Dock
Resource Kit
Sunday sermon, 1 November 2026
Summary
This week Brigid talked to us about Ephesians 4:1–16, where Paul’s “therefore” turns from everything God has done for us in Christ to how we “walk in a suitable way.” She showed that unity is a gift from God that we are called to keep rather than create. Diversity of and people is how the body is built up. Maturity that can withstand life’s waves and winds of teaching grows as we speak the truth in love to one another. She invited us to bring our whole selves and gifts to the church, to keep the unity we have been given, and to keep digging into this passage together in our docks.
Key Points & Takeways
A new reality changes how we see and live — Just as studying geography changed how Brigid sees every river, Ephesians 1–3 describes a new reality in Christ (chosen, forgiven, made alive, brought near) that reshapes everything. Paul’s “therefore” in 4:1 tells us it must affect how we live.
Walking worthy is about fitting, not earning — “Live a life worthy” is better heard as “walk in a suitable way.” We are not measuring up to earn God’s grace; we are walking into a new identity we have already been given.
Unity is a gift to keep, not something to create — Paul says “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit” (v3). Our unity is rooted in one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father (vv4–6).
Humility, gentleness and patience are how unity is kept — These were countercultural in the ancient world, where humility was seen as weakness. When we find ourselves harsh, impatient or giving up on people, it is a dashboard warning light asking whether we are letting the Spirit shape us.
Unity is not uniformity — To each one grace has been given (v7), and Christ gives apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (v11). These are not a personality test or neat boxes; the people themselves are Christ’s gifts to his church, and diversity is how unity works.
Church is not an all-inclusive holiday — The gifts are given to equip every one of God’s people for works of service (v12), not so a few can minister while everyone else watches. With no sacred–secular divide, our gifts are meant to be used at the school gate and in the boardroom, not left as trophies gathering dust.
Maturity is growing into the fullness of Christ — Christian maturity means knowing and trusting the Father as Jesus does, living from the security of being deeply loved rather than from fear, insecurity or the need to prove ourselves (v13).
Maturity is a solid core that withstands the waves — Like swimming in the sea, life’s waves; personal, communal and ideological, can knock us over (v14). Maturity is not immunity from struggle but holding on to the truest reality: God is still God and we are held by Christ.
Speaking the truth in love starts with ourselves — Truth is never a weapon to win or wound (v15). We must first tell ourselves the truth, then be willing to hear it from others, and only then speak it to others because we want them to flourish, something that grows through relationship.
We grow together, not alone — Just as no three-year-old becomes mature on their own, we need each other’s perspectives and gifts as each part does its work (v16). In Christ we are already one, so we are free to be fully ourselves within that unity, with no condemnation when we get it wrong.
Dock Discussion Questions
Brigid described how her geography degree means she can’t see a river without commenting on it. Looking back over the blessings of Ephesians 1–3 (chosen, adopted, forgiven, made alive, brought near), which one most shapes how you see yourself right now? Which do you find hardest to really believe?
Paul tells us to keep the unity of the Spirit, not to create it (Ephesians 4:3–6), and Brigid suggested that Christian West Ham, Spurs and Arsenal fans share more than a stadium full of West Ham fans. Where do you naturally gravitate towards people who are like you, and what would it look like to build friendship across difference in our church?
Humility, gentleness and patience were countercultural in Ephesus. When does your “dashboard warning light” tend to flash; harshness, impatience, insisting on your own way, giving up on someone? What helps you “revise” and make space for the Spirit before those moments come?
Brigid said the gifts in verse 11 aren’t a personality test, that the people themselves are the gift, and that church is not an all-inclusive holiday. What gifts do you see in one another around this group? Where might God want you to use your gifts this month, on Sundays and beyond them, at work, the school gate or on your street?
Speaking the truth in love involves telling ourselves the truth, hearing it from others, and then speaking it to others so they flourish. Which of these three steps is hardest for you? What one practical step could you take this week, perhaps a conversation you need to have to keep unity, or a way your dock could make truth-telling safer?
Long-form, edited transcript
Ephesians: Walk Worthy
Ephesians 4:16 - 22
Scripture
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his 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.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:1–16)
Seeing the World Differently
A couple of weeks ago I went on a trip with a friend to a city with a very big river, and I realised something about myself that anyone who knows me well has probably known for a long time already. I studied geography at university, and what that means is I can’t see any kind of geographical feature without having something to say about it.
So there we were, walking along the side of this beautiful river, and I’m going, “Gosh, look how flat the bed is around this river. This water has really carved out this valley.” And she’s like, “All right, yeah, fine. Let’s just go and get some dinner or something.” I’ve got something to say about how straight it is, or how wide it is, or the rock formation it’s coming through. To be honest, there’s something to say about basically every geographical feature, whether it’s a trip to the Lake District or anywhere else.
I should have brought a picture, but does anyone know what happens when a river goes around a corner, then breaks off and you get a little lake? Anyone remember what they’re called? Oxbows! I don’t know why they’ve stuck in our heads so well, everyone remembers that from geography GCSE.
The fact that I’ve done a geography degree means I just can’t see the world in the same way as if I hadn’t. The knowledge and experiences we have in life shape how we see it. I live in a kind of new geographical-feature reality because of all I’ve learned, and it doesn’t just affect how I bore the people around me with little nuggets of fun facts. It affects my behaviour, my thought patterns, my subconscious, everything.
A New Reality
Paul is doing something similar in this passage. Over the last few weeks we’ve seen the author of Ephesians spend three chapters unpacking the incredible new reality that God has created for us through Jesus. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. We have been chosen and adopted. We have been redeemed and forgiven. We have been made alive in Christ, raised up and seated with him. We have been brought near to God. We have been united across our differences. We have been given access to God. And we are being built together into a dwelling place for his Spirit. We have been rooted and established in love and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit. And that’s not even all of Ephesians 1 to 3!
This is an extraordinary new reality that we are living in. It’s true of you. It’s true of me. It’s true of us together. This is what the church is: people who can live in this reality.
Having said all of this, Paul starts to explore in the next couple of chapters what it means to live in the light of it, and he begins this chapter with the word “therefore”. You’ll know the classic cliché if you’ve been in church for a while: if there’s a “therefore”, you have to ask what it’s there for. So we do. And what it’s there for is this: he’s explained all of this reality therefore, it affects how we live.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. (Ephesians 4:1)
In other words, because all of this is true; blessed, forgiven, redeemed, restored, brought close, given access, and so on and so on, we can’t carry on living as if nothing has changed. We are living in a new reality. We’ve got a new identity, a new address, a new family.
Walking in a Suitable Way
When Paul says “live a life worthy”, I think it’s easy to hear “worthy” and think we need to measure up: “I’ve got to be worthy of this calling God’s given me. I’ve got to meet that standard and make myself worthy of all these amazing blessings.” But as we’ve seen over the last few weeks, this new reality is not something we can earn. It is something we have already been given. A new identity and a new status are given. Another way to translate “live a life worthy” is to walk in a suitable way, to walk in a way that suits this new reality.
So over the next couple of weeks we’re going to look at how we do just that: how we walk out of the old reality and into the new, walking in a way that is suitable, appropriate and fitting with the new identity we’ve been given, so that our lives reflect the grace God has shown us. None of what I’m going to say today is about making yourself worthy or earning God’s grace or love. It’s simply about how we walk into the life that suits what we have been given.
We’re going to look at three things today: unity, diversity and maturity. Unity: we belong to each other. Diversity: we need each other. Maturity: through one another, we grow into who Jesus has made us to be.
And I’ll say right from the start: I hope you leave feeling really dissatisfied. I hope you leave thinking, “I wish we’d talked more about that,” or “I wish she’d gone into that a little bit more,” because there is so much richness in these verses. I can’t talk about all of it, or we’d be here for six hours plus, and I haven’t got any food for you, so that wouldn’t be fair. If you get to the end of this sermon and feel like you want to dig a little deeper, I’ve done my job.
Unity: We Belong to Each Other
So first, a mark of living in this new reality is unity.
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:3)
Make every effort. There’s something quite zealous about that, isn’t there? Unity is not something we can be passive about or just assume will happen. There’s an intentionality to it, a willingness to put aside our preferences or agendas for the sake of others.
But I think it’s quite interesting that Paul doesn’t tell us to create unity. He doesn’t say, “Let’s put on some lunches so we can work out how to create unity between us.” He tells us to keep it, to maintain it. It has already been given to us by God through Jesus. We have been brought into one body. Throughout these verses there’s all sorts of talk about the body, different ligaments working together as one. Paul is reminding the church of all the things that already hold us together.
The section Fran read so well for us may well be an early Christian creed or hymn:
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:4–6)
Our unity as the body of Christ, the people of God, is rooted in God himself. It doesn’t depend on whether we all have the same opinions or personalities or preferences or backgrounds. It’s rooted in the fact that we belong to Jesus and have been brought into his family. If you belong to Jesus and have been brought into his family, you have been given the ability to live in unity with the church. We have it. We just need to maintain it.
But it is a challenge, isn’t it? Because we’re not always very good at this. As humans we naturally create hierarchies. We compare ourselves with others: “Well, I’m definitely doing better than them, but I need to work on it a bit so I can be more like that person.” We compete. I don’t know if you’ve ever ended up in a race with somebody on the escalator coming out of the Tube, and they’ve got no idea they’re in a race. Does anyone else do this? Please tell me it’s not just me. “If I just walk a little bit faster, I’m going to beat them, and they don’t even know they’re in a race.” Very satisfying.
But seriously, we do create competition between us, whether people know it or not. It’s human nature. And all of it leads to division. We want our ideas to win. We want our preferences to be followed and our way of doing things to be the right way. Or at least I know I do, I hope I’m not the only one.
More in Common Than a Stadium
I wonder, are there any West Ham fans in the room? Yes? Okay, this is risky, but I’m going to do it. Any Spurs fans? Any Arsenal fans? Someone at the back. Okay. I’m going to make a big statement.
A West Ham fan, a Spurs fan and an Arsenal fan, this isn’t the start of a bad joke, who all belong to Jesus have more in common than a stadium full of West Ham fans. If you belong to Jesus, you have more in common with your hated football rivals, if they belong to Jesus too, than you do with a stadium full of people who all support the same team.
That’s not to say football suddenly becomes unimportant, though I’m sure there are some people in the room who would feel that way. It doesn’t mean we all have to agree on everything. What unity means is that when we follow Jesus, our receiving of grace and this instruction to remain united run so much deeper, and are so much more precious, than anything that might divide us.
I wonder how often we get this the wrong way round. We can start with the things we already naturally have in common: our job sector, our life stage, our politics, our backgrounds, our personalities. It’s easy to feel more comfortable building a world where we just look like the people around us. But Paul is saying it’s the other way round. You have been made one in Christ. So our task is not just to find the people who are like us, but to maintain unity across the people God has already brought into his family. The deepest truth about us, the greatest reality, is our shared life in Christ. That is what’s true. That is what will last through the ages and still be there when everything else has fallen apart. So that is what we need to maintain.
Completely Humble and Gentle
But how do we actually do that? Paul tells us:
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4:2)
Not mostly humble when you’re feeling like it — completely humble and gentle.
I think we’d probably all agree these are good things to be. It’s good to be humble and gentle and patient. But for the Ephesians hearing this letter when it was first read, these would have been really countercultural qualities. In the ancient world, humility in particular was just daft. There was no point in being humble. It wasn’t seen as a virtue; it would have been associated with being weak or of low status. We probably wouldn’t say that now, but I do wonder if it creeps in a little: “I do need to put myself a little higher than that person to get where I need to be.”
In the new reality Jesus is creating, these qualities are not optional extras. They are what it is to maintain unity and to reflect him. Jesus, the perfectly whole human, embodies all of these things, and his Spirit is at work in us, increasingly shaping these things in us as we relate to each other.
We know the new reality is a gift we need to walk into. Imagine you were going into an exam this week, perhaps you are, or a really important meeting. You probably wouldn’t just turn up and hope for the best. You’d prepare. You’d revise, go through your notes, make sure you were ready. In a similar way, we need to prepare to walk into the life Jesus is calling us to. We need to make space for the Holy Spirit to fill and shape us before we find ourselves in those everyday situations where our humility or our patience is tested. We walk into this new reality, maintaining unity, by asking for the Holy Spirit’s help to do it.
So if we find ourselves doing the opposite of these things, being harsh or impatient, insisting on our own way, getting frustrated when people don’t meet our expectations, simply giving up on people who are difficult (I hope I’m not the only one who finds that happening multiple times a week), it’s a bit like an engine warning light flashing on the dashboard: “You need to think about this. What’s going on here?” If you find yourself doing the opposite of those qualities, perhaps you could ask: Am I allowing the Spirit to shape me in this moment? Am I doing my part to maintain the unity we’ve been given?
Often it’s when we’re under pressure, when we get frustrated and things don’t go our way, that we discover what is really shaping our behaviour. But to maintain unity, it’s the Holy Spirit who needs to shape us more than anything else.
Why does it matter so much that we maintain unity? Because the church has a purpose, and it’s a purpose we can’t fulfil when we’re competing with each other or protecting our own agendas. Unity is not just about keeping the peace or avoiding conversations when we disagree. It’s about becoming a community where we can grow together into the likeness of Jesus. We belong to each other, so we need to live in a way that reflects that.
Diversity: We Need Each Other
We are marked by unity. But, next point, unity is not uniformity. And that is really, really good news. Paul moves straight from talking about our oneness in verses 1 to 6 to talking about all our differences.
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. (Ephesians 4:7)
In other words, the same Jesus who brought us all together as one has given us different gifts, different grace, to do different things. We have a shared calling to be one, but we have different roles to play. Paul goes on to describe Jesus as the victorious king who has ascended and given gifts to his people. So what are these gifts?
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. (Ephesians 4:11–12)
We could spend so much time on this, but very broadly: apostles are those who help lay the foundations of the church. Prophets are those who hear from God and speak God’s word. Evangelists are those who want to share the good news of Jesus with anyone they meet. Pastors are those who shepherd and care for people. And teachers are those who help us understand and hold on to the truth of that good news. I wonder whether you resonate with any of those. This church, St Paul’s, is full of all of these amazing gifts.
These roles can look different in different people and different contexts, and they’re not necessarily neat, separate categories. If you’re anything like me, you read a list like this and think, “Great, give me the thirty yes-or-no questions so I know exactly which one I am, and I can put myself in a box and add it to my Myers–Briggs and Enneagram results.” But that isn’t what these are. They’re not a personality test. They’re not a kind of spiritual expansion pack that some people have and some don’t. And this isn’t even the full list of spiritual gifts, there are others elsewhere in the New Testament. Paul isn’t trying to capture every gift God gives. He’s saying there are so many ways Jesus equips his church. We need different people to build this body, because the church needs every single different gift it can possibly get.
And these aren’t simply roles to be filled or skills to be deployed. Jesus gives people to his church. We’re not given apostles as a role to add on to who we are; the apostle is the person. We’re not given pastors and shepherds as an extra bit they do on the side; the person is the gift. We are given to each other to build what God is doing.
Diversity is not a problem for unity. I think it’s part of how God makes unity work. We don’t need everyone to have the same gifts, because we’re not all called to do the same things. A variety of gifts creates a creative, delightful, beautiful, innovative place to be, where God works out the good things he has prepared for us to do.
Church Is Not an All-Inclusive Holiday
So what are these gifts for? Paul tells us in verse 12: to equip his people, every single one of them, for works of service, for a servant-hearted life of offering our lives to others just as Jesus modelled, so that the body of Christ may be built up and that new reality can be seen more and more. The point is not that one or two people do all the works of service, all the ministry, while everybody else watches. It’s that Christ gives gifts to every single person so that the body might be built.
Has anyone been on an all-inclusive holiday this year? A few people? Wonderful, right? I’ve only done it once, but it was great. You turn up, everything’s organised for you, the food is laid out, someone’s made your bed. All you have to do is turn up and enjoy it. Incredible.
But I’m afraid to say, in case you’re under any illusions: church is definitely not an all-inclusive holiday. That is not what we’re here for. This is a community where we need everybody playing their part. We need your distinct gifts and skills to see the body of Christ built up. We need the full diversity of God in this place. The unique way your mind and your creativity and your business acumen work is needed here. The unique way you parent your kids or think about the world is so valuable to what God wants to do here.
And yes, of course that includes when we gather here on Sundays, as we care for our children and young people, as we make coffee to share together. All of that matters. But God is on the move in every part of his creation. There is no sacred–secular divide in the way God works. Our gifts might be expressed as we serve together at church, but they’re also expressed in the way you walk into that important meeting, the way you meet other parents at the school gate, the way you have a tricky conversation with a family member, the way you work for the good of your street, your community or our nation. Our calling is so much bigger than our occupation, and our ministry as individuals and as a church is so much bigger than the things we do in here on a Sunday morning.
The reality is that every single one of us is part of something extraordinary. It began long before we were born, and it will go on long after we are dead. God is at work rescuing people, drawing them out of the pit we heard about in Ephesians 2, and transforming them into the likeness of Jesus. And he wants you to be part of it.
Don’t let the gifts God has given you just be trophies on the shelf, there to look at and gather dust. Don’t let them be the toy you got at Christmas that’s too precious to play with. Gifts are given by God to be used with love, by people full of the Holy Spirit, so that this new reality can be lived in more and more.
Maturity: Growing into the Fullness of Christ
This is where Paul is headed in this section of Ephesians. He tells us all of this is so that:
…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. (Ephesians 4:13)
Our final point: becoming mature. All of this diversity isn’t just about keeping us busy or making church feel interesting. It’s so that we can grow together into maturity. We need one another’s gifts to become the people Jesus is calling us to be. We’re marked by unity and we celebrate diversity, but if we only had those two, we’d just be super busy, running around in circles doing lots of good stuff. What we really need as well is maturity, so that we become more like Jesus as we do it.
So what is Christian maturity? Paul describes it as attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. This is about growing into the kind of relationship Jesus himself has with God: knowing God as Jesus knows God, learning to trust the Father as Jesus did, learning to live with confidence that we are deeply loved and held by God, and discovering the joy and freedom that come from that.
Imagine what it would mean for us, as individuals and as a community, to live fully from that place, not driven by fear or insecurity or the need to prove ourselves through hierarchies, competitions or agendas, but able to live as Jesus did, knowing that freedom and generosity and joy. That is what Christian maturity is.
Withstanding the Waves
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. (Ephesians 4:14)
My dad, and his dad before him, have a real fondness for silly poems, so I’ve got a weird stock of them in my head from my childhood. One of my favourites is “Goodness Gracious!” by Margaret Mahy, some of you might know it. It’s about somebody’s grandmother bobbing about out at sea, just where the breakers begin. The people on the shore shout that they’ll give her a hand and help her out, and she cheerfully tells them she’s perfectly fine and is carrying on until she gets to Spain. I’m not sure why my dad felt it was so important that I knew all these silly poems, but here we are, using one in a sermon.
I love swimming in the sea. One of the risks is that you see a wave coming and think, “Yeah, I’ve got this. It’s going to be absolutely fine.” And then suddenly it’s way bigger than you thought, and it fully takes you out. Does anyone else enjoy the thrill of that? It’s good, isn’t it? Sometimes it’s really fun. But sometimes the waves of life come and they’re a bit more overwhelming. Sometimes those waves are personal. Sometimes they’re things we go through together as a community or as a society. And I don’t think we often know how strong we are until the waves come.
It takes a really solid core to withstand the waves in the sea, maybe that’s why I keep getting knocked over. And it’s the same here: it takes a really solid core of Christian maturity to live the calling Paul is speaking of. That doesn’t mean we never struggle, or that we’re somehow immune to the things that knock us sideways. We can be emotionally exhausted, physically unwell, or deeply unsettled by what’s happening around us. But Christian maturity means learning to hold on to the truest and most real reality there is in the midst of all those storms and waves.
It’s learning to say, “Yes, all of these circumstances are here, but whatever else is happening, God is still God. We are held by Christ. The promises of the gospel are true. God is building a new reality.” In the midst of physical or emotional turmoil we can say, “You know what? My soul is well, because I’m forgiven and redeemed and alive and raised up and seated with Christ, no matter what is swirling around me.” Our deepest security is found in God, in the promise that this new reality holds firm even when we feel very wobbly. That’s not to belittle the circumstances we go through. It’s to ask: can we keep our eyes fixed on the biggest reality there is?
Paul also talks about being blown around by every wind of teaching. Perhaps those waves are not so much our circumstances as the ideas and ideologies that promise to tell us how the world works, what matters most and how we should live. Not every idea that sounds convincing can fulfil its promise. We know that, don’t we? Not every popular opinion reflects the truth of Jesus. Maturity involves learning to discern what is true, asking, “Is this in line with the reality I know God is building?” and developing that solid core of what is true in our lives.
Speaking the Truth in Love
That brings us, finally, to Paul’s instruction on how to do this. I don’t know whether this fills you with joy or makes you feel a little bit nervous.
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. (Ephesians 4:15)
The way we build this solid core is to speak the truth in love. Maturity doesn’t just come from knowing more, reading more books, or being able to spot what’s wrong with everybody else. It comes from being able to speak truthfully, in love, to each other.
Now, this little verse can be used really poorly. It can be used like this: “Listen, Michael, I need to tell you this thing, but I’m saying it with love, so I can criticise you all I want.” That is not good. That is not kind, and that is not loving. Of course, learning to challenge each other and to speak what is true in love takes relationship. We must not use the truth as a weapon to win an argument, put someone in their place or prove that we’re right.
I think there are three parts to this. First, we have to be willing to tell ourselves the truth. Can you tell yourself the truth about how humble, generous or patient you are? Can you tell yourself the truth about the unity you are keeping, or not actually keeping so much? Can we be honest about where we ourselves need to grow?
Second, we need to be willing to hear the truth from other people, to resist the instinct to get defensive, and to recognise that sometimes people see things in us that we can’t see. Thank God for that.
And third, once we can be honest with ourselves and receive truth from others, perhaps then we learn to speak truth to other people, not to win or to wound, but because we really want to see each other flourish.
Back in the summer we did a series on Proverbs, and we talked about our speech being truthful, restrained and life-giving. We also said that the best kind of constructive speech grows through relationship. As we invest in our friendships, spend time together in our docks, serve alongside each other in church and share our lives, we learn how to be honest, how to listen, and how to grow into maturity. Perhaps the test of our truth-telling is the fruit it bears. Has it helped somebody grow? Does it build up the body and reflect the character of Jesus?
The pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber has written that, although people often assume Christianity is about knowing the difference between good and evil so that we can choose the good, being good has never set her free the way the truth has, when the truth crushes her, it soon puts her back together into something far more real.
Isn’t that what we want? To live real, not hiding ourselves, not performing, not trying to earn people’s good opinion of us. How freeing would it be just to live real? And it’s the truth that sets us free to do that. Truth spoken in genuine love has the power to transform us as we grow in maturity into the fullness of Christ: growing into the knowledge and trust Jesus has of his Father, and growing in our ability to use the gifts God has given us.
We can’t grow into maturity on our own. It would be wild to say to a three-year-old, “Learn how to be mature, off you go.” That would be really hard, right? We grow in maturity with the help of those around us. We need one another: the different perspectives, experiences and gifts of the people around us.
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:16)
Where We Land
So here’s where I want to land today. Our instinct in our world, I think, is often to start with our own gifts, experience and thinking: “If I can learn to be myself, if I can celebrate my individuality, then I’ll work out how to get on with everybody else.” But Jesus turns that on its head. He says: in Christ, in your rootedness in me, you are already one. So maintain that unity, and within it, please be fully yourself. Bring who you are to this place where you are loved and cared for. Bring what you have been given, being made more into the likeness of Jesus, so that the body might be built, a place where truth is spoken in love so that we might be free and build that solid core of maturity.
Can church be that place where we learn to make room for each other, to listen, to disagree well, to forgive, to speak truth in love, and to discover that we need people who are not like us?
Of course, we won’t always get this right. Sometimes we’ll have to notice that warning light flashing because we’ve stopped living out of the Spirit’s presence. Perhaps we’ve been blown about a bit and disconnected from our core of love. We can use our words to impress rather than encourage, our leadership to control rather than serve, or our knowledge to win arguments rather than help people grow. When this happens, there is no condemnation, because we are already united. We are already one body being built up by God. So hear the truth: we need you, we want you, and we need the gifts God has given you.
As I said at the beginning, there’s more in these verses than we could possibly get into. I like to think I’ve given you a tasting platter, and I’d love for you to go away and have the full meal. Go and read this chapter yourself. Go and talk about it in your docks — and if you’re not in a dock, come and find me, because I’d love to help you join one. There is so much richness here about the nitty-gritty of how we actually walk into this new reality.
Talk with each other about the gifts you think you have to offer the church. Talk about what it means to speak truth in love. Let’s actually wrestle this out and see it make a difference in our community. There will be insight into what it means to be united, diverse and mature that I can’t give you, because we need your voice and your perspective. That’s exactly what Paul is describing: a community where we grow in maturity together.
So, church: are we using what we have been given to build each other up and become more like Jesus? Are we becoming the kind of community where people can tell the truth, hear the truth and be set free by the truth? We belong to one another, we need each other, and through one another we can grow into the fullness of Christ. And we need the Holy Spirit to help us do all of this.
Response and Prayer
I’d love to pray that the Holy Spirit would come and meet with us and speak to us, because all of this is only possible by the Spirit, by a life lived in the Spirit’s presence. And God is here, present with us. If it helps you to close your eyes, or just lower your gaze, you’re very welcome to. If you’d like to hold out your hands as a sign that you want to receive something from God, you’re welcome to do that too.
Come, Holy Spirit. Speak to us what you want to say. Of all that we’ve talked about this morning, what areas of our lives do you want to pinpoint particularly for us, God? Come, Holy Spirit.
Just as there are as many gifts in this church as there are people, God can speak to each of us in different ways and at different points. You are not forgotten in that. God doesn’t miss one person.
Perhaps there are areas of your life where you know you have not kept unity. Maybe, as you wait on God’s presence now, someone has popped into your mind and you think, “We should have a conversation. I need to apologise for something,” or “We need to name something together, so that unity might be maintained.”
God, thank you that you give us unity, that it’s not something we need to work up, but something we keep. Thank you for how precious it is. Lord, help us to lay down our agendas and our preferences so that, as Jesus prayed in John’s Gospel, the world might see you because of the way we are united.
For some of us, there’s a bit of a question mark: “I don’t really know what my gifts are, or what I have to bring.” God, thank you that you know each person here. You designed them; they are your handiwork. You have made each and every one of us and prepared good works for us to do. Not one is left out. So, Lord, we pray for your inspiration to fall on us, Holy Spirit. Inspire us with all that you have given us. Show us, God, what you have given us to do.
And for some of us, I wonder if we’re feeling a bit battered by the waves, as if that solid core has been shaken. If that’s you, I’d love to invite you to put a hand on your core, if you feel comfortable doing so, and we’ll pray. Holy Spirit, strengthen us. As it says in Ephesians 3, strengthen us by your power so that we would know how we are rooted and established in your love. Strengthen our cores, Lord, so that we are not battered or blown about. Give us discernment to know what is true, so that we can withstand the waves of life. Holy Spirit, come.
Amen.