Greetings holy, healthy and happy people of God is a joy to be with you. There's a story told of a mother who told her son, Jimmy to go and turn the light off in the barn. Jimmy walked outside and realized that it was too dark, and he turned back around and went into the house. His mother said, listen to me.
Take the flashlight and walk to the end of the light until you arrive at the barn. Turn the light off and then turn around and return home, as the people call Methodist and most importantly, followers of Jesus. What does it look like to take the fateful step in a season where mishaps and blind spots and uncertainty appear to be the order of the day?
While Paul, for some, his voice is a challenge, his words are challenging and his words to the church in Ephesus, his third missional journey, there is something worth hearing. To better understand these first few verses in chapter four. We need to look in the rearview mirror. Step back into chapter three, verses 20 and 21, which says, Glory to God, who is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by his power and work within us in the good news.
Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus for all generations, forever and always. Amen. In other words, so be it. Writing under house arrest. Under contentment, Paul finds wisdom tucked deeply into his heart, and he writes to First Church, Ephesus. Live as people worthy of the call. Live as a response to your call. Live beyond your current position to proximity to God.
Then he says in verse one, therefore he's connecting the dots. He's going back to let you know there's something I need to say. And he's a prisoner. But, you know, the thing about he's wanting to encourage us to say that I encourage you to live as people worthy to receive your call, not from anything on this earth, but from God.
Now, the word worthy in the Greek, actually us, refers to corresponding weight of another thing of like value. So Paul is saying live accordingly and in alignment to the calling you receive. To walk or live worthily means to bring your life in alignment or balance, or to match what we have received from God. Our calling comes from above and not below.
Are you with me? The good news of the gospel is to bring our life in balance, in alignment with God, with God's will, with God's wisdom. Pick a car designed to transport us from one destination to another. If those tires are out of alignment and balance our car will be inefficient with our gas mileage and eventually, if we're not careful, the tires will lose its tread.
Its ability to stay focused on the road. And ultimately, what could happen is our tire or tire or blow out while driving. Our calling is from God, so we represent. Now watch this. We represent Jesus in our homes and our neighborhoods, in our communities and our cities, in our states. In the words of Buzz Lightyear to infinity and beyond, we are called to live and love like Jesus.
We get to practice following Jesus every day. It is an invitation as part of the District Superintendency training last week we were told in this season we are part of generation T. I've never heard it before. It's the general version of transition. Let's be real. If we follow a Palestinian Jewish rabbi, you will always be in transition. Transition is a way of life that doesn't discriminate nor define us, but it makes us stronger, more resilient.
Here's something very weird, and I want you to stay with me. Thank you. To Covid, to disaffiliation, to political upheaval, to racial injustice, to economic inequities, to January 6th, to food insecurities and racial strife. There are moments that showed us that we are called to an alternative way of life. To show people there's another way and that love conquers all.
It's always says, by the way, conduct yourselves with all humility, gentleness and patience. As we're traveling this journey that God has assigned us. I invite you to carry three attributes with you. Put these in your being. Put this in your luggage. If you're traveling far distance, humility, gentleness and patience. What if we move from titles to testimonies? These are few gifts of the Holy Spirit, grounded in the love of God.
So, accept it with love, not with judgment. Give people the benefit of the doubt before they prove themselves differently. Then give them a grace pass. You know the one? Yeah. Why? The one that we've been given daily from God. Paul offers some valuable steps that are needed in this season. If we are to align ourselves with the anointing of God.
First, there is a step of cultivating humility. It involves putting yourself in the second chair. If you're in a band or an orchestra, concert band, and even if you're convinced that you are better and you should be in the first chair. Humility says whether you belong there or not, you've decided not to sit there. Humility invites the community to process the questions as opposed to settling on the answer.
Methodism was a movement of the laity and not clergy, which all of us have never been a part of. But we have read and memorized those dates. Those are called moments in time. Today's sojourners are looking for participation in a movement of the United Methodist Church. I believe we are positioned to launch a movement of transformation in the world.
Either get in line of the movement or get out of the way. Second, there is this step of gentleness, not harshness. God calls us to be culturally competent. However, most of the people who have taken this test called the idea the Intercultural Developmental Inventory, which suggests we are minimizing. We minimize other people. We minimize their language, their culture, their values.
When God calls us to be adopters and to be adopter on the spectrum means that you are building bridges across differences. Isn't it time for that, my brothers and sisters? Listen to people with the gentle heart and gentle ears and respond with compassion. Third, there is a step of constant patience. After all that's been done and said in the last few years, many people are running thin on patience.
Can I get an amen? Somebody? I must admit, I got out of line when God was giving patience because I couldn't wait. Every fourth Thursday in Nashville, the south side of the city, I sit in court in a coffee shop with people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, 50s, 60s and 70 plus year old who don't attend church.
For the most part, being patient with what that degree of of people and perspectives and diversity takes a godly perspective to sit and behave without saying. Let me tell you what I know. And guess what? No one's looking for answers, but we're simply trying to model the gifts of the Holy Spirit in that place. These gifts of unity start with agape love, a love beyond and yet within, a love given as a gift that initiates belonging and intimacy.
People are not looking for a church, but rather a community where belonging is before belief, and intimacy is before commitment. So Paul makes this astonishing discovery. It connects faith in practice, doctrine, and duty. But Paul, being a follower of Jesus is more than believing it is liberation. Unity is not a mere concept, but a commitment to practicing discipleship.
In essence, the goal of our encounter with love and the grace of Jesus Christ translates into a disciplined and transformed life. This is an ongoing encounter with Jesus, and it's a constant reminder that we are driven to unity in the spirit and not of this world. We are one body. We are not the same, but we can live as one.
Jesus even kind of praises in John 17 and 21 that he says that all of them may be one. Father, just as you are in me, and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that a love that the world may believe that you sent me. The attention is not about us. It's all about God.
So, this Greek word unity means oneness or union, which binds us together in one spirit and reflects the one hope that is only found in Jesus. We as followers of people, of the way of our collective, believe that we share one Lord Jesus. One faith. One baptism. Unity simply means that we don't do this journey alone. Someone needs to walk with us.
Jesus sent the disciples out two by two to ensure that shared life together. But there was a deep level of accountability. One of the nastiest words in the Christian faith. We can live in the collective ness of oneness with our life together. Our belief should unify us. And so we are. We are one body, one spirit, just as God has called us in the one home.
There's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over, all through us and all in us. Paul declares that we are part of a universal or conventional family and the preference of the general rules. John Wesley describes the Methodist societies in this way. Such a society is no other than a company of persons having the form of seeking the power of godliness.
United here that united in order to bring prayer together, to receive the work of exaltation, and to watch over one another in love, that they may help each other to work out their salvation. Notice that Paul speaks of one spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father. This is a Trinitarian perspective one God in three persons. Yes. God calls us to come and take this long, hard journey with the spirit.
The journey has its ups and downs, its celebrations and challenges. But through it all. We're not walking this path alone. Remember, God is with us and for us as God. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are together. We walk this path with God, and we become a blessing to the people around us. Let's keep the next faithful step together.
Let's keep taking the next fateful steps together. Here the while the words of wisdom we walk not only with hope, but in the hope of Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
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