middle of building their first construction. He’s also
married with two children and he works an outside job
to provide for his family. I asked him, “Didn’t you just
return from a vacation because you were burned out?”
He is proud of the chaplain’s work he does and of his
ministry, but I know his family is being short-changed
for his time. Paul writes in today’s text, “…Lead a life
worthy of the calling to which you have been
called, with all humility…” I predict he will not be in
ministry within three years or he will have to make
drastic changes.
Paul writes beginning with verse 4, “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.”
In just three verses “one” is repeated seven
times;
 One body
 One Spirit
 One Hope
 One Lord
 One faith
 One baptism
 One God and Father of all
At the heart of integrity is “oneness” – whole,
complete, and undivided. I chose the sermon title
Living Integros
Ephesians 4:1-16
August 2, 2015 SOH
Theme: Living with integrity
Carnitas lovers suffered a bit of a crisis earlier
this year when Chipotle pulled pork from its menu.
Following a routine inspection of one of the farms
supplying pork to the restaurant chain, they discovered
the care of the Cerdos did not meet their company
standards. The hogs did not have adequate space to
move about freely and to be outside of confined pens.
Chipotle dropped the supplier for non-compliance and
found itself lacking adequate supplies for the popular
burrito filler. I don’t know what that might have cost the
restaurant in sales, but you have to applaud their
integrity both in following up on inspections, then
following through with their code of conduct regarding
suppliers’ care of animals. Far from considering them
as merely bacon on feet, they demand humane care of
the animals and processing.
I was in a chaplain’s quarterly training session
last Thursday at DPS when one of the chaplains noted
he had left northern California on Wednesday morning,
drove all day and part of the night so he could be back
for the training. He just finished a background with the
FBI to become a volunteer chaplain in addition to DPS
and he’s pastor of a growing Baptist church in the
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“Living Integros” because the Spanish word for
integrity means “to be whole”. The root of the word
comes from the same words as integrate and entire; to
live with integrity is to be whole, complete, and
undivided. To live integro, you must live with one set of
values, hopefully founded in Christ and matured
through scripture and prayer.
Yet, I am far from whole, complete, and
undivided. I struggle to be consistent in some areas of
my life and to follow through to be humble, gentile, and
patient. I’m so glad that is not a problem for the rest of
you!
A restaurant which demands integrity with animal
welfare in one area cannot ignore animal welfare in
another. A church of integrity cannot show love in one
situation then demonstrate distaste and loathing for
people in another.
Of course, hanging a sign or plastering a set of
values on a wall isn’t enough – it probably would make
folks suspicious. Are you likely to stop into a car
dealership with a sign that proclaims “Honest Mike’s
Used Cars?” Steve Ellis, the CEO of Chipotle laughs
as he says he has never seen anyone come into his
restaurant saying, “Oh, I want to eat food with integrity
right now.”
Integrity requires deeds. Our actions define our
integrity. So what does a church with integrity look
like? How would such a church function? And what
would it be like to be a part of that kind of church?
The Apostle Paul suggests that we would live in
“humility and gentleness, with patience, and
bearing with one another in love making every
effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace.” (vv2,3) Our work begins with humility and
gentleness leading toward patience and bearing with
one another in love. We won’t always agree or
understand scripture the same but if we love and serve
Jesus Christ we must strive for the unity of the Holy
Spirit’s love and guidance and allow him to bind us
together.
One pastor tweeted, “Drove all night from
conference, arrived at church by 8:40, shaved, put on
suit, taught Sun. school, & preached with clarity &
passion." Well thank you Pastor Pride. I wonder, does
he expect his congregation to drive all night before
they serve? And how is he demonstrating humility and
gentleness by pronouncing his preaching with “clarity
and passion.” After driving all night, I’d be lucky to be
able to read forget the passion.
Paul reminds us (vv11-12) that Christ equips the
church with gifts; apostles, prophets, evangelists,
pastors, and teachers – a short list of gifts of the Spirit.
The gifts of the Spirit are given for a specific reason;
“to equip the [people] for the work of ministry, to
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build up the body of Christ…” “For the work of
ministry” – deeds, action, results. Just saying, “I’m a
Christian” is no different than Honest Mike’s Used
Cars. Ninety weight oil can make an old, tired, wornout engine sound pretty good for a few miles.
Sunday morning worship can either be an
outward demonstration to tell others, “Look how good I
am, I go to church every Sunday,” or it can be a
regeneration time to get ready for the next week; to
reenergize, reconnect, reorganize, your thoughts and
heart so you’re ready to act Sunday afternoon, or
Monday morning.
We are driven by two core values:
1. The Greatest Commandment - to love God with
all our heart, soul, mind, and body because God
loved us first and created us to love.
2. To love our neighbor
Those are the values that underlie everything we
do – or should, and prepare us for the work of making
disciples of every nation – that is, building up the body
of Christ and in the process becoming mature in our
faith together.
Valerie and I didn’t set the schedule on our
vacation to SE Alaska, our daughter and son-in-law
did. So it happened that on the first Sunday we were
on board a ferry to Sitka and on the second we were
forty miles south of Juneau at our niece’s cabins, so
we didn’t have the opportunity to attend a worship
service while on vacation.
Oh, doing my devotions while watching the
scenery of Alaska drift by or while sitting on the front
porch of the cabin watching eagles and sea lions is
pretty peaceful and can be spiritual, but it’s not the
same kind of worship and I missed having the
encouragement from each of you as we sing together
and pray together. Regular worship is critical to a
strong life of faith.
There have always been, and always will be
disagreements in how we do church. Today the nondenominational church says denominations are doing it
wrong. We struggle with how to be good stewards of
our funds and property, where to put our energy in
ministry, how to reach our community for Jesus, and
even mundane things like what color should the carpet
be.
There are bigger issues as well; same gender
marriage, women in ministry, immigration, our
relationship to the politics of the nation, abortion, or our
relationships to other religions like Islam, Judaism, or
Hinduism. Unfortunately, there is a lot of attacking and
condemnation among us Christians in the middle of all
this.
Paul has some good teaching for us. Rather than
undermining, attacking, or belittling others as we try to
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gain a victory, we should bear with one another. You
may not agree with someone or their position, but you
can still support them, encourage them, love them.
That is a sign of maturity when you can say, “I don’t
agree, but I will listen to you and I care.”
One of the things I appreciate about Spirit of
Hope is the diversity of thought within this body. We
are not of one mind on many matters and there are
many opinions. Because of that we have a challenge
to remain focused on our mission and to love one
another in the unity of the Spirit of God and the grace
of Jesus Christ.
Success for Chipotle and other “mission driven”
companies is their remaining focused on core values,
no matter what challenge arises. For Spirit of Hope
and the United Methodist Church to be successful we
must keep our hearts and minds focused on our core
values. God will bless our unity and the other issues
will become less critical because of our love and focus
on our mission.
Becoming whole means living a life of integrity –
the entire enchilada (or burrito as it may be). It is a
messy life, it’s hard work, and decisions are often
difficult. But it’s worth it when one more says “yes!” to
Jesus Christ. It’s worth it when, despite differences,
we can say, “I love you as a brother/sister in Christ, so
let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.”
I call you to be a church of integrity. Live with
humility, gentleness and with patience, bear with one
another in love and let the unity of the Holy Spirit pour
out of you to build up the body of Christ.
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