Because We Belong To Something Bigger - Sermon Transcript

I want to tell you all something.

So Eli and I, we have a family account for Apple, like an Apple One account where our kids' iPads are connected to it.

And it also, I'm not the administrator on the account, so I can't make any changes.

That's probably good.

But there's this feature where every...

 subscription I have through Apple gets sent to the administrator, which isn't me.

It's also not Cash or Declan, it's Eli.

And every now and again, she'll just gently remind me, have you canceled this subscription yet?

And so finally, a couple weeks ago, I sat down and I started looking through the bank account and

 work tirelessly to locate all of the subscriptions I have to a variety of services.

Now, I'm not going to tell you what that number is.

That's not important.

 It was embarrassing.

There were streaming services I forgot I had signed up to watch one season of X show and then just forgot to cancel it, I guess.

I had a subscription to an app that I used twice in the past two years, a storage plan for photos that I never look at.

Every month, quietly, there was a little...

 bit of money walking out the door for things that I had stopped paying attention to.

 I'm not the only one, right, that has like unnecessary, okay, thanks.

Like it was getting out of control.

Because we live in a world that is a subscription model world now, music and movies and grocery stores and software and workouts and razors and dog food and even car companies are beginning to charge a monthly fee to turn on the heated seats.

 that are right underneath you, but if you subscribe to them, they'll turn on.

And every one of these subscriptions comes with the exact same promise, low monthly fee, and you can cancel your subscription anytime if you can find it or remember that you're subscribed to it.

It's a brilliant business model, honestly.

It's a brilliant business model.

 But I have started wondering what it's doing to us more fundamentally, because I don't think it's just affecting our bank accounts.

In very real ways, I think it's reshaping how we relate to almost everything.

The gym, the news, our neighborhoods.

 Sometimes our friendships, maybe even our faith.

Because we stay as long as the value is there.

As long as the value is evident.

And when it isn't, we cancel.

We'll cancel if we can even remember that we're subscribed.

And I found that I'm actually good at canceling things.

Not just apps.

I have

 Let friendships quietly lapse when they became inconvenient.

I've stepped back from commitments because staying would have cost more than I wanted to give.

And I didn't make a scene about it, of course.

I just stopped renewing, essentially.

And there is something happening here.

And all week I've been sort of turning it over in my head, wrestling with it.

And this is my working thesis, okay?

It's a working thesis.

The easier something is to leave,

 the less it holds us.

Cancel anytime does feel like freedom, and in a way it is freeing, but it's also very thin.

It's very hard to belong to something.

You're always one click away from leaving.

 Today, we're going to begin a four-week series titled, Why Church?

And it's a super relevant question for these days because in a world full of options and requests, a world where everything is asking for your time and your attention and your money, why is the church worth any of it?

Why this thing that we do Sunday in and Sunday out?

 Why here?

Why this particular church?

 The answer to today's question is actually a simple one because we actually belong to something bigger.

And we start with Paul, a man who seemingly couldn't or wouldn't cancel anything.

Paul was deeply committed to his work.

And we see this in his letter to the church in Ephesus.

So I'll be reading from Ephesians chapter 4, starting in verse 1.

So verses 1 through 6.

 Here's how Paul starts.

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling 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.

For the word of God in scripture, for the word of God among us, and for the word of God within us.

Thanks be to God.

Will you pray with me?

May the words of my mouth and meditations of our hearts be pleasing and acceptable to you, O God, our rock and our redeemer.

Amen.

 You are the giver of all good things.

May we remain united in our work so we can see the world the way you do.

Amen.

I have said this many times.

I have a love-hate relationship with Paul.

But there is no doubt that Paul's writings in the New Testament are some of the most beautiful writings.

 thoughtful, poetic words that we can read.

And I love how Paul starts here in the fourth chapter.

I therefore the prisoner in the Lord.

Paul's actually in prison when he's writing this.

The Greek word here is desmios, which means to, quite frankly, be bound, physically to be bound.

Paul is writing then this letter while he is bound in chains.

So I want you to get that image

 In your mind, Paul's in prison, has chains around his wrist, and he is writing this letter to the church in Ephesus.

He's sitting somewhere.

 with iron on his wrist, and he cannot walk out the door, and he is pinning this letter.

And two verses later, a similar word shows up.

Paul tells them to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The word for bond here is syndesmos, which shares the same root word of desmios.

 something that binds things together.

It's actually used in Colossians as well.

That same word is used to talk about ligaments in the body, ligaments, the tissue that keeps your joints from coming apart.

So here's Paul, bound, imprisoned by the Roman Empire, and bound,

 to a people.

One kind of binding holds you captive and another holds you together and Paul of all people knows the difference in his writing to the early church to encourage them to remain bound to one another.

He's writing in a city that already knew plenty about belonging to something bigger.

Ephesus had one of the great temples of the ancient world.

It had an empire

 And all of its loyalties, it was very much a jewel in the Roman Empire.

Belonging was everywhere.

You belonged to Rome when you lived in Ephesus.

It just came bundled with commerce and civic pride and a clear sense of what you owed.

That's how the Roman Empire really created belonging, by reminding people what they owe the empire.

 Paul then is offering this church in Ephesus something else.

He says then, lead a life that's worthy of the calling to which you've been called, one based in unity, not obligation.

And that word worthy can trip us up, especially as Protestants.

 Because it sounds a lot like you have to earn it.

You have to earn somehow God's grace in your life.

Prove that you deserve to be a part of this community.

But Paul is using an image here of a scale.

The Greek actually is inviting us to think about two sides being in balance.

So for those of you that really enjoy Star Wars, you understand it is all about balance.

Paul is not saying become worthy so that God will then...

 give you grace, but the calling, God's claim on your life, God's love for you has already happened.

What Paul is saying is let your life carry the same weight as what is already true about you.

 The plea with the people happens then right here in the middle of the letter.

Ephesians has six chapters and it is a rainy day.

So the Cowboys kick at noon.

That'll be over by three or four.

You can then pick up Ephesians and read the whole thing in like 30 minutes.

Okay, it's six chapters.

Right here, right in the middle is where we started.

The first three chapters are all about God's gift.

 You were chosen, you were adopted, by grace you have been saved, and this is not your own doing.

Paul spends three chapters telling them who they already are before he ever asked them to do a single thing.

Only here in chapter 4, only here then do we see Paul encourage something.

 So it's that order, grace first, then a response.

John Wesley would have recognized that order immediately.

God moves towards us, pervenient grace.

God moves towards us, and then we respond.

And then in that response, look at what Paul says belonging actually requires.

 Belonging requires humility and gentleness and patience.

Bearing with one another in love.

It's not a heroic list, honestly.

Bearing with one another is really just a polite way of saying putting up with each other.

 Paul's picture of belonging is less like a mountaintop experience week after week, and it's more like a crappy potluck meal that we share with one another.

Less spiritual high and more learning to sit at a long table next to someone who drives you a little bit crazy.

 That's what Paul's describing.

And I've been a part of churches my whole life.

And I can tell you that the hardest part of church has almost never been theology.

We use that as a proxy word for something else.

It's the bearing with one another that's the hardest part.

Spending time with each other and remaining committed to one another, that's the hardest part.

Bearing with one another when committee meetings run long because that one person won't stop talking.

Bearing with one another

 When you are forced to sing that one hymn that someone loves that you can't stand.

It's staying in relationship with someone who sees the world differently than you do.

This right here, this is the counter-cultural message of the church because it has become far too easy to cancel the subscription because we found something better.

 something that keeps us a bit more comfortable, and I should say it plainly, I'm not also, I'm aware, I'm not easy to bear with.

There are people in this room who have been patient with me.

Some of you, more than I know.

I have a particular way of seeing, a specific way of being, and I am a bit eccentric at times.

And yet, the call we have is not simply to follow Christ, it is to the other Christ followers in our life.

 It is a calling to live out the gospel in the midst of community.

And friends, community actually takes work.

It takes work.

It's hard.

It takes patience and gentleness and humility.

Belonging is work.

And if we're going to do that work, if we're going to commit to that work, we have to be committed to one another, bound to one another.

Paul calls it the unity of the Spirit.

Not your unity, but

 It's not your unity or my unity.

It's not something you build or I build.

It's the Spirit's unity.

It's a gift, a gift that we do not manufacture.

But then Paul says, make every effort to maintain it.

 The verb here he uses has a sense of urgency to it.

Be eager, hurry, don't sit on this because you are a participant in the unity of the church.

So the bond is given and the bond is kept.

Both things are true at once.

You can't create unity within the church, but you can absolutely neglect it.

 Anyone who's been married knows this.

You didn't invent the love that exists between you and your partner or spouse, but you've had to show up for it.

You've had to tend to it on the days that didn't feel like much of anything.

Nobody tells you that on your wedding day.

The vows are the gift part, honestly.

 Everyone dresses up and there are flowers and they look perfect and the promise feels easy to make.

The keeping happens later.

The keeping of the vows is the work.

It happens on a Tuesday night when you're both tired and somebody forgot to pick up the dry cleaning.

That's just an example.

I don't, that's just an example.

It happens in the slow repair after a hard work.

 It happens every time you choose to stay curious about a person you think you already know.

Now, I'm not an expert on this marriage thing.

You can ask Eli.

But I've learned that love doesn't usually fail in one big moment.

 Not just one moment we fall out of love, it thins out when nobody's tending to it.

So Paul's helping the church to understand that the work we're called to is ongoing work.

It's not a one-time thing.

And it produces, when we engage with it, a new way of seeing, a new way of relating to one another.

One body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God.

 and father of all who is above all and through all and in all you can almost hear paul getting carried away a bit and look at what's not on the list he doesn't say of one opinion he doesn't say of one politic he doesn't say of one worship style one way of reading every passage of scripture the unity paul is talking about does not depend on us agreeing about everything

 The bigger thing isn't us.

The bigger thing is God above all, through all, and in all.

And here's the honest problem, though.

Most of us don't leave church rather dramatically.

 Nobody really cancels church.

We just stop renewing it.

We come when it fits.

We give when the value seems clear.

We stay as long as it's meeting our needs.

And when it isn't, we drift quietly.

No scene, no hard feelings.

Just a little less each year until one day we realize we aren't really a part of the church anymore.

 And I'll be honest, the church has helped teach people to treat it this way.

We've marketed ourselves like a product.

Come for the programs.

Stay for the music.

It's great.

Become a better version of yourself by joining.

We've talked like a service provider and then been surprised when people relate to us like customers.

But our work isn't customer service.

 And the staff, the congregation, is not your personal faith concierge.

You aren't giving financially to a church so you can continue getting a product.

Clearly, Paul isn't writing to customers.

He's writing to a body.

And a body doesn't work on a subscription model.

 So let me be honest with you about what these next four weeks are.

This is very clearly our stewardship series.

This is the time of the year when we ask you to make a financial commitment to this church for the year ahead.

And I'm not gonna dress that up or bury the lead here and turn it into something far more spiritual than it actually is.

You're very smart people.

You knew the stewardship sermon was coming and here it is.

And here's what we're asking.

 we're asking you to fill out a pledge card for the 2027 budget.

And our goal is a 3% increase in pledge dollars.

Not because the number three is holy, although it is, but because the work in front of us costs something.

 And the financial cost of staying in ministry with one another in the community continues to rise.

And because a budget is really just a statement of what a community has decided matters, this proposed budget and the proposed increase have been prayerfully considered by the leadership of this church.

Now, the pledge cards come back on Commitment Sunday.

I do not want your pledge card today.

I'll take it, but I don't want it.

 I want it on the fourth Sunday of this series because that gives you four Sundays to pray about it, to talk about it at home, and look honestly at your own numbers.

I'm not asking you to make a decision today, but I do want you to hear what this is and what it isn't.

A subscription buys you a service.

 You pay, you receive, and when it stops being worth it, you cancel.

If that's what your pledge is, I understand why it would feel like just one more bill in your life.

And a lot of what we call generosity is really just that.

But in a body, what you give isn't a fee for services rendered.

It's the ligament.

It's part of what holds the whole thing together.

 It's one of the ways the bond gets kept.

When you give to this church, you're not buying something from it.

You're saying, I'm a part of this.

And I intend to stay a part of it.

So over these four weeks, I'm going to ask you to think about your giving.

But I want you to think about it the way Paul thinks about everything in this letter.

Not what am I getting for this, but what am I a part of?

And what will it take to keep it whole?

 Unity within the body.

Today is World Communion Sunday.

As you can see, Nathaniel created a wonderful landscape of a variety of breads from all over the world.

 And we celebrate today on Communion Sunday that there are Christians gathering around this same table in Seoul and in Nairobi and Sao Paulo and Manila and churches in Zimbabwe singing in Shona and Little Country Church in East Texas.

 with 37 people and a piano that hasn't been tuned since the early 90s.

And all of us are gathering around the same table, one bread, one body, the same bread, the same cup, the same words.

And none of us organize that.

Nobody sent out a calendar invite to the whole planet.

It's just happening.

And we, as followers of Jesus Christ, we're a part of it.

We've spent a lot of time in this church talking about the table as a place of welcome.

 That's what the last worship series was about.

And it is.

But today I want you to see it just a little differently.

The table isn't just where we are invited.

It's what binds us together.

It's the ligament.

It's the syndesmos.

The bond of peace made visible.

Bread you can hold.

A cup you can taste.

And we don't bring unity to this table.

 We don't bring unity to this table.

We receive it here.

We receive it here, and then we try to go back out into the world and keep it.

When you come forward today, you'll be bound to people you will never meet, people who will pray in languages you don't speak, people whose politics you certainly may not like, people whose lives look nothing like yours,

 And we're reminded one body, one spirit, one hope, one God, the creator, redeemer, and sustainer of all.

That's the bigger thing.

It was here before we got here, and it will be here after we're gone.

And you can't cancel it.

You can't cancel it because it was never yours to begin with.

 Paul wrote this letter while he was in chains and he couldn't leave.

And I don't think he's asking us to become prisoners, but I do think he's asking us a question, the same one I want you to carry with you today.

Carry with you to the table.

What are you bound to in your life?

What are you bound to in your life and is it holding you together?

 And may we, as a church, be this for our people, the ones we know and the ones we have yet to meet.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.