We have this coffee maker in the kitchen here at church. And when one arrives in the morning and desperately needs a hot cup of coffee...and a lot of it...if one pour too quickly and excessively, it leaks and drips all over the counter.
If you pour it nice and slowly, no problem: nice hot cup of coffee, no spills; but if you try to take too much, it mysteriously spills all over the place...and makes a big mess.
Simple image. But a good one for our text today, again from Ephesians...now the 4th chapter:
At a frantic, excessive pace, we can often make a mess of things. But slowing down, being careful -- nice, easy pour -- the very body of Christ is built up. [pause]
Yet another image, if its helpful -- circa me in 4th grade, I still remember the excitement and the franticness of P.E. class: the only time we had to play soccer, we wanted every minute to count! And then there was our soccer/P.E. coach -- a dark tanned Romanian, named Dragos, with thinning, slicked-back hair, little curls in the back. He had played futbol at the top levels in his home country long ago (a political refugee, he fled to the U.S.). We, as little boys, could only envision his as a legend once. But now, in his later years, Dragos moved slower, and had the wrinkles and eyes of life’s challenges. He was a great combination of patience, passion, and annoyance at the high-pitched exuberance and anxiety of elementary boys everywhere. At the beginning of the P.E. period, Coach Dragos would hand us (a class of all-boys) the key to the equipment shack on the other side of the soccer field, so that we could race out there and get the soccer ball NOW. And we would dart, wildly across the field -- 10+ boys, one key -- and franticly try to open the closet:
“No like this! I’ll do it! Get out of the way, moron! C’mon! No, you don’t know what you’re doing, you idiot. Here, like this...Ugh! It’s not working.”
A minute later, we’d see Coach sauntering plainly across the soccer field with a cup of coffee in his right hand, a cigarette hanging from his lip, and we’d go running out to him, as if a time bomb was about to detonate -- “The key doesn’t work, the key doesn’t work!” And he’d just smile a half smile, take a sip of his coffee (probably never spilled it either) and eyes half mast, he’d say:
“Here. Let me show you. [whispering, almost seductively] It’s like life: nice and easy.” The irony was palpable, as he bore the marks of a hard life. But ever so gently, ever so delicately, ever so slowly, he’d put the key in and turn it, and the door would open! And like a gracious butler...
This passage from Ephesians is a call back...to care and attention...to being the church, Christ’s very body, for this world, in this world during our week: “I beg you,” Ephesians says, “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.”
We have to slow down to do that...or we’ll make a mess...or get stuck and start insulting each other.
“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...
(You can fill in the blanks there.)
“...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 knit 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.”
Word of God, word of life.
We’re not getting anywhere by tearing each other down. By packing so much in that we’re as anxious as school boys on the soccer field. By consuming, and guzzling, and eating on the run, and having important conversations by text, by multi-multi-tasking. We’re not getting anywhere by tearing each other down. We’re actually making a mess of things, dribbling all over the counters of this world, as we over-pour, and turn on each other. [pause]
We are called to cultivate a life of prayer and contemplation and ongoing discernment.
What is the call to which you have been called, at this point in your life? To be a teacher, a pastor, a parent, a care-giver, an advocate, an activist, a communicator, a planner, a researcher, a builder, a coach? What is the calling to which you have been called? That takes some quiet to figure out. Jesus was escaping the crowds all the time to get some quiet and prayer time.
(We’re taking a little time away this week in the forests of Northern California, and along the river banks of southern Oregon.)
How do you cultivate this life of prayer and discernment so that you can indeed lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called?
And how might we speak the truth in love?
It’s getting harder and harder because there’s so much noise, there’s so much high-pitched exuberance and anxiety all around. It’s hard to be calm, like Coach long ago -- it’s hard to saunter across the soccer field with a cup of cleanly poured coffee in your right hand and a calm smile on your face.
It’s hard to live above the frenzy, and speak the truth to one another in love. But this is what Christ calls us to do. Breathe. It takes 4 deep, slow breathes to physically calm our bodies down, we tell our kids.
And when we do...when we’re able to center and quiet down, we uncover not only our own life’s calling, but that much deeper truth, which we can skim over far to often: that Christ is indeed the head of the body, that God is above all and through all and in all.
When we are at peace, we rest in God, who holds and loves us no matter what. Nice and easy. AMEN.
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