One Body in Christ

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Let us pray. O Lord send forth your word into our ears that it may bear fruit in our lives, in Jesus’ name, Amen. So what excites you? What gets your blood pumping? What gives you that Christmas morning feeling? What gets the blood going through your veins? Now currently I’m looking forward to the start of college football season in a few weeks. I love college football Saturdays, moving from game to game throughout the course of the day, watching some on the TV, and then when my kids want the TV, switching to my phone or my computer. I love the drama. I love the excitement. I love the pageantry and the traditions, and it’s only a few weeks away. Last week at this time, I was excited for the seminary course to begin here at Grace. I was looking forward to the class sessions. I was looking forward to conversations with visiting pastors, looking forward to the elders BBQ. What are you excited for? What excites you in your life? What are you eager for? Today’s reading from Ephesians, Paul encourages us “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Does that excite you? We’re all excited for something, maybe the start of the school year, maybe a new movie or a book you’ve been waiting for, maybe you’re already eagerly awaiting the arrival of Christmas. We’re all eager for something. Are we eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace? Maybe the better question is, what does that even mean, the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Well, this is the unity that we received as a gift from our Lord. It’s the unity given to us through Jesus himself. Think of it like this. There is only one Jesus, and so then anyone who is united to him is therefore also united to each other. It’s not a unity that we create for ourselves. It’s a unity that’s already ours by virtue of our baptism, by virtue of kneeling at this altar to receive the body and blood of the one Jesus, for the forgiveness of our sins. It’s the unity that Paul wrote about in the first three chapters of Ephesians. Jesus has broken down the dividing wall of hostility. Those who are “far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Paul wants the Ephesians to recognize that despite their cultural and language differences, they are one body in Christ. The unity is theirs, and it’s ours. The same is true for us. Whatever differences we have in political leanings, or brand loyalty, we are united in Christ, and while this unity is not ours to create, Paul does encourage us to maintain it. Maintenance. It’s a simple concept. It’s one we all understand and apply, probably on a daily basis We maintain our cars, change the oil and the brake pads, we keep an eye on the fluid levels, We maintain our bodies, we go to the doctor, we eat healthy, maybe even sprinkle in a little bit of exercise. We maintain our homes. You fix the leaky roof, you replace the hot water heater when it breaks, you straighten up the mess from time to time. We all know what maintenance is. We do it every day. Do we make it a priority to maintain the unity we have as the body of Christ? The unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, through unity that belongs to any and all who are united to the same Jesus. The bond of peace. It’s the glue that holds that unity together, the gift from Jesus himself. It’s a bond that unites us, not only to Jesus, but unites us to one another. Are we eager to maintain that bond? Do we treat the relationships we have with our brothers and sisters in Christ with as much care and concern as we show to our cars, or to our houses? Do we make that maintenance a priority? How would we even do that? Paul points us first to humility. A Christian pastor in the 4th century wrote these words: “Meekness is the foundation of all virtue. If you are humble and aware of your limits and remember how you were saved you will take this recollection as the motive for excellent moral behavior, you will not be excessively impressed, either with chains or with privileges.  You will remember that it is all of grace and so you will walk humbly.” The point that he’s making is that a humble and honest estimation of our own abilities fills us with eagerness to forgive each other, to bear with one another, to bear with the sins of each other, frees us from becoming too proud of our successes, or too depressed at our failures, that allows us simply to live each moment in love. Far too often we’re quick to set aside humility, and fall victim to pride. We’re quick to speak an accusation, spread of juicy bit of gossip, but we’re slow to speak in defense of a brother or sister in Christ. There’s a reason that the reviews and comments sections on the Internet are so negative. We love to share our bad experiences. Maybe because it makes us feel vindicated, makes us feel righteous. We’re quick to spread stories that make us feel like we’re better than someone else, quick to point out why so and so is wrong and I’m right. We love to broadcast the failures of others, to become mired in criticism, but not only do such actions not maintain the unity of the spirit, they actually work to destroy it. It’s like skipping the oil change, and instead pouring sugar in your gas tank. It’s the opposite of maintenance. It’s sabotage. We’re called to repent of such an attitude, to repent of speaking hurtful words, repent of spreading rumors and gossip, even if what we’re saying is true. Rather than letting the sin of another become the topic of conversation that leads us feeling self-righteous, our Lord calls us to see in their sin a reminder of our own. Our Lord desires that we all be led to repentance of our own. In the Large Catechism, Luther calls us to have graveyard ears, ears where the unflattering stories go to die and be buried, never to surface again. Now Paul’s not telling us to keep a secret if someone’s being harmed. We don’t need to ignore dangerous behavior and call it unity, but neither do we let the reputation of a brother or sister in Christ be dragged through the mud. Usually when we find ourselves relaying an unflattering story, we aren’t simply reporting concerns through the proper channels, usually we’re just gossiping about who did what, who said what, why so and so was a failure. And in those cases, when the juicy tidbit is passed to us, we repent of the eagerness to pass it on, and instead, ask our Lord to fill us with eagerness to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We refuse to speak words that would divide, refuse to speak words that would create camps among us. We refuse to speak words that end up driving a wedge into the body of Christ. Instead, we’re eager to maintain the unity that we have as the body of Christ. We let the rumors and device of speech die in our ears. We let words of life and hope and encouragement flow from our tongues, for those are the words Jesus has spoken about you. Jesus did not drive a wedge between the creator and his creation. Jesus did just the opposite. Jesus united us, coming into his creation as one of its own. He took on human flesh in order that we might be reconciled and reunited to our Father in heaven, he took all of our impurity, he took our imperfection, he took all of our sins of thought, word, and deed, and he buried them not, in his ears but in his tomb, where his own lifeless body was laid. He suffered and died to pay the price for our careless words, for our hurtful actions, for the many and various ways that we undermine the unity of the Spirit, and in his resurrection, he restored that unity. Unity with the father in heaven and here on earth, unity among us his body, unity among our brothers and sisters in Christ. And so, now we’re called not only to maintain that unity, but to be eager to do so, to be excited to do so, to make it a priority to take pride not in finding ourselves better than others, but to take pride in the unity that we possess together as forgiven sinners. Maybe we invite new members into our circle of friends. We have graveyard ears. We walk in humility and patience, but above all else, this unity is maintained by being and remaining united to Jesus himself. That is how it is the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. We maintain this unity by regularly confessing our own sins, not merely in private, but here in this room in the company of those with whom we are united, the very people that we sit next to every Sunday, fellow sinners, people whose lives are marked by the same failures and disappointments as their own, the same hurts and anxieties that keep us up at night. We confess our sins together eager to hear together that good news of forgiveness  When we hear of someone else’s sin, we don’t eagerly await the chance to spread that news to others, rather we see in their sin a reminder of our own, and in humble repentance we confess our sin in the presence of God, and one another, eager to confess, eager to be forgiven, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And that unity is maintained by kneeling regularly at this altar to be united to the body and blood of Jesus himself, and the simple gift of bread and wine. We call it communion for a reason and hear the word union in its name. Through this gift we are united both to each other as well as to our Lord himself. Anything that would divide is removed. The unity of the Spirit is what remains. We don’t create such unity, it’s already ours in Christ. But we are called to maintain it, through confession, through our Lord’s supper, through forgiving each other, through graveyard ears. Such is the gift of Christian unity, given to us by our Lord through his Word and sacrament, sustained by our Lord through the same, and as his Word works in our hearts, it converts our desires so that they begin to resemble him, and for no matter what else we might be eager for, the arrival of a holiday, or the release of a new movie, we are also eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Let us walk in humility, in gentleness, and patience, remaining united to the one Lord, one faith, one baptism, to the God and Father of all, who is over all and through all, and in all. To him be glory and honor forever and ever, Amen.