A big enough task

Ephesians 4:1-16

          What a wonderful, earthy and powerful homily this morning in church. It had all to do with "us" and "them" and how we respect not only every one else but in so doing, respect ourselves. So often, even in seemingly harmless ways, we demean and question others' judgements and lives. This bolsters our own value, or so we think. 

         What we need to do is respect every one else's opinion and journey. I did not realize I was gay until I was about 50 years old. Amazing, I know. What could I say to someone who doesn't understand or who cannot deal with it. Could I condemn someone for not understanding something in a quick manner when it took me 50 years? Every one's journey to wholeness is different. We all see things differently, have differing opinions and points of view. Our position isn't stronger or more correct if we tear down someone else's opinion or position. We need to fully understand the meaning of respect and concern for our own person growth.

          I really am thinking about our own personal growth, respecting who we are and who God made us to be.  I am sure however that you can see what this disrespect has done to our own political landscape. We are schizophrenic, troubled and dysfunctional. It really isn't that different on a personal level when we cannot accept ourselves and accept others' journey to wholeness.

          Our concern for others should not be that we are doing it right or I am right and they are all wrong. It should be a concern about ourselves and respecting others. Other people may in fact be making mistakes or may be wrong. They may even act wrong. That is their right and that is their journey. We are responsible for our own journey and our own actions and that is a big enough task.

          

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to 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.

But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said,
‘When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;
   he gave gifts to his people.’
(When it says, ‘He ascended’, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.