God, you are the God who calls us together and fashions each of us with unique gifts that together make the body of Christ whole. So in our time together may we come and be formed of one heart and mind that is based off of your heart and mind and vision for this world, so that we can each discern how we move along as part of your body in a broken world. Amen. So last week we focused on the truth telling when it comes to our own lives and relationships so 

that we can be authentically connected to the Spirit of God, who first chose to love us boldly so that we could then be God's love for the world. Now we're entering into or pretty this week and next week we're going to spend time in Ephesians chapter four. And Ephesians chapter four is interesting because the first three chapters were all theological reflections kind of setting up the author's larger story and conversation. 

And chapter four, verse one begins with a therefore, so we know the author's giving us a good pivot and heading towards the practical side of things. As we know from we are builders. We all have our own different roles. And the author of Ephesians offers five different roles within the church. And I want to talk about those briefly and name the names that J.R. 

woodward gives them because I think they're kind of more fun and less like ancient. So the apostles J.R. woodward refers to as dream awakeners. These are the people that help awaken people to the dreams of the kingdom of God so that we can help others discover who they are in God's eyes and join the Spirit in the work. 

He refers to prophets as heart revealers, helping people experience God's voice and discern God's heart for a situation, the people you go to for those deeper conversations. But also we can think of prophets as also speaking to institutions if we're talking about what is the deeper heart of God for a situation and how do we proclaim that for different situations. 

For evangelists, J.R. woodward calls them storytellers, which I think is a great way to think about it. I think evangelism has been given a pretty negative rap based on how poorly it's been done. But the reality of evangelism and evangelists throughout the text, they're called to be stewards of God's story and the stories of God's people. So telling people of God's relentless love for everyone in a way that captivates hearts reminds me of so much of John Wesley's work when it came to the early Methodists. 

Too. They weren't necessarily doing turn or burn theology, but making sure that people knew that God loved them full stop. And then for pastors and shepherds, he refers to them as soul healers who help guide people through brokenness to find healing and restoration, fostering places of belonging. And then for teachers, he refers to them as light givers who help the truth of God be accessible to all people and their lived experiences. 

And I find it interesting the quantity of teachers that are in the room today that really have been people that might teach a content, but teach to the child and make sure that they're known and understood. The reality is we need all five. If we imagine a church without apostles, a church that is incapable of dreaming and thinking of where they can go, they just kind of wander aimlessly. Or a church without prophets is a church without any heart to it and without any connection to the heart of God. 

A church without storytellers is just a bunch of people in a room who don't want to talk about things and who don't want to tell anyone else about the relentless love of God. A church without pastors and prophets and soul healers leads to just a group of people that are hurt and only know how to hurt others and not find healing and transformation. And a group of church, a church without light givers is just a group of people. You can tell someone sucked the emotion out of the room. 

We need all five dream awakeners, heart revealers, storytellers, soul healers, and light givers in order to be God's people in this world. In our passage, verses 12 through 13 says, his purpose was to equip God's people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God's son. God's goal is for us to become mature adults, to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ. So each of these gifts are given to us not because they're statuses or roles or titles or things to put on your business card, but 

instead they're responsibilities which we have been empowered by God's grace to bring together God's people for the transformation of the world to to be more and more like Christ. Later, in verses 14 through 16A, which is just a lazy way of saying don't read the whole thing says, as a result, we aren't supposed to be infants any longer who can be tossed and blown around by every wind that comes from teaching with deceitful scheming and 

the tricks people Play to deliberately mislead others. Instead, by speaking the truth with love, let's grow in every way into Christ who is the head. The reality is we have no shortage of Christians who are more interested in teaching with deceitful scheming and tricking people to play games and to deliberately mislead others. Christians are really good and have a good reputation these days of an teaching people how to fear people. 

But that's not what Ephesians is calling us to do. Instead, we're being called to speak the truth with love and grow in every way into Christ. So the Greek for truth with love is actually implying action, living or embodying the truth with love, we must be shaped and transformed by God's truth and love so that we can then go and do the same for the world. The same compassion and empathy that God reaches out to us with, we have to be able to do for others. 

And the reality is that the more we speak with truth and love, the love then grows us to be more and more like Christ. And a delightful little quote from Cole Arthur Riley. She says healing asks us to tell the truth. The reality is that as we speak truth in love, we're able to foster places where individuals and systems can experience healing. Which takes us to our second baptismal vow, which asks the question, do you accept the freedom and 

power God gives you to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves? So we are given free will so that we can then resist evil, injustice and oppression. And as we speak the truth with love against evil, injustice and oppression, we're then transformed by God's grace. And by God's grace, we're able to better see the places where evil, injustice and oppression still prevail. So that as our hearts break open like God's does, God then equips us to continue to respond with bold love. 

We can see how this is a cycle. This wasn't a one time yes or no question. It's an answer that leads to continuous reflection and transformation over the years. So our vow is not just to resist these powers, but to work with God to bring healing to our world. As I was scrolling through Instagram before my phone died, so it must have been Friday I saw in the account Christians for Social Action. 

They were riffing off of that quote from Cole Arthur Riley. And they write, healing begins with honesty. Truth telling is not about dwelling on what is broken. It's about creating the possibility for restoration. Whether we're confronting personal wounds, fractured relationships, or the injustices within our communities, 

healing begins when we have the courage to name what is real. Scripture reminds us that truth and grace are never enemies. They work, they walk together, making room for confession, reconciliation and hope. And so we're called to bring about this transformation, but not in ways that resemble the institutions that harm others. 

So often when we see someone who feels like they're falling for something else. So like for instance, we all made, at least all of the United Methodists in this room made this vow with God and with one another. And yet there are so many Christians who take non existent vows to political parties and institutions more seriously than this vow we made with God. And when we run into that, we get caught up in the feeling like we have to follow the way of the world and forget the way of Christ. 

And the reminder that we don't do this alone. This is a constant reminder that we can't do this alone, that we need each other. And too often when we find someone who we think has a different view than us and we respond with vitriol because that's how they started things. And so we just keep it going. But that's not how Jesus did things. 

And that's not how we help people grow. That's not speaking the truth with love. We have to be able to help stand in the gap and help people find ways to be more and more like Christ, to help one another reflect. Because this is going back to the good old speck and log. Sometimes it's easier to be annoyed with how someone else's actions impact the world than to reflect on how our own impact the world. 

Because the whole point, as verse 16 finishes, the whole body grows from him as it is joined and held together by all the supporting ligaments. The body makes itself grow in that it builds itself up with love as each one does its part. So it's not the truth of God's love if we're using truth to tear people down. The transformative power of God's truth in love builds people up and transforms systems of dominance and control so that all can be built up in God's love. 

So we can build a place where everyone can come to the table, where everyone can access to life abundant. And that doesn't happen by just magically changing laws and legislating whatever we think is the right way to legislate. It happens through the small conversations of connecting to people that we perceive as different from ourselves and making sure that we're helping build them up. And it's not even necessarily when it comes to people that we perceive as different from ourselves. It's being willing to have those hard conversations with friends when they've gone awol. 

And they need that redirection, that small heart to heart, to really put them on the right page. And I'm grateful to not, I guess, literally be surrounded, but to have in the company with us today people who have done that for me so that I can then help other people grow, too. And so the more we lean into this truth with love, the more that we lean into the way that Christ did things as he was embodied here with us on this earth, 

the more we can grow to be more and more like Christ. And the more we can help other people know that they are relentlessly loved by a loving God. And the more that we can gather people together to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves. Because that is our vows to God and our vows to one another. So let us pray. 

God, we are so grateful for the ways that your people have messed things up and have found ways of being renewed in community over and over again. May these ancient words guide our hearts so that we can help transform the world by your love. And may your spirit guide us and lead us as we continue to try to be your people in this place and in all of the places that we find ourselves, so that we can love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously. 

Amen.