Sermon for the Feast of St. Luke - Lk 10:1-9

 

                                                                                                St. Luke

                                                                                                Lk 10:1-9

                                                                                                10/18/20

 

            The apostle Paul was definitely an energetic and active missionary on behalf of Jesus Christ.  After his Damascus road experience in which he was confronted by the risen and ascended Lord Jesus, Paul had a singular focus in which he sought to proclaim the Gospel to Jew and Gentile alike. In the Book of Acts, we learn about the three different missionary journeys that he undertook out of his base in Antioch, Syria. And bear in mind that Acts is a summary account.  It doesn’t tell us about everything that Paul did.  From his epistles we learn about other missionary activities, such as the work he and Titus did on the island of Crete.

            For a man who was an apostle – a man whose life was a calling to proclaim the good news about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ – the two years that he was imprisoned at Caesarea must have been incredibly frustrating.  Paul came to Jerusalem to bring an offering that had been given by the Gentile churches in order to support the church in Jerusalem.  It wasn’t long before his Jewish enemies conspired against him, and when the events had played out, Paul found himself imprisoned at Caesarea on the Mediterranean Sea.   Originally built by Herod the Great as a palace, it was now the residence of the Roman governor. We learn that the Governor Felix held Paul there for two years.  During this time Paul was prevented from undertaking the missionary work that Jesus Christ had called him to do.

            Now why do I mention this at the beginning of a sermon for the Feast of St. Luke, the Evangelist?  It is because Luke, who was the author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts was there with Paul.  In the Book of Acts, Luke shifts to the language of “we” when he was present in the travels.  We learn that Luke made the trip to Jerusalem with Paul, and that then two years later he left with Paul on the trip to Rome.

            Luke begins his Gospel by writing: “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.”

            Luke was in Palestine for two years while Paul was imprisoned there. For Paul this must have seemed like completely wasted time.  But what do you think Luke was doing during those two years? Certainly, he must have been doing the work – the research – that helped him to write both the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. What seemed like wasted time to Paul, helped to produce a huge chunk of the New Testament that has been a blessing to the Church for two thousand years.

            Appropriately, our text for the Feast of St. Luke describes a sending of missionaries.  Near the end of the previous chapter Luke tells us, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”  Much of Luke’s Gospel describes Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem.  Just before this, our Lord had told the disciples, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”  Jesus journeys to Jerusalem to die.  But he doesn’t go only to die. He also goes to be raised, and as Luke says, “to be taken up.”  He goes to die, rise from the dead and be exalted in his ascension.

            The time was short.  Jesus’ earthly ministry was rapidly drawing to a close.  And so as part of his trip final trip to Jerusalem he sent out a kind of “advance team” to prepare the way.  We hear in our text, “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.”

            Jesus sent out pairs of disciples with instructions that emphasized the need to move quickly.  They were to travel light – they were to take no moneybag, knapsack, or sandals. They were not even to pause to greet others on the road.  When they entered a town and were welcomed into a home, they were to stay there and be fed by the hospitality provided. Jesus’ instructions about the towns that received them were: “Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’”

            The kingdom of God was the center of Jesus’ own ministry.  Earlier in the Gospel he said to people at a synagogue who wanted him to stay, “I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.”  As I have mentioned many times in the past, it is crucial that when we hear the phrase the “kingdom of God” we need to understand that this does not refer to a place.  Instead, coming of out its Old Testament background it refers to an activity – it refers to the reign of God.  We see in our text that the proclamation of the kingdom of God is tied to an activity – that of healing.

            After Jesus was baptized and the Holy Spirit descended upon him, he went to the synagogue in Nazareth.  He had gained some fame as traveling rabbi, and so here back in his own hometown he stood up to read the Scripture from the scroll of Isaiah that was given to him.  He read these words: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” He rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And then he said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

            The Son of God entered into our world in order to bring God’s reign.  In his person he brought God’s reign that frees from captivity and oppression.  He came to free you from the slavery that rules every life.  He came to free you from sin and death.  He came to free you from the one behind both of those – from Satan himself.

            The reach of sin affects the whole person – body and soul.  Jesus’ healing ministry demonstrated that he was freeing people from all of the ways that sin has infected us.  And you will note that in our text Jesus did not send these disciples only to proclaim the kingdom of God.  He also sent them to heal.

            Jesus sent them with a simple message: “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”  The reign of God was present in Jesus Christ.  When Jesus was accused of casting out demons by being on Satan’s side, he replied, “But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

            Jesus brought God’s reign to free us from Satan, sin and death.  But remember what is happening as Jesus sends out these disciples in our text. He is on his way to Jerusalem to suffer and die.  Jesus Christ came to bring God’s reign in all its fullness by being numbered with the transgressors.

            In the Book of Acts an angel of the Lord sent Philip to meet the Ethiopian who was traveling back from Jerusalem.  He was reading these words from Isaiah chapter 53, “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” When the Ethiopia said to Philip, "About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”, we are told that “Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.”

            The good news about Jesus is that in order bring God’s reigns that free us from Satan and sin, the Son of God suffered and died in our place. And then in order to defeat death, God raised him up on the third day.  God’s reign has arrived in Jesus, and through Christ he has freed us from the captivity and oppression in which we were held.  That is what Jesus did. That is what the Church knew to be true. That is what St. Luke shares with us in the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts.

            Luke gives us the word about the reign of God that has arrived in Jesus Christ. It is the reign that continues to be present now through our Lord’s Means of Grace. Through the proclamation of God’s Word; through the water and Word of baptism; through the true body and blood of Jesus received in the Sacrament we receive forgiveness for the ways that sin continues to be present in our life. We receive God’s reign that frees us from the permanent rule of death, because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and we will share in his resurrection on the Last Day.

            St. Luke’s inspired writings show us the kingdom of God being shared and proclaimed to all in the Gospel – the good news about what God has done through Jesus.  Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we are able to say, “The kingdom of God has arrived.” It is present in the crucified and risen Lord. This is the message that we have been given to share with our friends, our family, our neighbors and co-workers – anyone that God has placed in our life.

            Jesus didn’t tell the seventy two that they would meet with reception and belief everywhere they went.  Instead in the verse after our text he instructed them, “But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, “Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.” 

            The way the word was received did not change what was happening.  No matter whether in blessing or in judgment, the word about Jesus Christ always brings the reign of God. We want to see it received in faith that brings forgiveness and eternal life. We also recognize that we have no power over the outcome.  Only the Holy Spirit does, who works where and when he pleases. And in a profound mystery, human beings have the ability to reject the love of the almighty God.

            And so for us, the matter is really very simple.  We know that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead to free us from Satan, sin, and death. We know that the kingdom of God – the reign of God – has arrived in our Lord. And so we speak that word to others. We speak it knowing that in the good news about Jesus the kingdom of God – the reign of God – is always present and at work.   

 

             

 

 

 

 

           

           

           

 

           

           

 

 

Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity Mt 22:34-46

 

                                                                                                            Trinity 18

                                                                                                            Mt 22:34-46

                                                                                                            10/11/20

 

 

            In the darkest days of World War II, just before Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Winston Churchill said, "if Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.”  Churchill was expressing an example of the ancient proverb, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”  And indeed, although Great Britain, and then the United States were opposed to almost everything which Stalin and the Soviet Union stood for and sought to do, they supported the Soviet Union in every possible way as it bore the brunt of the fighting against Germany during the years 1941 to 1944.

            Of course, it was only an alliance of necessity.  The leaders of Great Britain and the United States never really considered the Soviet Union to be a friend.  They were extremely wary about Stalin’s intentions – after all, he had jointly invaded Poland and spit it up with Germany in September 1939, and then had invaded Finland in November of that year.  And their fears were confirmed by everything that Stalin did in the aftermath of World War II.

            We see the same sort of thing playing out in chapters twenty one and twenty two of Matthew’s Gospel.  Our Lord had entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday at the beginning of chapter twenty one. During these two chapters he then engages in constant debates and conflict with the Sadducees and Pharisees. Although these two groups were opposed to each other, they shared a common hatred of Jesus and worked together to destroy him. 

            Our text begins by saying, “But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.” The Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, had just asked Jesus a question that attempted to show how foolish the idea was.  However, in his answer, Jesus had silenced the Sadducees.  Now the Pharisees, who did believe in the resurrection, saw their opportunity to take another run at Jesus.

            They sent a man whom our text describes as a “lawyer.”  The Pharisees were largely a lay group.  They sought to live in ways of a higher purity as they took parts of the Torah that specifically applied to priests in the temple, and applied it to everyday life.  Their “tradition of the elders” was a way of interpreting the Torah itself – the Law that God had given to Israel at Mt. Sinai - that they basically placed on the same level as the Torah. This tradition was a very complex and developed one, and so within the Pharisees there were experts who were well studied. They can be called “scribes” or in this case, “a lawyer.” In the time before his conversion, the apostle Paul would have fit into this category.

            The Pharisee asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”  He feigned respect for Jesus by calling him “teacher,” and then asked a question about what was the greatest commandment in the law. We know that this kind of debate – ranking commandments in relation to one another and arguing about which one took precedence in different situations – was the sort of thing that the Pharisees did. It’s only natural when your whole approach to God and life is based on the law.

            Apparently the lawyer thought that he had laid a trap – that he had asked a question to which Jesus might give an answer that provided the basis for further attacks. But instead, the Lord made short work of it.  Jesus said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

            Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 which says that we are to love God with all that we are.  This is the great and first commandment, and of course it summarizes the first three of the Ten Commandments.  And then our Lord quoted Leviticus 19:18 which says that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves – a statement that summarizes the next seven of the Ten Commandments. And then Jesus added that these two commandments summarized what all of the Law and the Prophets – the whole of the Old Testament – was really all about.

            In our text, we don’t hear about any response from the lawyer. What could he say as a come back?  But then again, the same thing can be said about us.  Listen again to these words: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

            What can we say in response to this?  Love God with all your heart and soul and mind – with all that you are. Love your neighbor as yourself. Martin Luther described our sinfulness by saying that we are “turned in on ourselves.”  Our actions show that we love ourselves with all that we are. Given a choice between God’s Word and ways, and what might not be our first choice or might be inconvenient for us, the answer is often very clear: God loses. This becomes particularly apparent in anything that involves what we really value – our time and our money.

            And if God can’t compete with our love for ourselves, what possible chance does our neighbor have?  I will choose to ignore my neighbor’s need. I will speak about my neighbor in ways that entertain others, even as I hurt his or her reputation.  I will speak angry and hurtful words to my neighbor.

            If this is all that we had: love God with all that you are; love your neighbor as yourself, then we could expect nothing except God’s wrath and judgment.  Time and again we love ourselves more than either.  And this violation of God’s law is sin that brings God’s eternal judgment.

            Yet thankfully, God’s Word to us does not end there, just as our text does not end there.  Matthew tells us next: “Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, ‘What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?’”  The Pharisees were gathered there for the lawyer’s question to Jesus.  So now Jesus asked them a question. On the surface of things, it was an easy one.  He asked, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”  This was so easy – basically a no brainer. They said to him, “The son of David.” Everyone knew that the Messiah would be the descendant of King David.

            And then Jesus threw them the curve ball they did not see coming.  He said to them, "How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

            Jesus quoted Psalm 110:1, a psalm written by David.  These are words that, as Jesus says, David wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They are therefore certainly true and what God wants us to have.  And then something very strange happens.  David speaks about the Messiah as his “Lord.” As Jesus asked, “If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”  In the normal human arrangement of the time, no son or descendant of David would ever be considered greater than David.  We learn that “no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.”

            They couldn’t’ answer how the Messiah, the descendant of David – the son of David – could be David’s Lord, and that was it for them. But actually there is another point here that is equally remarkable:  How can a descendant of David be seated at the right hand of God?

            You already know the answer.  Matthew gave it to us in the first chapter of the Gospel when the angel said to Joseph about the pregnant Mary, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

            The law of you shall love God with all that you are, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself is not God’s final and only word to us.  Instead he sent his Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, into the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  Because Joseph took Jesus as his own, Jesus was part of the line of David.  He was the son of David. Jesus is true man, like us in all ways except for sin. But he is also true God.  For that reason, David had to call this son of David his Lord.

            The angel said that Jesus the Christ came to save his people from their sins.  Thanks be to God, he didn’t come only to save the Jews, the descendants of Israel.  He came to save all people from their sins: from every way we love ourselves more than God; from every way we love ourselves more than our neighbor.

            The Pharisees could not explain how the son of David was David’s Lord.  But this isn’t even the most surprising thing about the Christ.  Instead it is the fact that Jesus the Christ came to win forgiveness for all by dying on the cross.  In the first century Jewish understanding, the Christ was always the winner, the conqueror, the mighty one.  You knew that a person was not the Christ when the Romans killed him.

            There was no expectation that the Christ would suffer and die on a cross crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” Yet this is what Jesus the Christ did as he took our place; as he bore our sins and received God’s judgment. Jesus the Christ was also the Suffering Servant who offered himself as the sacrifice in our place to gain the forgiveness of our sins.

            But of course, Psalm 110 that Jesus quotes today is a statement about the exaltation of the Christ.  And so on the third day God raised Jesus from the dead.  He vindicated Jesus as the Christ, and demonstrated that he was more of a Christ than anyone had ever imagined. For in his ascension, Jesus the Christ who is still true God and true man, has been exalted to the right hand of God.

            Our text todays says, “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.”  Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord has been exalted to God’s right hand.  And when will God the Father put his enemies under his feet?  It will happen on the Last Day when he returns in glory. Jesus will raise the dead and he will pronounce the final judgment. 

            On that day, the whole world out there that thinks you are stupid for being here this morning; that mocks your faith in Jesus Christ; that ridicules the ways you seek to live according to God’s ways, will find themselves under his feet. They will be judged and condemned by the very One they rejected.

            And you? You will rejoice in the presence of the Lord who will have given you a share in his resurrection.  You will join the heavenly host and all the saints in praising God who loved you in this way and by his grace gave you salvation.  For today, you already know that Jesus Christ is David’s son and David’s Lord, and that the crucified and risen Lord has been exalted to the Father’s right hand until he puts all of his enemies under his feet. 

           

             

           

           

             

 

           

 

               

 

  

 

   

           

           

 

Commemoration of Abraham, Patriarch

 

Today we remember and give thanks for Abraham, Patriarch.  Abraham (known early in his life as Abram) was called by God to become the father of a great nation (Genesis 12). At the age of 75 and in obedience to God’s command, he, his wife Sarah, and his nephew Lot moved southwest from the town of Haran to the land of Canaan. There God established a covenant with Abraham (15:18), promising the land of Canaan to his descendants. At the age of 100 Abraham and Sarah were finally blessed with Isaac, the son long promised to them by God. Abraham demonstrated supreme obedience when God commanded him to offer Isaac as a burnt offering. God spared the young man’s life only at the last moment and provided a ram as a substitute offering (22:1–19). Abraham died at the age of 175 and was buried in the Cave of Machpelah, which he had purchased earlier as a burial site for Sarah. He is especially honored as the first of the three great Old Testament Patriarchs—and for his “righteousness before God through faith” (Romans 4:1–12).

Collect of the Day:

Lord God, heavenly Father, You promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, You led him to the land of Canaan, and You sealed Your covenant with him by the shedding of blood.  May we see in Jesus, the Seed of Abraham, the promise of the new covenant of Your Holy Church, sealed with Jesus’ blood on the cross and given to us now in the cup of the new testament; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

 

Sermon for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity - Eph 4:1-6

 

                                           Trinity 17

                                                                                            Eph 4:1-6

                                                                                            10/4/20

 

     Pastoral longevity is often a very good indicator of the health of a congregation.  Now certainly there can be exceptions, but if you find that pastors regularly stay a long time at a congregation it is usually positive indicator about that setting.  I think that certainly applies as a description of Good Shepherd.  Pastor Schmidt was pastor here for sixteen years, and certainly would have been here even longer if his health had not forced him to retire.

      I have now been pastor at Good Shepherd for fourteen years.   I am rapidly closing in on Pastor Schmidt’s mark, and before too long I will overtake him as the longest tenured pastor at Good Shepherd. During my years at Good Shepherd I have found it to be a place of remarkable peace and unity.

     Now admittedly, I was not here for that epic event in which the congregation went through the process of deciding to buy a riding mower.  But during my time as pastor, I think I can count of two hands the number of times there has not been a unanimous vote at all the church council and voters’ meetings that have taken place. The level of unity and agreement has frankly been quite remarkable.

     That is why the events that began during March of this year have been so striking.  As Covid 19 became an issue, and the governor then issued his original stay at home order, for the first time during all of my years at Good Shepherd I have seen something that has caused tension and a degree of division in the congregation.  There has been disagreement about whether to have services or not. There has been disagreement about whether to wear masks or not.  There has been disagreement about the actual risk the virus poses.

     And these have not been mere intellectual disagreements.  They have often been filled with emotion and strong feelings. 

The fact of the matter is that this has just been a really weird time, unlike anything we have seen before.  And our congregation is by no means unusual.  I have talked with many pastors who have experienced the same thing in their congregations too.

     As we live in a fallen world, even really good churches can at times experience division.  And what is true at the level of congregations, is certainly also true in Christian families and between Christian friends. We are therefore always in need of hearing what St. Paul has to say in our text today from his letter to the Ephesians.

     Paul begins by saying, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you 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.”

     The apostle begins by urging us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called.  Paul says it plainly: God called us.  We say the words in the Small Catechism’s explanation to the Third Article of the Creed: “I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts and kept me in the truth faith.”

     But sometimes we forget that this really is the case. God called you to faith through the Gospel.  It is a matter of God’s grace.  In fact, Paul this says this was God’s will for you in Christ before the world was even created. He began this letter by saying: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”

     In ourselves we had no reason to be called – no reason that God should want to call us. The apostle describes our past when he says in chapter two, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” 

     The apostle paints a bleak picture of what we are on our own, conceived and born as fallen, sinful people.  We are slaves of Satan.  That’s the way the world lives apart from Christ – living in the passions of the flesh; carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. This it calls “freedom.”  But what appears to be gold is actually a gilded cage.  It is slavery to Satan that actually brings pain and chaos in this life as it leads to damnation.  Just look at what that the abandonment of all biblical teaching about marriage and sexuality has done to our culture – to families, parents and children.

     There was nothing about us that was lovable.  However, Paul goes on to say, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

     In his mercy and grace God sent his Son into the world to die on the cross for our trespasses.  And the on the third day he raised him from the dead. This resurrection is the revelation of God’s incredible saving power for us.  It is what gives us the living hope that we have every day.  Earlier Paul said that he prays for the Ephesians, “that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.”

     You have received the Holy Spirit through baptism and the Word. You live a life that is in Christ – a life joined to our Lord and his saving work.  Paul begins our text with the word “therefore.”  His thought in our text is based upon what we heard in last week’s epistle lesson. There he spoke of how he prayed to God, “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

     Paul’s “therefore” in our text is based on power the Spirit gives so that Christ dwells in our heart through faith.  It is based on knowing the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge.  You have been called to this. And because you have, the apostle urges us you “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”

     Walking – living – in a manner worthy of the calling we have received in Christ is marked by humility and gentleness.  These are not characteristics that the world admires.  The athlete makes a great play and then he poses and preens.  In a rude and brusque world, gentleness is considered to be weakness. But those who already have everything in Christ have no need to boast.  Instead we follow Christ in humble service toward others that shows care and compassion

     Because we have received forgiveness in Christ we seek to be patient with others – to bear with one another.  Frankly at times we put up with another and choose to overlook shortcomings, because this is what God has done for us in Christ. This is what Christ’s Spirit gives us the power to do. After all, Paul has said just before our text, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.”

     And Paul says in our text that we are to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  The Holy Spirit has created faith within us.  Because of his work we share in the bond that is peace.  We have peace with God – the peace that God has brought about through our Savior Jesus Christ.

     And therefore we seek to live in ways that are produced by this unity – ways that maintain this unity. We seek to live as what God has made us to be.  In our text Paul hammers home the oneness that rests in God.  He says, “There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call-- one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

     You have been joined by the Spirit into the Body of Christ.  You have one hope – the resurrection of our Lord which gives eternal life now and resurrection no the Last Day.  You have one Lord – the Lord Jesus who gave himself on the cross to win the forgiveness of your sins.  You have one faith – faith in the crucified and risen Lord.  You have received one baptism for the forgiveness of your sins.  You have one God and Father who loved you when you were unlovable and gave his Son as the sacrifice to make you the children of God.

     This is the unity that God has given to us.  This is the unity to which God has called us in love. And because this is so may the Spirit of the risen Lord lead each of us to live the apostle’s words that we hear this morning: “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you 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.”