Sunday, December 8, 2024
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:1-6
There was a woman when I growing up that I thought was amazing! She was kind and patient to me, and with me, as a child and I loved spending time with her. As I got older she had amazing advice for me that probably saved my marriage many times over the years. In her I learned so much about love and God’s presence in the world. In my memory she is always smiling and wise. God was visible in her life for me.
Now, here's the hard part...we don't always like each other very well. Not every relationship is like the woman I revered and found God in ALL the time! We get angry with each other, fearful of each other and sometimes hostile towards each other. Quite often we get into the "I'm right...you're wrong" argument and stop hearing each other. It’s easy to fall into those moments of not hearing and only seeing part of a person. In these broken relationships the Holy Presence of God is overshadowed! It’s very easy to get into the dangerous water of only seeing what we don’t like in a person instead of what God sees. It’s the place of judgment. (Careful, this is about you and not that other person!) It’s not Spirit living.
Blessedly, it's nothing new and our faith calls us to be counter cultural to this trend of human nature. Christian Faith calls us first and foremost to Love God and then to Love our neighbor. That's the counter cultural part....love God, love neighbor! Christian faith is clearly NOT about the “me”. Paul clearly reminds us of this in calling us to humbleness and gentleness. Both of these traits are other oriented in faithing. I wonder how often Paul had to remind people they were not the center of the universe, but it seems we all need reminded of it at some point or another. It's as if Paul could look into the future of 2024 and see into our lives right now!
Once we get the humble and gentle thing in place, or at least started, we are called to seek, live and give witness to the Spirit in peace. I like to think it calls us to live out our faith in peaceful ways and not screaming at each other demanding I be right. It takes humbling to live out our faith in peace. It takes being in relationship of love to make all of this happen.
The verses are the response to the prayer in chapter 3, though. To actually know the fullness of God’s love is be in the Oneness. To fully understand and experience the Holy is to be done in relationships that make God visible. We can’t do it alone not only with people we would choose to be in relationship with. God’s love is most visible when we lay aside our differences with humility and patiently engage each other in peaceful relationship. Then we give true witness to the God visible among us.
It’s in the difficult loving relationships we live where God’s presence is most visible!
Rev Heather S Schimmel
Lyons Christian Church
District 1 Regional Elder