Streams of Mercy

“Worship attendance and church engagement are nowhere near pre-COVID-19 levels. Maybe people are not re-engaging because they have established new rhythms and patterns while exiled from their sanctuaries. … This feels true, but I also wonder if people are hesitant to return because they are leery (or weary) of the divisiveness, debates and polarization that have seeped into every community gathering and invaded every dinner table.” (The Presbyterian Outlook, “Looking in the Lectionary,” by Terri Ott).

At Jackson Springs Presbyterian, we have a “Summer Sabbath” event the last Sunday of each month. Last evening, we gathered for a picnic at the Eagles Nest Berry Farm. Fewer people came out compared to other years, and only two little children were among us (so the Scavenger Hunt will be saved for another time!) , but delicious food and good conversation and a time of worship together was a blessing. Three baskets of the areas finest peaches were shared among those gathering, and peach and blueberry cobblers enjoyed! How wonderful it was to be together again at Summer Sabbath!

We’re reading from letters to the early church during the summer months, and these weeks find us in the book of Ephesians. In this letter, the author challenges his readers to make every effort to maintain their unity, reminding them that this unity in faith is the calling to which they have been called.

“The effort God calls us to, and reminds us of here in Ephesians, is constant and exhausting — the labor of living together, the labor of loving one another. But the effort leads to growth … As we live together in community, we encourage each other’s growth, but we must be engaged in community for this growth to occur. We must promote each other’s growth, engage in critical dialogue, and build each other up in love,” writes Ott.

Being engaged in community is challenging these days. We do more talking at each other, rather than with each other, and we fail to listen to others. It is as we speak the truth in love and as we listen to the truth spoken in love, that we will grow in faith and faithfulness.

Ephesians reminds us that love is the key to growth and maturity in community. “As we bear with one another in love, and as we speak the truth in love, the community grows in love … We may be a community divided by disagreement, but if we are Christ’s community, we are bound together by our ethic of love,”

writes Ott.

In Ephesians 1:18 we read: “May the eyes of your understanding be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of your calling.” The writer’s concern is that if the Ephesian Christians fail to stir up the hope of their calling, they will miss out on all God has planned for them, for the hope of their calling often takes second seat to personal choice and cultural values. Hope is a much-misunderstood word. For some, hope denotes a lack of certainty; often it’s mistaken for wishful thinking. We are told to put our hope in Christ.

How the church as the Body of Christ and we, as members of it, need to stir up the hope of our calling, by speaking the truth in love, by listening to the truth spoken in love, and by bearing with one another in love as together we grow and mature in faith and faithfulness.

Elizabeth