[Uucf-bible] Called to Be One

[Erika Noll Webb]

My apologies for missing last week--we were traveling with much more limited
email access than I anticipated.  Here's the weekly seed for this coming
week!

Erika

 



Week leading to Sunday, August 6
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Weekly Theme 
Called to Be One

Focus Statement 
"There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope
of your calling..." 

Focus Scripture
Ephesians 4:1-16 

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. Therefore it is said, "When he ascended on high he
made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people." (When it
says, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into
the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended
far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 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. 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. 

Focus Meditation
By Kate Huey 

 

Paul (or one writing in his name) writes the Letter to the Ephesians from
jail to the church beyond prison walls, exclaiming, "How blessed is God!
Long before [God] laid down earth's foundations, [God] had us in mind, had
settled on us as the focus of [God's] love, to be made whole and holy by
[God's] love" (Ephesians 1:4)."It's in Christ that we find out who we are
and what we are living for" (1:7b). . ."Oh, the utter extravagance of
[God's] work in us who trust [God] - endless energy, boundless strength!"
(1:19) (see Eugene Peterson's beautiful and easy-to-understand translation
of the Bible, The Message). These words, from the first chapter of the
epistle, set the stage appropriately for Paul's exhortation from jail to the
church that walks free and empowered, not only long ago but today, in our
time and in every setting of the church: Be reconciled, be one, be strong,
strive to be worthy of your calling! 

Our passage today is a moving reminder to us in the United Church of Christ
of "who we are" and who we are called to be as followers of Jesus, to
understand "what we are living for." Within our own congregations and within
our denomination, we are called to be one, to be reconciled, to be strong,
to strive to be worthy of our calling. And yet we are called to seek that
same unity across congregational and denominational lines, too, to reach out
to our Christian sisters and brothers and to find common ground, common
hope, common calling. All of this is to bear witness to the loving God who
"laid down the earth's foundations," thinking of us, focusing an
immeasurable love on us, intending for us to be whole and holy through the
power of that love. 

The power doesn't come from within us as our own resolve or determination or
intelligence. This wasn't our great idea; it's God's dream for us. This
dream won't happen because we make it happen; God is bringing it to
fulfillment. We are participants in the great unfolding of God's plan for
the world. That's really good news: God's own power "at work within us is
able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine"
(Ephesians 3:20, last week's Epistle reading), so we never need to feel
overwhelmed or overpowered, because God's power is limitless and it's at
work within us, always. We may think we dream big and aspire for great
things, but God's power is already working towards a dream far bigger and
greater than anything we've thought of or imagined. What an incredible
statement that is - and it sets up today's reading, which begins with such a
significant "therefore": "I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to
lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called." (4:1 NRSV)


Paul's exhortation is rooted in all that he has laid out, including the
amazing illustration, as he sees it, of the reconciliation between Jews and
Gentiles, bridging the gap so that Gentiles "have become fellow heirs,
members of the same body and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through
the gospel" (3:6 NRSV). Reconciliation calls us to remember, to recall, to
"un-forget" that we are one, deep down, that there is one body and one
Spirit and one hope, and that all our divisions and discord are marks not of
God or of God's dream for us but of human failing, human pride, human
striving against that dream. 

Today's reading is a good illustration of how important it is to "walk the
walk" in addition to "talking the talk." In fact, one commentator says that
the phrase "lead a life" in Paul's exhortation is a translation of the Greek
for "walk" (Carl R. Holladay, Preaching through the Christian Year B), so
walking the walk is a good way to imagine and embody our call as Christians.
How easy it is to think that talking, preaching, and proclaiming are all
there is to it! How much more difficult it is to live a life worthy of our
calling, in humility, gentleness, patience, and forbearance. Very little in
our culture today exhorts or even permits us to lift up such virtues when
the point of everything is to acquire and to get ahead. Perhaps that brings
home best the clear difference in Paul's claim that Jesus is our one Lord,
for, as John Dominic Crossan says in much of his work, "If Jesus is Lord,
Caesar is not" (see, for example, In Search of Paul). "Caesar" today may be
materialism and greed, militarism and violence, pride and
self-righteousness, as individuals and as communities, too. All of these
things are unworthy of the calling to which we have been called. 

Given our growing appreciation of diversity, how do you see our unity? How
can the United Church of Christ more fully embody Jesus' prayer that we all
may be one, and yet respect the theological and other important diversities
that thrive within our church? How might these diversities actually lead to
more unity and more beauty? When you think of a bouquet of flowers, do you
think of all one kind of flowers, or an arrangement or even a spilling-over
of many different kinds? Is it still one bouquet, and one beauty? What are
the different and often-overlooked gifts thriving in the beauty of your
congregation and in the United Church of Christ? How does it feel to be one
of the saints being equipped for ministry? Do you think of childlike faith
as a good thing? If so, how can we also, as Paul exhorts us, "grow up in
every way"? One example of such "growing up" may be in our approach to
Scripture, taking the time to study and learn how to read it as an adult -
with, as Marcus Borg suggests, "post-critical naivete" (see Meeting Jesus
Again for the First Time, and Reading the Bible Again for the First Time). 

Perhaps one of the most valuable phrases in this rich reading is "speaking
the truth in love." How is the truth spoken in your church? How often is
"the truth" in Christianity spoken with judgment, resentment, and anger? How
might the virtues mentioned earlier (humility, gentleness, patience,
forbearance) make us more skilled at speaking the truth in love? How might
such love and truth lead us to greater unity? 

Several years ago, the stewardship theme of the United Church of Christ was
taken from the Ephesians text preceding today's reading: "Far More than All
We Can Ask or Imagine." How does a text like today's reading lead us to
greater commitment to our local church, to the wider church, and to the
spiritual discipline - or gift - of generosity as an expression of that
commitment? What amazing things - beyond your imagination - is God
accomplishing in love through the generosity of the members and
congregations of the United Church of Christ? How does the passion of
today's reading free us to greater giving and to greater hope?    

All Readings for This Week 
2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a with Ps 51:1-12 
Ephesians 4:1-16 
John 6:24-35 

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