One! :: Ephesians 4:1-6

One. This is our word of the day ... One body and one spirit just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all: the one upon all and through all and in all (vv. 4-6). 

One! It’s perfect and complete! 

There has never been a more united One, Holy, Christian and Apostolic Church than the One that arose in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. As Saint Luke writes in Acts … on account of the One who came upon all and through all and in all ... you know, the Holy Spirit ... the many became one in devotion ... one in confession that Jesus is the Lord of heaven and earth, God out of God, Light out of Light, very God out of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. He is the one who died and rose again. He is the one who has made us all one with him and each other in the one baptism. Together as one body, he gives us the one bread and the one cup in the one feast that has no end (Acts 2:41-47). Amen.

1.

As the Church grew and spread to the ends of the earth, the oneness of it all became beset by all manner of ills. The world began persecuting our unity all the more, forcing Christians everywhere to lose homes and jobs and lives and wives and children. The pressures of the world became intense. One became two ... Two became three ... Three became four. Dozens of heresies arose, and the church split over and over and over. Today, there are 40 different Lutheran denominations in America alone. 

See, the world declared, you aren’t one! You are many. 

So join us instead. Embrace our culture, our heritage. 

Together we can be one. We can exhibit positive change in this world.

The result has been our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters embracing much more than just one false god of the world. 

I am sure we all know someone who is divided on who Jesus was and is, on what Jesus taught, on why Jesus came from heaven to earth. Did you know there are “Christians” who deny that Jesus was born of a virgin, that he died on a cross for the forgiveness of your sins, that he even rose from the dead? There are “Christians” who deny there is one catholic faith that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor denying the substance. 

You think I am making that up, don’t you? Try visiting one of your neighboring churches.

Today, there are “Christians” who believe in more than one baptism, too. They deny the power of God in baptism. Baptism is about their dedication. They share more than one bread and one cup. They deny it imparts the forgiveness of sins. They deny the need for absolution. All this despite Jesus saying bring your children unto me ... baptize, forgive, receive the Supper. They make faith about what you are doing ... about you proving you are a Christian. 

They believe they can free themselves from sin, if they even believe they do sin. They believe they can make themselves holy. They are determined to save themselves by entrenching themselves in the tradition of their church, in their way of doing things. They set their faith in their faith ... their faith in their feelings ... their faith as their work offered to God. 

They are anything and everything but one.

2.

We live in a world deeply divided against itself. Our divisions come from many and various sources, but they are all a result of our sinful flesh. We like to tell ourselves that we are not adulterous, immoral, indecent, and unclean people ... that we are not idol worshipers, hostile to each other, filled with jealousy, and selfishness. We like to think of ourselves as being generous, not greedy ... humble not proud. We like to think of ourselves here at Trinity as one family. 

How wonderful it must be to be a member of a church that is full of righteous people who think they are not like the sinners of the world who have no sins that trouble their hearts. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if you say you have no sin, you deceive yourselves. We like to say we have no sins that trouble our hearts. We ignore confession. All too often we pay lip service to the sin in our lives. 

How many sins have you ignored this morning alone? 

What sins are you hiding in your proverbial closet? 

Is there not one among you who actually fears God’s wrath? 

In whom or what do you trust for emotional support? Have you kept the vows you made in the Lord’s name? Do you despise the Word, which you called me to teach to you. Do you pay little or no attention to God’s Word? Do you exasperate your children ... and share gossip? What adulteries belie your life?

3.

In the name of Jesus ... repent, every one of you. 

You won’t find safety in your feelings for God. You won’t find hope in yourselves. You won’t find faith on your own terms. Instead, our Lord Jesus Christ has done what you couldn’t do for yourselves. He has become one with you. 

CHRIST HAS CALLED US OUT OF THE WORLD TO BE ONE IN HIM

You are the ἐκκλησία ... literally, the called out ones ... also known as the church. In this church, God rescues you and resuscitates you with the one and only Gospel ... because there is not another. 

Look to the One Lord ... the One who lived for you, died for you, rose from the dead for you, and who has united himself with you in the One, Holy Christian and Apostolic church. Confess your sins, and have faith in the Only Lord ... faith in what he is doing for you, through you, and in you. He has forgiven your sins on account of Christ. He poured out the one baptism upon you and delivered the one faith. He is making you holy so that you will be one with him.

Listen again to what Saint Paul tells us in his epistle to the church in Ephesus. There is ... One body and one spirit just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all: the one upon all and through all and in all (vv. 4-6). It is perfect and complete. He is one with us ... and we are one in him. Eternal life is yours because of the One.

4.

And so now ... I, the prisoner of the Lord, encourage you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience (or long-suffering), putting up with one another in sacrificial love, being eager to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the bondage of peace (vv. 1-3). 

Our Lord Jesus Christ has made us one on account of what he accomplished for us. Jesus the only one who ever lived life without sin, the only one who has ever overcome the sin of the world, is the only one who could shed his blood for the many ... for you. He is the only Lamb of God who takes away your sin, who washes you and makes you clean. He did this so that he could be one with you.

Our only savior who knew no sin became sin for you so that you won’t have to face the wrath of God alone. He did that for you to unite himself with you, to give you the one faith. Jesus was crucified, died and buried on behalf of you. He rose from the dead ahead of you ... and on account of this we have the one hope that we will be united with him forever. And now we can share his body, given and shed for you on the cross.

5.

This is the one faith we embrace when we come together as one to receive God’s sacraments. Our Lord Jesus urges us to embrace these means of grace every time we meet. In these sacraments which he works through you and for you and in you ... he brings us together by the grace of God. His sacraments testify of His love and evidence of His good will toward us. 

How much more joy can we find in his means of grace?

Baptism is more than a ceremony representing what God did for us in Christ, as so many other denominations insist. Being baptized is more than obeying God’s commands. Through the water and the word God makes us one with him, creates faith, and renews life. It now saves you. The Lord’s Supper is more than a memorial meal. It is a single feast that has no end in celebration of the marriage between Christ and the church. Through the Bread and Wine of the Lord’s Supper he nurtures and nourishes our faith in his promises to us that life and salvation are ours with the forgiveness of sins. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Paul is not merely calling for us to be the best one we can be. He is showing us how our faith is one in Christ and how we can now rest in full assurance in him alone. In these words Paul reminds us that ... true unity is neither created nor destroyed by our actions. Rather, true unity exists in God, on account of God, and for the glory of God. Because Christ is one with us, we will receive all sorts of gifts that well up within us ... his gentleness, his humbleness, his patience, his love. Together, we are receiving the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, to his glory and our good. In the name of the One Lord ... Amen.