against him. And God calls us to this same sort of love. And when this happens it is a glorious thing. As the psalmist says, it is like oil dripping down Aaron’s face, through his beard. Or it is like a beautiful piece of music where everyone is in tune with each other and the melody and harmony is creating something that no individual instrument could possibly play. We are called to fellowship with our fellow Christians. Actually, we are called to fellowship with the whole world, but lets just start with our fellow Christians. Are there people who you need to make it right with? Are there people who you have wronged? Are there people who you hold a grudge against? What are you going to do about this? How are you going to make sure that your instrument is not out of tune? 1^st John tells us that if someone is not living a loving life, they are not truly following God. I must admit that I am convicted by that message. I am not following God as I should, for I hold grudges. I let myself step out of relationship with others because of my pride or selfishness or just because I’m too busy. And I’m not the only person in this sanctuary that has that problem. Let us live the lives that we are called to. Let us love as God commands us. Let us show the world that we are in tune with the resurrection by living lives that are in tune with each other. Amen.

John 20:1-18 "Indeed"

Growing up as a Lutheran, on Easter Sunday, we would greet each other with the phrase, “He is risen.” The response to this greeting would be, “He is risen indeed.” I think, again, that I was doing something by rote, without really thinking about it, but which had a great depth to it. After all, isn’t this the greatest greeting to share with your fellow Christians. Jesus has risen!

You see, I still think we take for granted what it is that we claim to believe. Here we are, gathering together today to worship God. Here we are, saying that we believe that Jesus rose from the dead after spending a day in the grave. Here we are, by gathering together today we are saying that we believe that miracles can and do happen. We are saying that we trust God to take the worst possible circumstances, the death of Jesus, and turn them into a time of celebration.

We believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. Furthermore, we believe that we have this same end in store for us. It is good news, a bit unbelievable, but good news nonetheless. And here we are, coming together to rejoice in this good news. And yet, I wonder how seriously we really take this good news that we celebrate. Do we live our lives as if Jesus was raised from the dead? Do we allow this good news to change our behavior and how we live? Or do we pay it lip service without even really thinking about what it is that we believe? “He’s risen… he’s risen indeed…”

Christian leaders around the country today are giving messages about how we really believe that Jesus rose from the dead. A skeptic could look at this and say that perhaps we are protesting a bit too much. Perhaps we are pushing this whole resurrection thing so hard because we don’t really believe it ourselves. But this is not the case. There is a much more real reason as to why we feel the need to proclaim the resurrection to our congregations so strongly. It is the fact that the majority of Christians in America don’t live as if they really believe in the resurrection. The majority of Christians don’t live lives that are in tune with the resurrection.

The resurrection is good news and should affect us to our very core. It should change how we interact with the world around us. It should keep us from fearing the unknown, even death. It should give us purpose and it should fill us with joy. It is good news and it is worth celebrating. So this morning, let us celebrate this good news together. Let us rejoice in the news that death did not conquer Jesus, Jesus conquered death. Let us revel in the knowledge that we too have resurrection to look forward to. Let our hearts be filled with joy as we realize that he is risen, he is risen indeed.

I. Mary Magdalene

I want to focus this morning specifically on the story of Mary Magdalene. She is an important part of the gospel story. She is the first to see that the tomb is empty, though she does not understand what this truly means. She is also the first to meet the resurrected Jesus, though she does not recognize him for a time. Her story is the story of many of us. It is the story of one who follows Jesus to the best of their ability, but who is unable to recognize him when he makes himself clear before them. It is the story of someone who, upon seeing the empty tomb is not filled with joy, but rather with grief, because her expectations of the world are that something bad must have happened, not something good. Mary Magdalene was not living a life in tune with the resurrection and therefore had no clue what to make of it when presented with it.

It seems that Mary had grown up in the school of hard knocks. Obviously, the last week has told her what to expect from this world. A week that started in joy continued to go downhill and the last three days were of complete suffering for her. She was one of the few of Jesus’ followers who actually stood at the foot of the cross and watched Jesus die. She saw Jesus at his worst. But she had learned to expect the worst from life. She had been demon-possessed until Jesus healed her. The church has often said that she was a prostitute as well, conflating the story of her being demon-possessed with other scriptures about prostitutes that turned from their lives to follow Jesus. But the fact is that there is no biblical support for Mary actually being a prostitute. But it just goes to show you that life sometimes offers you lemons. Here is a woman who was healed by Jesus and followed him as one of his disciples. And the church decided to make her out to be a prostitute. Some people get no breaks.

And so Mary has been programmed by this world to expect the worst. This is something that we all tend to share with her in some form. Our first year of marriage in Chicago, we lived about 25 minutes by train, or “el”, from the school. Lisa would tell me that she would be home at such and such a time and that time would come and go and she would not return and I would find myself becoming very worried. I have heard that this is a sensation that all parents know at one point or another, especially when your children are in their teens. But here I was, worrying about my wife. I would worry that something might have happened to her on the train, or walking to it. When she finally did show up it was usually something minor or just the fact that it took her longer in the library than she thought it would, and I would give her an especially hard time about calling if she knew she was going to be late.

Well, this sensation is similar to what happened to Mary Magdalene. She came to the tomb and found it opened and found the body missing. Instead of remembering what Jesus had taught about his coming resurrection, she assumed the worst. She figured that someone had taken Jesus’ body away from the tomb. She expected the worst and the worst presented itself to her. So she ran and found the disciples and told them the bad news, Jesus’ body was missing. John and Peter ran to the grave and we are told that they believed, though they did not understand. And Mary went back out to the tomb and stood outside it and wept. She did not know what to do. She did not know how to deal with what she saw. And she looked inside again and saw two angels. But she still did not believe. And then Jesus himself came to her and showed himself to her. And she still did not recognize him.

II. Unrecognizable

There’s something odd that happens throughout the gospels in the New Testament. When people see Jesus after he is resurrected they don’t recognize him. Though he never hides his identity from them completely, he usually spends time with them, he usually shares with them, and then he does something personal and they recognize him. With the disciples on the road to Emmaus, he is recognized when he breaks bread. Here, he is recognized when he calls Mary’s name. “Mary!”

But before he calls her name she does not know who he is, she even thinks he is the gardener. Some people like to talk about Jesus wearing a disguise so people wouldn’t recognize him. Others talk about his body being so different that those closest to him cannot recognize him. Now I’m sure his body is different, but Jesus wasn’t trying to hide who he was. It’s not Jesus who hid his identity from Mary, its Mary who could not see who he really was. It’s her own inability to understand God’s plan, her inability to see what it is that God is doing that keeps her from recognizing Jesus. She did not expect to find Jesus alive and so she could not see Jesus alive. She was not living in tune with the resurrection and therefore she was unable to recognize the resurrected Jesus. The same is true for us. God doesn’t hide from us. He doesn’t disguise himself so that we cannot recognize him. He is there, plain as day for all to see if we only look. But our preconceptions, our views, our understanding of the world around us sometimes keeps us from seeing him clearly. I often wonder why it is that the Jewish religious leaders did not recognize Jesus. It seems that after spending all their time studying God’s word, they would recognize the word of God made flesh. But they did not. And the reason that they did not has nothing to do with whether Jesus was hiding his true nature from them. Instead it had to do with the fact that they didn’t know God as they thought they did. They didn’t recognize Jesus because they were looking for the wrong thing in a Messiah. Mary didn’t recognize Jesus because she was looking for a dead body.

I think we have much more in our lives that keep us from recognizing Jesus. I think we are too busy to recognize him. I think that we are distracted by all the things that take up our time and energy in this world. We are distracted by all the things that are designed to entertain us, to convince us that our desires and needs come first. We are distracted by a world that tells us that we are supposed to be successful following standards that are set for us. And we are distracted because, like Mary, we are used to seeing the worst in something and therefore are not able to see God at work.

III. A New Beginning

And we find ourselves like Mary Magdalene, not sure what our eyes see and mistaking our God, our Lord, for a gardener. But God pushes Mary, and he pushes us also to recognize him. He calls her by name, saying “Mary” and her eyes are opened, and the impossible becomes real to her. All of a sudden the things that seemed important to her fall by the wayside. She had been focused on preparing a dead body for proper burial. She had been focused on working through her grief and pain. But now those things no longer matter. He is risen. At that moment, at the time where she recognizes Jesus, all things are made new. All of a sudden, in Jesus’ presence, things make sense in a way they didn’t before. All of a sudden, in Jesus’ presence, Mary finds a peace that transcends her grief; that transcends everything that she had been going through throughout her life.

That is what the risen Christ has to offer to each of us. He is able to offer a world, a life that will have difficulties, and that will have trials. But he is able to offer the promise that he will be with us through it all. And if we only open our eyes to recognize him, if we only let ourselves see him standing before us, then we will also cry out as Mary did, “Teacher, Lord, Master, Savior”. He is all of these to us, and more.

But, unfortunately, we often refuse to allow him to reveal himself to us. Unfortunately, we let our excitement over the activities in the world around us overtake our excitement about Jesus and his resurrection. We focus so much on the things we feel are important that we run across the things that God sees as important in our lives and we do not recognize them. But there is hope.

The hope is in the fact that God will never stop pursuing us. No matter how many times he attempts to speak to us and we brush him off as the gardener, he will continue to work at getting our attention. As he did for Mary he will do for us. He will call us by name. And the hope is also in the fact that we are given the opportunity to respond. We can seek to recognize our Lord. We can allow him to reveal himself to us and therefore walk in the path that he has before us.

We have good news that we all claim as Christians to believe. Now, let us start to live lives that show that we truly believe this good news. He is risen. And we too will rise because of what he has done. And we too will have a place for us with no pain and no suffering and eternal joy. In the end, this is what we are celebrating on Easter. Not just the fact the God raised Jesus from the dead, but the fact that God will raise each of us from the dead. We are celebrating the fact that God is able to do things that we cannot even imagine, that we cannot even think about. We are celebrating the fact that there can be joy in our lives no matter what we are going through because Jesus is alive and active in this world. There is so much to celebrate, for in rising from the dead, Jesus began something new and something powerful. And we are all a part of that which Jesus has done. We are a part of his Church, we are a part of his people. We are God’s children because of Jesus’ resurrection. He lives in us. And he will raise us from the dead. We cannot do anything but praise him for this, and celebrate the joy that he gives!

We can live in tune with the resurrection. We can live as a resurrection people. So let us open our eyes to the wonder. Let us open our eyes to the glory. Let us open our eyes so that we can see what God is doing in this world. Let us open our eyes so that we can see what God is doing with each of us. Mostly, let us celebrate for our God is a God of miracles who raised his Son from the dead. Let us celebrate with joy that the one we serve is not limited by death or pain, but conquered both. He is risen, He is risen indeed! Amen.

Ephesians 4:11-16 "Built up in Love"

Having grown up in Washington, I love a good tree, particularly a good evergreen that stretches up to the sky in majesty. There is something about the strength seen in a tree. It tells you that it stands alone. It tells you that it does not need help from others. It can withstand the elements and grow strong and tall. It is a loner and finds its strength from itself. Trees stretch to the sky that tell you that they mean business. They grow a little more each year, slowly but steadily. They can be decades and even centuries old. When I was in Greece, we saw a tree that had been standing there when Jesus walked the earth. It now had a metal frame helping to hold it up. But there is something great and powerful about the lone tree.

But I cam across this story from LeRoy Eims, a Navigator’s broadcaster. He wrote: “My wife and I were in Great Britain on a preaching tour shortly after a violent windstorm had swept the land, flattening more than a million trees. An official investigation discovered that the trees had been planted just far enough apart that their roots were not intertwined with each other. Each tree stood alone, with no help from the tree next to it, and over a million were lost.”

LeRoy Eims discovered that even trees need each other. Though they seem so individual above ground, below ground they are connected. If they are not connected with each other they are not nearly as strong as they could be.

And like trees, we have a need for each other. We need to have others around us to strengthen us, to build us up, to protect us. Oh, it may seem that we can do it ourself, but this is just not the case.

This is what Paul is writing about in today’s scripture, our need for each other. It is through gathering together that our roots are able to strengthen each other and we are able to find the strength we need.

I. The Body

Today’s scripture talks about the Body of Christ. That is, it talks about the church. I fear that we sometimes fail to understand or believe or act upon the fact that we are the body of Christ. In other scriptures, Paul talks about how each part of the body plays a certain part in the whole of the body. Paul explains that we cannot all be eyes or mouths or fingers. If we were all ears, we’d make a pretty crazy looking body. These teachings of Paul are important. They mean that we all have our own purpose. They mean that we should not look with envy on those who are better at certain things than us. This can be hard for me.

I am musical to a certain degree. I sorta play some instruments and I can sing when others are singing with me. I’m not much of a soloist. But when I run across someone who is really musical, I find myself filling with envy. I wish I could sing the way they do. I wish I could lead praise songs in a powerful, meaningful way. And then I realize that I am wishing I were a different part of the body than I am. Paul tells us that we each have a part to play in this thing we call the church, that he calls Christ’s body. Sometimes it seems like what we have to offer doesn’t really matter, but this is not true. There are parts of the body that seem pointless, but have real value. We all have real value.

This is important. We should not allow our own feelings of inadequacy and our inferiority complexes keep us from being a part of the plan that God has for us. But that is not necessarily what today’s scripture is about. Today’s scripture has something else to tell us about being the Body of Christ. Today’s scripture tell us that community is needed.

What is it needed for? Today’s scripture talks of at least three things. It is needed to bring us to maturity in our faith. It is needed to help us move toward unity. And it is needed so that we might grow and build each other up in love.

II. Gifts of Community

Christian community brings us to maturity in our faith. Paul likes to contrast maturity with immaturity in his writings. He likes to tell us that when we are not following the right path we are like infants, we are like babies. Infants cannot take care of themselves. In today’s scripture he says that they will be blown here and there by every wind of teaching. Infants have not yet learned to think for themselves and they are not protected against those things in this world that stand against them. And let me make this very clear, there are things in this world that do stand against us. So maturity is important. And maturity comes when we come together. It is gathering with other Christians where we learn how to better live our own lives as Christians. We learn from each other.

In some Christian circles, it is somewhat normal to talk about how mature someone is in their faith. You will sometimes have someone who has been a Christian their whole life, but who has not ever allowed this to be a big part of their life, they haven’t really grown in their faith and people might say that they are immature in their faith. Now, before anyone gets defensive, there are worse things to be accused of than being an immature Christian. And in actuality, I have discovered that there is a danger in this classification that is at times done. You see, we all mature in different ways and at different rates. Someone might be quite mature in their prayer life, but not so much in resisting temptation. Someone else might be a very giving person, always ready to help someone who is in need of help, but they might not know the Bible as well as they’d like. I tend to believe that we all mature in different areas and we all have certain spiritual gifts and even spiritual fruits that we are more connected to and that maturity comes to quicker. And so to say that one person is a more mature Christian than someone else is a misnomer. It would be much better to look at areas in our lives where we are more or less mature and strive toward maturity in those places where we need it. But what does this have to do with community? When we come together, we can learn from the maturity of those around us. We can lift each other up by teaching each other in the areas where we are gifted.

Christian community helps us move toward unity in our faith and knowledge of God. That’s right, Christian community brings unity. I realize it doesn’t always feel that way. As Christians, we often don’t live the unity that we are called to. We allow ourselves to put ourselves first in a way that breeds strife within the church. I’ve mentioned it before and it is worth noting, even the early church had times where there was not unity. People wanted what was best for God’s people, but they didn’t see eye to eye on how to get there. This is nothing new. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive for unity. And this passage gives us a good hint on where to start. It talks about how we will “all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God”. This is a good place to start. We start with the unity that ties all Christians together. Christianity is a very diverse religion. There are people who are Christians who are very different than each other. Christians don’t all speak the same language, wear the same clothing, or even believe the same things. If you took a Christian out of the heart of Africa and put them beside a Christian in the heartland of America, you would discover some definite differences between them, more than just their skin color. If you took a Christian from the Eastern Orthodox church and put them next to an American Evangelical, the differences would be quite great in how they interacted with their God. But you would also find things that they have in common. And when we come together in Christian community, we learn to hold up those things that we have in common. When we come together in Christian community, we find that the thing that we hold in common: forgiveness from our sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus, is so much greater than anything that can separate us. And we can revel in that which unites us.

Christian community helps us to grow and build each other up in love. I love this imagery of building each other up in love. I think of those trees in Britain that were planted too far apart from each other and they were not able to strengthen each other. They did not build each other up and when trial came, they came down. We don’t need to be like them. Instead we can come together and find strength in each other. Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us to “consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” This is what it means to build each other up in love. And this will allow us to grow as a community. This will allow us to stand against whatever is put against us, for we will support each other in a powerful way.

III. Responsibilities of Community

So coming together as Christian community is good for us. It helps us to grow as individuals and as a group. But there are also responsibilities that come when we come together as the Body of Christ. When we accept that we are all different parts of the body, we realize that we all have gifts to offer to that body. This means that we are called to use those gifts. This means that we are not doing our duty if we aren’t using our gifts. Ephesians 4:16 talks about how we grow and build ourselves up in love. But it says that this happens when each part does its work. What part of the body are you? What is your responsibility to the greater body of Christ? What is your role to play? There are different ways to discover the answer to this question. For some people, this involves a spiritual gifts assessment. These are worthwhile because they help us to know better where we might be gifted as well as helping us to realize where our interests and passions lie. Someone who is good at playing the piano might not necessarily be passionate about doing so, and it is important to balance these things. We sometimes, as a church, are so busy trying to make sure that we have enough people on the Christian Education Committee that we don’t really find ways to allow true ministry to happen as we as a church each do our part. But if you aren’t into spiritual gift assessments, there are other ways to find out what your role to play is. The best of these is just to get involved. Find a way that you can participate. Don’t wait to be asked. Instead find something that you think you could help with and see if they need your help. As long as you wait, you are missing opportunities that could be before you. And we as a church are missing out on what you have to offer to us.

There is good news that comes with this responsibility, though. That good new is that when we become this vision that Paul has of the Body of Christ, we will be something that those around us will want to be a part of. When we become a community where people are finding maturity in their faith, when we become a place of unity, when we become a growing loving group where people are allowed to blossom, people will want to be a part of what we offer. And in the end, this is what we are also supposed to be about as a church. We are supposed to be a group of Christians that grows in our faith, but also that calls others into that same faith, that encourages them to begin on the journey we have been traveling.

So, when we better become this thing called the church, we will find that our forest will grow and strengthen itself. We will find that others will want to plant their trees in our forest. And when the wind does come, we will hold each other together because our roots will be deep in Jesus and our roots will help us to stay strong. And this is a wonderful thing. Amen.