Pentecost 10, August 1, 2021

I’ve been going mission trips with our Grace of God youth for 16 years!  And it never fails that for the first 30 minutes after we arrive at each site, right after that show us where we’ll be sleeping for the week and we blow up our air mattresses and get set up, I have this moment where I look around and think: “This is gross.  I can’t do this. There are too many of us crowded in here. And it’s going to be too hot or too cold and I’m not going to be able to sleep.  And I’m ready to go home.”  This year was no exception.  But this year there was another 30 minute period of time – at the end of the trip – that I wished would never end.

After worship today the youth and their leaders will share our trip to Nashville with you by telling you what we saw and what we did and what we felt and what we learned.  We will present a slide show that will leave you with the impression that we did a lot of fun things (which is very true!) and also that we interacted with a lot of kids (which we really did!)

But what the presentation and the slides may not express quite fully is something that you kind of had to be there to experience.  It happened to us most clearly on the last night of our trip and it’s something that is described in our Scripture reading today from Ephesians.  Paul writes, “There is one body and one spirit.  One hope, One Lord, one faith, one baptism.  One God and Father of us all who is in all and over all and through all.”  We found ourselves surrounded by that unity as we were circled up in a parking lot – some of us sitting in folding chairs – some of kneeling on the asphalt – under the light of a full moon and a neon cross. It’s a moment I will remember for the rest of my life.  I’ll pull you into that circle in a minute . . .

Today is our 4^th Sunday of readings from the book of Ephesians – Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. I want to thank Tony Stoutenburg for preaching the last couple Sundays and for so skillfully helping us understand the background of this important letter and the amazing Gospel message we find in these first three chapters of this book!

Chapters 1, 2 and 3 of Ephesians describe the grace of God that comes to us as a gift even though we didn’t deserve it. It tells us of the forgiveness lavished on us as God’s beloved children. It announces God’s choice of us before the foundations of the world. Paul writes in this section that we were dead and made alive in Christ!  It describes the power and the dynamic of God’s love for us. It’s all such great and wonderful good news!

And then we get to chapter 4.  The reading for today.  Which begins:  “THEREFORE . . .” And we’re thinking, “OK. Here it comes. All the good news first.  Now it’s time for US to step up.”  “THEREFORE live a life worthy of this calling,” Paul writes.  It’s almost like when a friend or spouse or your child comes and tells you how wonderful you are and how awesome you are and how much they love you and after a while you start thinking, “What do you want?”  You can feel the expectations coming.  And we might think this is how it works with God.  He does his part and then, of course, we have to do ours.  But that’s not how this works.  I know it makes sense that it WOULD work that way.  But it doesn’t.

Because the life that is worthy of this calling is a life that is given to us.  It weaves its way into our experience without our invitation by the same grace that was so undeserved in the first place.  It is a life that is worked out among us in ways that are often unexpected and surprising just like God’s grace itself that comes to us without our efforts. It’s something that moves in us and transforms us and pulls us into the unity that is God himself.  Just like grace, the life that responds to this grace is a gift.

This gift descended on us in that Nashville church parking lot.  You had to be there.  And I was there.  It happened on the last night of the trip.  Which is good timing because at the BEGINNING of the trip we may not be as receptive.  We come with uncertainties and insecurities and questions about what we are going to do, who we will meet, what will be expected of us.  And for some of us about our personal comforts and where we will sleep.

But on the last night of the mission trip, as is the case for each mission trip, there is a footwashing — patterned after Jesus’ action with his disciples the night before he died in the upper room when he, their Lord and master, put on a servant’s apron, got down on his knees and washed their feet. The disciples were shocked and amazed that such love would be shown to them. I wonder if they were as overwhelmed with emotion by this experience as our youth invariably are – every time.  Even though most of them know it’s coming it seems to catch them unawares and they receive it as if for the first time. 

We take a bowl of warm soapy water and the adult leaders go to each youth, carefully and tenderly washing their feet and then I pray for them — close to their ears so only they can hear.  It is a prayer and blessing that places them in God’s loving care and reminds them of who they are and what is promised to them. After each youth’s feet are washed and they are prayed for, and the leaders move on to the next one, all the other youth move to the one whose feet have just been washed and surround that person with hugs and words of love.  It’s a little tradition passed on through the years in our group.

This year when it was finished, they asked if they could add a new tradition.  They put ME in the middle of the circle and each in turn prayed for ME.  They surrounded me with their prayers and words of love and gratitude. It was one of the most moving things I’ve experienced in 30 years of working with youth.

This 9 person microcosm of the church was there together — Called gathered and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.  We were there not by our own reason or strength, but called by the Gospel.  We were there.  In a circle.  As one.  One body and one spirit.  We had one Lord, one baptism, one faith, one hope.  You could see how we were bearing with each other in love as Paul encourages us to do.  You could feel the circle being built up in love as the Scripture promises us.

All the struggles felt in that group – the insecurities, the fears, the uncertainties, the regrets – were not erased but they were held in common.  They were not ignored, they were acknowledged and seen and shared. One Love brought us together. In those brief sacred, profound moments we stepped into eternity.  Because the good news is that the unity and love of Christ never end.

You too can step into that eternal circle.  You who are chosen by God.  You who are saved by grace.  You who gather under the sign of the cross.  Receive this gift of life that descends among us here!  Experience one body and one spirit in the relationships that support and encourage us. Embrace one faith and one hope in the communion we share.  When we shoulder each other’s burdens and celebrate each other’s joys, let this one Love pull you in.

You don’t have to go on a mission trip to experience the life of grace – the unity that is ours in Christ as a gift.  You don’t have to have your feet washed to feel it.  It happens where you are.  Where YOU are surrounded by love and grace that you never expected or asked for. That’s what this life in Christ IS.  That’s what the church is.  That’s who WE are.  And that’s what’s happening right now.