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The reading from the Epistle to the Ephesians vividly captures the central historical problem of Christianity. No other world religion presents us with such a gap between its lofty ideals and its actual practice. In the opening verses of Chapter Four Pal gives us a message that is sublime. It bears hearing again.

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to 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. 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.

This is wondrous. It appeals to the power of a love that transcends every situation. Yet even the most cursory reading of Christian history, ancient and modern, will unmistakably reveal that Christians who read these words have been capable of genocide at home, the brutal exclusion of outsiders, crusades that exceeded any known Muslim jihad in brutality, and the ruthless oppression of indigenous peoples on every inhabited continent. And such wrath, violence, and discord have been and continue to be unleashed on others who also call themselves Christian. The great age of the Enlightenment was motivated not so much because of intellectual dissent from Christian faith, as from revulsion at Christian violence and hypocrisy. And not just on a cosmic scale. A new movie from Ireland depicts the cruelty visited upon hapless young women in homes run by the Sisters of Magdalene. I have an ex-Catholic friend who could never simply figure out why it was that the nuns who slapped her said they did so because they loved her.

And even, as we read many of the Epistles of the New Testament, we find discord in the early Christian Churches. No sooner does Paul establish a new community, than they are at each other’s throats – Corinth, Galatia, Thessalonika. And even in so gentle and loving a letter as the one to Ephesis, we find the message of love takes place in a context of disunity. After lifting up the ideal of love, Paul deals more directly with the problem. After describing an organizational style that sees the church as a body, with each organ (we would perhaps say board or committee?) with its own functions and responsibilities, working together in mutual respect and harmony, he writes:

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. 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.

I believe we can easily deduce from Paul’s words some of the problems in the congregation to which he wrote. Put bluntly, they were behaving like children. There was no thoughtful unifying theology. They were all over the map. Instead of speaking the "truth in love" with gentleness, humility, and patience, they were shouting opinions at each other in anger. Instead of respecting the agreed to functions of the limbs and organs of that body, they were telling each other how their jobs should be done. Incidentally, Paul develops this same theme in his First Letter to the contentious Corinthians, in which he says, since when does the foot say "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body." "The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you.’" He even says that the members of the body that seem to be weaker, are indispensable. In modern day parlance, Paul is rebuking the "in groups" of that congregation. Everybody matters and nobody gets more votes any anybody else. He says that their organization and processes are basically fine, but for one thing. They lack love. And the best structures and processes, such as they are, are worthless without love. They had forgotten the ultimate purpose of the church, which is, in Paul’ words, to promote "the body’s growth in building itself up in love."

In a nutshell here, we have the Christian Church’s dilemma in every age. For Christians in contentious situations will try everything else before they will trust the power of love. We will try to improve the structures; we will refine the process; we will bring in the consultants; and use whatever techniques the world of management offers; and in the end try and outshout each other. But the only thing that ultimately works is also the hardest thing. And that is confessing that we are acting like petulant children and recognizing that we need to grow up. And the only way to grow up is to re-affirm our high calling "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."

And it is very, very hard to do. As the blood-stained face of human history shows us. If you have been following the debate on the ordination of a gay man to be Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, you have seen how quickly civilized discourse can sink into self-righteous hostility. Einstein said that we must learn to love or we will die. With each day this ceases to be an abstraction but a hard practical truth. If the church can do it, the world may have a chance. Our message is what the world needs to hear. Our example, for better or for worse, is what the world sees.

In the gospel lesson this morning, Jesus says something interesting. He reminds his disciples of the wilderness wanderings of their Hebrew ancestors. How did they survive? They were given manna in the wilderness. But though Moses facilitated this, it wasn’t Moses who gave it to them. It was God. God sustained them in their wilderness wanderings. Moses served God, but God was the source of their nourishment. "For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven." They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

What is the purpose of the Christian Church in any age? It is to be nourished by the bread of life that comes only from God. And it is, like Moses, to make that bread of life available to as many others as we possibly can. The bread of life is the love of God – in us, around us, among us. And for us, that love of God is simply Jesus. What a privilege to be invited to his table. And to share that love. AMEN.

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