Sermon on Ephesians 1:3-14

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

Our second reading for the next seven weeks will be from Ephesians, so I thought we’d do an introduction today to give some context as we read through much of it through the rest of the summer.

A little background: it’s one of the letters that make up much of the New Testament. The letters would be read aloud to a community of faith and often passed around from one community to the next. This one, though,seems less customized to a specific community than some, since it doesn’t address specific concerns or greet people by name.

This and the way the content and vocabulary differ from the letters that we’re very certain were written by Paul makes some scholars think that it may have been written by a student of Paul’s under his name. That was a common practice then and wasn’t considered plagiarism like it would be now.

Whether it was written by Paul or one of his students, it’s still a part of our sacred scripture and has some beautiful language and important content for the early Jesus followers who were trying to figure out how to live life together, which we can learn from too.

The letter has two halves.

In the first part, the writer reminds the audience that God loved them and cared about them from the very beginning. It talks about God’s grace and all that God has done for us.

Chapter 2 verses 8-9 are verses we often hear on Reformation Sunday: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”

The second half of the letter then turns the focus from God to the audience and instructs them in how to live in the world in response to being part of God’s family.

The very structure of this letter is abeautiful illustration of how Luther later explained the relationship between faith and works:

We don’t earn God’s grace—it’s a gift. Our salvation is God’s work, not ours. And then out of gratitude and love for God, we can show God’s love to others without being afraid that we have to earn God’s love or approval.

To tie this into our Sabbath theme, we don’t have to work ourselves to death trying to be good enough, because God already loves us and nothing can change that. We can rest in God’s love.

Another important theme in this letter and a bridge between the two halves is unity. The early Jesus followers were made up of both Jewish people and Gentiles, and they were having a hard time figuring out how to do life together.

Chapters 3 and 4 reminded the audience that they are one in Christ—made into a holy temple to God and making up the Body of Christ.

It’s both comforting and frustrating to realize that the Church has always had its internal conflicts.

But Ephesians reminds us that our kinship in God is more important than our disagreements.After all, as the letter says, “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.”

We are one in Christ, and we all have different gifts and viewpoints that enrich and also challenge our community. And within that, we are equals in God’s eyes. God loves each of us infinitely, and therefore, equally.

How would our lives be different if we saw every person as completely beloved by God and then we appreciated their uniqueness?

The second half of the letter has more specific instructions on how to live.

We don’t have enough time today to fully explore the instructions. If you want to dig deeper, please let me know. We can schedule a Bible study and nerd out together—I’d love that.

But here are some important parts of the instructions and some caveats.

Overall, the second half of the letter calls people to live differently because of the grace and love they have received from God. Again, salvation is God’s work, and there’s nothing we can do to earn God’s love.

And also, out of gratitude for that incredible gift, following Jesus means being transformed inside and out, which shows up in our behavior.

The behavior the letter talks about ranges from speaking the truth to forgiving one another to not being foolish to singing to God together. There are some lovely reminders to imitate Christ and love one another.

And then there are also parts where the behavior of people who are not followers of Jesus is described so abominably that one could come away thinking that it isn’t possible for non-Christians to do any good in this world. That just isn’t the case. Christians do not have a monopoly on ethics, thoughtfulness, or compassion. There are Christians who do terrible things and loving things, and there are people of other faiths, atheists, agnostics, and any other non-Christians who do terrible things and loving things. The binary of “Christians equal good” and “non-Christians equal bad” just isn’t true or helpful. The writer used extreme language to exhort people to live differently, which is the point of that section.

Then, there are the household codes. Take a deep breath—we are treading in controversial territory.In chapters 5 and 6, there’s a list of instructions for households: for wives and husbands, children and fathers, and slaves and masters. We definitely don’t have time today to fully explore the various ways these have been used and abused over the centuries.

These texts have been used to justify the domination of wives, children, and enslaved people. Abusers of this text conveniently forget the parts that talk about husbands loving their wives as their own body or the instruction for fathers not to provoke their children to anger. And of course, there is no acceptable way to treat enslaved people except freeing them.

These are difficult texts. It may be that the behavior laid out in this section was milder and more mutual than other household codes of the time, but this passage has done a lot of damage over the years. This part isn’t even included in our prescribed readings over the next seven weeks, but it’s important to know what’s there.

The final section of the body of the letter talks about spiritual warfare and the need to don the “whole armor of God” to stand against the evil forces that oppose God.

This is a rich image and can be very inspiring. We need to be careful, though, that it doesn’t lead us to eitherspiritualizing people’s problems instead of tending to our neighbors’ physical needs or dehumanizing other human beings into “enemies” that need to be defeated.

There is so much more to cover here, but that is a brief overview of the contents and challenges in the second half of the letter.

As with much of scripture, when we get too into the weeds about individual instructions and forget to look at the big picture of our loving God, it can be frustrating, produce anxiety, and even justify judgmental behavior.

So, let’s remember that the overall arc of this letter is that God chose you and loves you, and therefore you’re free to love your neighbors in union with your siblings in Christ of all kinds.

We are unified in Christ and still have a lot of different perspectives and understandings. We’re allowed to see things differently and decide through discernment both on our own and in community how to live in a way that’s honoring to God and true to our consciences.

So, that is a glimpse into the letter to the Ephesians. I invite you as we read more of it over these next seven weeks to watch for the themes and messages we talked about today. May it enrich your experience of hearing from this part of our sacred scriptures.

I’d like to close as the letter begins and ends: with a blessing.

Praise be to God who had us in mind while creating the world.

May you rest in that love and be at peace in God’s salvation.

And may gratitude spur you on to serve your neighbors while appreciating their uniqueness.

Let that unity in God strengthen you and bring you peace. Amen.

Sermon onMark 6:1-13

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

We’ve been talking about grind culture over the course of our Sabbath 2024 theme. It’s the rampant idea in our culture that we should work constantly. If we’re not being productive, then we’re being lazy.

A good amount of the American Dream is founded on the concept of the self-made person who started with nothing and pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. Anyone who can’t manage to succeed just isn’t working hard enough.

We also have a cultural icon of the pioneer, the rugged survivalist who can live off the land and tame the wilderness. There aremovements of folks learning to live off the grid or to homestead. They’re learning to grow and preserve their own food and provide for themselves and their families without depending on modern conveniences.

There’s something to be said for hard work, learning survival skills, connecting with the land, and being less dependent on systems that can become unreliable during crises, like a pandemic for instance.

There’s also something to be said for the sense of pride and satisfaction that comes with working hard and learning new skills.

There are some shadow sides, though.

1.    If, in our quest for independence, we forget to care for our neighbor, that’s not very Christlike.

2.    If we push ourselves to burnout because we’re working ourselves like machines instead of people, we’re not caring for ourselves in a way that’s honoring to God who made us.

3.    If we strive so much for self-sufficiency that we forget to lean on God, then our priorities are out of order.

Even Jesus ran into problems at times and leaned on others.

In today’s Gospel reading, he found people in his hometown unreceptive to his message. They voiced concerns that he had forgotten his place. After all, he was just a carpenter. They knew his family. They’d watched him grow up. Who was he to pass himself off as a rabbi and claim he could do miracles?

So, he went from calming a storm, casting out a legion of demons, curing a woman from her chronic bleeding, and bringing a young girl back to life to not being able to do a whole lot in the place he was raised.

Then, in our reading from 2 Corinthians, Paul admitted that he had been wrestling with a difficulty—a “thorn in his side.” He didn’t go into the details, but it was something he had asked God to free him from. He felt humbled by his circumstance.

Even in our first reading, God told Ezekiel that people might not listen to him. In contrast to some other prophets, (Jonah for instance who had a whole city repent and turn toward God after his half-hearted message,) the purpose of Ezekiel’s prophesying was not necessarily repentance or action. He just had to give the message, regardless of the response. A pretty depressing mission.

But Ezekiel trusted God that it was enough that the message was said. His mission didn’t depend on the response. He leaned on God and did what God asked, and we are still reading his words today.

The same with Paul. It’s rather remarkable that Paul with all his privilege—his Roman citizenship, power, and authority—still struggled and chose to boast of his weakness and all the times it outwardly looked like he failed: when he was beaten, insulted, and persecuted. He leaned on God when the answer to his prayer was not what he hoped.

Paul and Ezekiel both chose to be faithful to God regardless of their personal success. They (and we) follow a God who humbly became a human being to connect with us, who gave up power and even died an excruciating human death because God’s relationship with us mattered. When God answered Paul’s prayer by saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness,” God knew that firsthand.

That’s not to say we should seek out weakness or suffering or diminishment. We are human beings, and we’ll inevitably fall short and, if we live long enough, suffering will come to us. There’s no need to add to it. God gave human beings free will, and consequently our world is not as it should be. But it will be one day. The Beloved Community will be complete.

And until then, we lean on our loving God who knows what it means to walk around this imperfect planet with an imperfect body trying to love imperfect humans.

When Jesus was rejected by his hometown, he didn’t escape to a faraway place, change his name, and start a new life.

He got his disciples to help him spread his message of the Beloved Community even farther than he could by himself.

He sent them two by two, not from a position of power, but of humility. They weren’t to take anything with them. They would be reliant on others’ hospitality. They had to lean on each other, their hosts, and of course, God.

It’s kind of a terrifying prospect. I knew someone studying to enter the priesthood who had gone on a trip modeled after this story, and he must be far braver than I am. I’m not suggesting anyone should grab their sandals and head out the door.

But the vulnerability and humility Jesus inspired here is beautiful.

It’s so different from our success-driven, numbers-based society.

We are human beings, not machines. We can’t do everything perfectly. We can’t accomplish everything by ourselves.

God made us for community. God told the first human that it wasn’t good to be alone. So, God created another human, and the three of them walked around the Garden together.

We are made for community. We are not made to be islands, cold and self-sufficient. We’re meant to be interdependent—to lean on each other and on God.

Bill Withers’s song “Lean on Me” kept playing in my head when I was working on this sermon:

“Lean on me
When you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on...

For it won't be long
Till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on”

That’s Beloved Community right there.

God made us for community—we’re not meant to do it all on our own. It’s not just okay but essential that we ask for help, because that’s how community is built. I lean on you in my time of need, and then you know it’s safe to lean on me in yours.

If we boast, let it be of our weaknesses, because they prove we are human, dependent on God, and in need of community.

Lean on each other and God. Ask for help. Support each other. Do not believe in the myth of self-sufficiency or let grind culture trick you into trying to do it all yourself.

Remember: whenever I am weak, we are strong.

Sermon on Mark 5:21-43

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

Last week we read about Jesus calming the storm as he and his disciples crossed the sea. They were on their way to Gentile territory, and while they were there, Jesus liberated a man who was occupied by a legion of demons. For reference, a legion of Roman soldiers was about 5,000.Jesus let the demons take possession of a herd of pigs who then ran off a cliff. The locals were not pleased that their livelihood had died, and they asked Jesus to move along.

So, when our reading today starts by saying, “When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side,” that’s where he was coming from.

One of the religious authorities, Jairus, rushed to beg Jesus to heal his dying daughter.He “begged him repeatedly,” which is exactly the language used to describe the demons begging Jesus not to send them away. Both physical and supernatural beings were pleading with Jesus for mercy.

Then, another story enters the mix when Jesus was on his way to see Jairus’s daughter. A woman with chronic bleeding braved the crowd with the desperate hope that touching even Jesus’ clothes would heal her.

Jesus commended her truth-telling and trust in him and sent her on her way.

Meanwhile, Jairus’s daughter died.

But Jesus asked Jairus to trust him too.

And amid the wailing of the people at the house, Jesus took only his most trusted disciples and the Jairus and his wife to see the body. Jesus took her hand and lifted her up, restoring her to life. He told the amazed parents to feed her and went on his way.

Three strange and surprising stories.

The recipients of Jesus’ care represent a vast variety of people.

The demon-possessed man was a Gentile, completely outcast from society. He was desperate.

Jairus’s daughter was young—twelve years old—with a powerful parent advocating for her and many people grieved by her death. They were desperate.

The woman had been bleeding as long as Jairus’s daughter had been alive. She was impoverished aftersearching unsuccessfully for a cure. She had no one to advocate for her. She was desperate.

In these three stories, the characters are very different, but their desperation is the same.

And Jesus restored all of them to new life.

Jesus showed the breadth of his mission by showing mercy to individuals.His mission included Gentiles, those oppressed by demons, privileged people like Jairus’s daughter, those overcome by death, the impoverished and forgotten, those plagued by illness.

Jesus cared for all of them and cared for them wholly.

The word for “being made well” throughout this passage is sozo, which could be translated as “save,” “heal,” “preserve,” or “rescue.”All forms of well-being are brought together in this one word. There is a glorious conflation here of salvation, healing, and wholeness.

That can get us into dangerous territory if we mistakenly think that illness or disability is a sign of God’s disfavor or someone’s sinfulness. Let’s agree that’s an unloving and discriminatory perspective that needs to stay in the Middle Ages.

God loves all people. All bodies are made by and loved by God. Sometimes people don’t receive a cure in this life. That doesn’t make them any less worthy of love. I don’t know why people suffer. Any trite explanation for the world’s suffering is inadequate for the realities people face every day.

But we see in this passage that Jesus doesn’t care only for people’s souls getting into heaven. We see that Jesus cares about people’s bodies and their lives on earth.

He didn’t just say, “I’ll pray for you,” or “You’ll get a new body in heaven” or “God needed your daughter as another angel.” He restored their bodies. He brought the people in our stories well-being in this life.

Our society often ignores people’s bodies.

We’re taught to ignore our needs.

Children are taught very early to sit still and suppress their bodies’ need to move.

Diet culture has us ignoring our hunger cues and fixating on making our bodies as small as possible or requiring our bodies to conform to a certain mold.

Many people’s bodies are treated as disposable or an inconvenience: unhoused people, newly arrived immigrants, disabled people, seniors, and the list goes on.

Christianity has a history of leaning into the idea that our bodies are bad—full of evil urges, sinful desires, and selfish interests—and only our souls are good. You can find this idea especially in the New Testament letters.

But it’s important to remember that the earliest Christians thought Jesus was going to come back right away, so it was unnecessary to worry about our bodies or about the future.

It's also important to look at the whole of scripture and remember who made our bodies and the world we live in. We have a loving God who chose to take on a human body and live the fullness of human life alongside us. We have a savior who brought sozo to many and inspired his followers to carry on that lifegiving work.

God cares about people’s bodies, not just their souls.

And so, we should care about people’s bodies too, including our own.

We care for people’s bodies by feeding them and their families through Caring Hands. We care by sending fans to the ELCA Youth Gathering for survivors of natural disasters. We care for each other’s bodies through our prayer chain and checking in on how we’re doing.

Our Sabbath theme helps us to care for our bodies too. We’re rarely at our most generous and caring when we’re run off our feet. Sabbath rest restores us to well-being.

We’re “the church that feeds people body and soul.”

What are you hungry for?

What are our neighbors hungry for?

How is the Holy Spirit filling us with new life?

Last week’s reading was about trust—the trust the disciples had to learn to put in Jesus, who commanded the wind and the sea.

In this week’s reading, Jairus and the woman with the chronic bleeding put their trust in Jesus—that he could bring new life.

And Jesus showed his faithfulness to all of them.

We’re about to sing “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” a beloved hymn for many.

I have found it to have the most meaning when sung in difficult times. It is, after all, based on our reading from Lamentations this morning, a piece of scripture written by our ancestors in faith in exile, wondering why God had let them be defeated and taken into exile and had not rescued them yet. They longed for sozo, for God to “save,” “heal,” “preserve,” and “rescue” them. Though sozo is Greek, not Hebrew, the longing was the same. Save us, God!

What did they remind themselves of in their time of despair? God’s faithfulness.

Though our reading says that it’s good to wait quietly for God, God is surely big enough to handle our times of lament, our shouting and wailing. The book of Lamentations also includes plenty of that. We can bring God all of our big feelings.

In their time of trial, our ancestors in faith also remembered God’s faithfulness.

Our God, who is with us in the storms of our lives, created and loves all of us, including our bodies and those of all our neighbors. God saves, heals, preserves, and rescues.

As we remember God’s faithfulness to us, our community, and the world, let’s sing “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”