Tawa Baptist

Unity

Scripture: Psalm 133

Title: Unity

Structure:

  • Introduction – unity is diversity with order
  • The Trinity and us
  • Unity comes down from God above
  • Unity is for sharing
  • Conclusion

 

Introduction:

On the wall here we have a picture of a tapestry of the Lord’s Supper

–         A tapestry is a unity

–         It is not sameness which makes for unity – rather, unity is diversity with order

–         Although there are many different coloured strands they are all woven together in an ordered way to pleasing effect

–         Together the strands form a bigger picture which makes sense

 

In our house there are three women and one shower

–         One of the things that happens with this arrangement is that long strands of hair gather in the drain, causing a blockage, so that the water in the bottom of the shower rises to your ankles

–         Whenever this happens it is my job to unblock the drain, pulling all the hair out by hand – I don’t mind though, it makes me feel useful

 

The hair in the drain is the opposite of unity

–         Unlike the tapestry which has a variety of different strands woven together in an ordered way, the hair in the drain is pretty much all the same and it is clumped together in a tangled mess of soap scum

–         There is no order, no bigger picture, no meaning, no pleasantness with hair in the drain

–         Unity is diversity with order – unity is pleasing

 

This morning we return to our series on the Songs of Ascents

–         These songs were probably sung by Jewish pilgrims as they made their way to the temple in Jerusalem for various religious festivals

–         They are songs for the faithful as they gather together for worship

 

Our focus today is psalm 133

–         This song celebrates God’s gift of unity

–         From the New Revised Standard Version we read…

 

1 How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.

3 It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord ordained his blessing, life forevermore.

 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this reading for us

 

The Trinity and us:

One of the prominent features at the front here is the organ

–         The organ is a unity – it has a diverse range of parts & pipes put together in an ordered way to make music which is pleasing

 

The organ is a metaphor for creation – creation is a unity, a diversity of different matter put together in an ordered and pleasing way

 

Today is Trinity Sunday, when we reflect on the mystery of the triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit

–         God is a unity – a diversity of three persons who are one

 

In a limited way the organ serves as a metaphor to help us understand the Trinity’s interaction with creation

–         I say ‘in a limited way’ because I’m very cautious about using any sort of analogy for God or the Trinity

–         God is holy – which (among other things) means he is different from us and indeed different from any created thing

–         God is beyond compare so no metaphor is adequate for describing God

 

Having said that, metaphors can be helpful to help our finite human minds form some concept of our infinite God and how we might relate with Him

 

Anyway, as I was saying, if the organ represents creation then the Trinity (Father, Son & Spirit together) designed and built the organ

–         The organ is not God – creation is not God – it was just made by Him

 

God the Father is like the organist and composer of the music

–         The Father writes the music and plays it on the organ (or through creation)

 

The gospel of John tells us that God the Son (who we know as Jesus) is God’s Word – so the Son is like the music God has composed

–         Just as music is an expression or embodiment of the composer’s soul, in a similar way, Jesus is an expression or embodiment of God Himself

–         Just as the music unites the choir, so everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet, so too Jesus unites the church and indeed all of creation – Jesus shows us which notes to follow

 

If we imagine that God the Father is the organist and Jesus is the music and we (in all our diversity) are the organ pipes, then the Holy Spirit is the wind passing through the pipes, making the sound God wills through us

–         We can’t make the music on our own – in fact we only find our meaning and purpose when we let God’s will be done in our life

–         Nor do we get to hear the whole song in our lifetime – we have to wait for eternity for that

 

Now in some ways this analogy is inadequate

–         Firstly, Jesus is more than just the music (as important as that is)

–         Jesus is a real person – the one who came to redeem & repair creation

–         It’s like the organ of creation was damaged by sin and Jesus (the organ builder’s Son) came to fix it

 

Likewise the Holy Spirit is more than just the wind blowing through the pipes (as important as that is)

–         The Spirit of God is also a real person

–         If we are the organ pipes, each one of us sounding a different note, then the Spirit is like the tuner who comes to adjust us when we get out of tune

 

Of course – an organ is not a living thing with free will

–         Some parts of God’s creation always do what they are supposed to at the right time – not so us humans, we are far more difficult to work with

 

In John 15 Jesus uses the image of the vine – the vine being a living organic unity

–         The Lord says to his disciples: I am the vine, you are the branches and God the Father is the gardener

–         Following this logic we might cautiously suggest the Holy Spirit is the sap or the life flowing from within the vine to the branches

–         As branches we come in different shapes and sizes but we are united by Christ, the main trunk of the vine

–         What’s more we are sustained and made fruitful by the life giving Spirit of Jesus in us

 

Unity comes down from God above:

Returning to psalm 133

–         This song is attributed to King David and it is essentially about unity

 

Although it is short (only 3 verses) psalm 133 uses two quite different images to convey the one idea that unity is a good and pleasing gift from God

 

Verse 1 begins with David describing the experience of unity from a human perspective

–         How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.

 

On the sixth day of creation (in Genesis 1) the Lord God saw all that he had made and it was very good

–         Creation before the fall was a perfect unity – it was diverse but at the same time ordered in such a way that was good and pleasing

 

Unity from God is not unpleasant, like tangled hair and soap scum clogging up the shower drain

–         No – unity from God is good & pleasant, like a well ordered tapestry conveying a meaningful bigger picture

–         Or like an organ playing the right notes at the right pitch at the right time

 

The implication of verse 1 is: if it’s not pleasant then it’s probably not unity as God intended it

 

In verse 2 we are given the first image of unity

–         It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.

 

Now to us this image doesn’t seem all that pleasant

–         It actually sounds messy and inconvenient

–         If someone poured so much oil on your head that it ran down your face and onto your clothes you would probably want to jump in the shower and put your clothes in the wash

 

But in ancient Middle Eastern culture it was customary for the host to greet a guest by pouring oil on their head

–         It was a way of saying welcome, you have a special place of honour among us, we are pleased you are here

–         Oil on the head was a picture of generous hospitality – it was an expression of unity

 

We read of Jesus being anointed in this way on more than one occasion in the gospels, by women (because the men were preoccupied)

 

But the picture in verse 2 isn’t just one of hospitality – for the verse goes on to describe the anointing of Aaron, the high priest of Israel during the time of Moses

–         Aaron was anointed with a special kind of oil – one mixed with perfume

–         So the oil of unity is sacred and it has a pervasive aroma

–         Unity is a pleasant fragrance which cannot be contained and which everyone can enjoy [1]

 

Jesus is our high priest – he is the Christ or the Messiah

–         Christ and Messiah mean the same thing: anointed one

–         Jesus (the anointed one) is the head of the church and we are the members of Christ’s body

–         Although we are quite diverse in many ways we are united by Christ

–         Jesus brings order to our diversity and the oil of his Spirit is a pleasant fragrance which cannot be contained

 

The main thing to note in verses 2 & 3 of psalm 133 is that the oil of unity runs down – it descends from above, meaning that unity comes from God above

–         Unity is not manufactured by us from the ground up – it is a gift (or a blessing) bestowed by God from on high

 

We heard last week about the builders of the Tower of Babel

–         In the end their unity was revealed to be false for they were trying to manufacture it themselves from the ground up

–         That kind of forced unity never lasts

–         True unity is a blessing from God above – not a human achievement

 

Verse 3 offers a second simile for unity

–         It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion.

 

Mount Hermon is the highest mountain in Israel, found in the north near Galilee

–         Hermon is proverbial for its heavy dew

–         The mountains of Zion refer to the much smaller mountains in the south of Israel on which the city of Jerusalem was built

–         Hermon and Zion were diverse geographically speaking (they were spaced well apart) and they were quite different in height

–         Yet little Mount Zion enjoyed the same gift as grand old Hermon – they both share the same dew from heaven above

–         High and low drink the same sweet refreshment. [2]

–         Like the labourers in Jesus’ parable, at the end of the day, we are all paid the same, regardless of how many hours we worked  

Perhaps also, as King of Israel, David is reflecting on what God has done in uniting the different tribes of Israel – bringing the north and the south together

–         David sees a diverse range of people all coming together to worship God at his footstool in Jerusalem and he appreciates the harmony of it all

 

In any case, unity is a life giving blessing from God

–         Just as oil flows down from the head and just as dew comes down from above, so too unity comes down to us from God above

 

The thing is though that God often blesses us with unity in unexpected ways

–         Just last Friday night there was a power cut in Tawa – it was a complete black out

–         But it was also a blessing to our family – it was something a bit different, something fun and unexpected that brought us together

–         We lit candles, gathered close, laughed and talked because there wasn’t anything else we could do

–         It was quite a lovely time of family unity and felt like a gift from God

 

Unity is for sharing:

As well as showing us that unity comes from God above, the two images in psalm 133 also show us that unity is not designed to be contained

–         Rather, unity is for sharing

–         The pleasant fragrance of the perfumed oil on Aaron’s head and shoulders cannot be contained – the aroma is for everyone

–         Likewise the dew of Hermon falls liberally on Zion as well – it is not funnelled off somewhere exclusive – it is for high and low alike

 

Given that unity is a gift from God and given that it may come to us in unexpected ways, when it does come we need to be careful to recognise it and share it, without getting in the way – without creating a blockage

–         We need to ask ourselves how can we be a conduit for God’s gift of unity

 

In Luke 12 Jesus tells a rather sobering parable about a man whose land yielded a bumper crop

–         This blessing from God above created a problem for the farmer

–         Instead of consulting with his neighbours though he ignored his community and tried to figure out the problem on his own

–         He said to himself: ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

–         Still talking to himself he said, ‘I know, I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones to store all my grain – then I’ll be able to retire early, put my feet up and take life easy.’

 

But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

 

The tragedy is this man didn’t realise he was actually quite disconnected and God was trying to bless him with the gift of unity in the form of a bumper crop

–         If only he had talked with his neighbours he might have realised how his actions would only isolate him further

–         By holding onto the grain the farmer was driving the price up

–         If he had been less greedy and sold the grain at a lower price then the rest of the community would have benefited, especially the poor

–         Everyone would have enjoyed the pleasant fragrance of God’s special anointing on his land

–         High and low alike would have been refreshed by the dew of Hermon poured out on him

–         What’s more he would have enjoyed something far better than money – he would have experienced how good and pleasant it is to dwell in unity

 

By keeping it all for himself the man (ironically) rejected God’s gift of unity

–         He became a blockage to unity and God had little choice but to remove the blockage by taking back his life

 

Jesus told some really sad stories aye. That one was real tragic. I’m more of a happy ending kind of guy so let’s imagine this parable differently

 

Once there was a farmer who worked on his land from dawn till dusk six days a week

–         God had been good to him and blessed his hard work so that he was able to pay off his mortgage about 10 years sooner than he expected

–         But these kinds of gains come at a cost

–         As a consequence of working such long hours he didn’t have time for a wife and family – his was a relatively solitary life

 

He did reserve Sundays as a day off though when he would go into town to attend church in the morning before picking up some groceries from the supermarket on the way home

–         It wasn’t that he was particularly religious – he went to church mostly for the social contact (the cuppa and chat afterwards was his favourite part)

 

As the years went by the city expanded into the countryside and it was just a matter of time before property developers started eyeing up his farmland to build new homes for a hungry suburban market

–         One such developer offered the farmer 5x what he had paid for his land

–         It was a tempting offer – with no mortgage and this sort of cash in the bank he could retire before he was 50

 

That Sunday the preacher at church spoke about the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12

–         The farmer didn’t normally care for the sermon that much but this particular week he hung on every word

–         After reflecting on Jesus’ parable he decided not to get back to the developer just yet

 

The next Sunday, over coffee after the service, the farmer mentioned to one of the bankers in the congregation that he had been approached by a developer who was wanting to buy his land and turn it into a sub-division

–         The banker asked what the developer was offering and, on hearing a figure, explained how the land would be worth a lot more than that after it had been sliced up – The farmer had guessed as much

–         The banker asked if the farmer would consider subdividing the land himself

 

The following Sunday the farmer got into a conversation with a young guy in his 20’s who was saving to buy a house – it was tough to get a deposit together these days, especially with a large student loan

–         The farmer didn’t say anything about the developer’s offer this time

–         He was all of sudden conscious of a great divide between the two of them

–         So he offered the young guy some extra work on his farm

–         The young man was grateful and proved to be pretty good at fencing

–         To his surprise the farmer found he quite enjoyed the company

–         It had been a long time since he had worked with someone, it made the job seem more pleasant somehow

 

A few more weeks went by and the developer returned with an even bigger offer – but this time the farmer said ‘no’

–         Instead he made an offer of his own – not to the developer but to the young guy and his wife

–         He sold them a parcel of his land for half what the developer was offering him – which was about a quarter of the retail rate

–         To make the deal even sweeter he had a lawyer draw up a contract saying as long as they lived in the house they could pay him back interest free over a 20 year period

 

The couple still needed to borrow from the bank to build the house but the reduced cost of the land and the less onerous repayments made getting into their own home more affordable

–         The great divide he had sensed at first, between himself and the young man, was gone – the farmer felt closer to his neighbours

 

He did the same thing for others who were struggling, gradually selling pieces of his farm at below market rates

–         It meant reducing stock numbers a bit and being a bit smarter with his pasture management but it was workable because he was freehold

 

As the farmer shared his land a tight but diverse community developed so he became less isolated and more connected

–         He no longer needed to work 12 hours a day six days a week on his own – there were always willing neighbours ready to lend him hand

–         No one defaulted on their loans – partly because he was discerning about who he helped but also because a bit of grace usually motivates people to do the right thing

 

The farmer worked till he was 65 before taking his super and he lived comfortably in his retirement till his death at age 84

 

When asked by the pastor one day why he had helped so many people the farmer replied…

–         “When I look back on it I realise it wasn’t me who did it. I was isolated and alone before God blessed me with unity. All I had to do was get out of the way so God could do His thing.”

 

Conclusion:

Unity is diversity with order

–         Unity is pleasant

–         Unity comes down to us from God above, often in unexpected ways

–         Ultimately though unity is for sharing

 

Let us pray…

–         Father God, we thank you for your gift of unity through Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit

–         Help us to recognise your blessings when they come and to be a conduit for unity by sharing your good gifts

–         We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

https://soundcloud.com/tawabaptist/11-jun-2017-unity

[1] Refer Derek Kidner’s commentary on ‘Psalms 73-150’, page 489

[2] Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150, page 489.

Tawa Baptist

Strengthening Fellowship

Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-3

 

Title: Strengthening Fellowship

 

Members Pledge 5: To do all I can to strengthen the fellowship of the church by developing the spirit of love in the family of Christ’s people.

 

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • United by Christ, not by likes
  • Strengthening fellowship (Eph. 4:2)
  • The bond of peace (Eph. 4:3)
  • Conclusion

 

Introduction:

Over the past couple of months we have been journeying through the 23rd Psalm – making reference as we go to the various ways in which this psalm points us to Jesus

  • During May we take a break from Psalm 23 to focus on other things
  • We have a baptismal service next Sunday
  • And for the following three Sundays after that we will give our attention to the annual Tranzsend Prayer & Self Denial campaign
  • We intend to return to Psalm 23 in June.

 

With Ben & Becca Allen being welcomed into membership our message today focuses on one of the members’ pledges…

 

To do all I can to strengthen the fellowship of the Church by developing the spirit of love in the family of Christ’s people.

 

Sometimes people ask me, ‘why do we have membership?’

  • ‘If I become a member of the church universal when I’m baptised then why do I need to become a member of a local church also?’
  • After all salvation is not by local church membership – it’s by faith in Christ
  • Well, joining yourself in membership to a local church is not something you do primarily for yourself
  • It’s something you do for the well-being of the people in the local church

 

From a legal and financial point of view the church needs to differentiate between members and non-members in order to protect itself

  • In our situation the members are the ones charged with the responsibility for decision making
  • If we didn’t have members with voting rights then, in a worse-case scenario, some other larger group could come along to a church meeting and pass a resolution to take over our buildings & programmes for their own nefarious purposes
  • So the people we allow into membership really need to have the best interests of the local church at heart

 

Therefore, when someone becomes a member of Tawa Baptist they pledge…

  • To do all I can to strengthen the fellowship of the Church by developing the spirit of love in the family of Christ’s people.

 

United by Christ, not by likes:

Membership isn’t just about providing a measure of legal and financial protection for the local church

  • More importantly it’s about taking care of Christ’s reputation as well as our relationships with each other

Strengthening the fellowship of the church and developing the spirit of love, is essentially about the quality of our relationships together, as a community of faith

 

The church is not a building

  • The church is a network of relationships – like a family
  • In a general sense, a family shares the same heritage, the same blood, the same DNA
  • As a church family we share Christ’s heritage, His blood and His Spirit
  • It is Jesus who unites us and so the primary criteria for church membership is our relationship with Christ as formalised in baptism

 

The church is not a club either

  • A club is a group of people who are united by a shared liking for something
  • So for example, people who like collecting stamps might form a stamp collecting club
  • And people who like shooting guns might get together to form a gun club
  • And people who like drinking wine might form a wine tasting club

 

But a church is not a group of people united by a shared liking

  • The church is united by Christ
  • Therefore the church brings people of different likings, different cultures, different socio-economic backgrounds, different ages and different personalities together

 

Think about the implications of that for a moment

  • Being united by Christ means we don’t necessarily like the same things
  • For example, we don’t all like the same kind of songs
  • Some prefer hymns while others prefer Hill Song music – some enjoy all styles of music and still others can’t wait till the singing is over
  • Some people like interactive worship services – where you get up and move around – others like to sit still and listen to sermons
  • And others aren’t as interested in the sermon as they are in catching up with people over a cup of tea afterwards

 

The point is we all like different things and that’s okay – that’s as it should be

  • Because we are not a club – we are not united by our likes
  • We are united by Christ

 

The main metaphor for the church in the New Testament is family

  • You can choose your friends based on common interests or shared likes
  • But you can’t choose your family
  • You don’t get to choose who else comes to church here
  • You may like different things from the person sitting next to you
  • But you are still committed to their well-being

 

If you like Hill Song music then you still sing hymns for the sake of the person in the pew opposite you who is helped by singing hymns (& vice versa)

  • Or if you prefer the more interactive stuff to the sermon then you still listen patiently to the sermon for the sake of the person here who is fed by preaching
  • In these sorts of ways we strengthen the fellowship of the Church by developing the spirit of love in the family of Christ’s people

 

C.S. Lewis wrote a book called The Screwtape Letters

  • It’s an enjoyable and thoughtful piece of fiction
  • Screwtape is the name of a demon who writes letters to his nephew, Wormwood – Wormwood is an apprentice tempter
  • Screwtape’s letters are full of advice on how the young demon, Wormwood, might turn a human being away from the Christian faith

 

In one of his letters Screwtape writes to Wormwood…

  • “Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that ‘suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.” [1]

 

If you ever manage to find a church which caters for all your likes and avoids your dislikes then you probably aren’t in church – you’re in a club or a bar

  • The opposite is also true
  • When you find yourself not liking something in church then you can probably take it as confirmation that you’re in the right place

 

We are united by Christ, not by our likes

  • And Christ’s Spirit (His DNA) is love
  • Love seeks the well-being of others

 

Strengthening fellowship:

What then does the Bible have to say about strengthening the fellowship of the church?

  • Well, one key passage which sums it up well is found at the beginning of Ephesians 4
  • While in prison for preaching the gospel of Christ, the apostle Paul wrote to the first Century church in Ephesus saying…

 

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

 

Paul gives us 4 or 5 qualities which are essential to strengthening the fellowship of the church – this is how Christians are to treat each other…

  • With humility
  • Gentleness
  • Patience
  • Forbearance
  • And love

 

Humility in this context means ‘lowliness of mind’ or thinking low (not being proud or haughty) [2]

  • Being humble is really an attitude
  • It’s about having an accurate awareness of yourself in relation to others – not thinking too much of yourself
  • Being conscious of the fact that without God our life has no meaning and that without Christ we can do nothing
  • Humility is recognising that we need other people and more importantly the wider community of which we are just a small part needs other people
  • We are not the centre – it’s not all about us

 

A humble person does not think, ‘My team needs me to a score try’

  • A truly humble person thinks, ‘How can I best support my team mates to score tries?’

 

The church at Ephesus was a mix of different cultures – some Gentile, some Jewish

  • While humility was a virtue in Jewish culture, it was not valued in Gentile culture at that time

 

But valued or not, humility is primary to strengthening any fellowship or community

  • Humility keeps our ego in check and prevents us from worshipping ourselves
  • Humility also makes gentleness possible

 

If humility was despised in the ancient gentile world then gentleness is surely despised in our contemporary culture

  • Violence, brute force, power – these are the things which are glorified in our day and age
  • Gentleness is misunderstood as weakness when the truth is: gentleness requires a greater strength than brute force or violence
  • Gentleness requires self-control and skill

 

If violence is the hammer, then gentleness is the screw driver

  • If force is the butcher’s cleaver, then gentleness is the surgeon’s scalpel
  • If power is a drone strike, then gentleness is the kind word which turns away wrath
  • You might be tempted to smack your children into submission but you are more likely to take a gentle approach – to remain calm, wait for the tantrum to pass and lead them to better choices
  • You can coerce a person into grudging obedience to God by threatening them with the fires of hell,
  • Or you can gently remind them of God’s goodness and grace so they want to do His will

 

Humility and gentleness – these are two qualities that Jesus embodies in himself

  • In Matthew 11, verse 29, Jesus says…
  • Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

 

Patience is also needed for strengthening the fellowship of the church

  • An ancient Christian preacher by the name of John Chrysostom said,
  • To have patience is to have “…a wide or big soul” [3]

 

Having a ‘wide or big soul’ means having room for other people in our lives

  • Not being so fixated on our own agenda that we don’t have room for interruptions
  • Now it is not appropriate for us to accommodate every interruption
  • It is important to maintain some healthy boundaries
  • But we don’t want to be so tightly scheduled, so tightly managed and focused that we can’t attend to what’s important

 

The parable of the Good Samaritan illustrates largeness (and smallness) of soul

  • The priest and the Levite were so fixed on their own little agenda
  • (Must get to church on time – must be seen to do the right thing)
  • That they didn’t have room to care for the wounded stranger on the side of the road
  • By contrast the despised Samaritan had a largeness of soul which made it possible for him to put aside what he had planned to achieve that day, dress the stranger’s wounds and carry him to safety

 

Patience is making room for other people when it matters

 

Strengthening the fellowship of the church requires the patience (or the largeness of soul) to make room for each other

  • To sing each other’s songs,
  • To prefer each other’s needs,
  • To listen to each other’s concerns,
  • To help in practical ways where we can
  • Or perhaps simply to be together without any agenda

 

So then, the fellowship of the church (our relationships together) are strengthened by humility, by gentleness, by patience and by bearing with

one another in love  

 

Bearing with one another means putting up with people

  • And love, in this context, means seeking the other person’s well-being

The reality is that other people can be annoying sometimes – they can get on your wick (often it’s the little things)

  • It’s not that they mean to aggravate you – they are just being themselves and it gets under your skin

 

Paul is saying, don’t sweat the small stuff

  • Don’t walk away from the church over some trifle
  • Put up with the little things for the sake of love – that is for the well-being of the whole community

 

I remember the pastor who married us said, “Don’t worry about a bit of poop in the stable – poop is a sign of life”

 

Yea – people will annoy you sometimes but don’t lose sight of the fact they also have qualities which are good and which the rest of the church needs

  • Besides, we all have things about us which annoy others
  • You might think you are being very gracious in putting up with someone
  • But they probably think the same thing about you
  • What we realise as we get older is that we are all difficult in our own way
  • So we all need to show each other grace
  • And we need to learn to laugh at ourselves too

Now this exhortation to ‘bear with one another in love’ needs to be held in balance with verse 15 of Ephesians 4, where Paul talks about…

  • Speaking the truth in love so that we will grow up into Christ

 

There is a time to bear with difficult behaviour and a time to speak the truth

  • If we always graciously tolerate things we don’t like then the other person never really learns or improves and resentment grows
  • The trick is speaking the truth with humility and gentleness
  • Not being too quick in speaking the truth – but checking ourselves first to make sure we have removed the plank from our own eye before pointing out the speck in theirs
  • Making sure that we are motivated by what’s best for others and not just our own comfort or convenience

 

The bond of peace:

It’s been a dry summer and autumn here in Wellington – the weather’s been lovely

  • We’ve had to water our gardens more than we’re used to lately
  • Sometimes when you water the garden you get a kink in the hose and the water flow slows down to a trickle
  • If that happens, what do you do?
  • Do you throw the hose away or do you fix the problem by taking the kink out of the hose?     [Wait for response]
  • Yes, that’s right you straighten the hose to take the kink out – then the water flows properly again

 

 

Paul continues his exhortation to the Ephesians in verse 3 saying…

 

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

 

I’m not sure I fully understand this verse but I’ll share with you what I know

 

Firstly, the Spirit of Christ creates unity in the church

  • We don’t create unity, the Holy Spirit does
  • However, we are responsible for maintaining the unity
  • And we maintain unity through the bond of peace

 

Peace (in the Bible) isn’t just the absence of conflict

  • It’s shalom, it’s abundant life, joy and right relationship in community with others

 

The bond of peace, therefore, is not a bond which stops us from doing things

  • It’s not like hand cuffs or shackles or a leash or a tie
  • The bond of peace is something which connects us to each other in positive ways
  • It is like a hose with water flowing through it – it is life-giving

 

Sometimes the bond of peace gets a kink in it

  • Sometimes our relationships get a bit twisted
  • People misunderstand each other or have expectations which are disappointed, then one thing leads to another and before you know it they’re not talking – the life-giving flow of water slows to a dribble
  • When our relationships get a kink in them we don’t throw the relationship out – we don’t say, ‘Well stuff you – I’m out of here’
  • No – we find a suitable time when we are calm and unhurried to talk it through – we straighten the kink out – we forgive each other

 

We don’t create the unity but we do need to maintain it by taking care of our relationships, by taking the kink out of the hose

 

Jesus encouraged his disciples to maintain the bond of peace with each other by teaching them to pray…

  • “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”

 

You see Jesus establishes a bond of peace between us and God

  • He gives us a brand new hose with water running through it
  • Because of Jesus, God forgives us up front and in advance
  • We get given that forgiveness, that bond of peace, for free
  • But we still have to maintain it
  • And we maintain the bond of peace by paying it forward – by forgiving others, just as God forgave us in Christ

 

Conclusion:

This morning we have explored what it means to strengthen the fellowship of the Church by developing the spirit of love in the family of Christ’s people

 

In short we are to relate with one another in an attitude of humility,

  • With gentleness and with patience (or largeness of soul)
  • We are to bear with one another in love – not sweating the small stuff but at the same time not ignoring those things that need to be addressed

 

In a few minutes we will share communion together

  • Communion is a time when we remember (and celebrate) the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace established by Jesus

 

Now though let’s stand and sing…

 

♫       Brother, Sister, let me serve you…

[1] C.S. Lewis, ‘The Screwtape Letters’, page 81

[2] Klyne Snodgrass, The NIVAC on Ephesians, page 196.

[3] From Chrysostom’s homily on 1 Corinthians 13:4 – referenced in Klyne Snodgrass, The NIVAC on Ephesians, page 197.