Grace to Serve

Paul writes to the Ephesians as they grapple with the diversity within the believers there. Paul spent more than 2 years there during his 3rd missionary journey. It was a great place to spread the Gospel because it was a port city, a bustling center for trade with people coming and going from all over the world. Paul preached in the synagogues for a few months when he first arrived in Ephesus, but many Jews there did not accept what he was preaching, so he moved to the hall of Tyrannus. We don’t know anything about this hall or who Tyrannus was. It may be that the “hall of Tyrannus” was either a building for rent, named after its owner, or a private house owned by someone who believed in Paul’s ministry. What we do know is that Paul had this space for two years, and in that time both Jews and Gentiles came to hear the Gospel and became part of the community.

Nearly 10 years later, Paul is writing to address the division that persists between God’s chosen people and those inferior, unclean Gentiles. Because believe it or not, there was still bias cropping up like mold in a shower…you think you get it all cleaned out and then you see black spots in the corner again. Paul began the letter with thanksgiving for the Ephesians’ love for all people, a reminder to the Jews in the community that they were saved by grace through their faith in Christ, a reminder to the Gentiles in the community that in Christ Jesus they had been made part of God’s covenant and children of God, and an affirmation that the reason he is now in prison is that he was spreading, in Paul’s words, “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” And then we find the passage that I read this morning, urging that they keep the unity of the Holy Spirit.

Unity is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Paul lists 7 “There is one…” 7 is the number of wholeness, of completion. We are made one just as God is one, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. The unity of believers is Christ – we are members together of one body. Christ is our North star, our plumbline, our accurate measure.

But, says Paul, there is a second gift – diversity. “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.” We have each received an apportioned grace, diverse gifts of the Spirit, “to equip Christ’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

Because until we reach maturity, we are tossed about by the waves of chaos with no anchor, blown off course by the scheming forces of this world, as vulnerable as infants to deceitful teaching. So how do we grow? Maturity is reached when we become fully like Christ. And that requires that we speak the truth of Christ, the truth of how we ought to live and not live, addressing the mold that is starts to grow in the dark recesses of our hearts despite how much we clean and dislike mold, focusing light on choices that are not Christ-like, and all this is to be done with one another in love. When we function together like ligaments and joints, we are able to move. When organs are working as systems, and multi-systems are working in interdependence, we are able to live.

“From Christ,” writes Paul, “the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

Two paradoxes stand out to me in this passage: the gifts of the Holy Spirit to us are unity and diversity, and we are apportioned grace to serve. We are one, though many. We are saved and made one by grace, we are made diverse to serve in love.

In a similar instruction to the churches of Galatia on living together as followers of Christ who were Jews and Gentiles, Paul wrote, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” We are saved by grace – there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation, faith is a gift of grace. We express our faith through love, through serving others.

The motive for the church to provide aid to vulnerable people is love – they are our siblings, our brothers and sisters, they are part of our body – our kidneys and lungs, our knees and eyes. Just as we can do nothing to make God love us any more or any less, neither can any other person who has ever drawn breath.

Our Service Committee tries to provide opportunities for you to participate by giving funds and for you to participate by giving time.

So, today, you have the opportunity to extend grace to our sisters and brothers who are experiencing homelessness in Memphis by making a donation to the First Presbyterian Soup Kitchen. Last time I was there, a father and mother asked if they could have an extra apple for each of their children for a snack later in the day. The youngest of their 3 children was about 18 months old, the oldest maybe 7. They left with a big bag of apples. If you have not been to the Soup Kitchen in a few years, you might not known that now, in addition to the bologna sandwiches that we and other churches make and donate and the vegetable soup that is made there and served, guests receive day-old bakery items from the Panera Bread stores in Shelby County, they are able to shop in a market of fresh fruits and vegetables gleaned from Whole Foods and other stores as they provide only the “freshest, prettiest produce,” we donate clothes and shoes so that they are able to get shoes if they need them, or a jacket, or a belt, they still have a ministry of writing for birth certificates so that those who have lost their IDs are able to get them once again and begin the process of looking for work.

Then, you have the opportunity to share love this Saturday night with our unhoused guests at Room in the Inn. Last month, we served 12 women and 2 children who were experiencing homelessness. The church budget covers the expenses at Room in the Inn for new t-shirts, underwear, and socks for our guests, a portion of the utilities on the building, and breakfast and a to-go snack for each guest. A grant funds hot hands and toes and a bus pass for each guest. Members provide dinner and laundry for the sheets and blankets. Let me know if you are able to spend the night…or spend a few hours Saturday evening in conversation or setting up and cleaning up.

This year $33,000 of our church budget will go directly to serve others. Each of the 4 cisterns we built in Mexico last month cost $3,500. We raise funds to cover the expenses in Mexico of our team, and each team member purchases his or her own flight. The church budget last fall covered the cost of 50 flood buckets and 200 hygiene kits to respond to the disaster of Hurricane Helene, totaling $4,800 and sent $1800 that was raised at Friendsgiving. Members scouted the best prices on the supplies, assembled the buckets and hygiene kits, and drove them to the distribution center in Little Rock. On Palm Sunday, we will collect one of our 4 denominational offerings. Each of these offerings is given by Farmington members and submitted to serve those in need. Our Palm Sunday offering is the One Great Hour of Sharing offering. The funds raised are divided roughly evenly to support 3 causes:
• 36% Supports the Presbyterian Hunger Program, which is committed to ending hunger globally.
• 32% Supports Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, which is committed to helping others repair from disaster during and beyond the initial aftermath globally.
• 32% Supports Self-Development of People, which is committed to helping communities around the world gain the skills they need to improve their communities.

Again you will have the opportunity to get your hands involved in serving, on April 27, Farmington members and Troop 368 Scouts will gather together to package another 20,000 meals to provide a nutrition meal to people in the world who are hungry. Our packages in the past have gone to Haiti and Philippines. The church budget will cover $6,000 of the cost of those meals. We traditionally fundraise for the other $2,000 that it costs. Anything beyond the $2,000 supports efforts of Rise Against Hunger to assist communities in learning sustainable farming techniques and providing farm animals for ongoing food stability.

Jesus saw the crowds of people in need – sick, harassed, helpless – and told the disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” By the time Paul was writing the church at Ephesus, the movement had caught fire. People were hearing the good news of God’s love shown in Christ and believing. It had even moved beyond God’s chosen people to the unclean and lesser people, and God’s Holy Spirit had made them one. Paul is writing to tell them – don’t forget that you are One, and all the differences of customs and experiences and biases and worldviews and politics and traditions ae subordinate to the unity of the Body of Christ. And you were gifted as part of the Body by the Holy Spirit with diversity, a multitude of abilities and skills and uses. And though the gifts of the Spirit were all gifts of grace, offered freely with no prerequisites or requirements, see the sick, the harassed, the helpless? There is a harvest, and those gifts are perfectly distributed throughout the body to serve in love.