Julius: The second reading will also serve as the sermon text this morning from Ephesians chapter four. As a prisoner in the Lord, therefore, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. Live with all humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another in love. Make 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 also called in the one hope of your calling. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in us all. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We pray. Lord, open the eyes of our hearts to see wonderful things in your teaching. Amen. How would you like to be chained to your ex for thirty days? YouTube influencer Mr. Beast gets millions of views and makes his living putting people in uncomfortable situations and then having other people watch. And one of his videos involves taking an ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend and chaining them together in a fully furnished home for 30 days. On the one hand, they have a lot of problems. There's still that issue of the breakup. And all the communication problems they had in the past, and now they have to deal with each other and cook and eat and sleep and even use the bathroom with one hand because the other hand is chained to the other person. On the other hand, if they can handle it, if they don't quit before the end of 30 days, then they'll get a prize of $250,000. Would you do it? Could you do it? Without harming the other person. It's a YouTube test, but you're kind of in a similar one when it comes to being a Christian. You're chained not to an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend with an actual chain, but you are bound to each other, bound to other Christians. And there is a big prize if you make it to the end. The Apostle Paul tells us about that in Ephesians specifically. He says that in the coming ages, God will demonstrate the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us. In Christ Jesus. That's the prize. That's the reward. Way better than two hundred fifty thousand dollars. So we have that on the one hand. On the other hand, that means we have to deal with other Christians. And other Christians are flawed, sinful human beings, sometimes as hard to get along with as an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend. Can you do it? Well, the Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter four, if you are, it's not going to be easy. That's why he starts Ephesians chapter four by saying, make every effort. This takes effort. And first of all, Paul says that it takes effort from us. When Paul's writing these words, he introduces it by talking about his own situation. He says, as a prisoner in the Lord. A prisoner in the Lord. When Paul's writing this letter, he actually is in prison. I don't know if he if he's chained up to a wall or not, but he's at least under house arrest. He's a prisoner. And in that situation, he is kind of exemplifying what it's like to be a Christian. That is, when you live out your Christian calling. What Jesus has asked you to do, it might leave you feeling like a prisoner. What was Paul's calling? Well, to be an apostle, to go share the gospel wherever he could go in a special way. And we have a calling, too, that the Lord has given to all of us. And Paul is telling us here: make every effort to live in a way that's worthy of that calling. We read, as a prisoner in the Lord, therefore, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. So, what's your calling? Well, not called to be an apostle, but every Christian shares what in another place is called the upward call of Christ Jesus. That is, Jesus has reached down in the means of grace and said, Hey, you belong in heaven with me. It's like he threw down a rope and lassoed it around your heart, and he is pulling you up to heaven with him. And he says, Since you're heaven bound, live a life worthy of that calling. In other words, live here and now the way you will, there and then. Live a life worthy of that calling. And that can only happen by God's grace. Earlier in Ephesians, we have a memory passage that many of you memorize through confirmation class, and it talks about this. Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10. It is by grace you have been saved through faith, and even this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God. So that no one can boast, and that goes on to say, for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which were prepared in advance so that we could walk in them. That's our calling. Saved by grace through faith. So we can't boast we humbly serve in the good works that God has given us to do this side of heaven. Alright, so what are those good works? Because God hasn't called you like the Apostle Paul to go to Greece, to go to Turkey, to go start new churches. And you're thinking, how can I be a good Christian? Do I have to do things like that? Do I have to go to Africa and dig a well? Well, the Apostle Paul gives you some examples today that are a lot closer to home and I think can be a lot more difficult than digging a well. He says, How about this? Bear with one another in love. He puts it this way live with all humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another in love, make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. When Paul talks about being a prisoner, he uses a similar word to this word bond here. He says, make every effort to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. What he's saying is that we are chained to each other. With what? The unity of the spirit. That is, if you are someone who believes in Jesus, that means the Spirit has given you faith, and you all share that one spirit, and you share the bond of peace. What's the bond of peace? It's that peace that goes beyond all understanding. That Jesus really did come into this world and create peace between you and God, reconciling you to Him through the forgiveness of your sins. And that peace also binds you to each other. Because you are all people saved by Jesus, at peace with God, and then at peace with each other. So Paul says, make every effort to keep that bond. How? A few years ago, feels like a long time ago, I did a tough mutter race. I don't think I could do that again. So that in a tough mutter race, it's basically like a grown-up obstacle course. And one of the obstacles is just a wall you have to run up and climb over. And most people can't do it by themselves, myself included. But what happens in a tough mutter race is that there's so many people running, and when you run and try to run up this wall, there are people at the top. Other racers, other runners waiting for you, and they grab you and they pull you up. And then when they pull you up, you go ahead and turn around and help the people behind you. When they run, you turn around and you pull them up. Now you can imagine in a race like this, there are people of every weight and age and ability. Some people are easier to help than others. Some people just need one hand, some people can do it by themselves, some people need someone pushing on the bottom, and three people pulling on top. But the point is, everybody does it. Because you all have the same goal, the same hope, the same calling. You all want to finish the race together and enjoy the party together after the finish line. Paul says this is what the Christian life is like. We're all united in one hope, one calling. We're all on the race to heaven. And on the way, some of us trip, and some of us fall, and some of us are slower, and some of us are faster, and we have to deal with each other because we all want to finish the race. And the way we do that is by living each other with what he calls this attitude of humility, patience, gentleness, and bearing with one another in love. This takes every effort. Just take the example of parenting. This is your calling in life to raise your children with this attitude. Not easy to be humble when your child is acting entitled. Not easy to be gentle when your child is whining and whining and whining. There's a reason at the hospital they make you watch a video telling you not to shake your baby. Put the baby down and go walk somewhere else and cool off. Be gentle. It's hard to be gentle. It's hard to be patient because kids have a superpower to test your patience over and over and over again. I'm not touching you, I'm not bugging you. It's hard to bear with one another in love. You hear that. We're bearing with me, bear with one another in love. Not grumbling, I could have such an easy life. I could do all the things I wanted to do if I didn't have you children. No, but bearing with each other in love. I love to do this, I love you, I love to deal with you compassionately. Wow, this is difficult. And that's just as a parent. How difficult is that in marriage? To be humble and gentle and kind and to bear with your spouse in love. How difficult is it at work with different coworkers? How difficult is it out in the world, but not just out in the world, how difficult is it to have this attitude in the church? I mean, we all admitted it at the start of the service. We are hard to get along with. We all said, I'm by nature sinful. The kind of selfish person. That's my default setting. We said, I do the things I shouldn't do, and I don't do the things I should do. Do you think that gets on each other's nerves? Do you think that bothers other people, hurts other people? It does. All of us require a lot of effort. To bear with in love and humility and gentleness and patience. So how can we do it? You know, in that Mr. Beast show, 27 days in, Mr. Beast shows up and says, Change of rules. Now either one of you can leave and take all the money for yourself. But you gotta do it before day 30. And he gives them each a key. At any moment in the next three days, you can get out of it. You can escape this person that's been Bugging you for 27 days, and you can take all the money for yourself. He even has them take a lie detector test to see if they would do it. Would you? Are you? Are you gonna take the money? Because if you are, I'm gonna do it first. And one of them, it's a lie when he says, I won't do it. man. What happens? They stick together. All 30 days, neither one of them leaves. Why? Because the crazy thing happened when they resolved to stick together for 30 days to win that prize together, they decided we are going to do no matter what it takes to win this prize together. And after twenty seven days of doing that, it was really hard to change their mind. We made it this far. Now we're gonna make it to the end together. Now, I don't usually look for wisdom in the comments section on YouTube, but there was a pretty good one underneath. It said this It's amazing how experience shows that what truly destroys a relationship isn't arguments or isolated mistakes, but a lack of communication and genuinely shared moments. Sometimes it's only when we're forced to listen and talk that we realize the value of truly being together. Only when we're forced to stick it out. It's like the beauty of a couple going into marriage, and they say, we are committed to the institution of marriage till death do us part, no matter what, we are gonna make it work. And I think I'm feeling pretty good about this marriage because God has bound them together in something stronger. It is really easy to not make this effort in the Christian church. It really is. It's really easy to walk away. All of us know people who have left the church because people have been mean to them or harmed them, and we'll be the first to admit, Yeah, that sounds like something I would do. I am sorry. So what's gonna keep us together when the devil wants to tear us apart and it's so easy to walk away? It's that there is something stronger binding us together. And that's what the Lord gives us. Yes, being united in a church takes effort, but primarily it takes God's effort. And in the second half of this reading, Paul lists nine things, nine things that God does to bring us together and keep us together. He says this there is one body and one spirit. Just as also you were called in the one hope of your calling. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. who is over all and through all and in all. And sometimes it's hard to believe the saying there's more that unites us than divides us, but in this case it's actually true. Nine things that bind us together. Paul said, we are one body in Christ. One body. We can't leave each other any more than the elbow can leave the forearm or the bicep. One body in Christ. We are united in one spirit. One spirit, the Holy Spirit who lives in all of us. Through faith and who gives us one hope. We do share that hope of heaven. And we don't want to be alone when we get there. We want to go together. We have one Lord. One Lord. Think about our Lord Jesus, who didn't lord over us but humbly served us. Think of Jesus' disciples. How much gentleness and patience and bearing with and love did they require from Jesus? A lot. And he dealt with them that way, and he deals with us the same way. He is so humble and gentle and patient and loving towards us all the time. Even though it required him humbling himself to the point of death, even death on the cross, he said, I will do that for them because I love them. That's our Lord. We have one faith. Yes, one faith. And this is referring to the teaching of the Bible, the faith that we believe. And people say that's impossible. There can't be one faith. There's so many denominations, so many interpretations, not according to the Apostle Paul. One faith, one truth that unites us. Without human traditions or human opinions mixed in, the Lord can bring us together in one faith. We have one baptism. Now, sometimes people ask when they come to the Lutheran church, ooh. Do I have to get baptized Lutheran? I say, well, were you baptized before? Well, yeah, I was baptized Catholic, or I was baptized Episcopalian, or I was baptized Methodist. That's not true. You are not baptized Lutheran or Catholic or Episcopalian. There is one baptism. One true baptism where you are washed with water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and that brings you into the one true Christian church. Church, all of us united in one baptism. And finally, Paul says there is one God who is over all. That is, He's the one who brought us together into one family through all. He is the one who wants to show His love through us and in us all. He's the one who provides the strength for us to show love to each other. That's the unity that God gives us by his effort. That's what can keep us together. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, over all, through all, and in all. Which keeps us from wondering how are we gonna stay together? People wondered that at the end of the Mr. Beast video. You know what happens? 30 days, they made it. They share the $250,000 prize. And when he asks them, what are you guys gonna do now? The boy, he kisses the girl. What? And then all the comments underneath are saying, are they gonna stay together? Are they together now? Are they gonna stay together? They're on pins and needles. Now I am not gonna make us do the ancient Christian custom of the kiss of peace today. But maybe you are wondering, what about us? People who get on each other's nerves, sin against each other, don't always make every effort. Are we gonna stay together? Can we stay together? Yeah. It's not a question. Because it's not a question of our effort. It's a question of trust in God who makes every effort. When we say in the creed, I believe, I believe in the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, that's what we're saying. I trust that no matter how divided we look, no matter how many things try to tear us apart, I believe that the Holy Spirit is able to bring people like us and unite us. He has done that and will do that through the means of grace until life everlasting. That's what we rely on. And so, when our sinfulness and the devil and the world try to tear us apart, this is our trust and this is our prayer. God, be our Father. God be over us all. God work through us all, and God be in us all until we reach that goal of heaven together. Amen.