Sermon Notes — June 1, 2025
Ephesians 4:1-6
June 1, 2025
Rev. Terry Carty
ONE
In 1969 a very popular band named Three Dog Night released a song called “One.” It rose to number 5 on the US and number 4 on the Canadian charts. But its repetitive first line still haunts me after all these years: “One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do.”
The song was written by Harry Nilssen after he called someone and got a busy signal. Some of us remember those days before cell phones and voicemail. Nilssen stayed on the line listening to the "beep, beep, beep, beep..." tone, and writing the song. The busy signal became the opening notes.
There is no doubt that one can indeed be the loneliest number someone can ever know when it means isolation and being cut off from meaningful human contact.
But that was not the intent of this passage from the letter to the Ephesians. Paul used the number ONE in the same way that it has been used throughout the centuries to reference the singular uniqueness of God. In chapter 4, verses 4 thru 6, he uses the word One SEVEN times: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father.
If you are into Biblical numerology, SEVEN is the number denoting divine perfection. It symbolizes completeness and balance as creation was accomplished in seven days.
And the number ONE symbolizes unity, sovereignty, God. This is far from being alone. Well, unless you are God and have no other like yourself. But then, wasn’t that the reason that God created human beings in God’s own image?
Of course it was. That is why God has sought to bring us into oneness with God throughout the history of the world.
As Paul reached out to the Gentile Christians, he repeatedly used ONE to emphasize the unity that God seeks. The unity is a unity with others who follow Jesus on the path to oneness with God. We are called to journey together in a bond of peace. Ever since the disciples received the Holy Spirit, the people who journey together have been called “The Church.” In the Church there is one baptism, one table, one Lord, one faith, one church.
This ‘one church’ view may not ring true to you. Having been given the Godly power of free will, people have been splitting, dividing, and subdividing the One Church for centuries (note that we have one faith in Christ, but not a single creed). The church splitters would insist that they were seeking unity. This is like political ideologues in the U.S. who resolutely wish the country would come together. But invariably, when unity has been an insistence on their ideologies it results in the exclusion of those who disagree.
And so it goes. One Church seems to become many. Disunity is our shame. We grieve. But, at the same time, we celebrate God’s mercy that gives us space to believe in a divided Church.
Paul’s words from the first century call us to a unity of hope. He tells the church members to seek to be One with each other by controlling our anger, not retaliating, not considering ourselves better than others, but instead becoming bound together by love.
This is a call to each and every congregation and to every member. The call to unity in the One God, One Spirit, One Church continues to prevail. In God’s eyes we are One even though we have different opinions and ideas. Even when we quit trying to work things out, we are still in the One Church when we focus our thoughts and efforts on the One God and Father of us all.
Father? Yes, Father of us all in this big, sometimes dysfunctional family of all humanity. We are never alone in this ONE. We may sometimes feel separation, but we are all in God’s family.
As we prepare this morning to come together around this One Table of Holy Communion, I want us to remember the prayer that Jesus prayed for us specifically. In the 17th chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus has prayed for his disciples and in-person followers. Then he prayed for all of us who have come after them even centuries later, and who have been incorporated by baptism into Christ’s Church.
John 17:20-23 A portion of Jesus praying:
20“My prayer is not for them (the original disciples and followers) alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — 23 I in them and you in me — so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Now hear this good, but challenging news: God has answered Jesus’ prayer. In Jesus’ heart, we are and will always be ONE. We cannot separate ourselves nor others from the everlasting ONE love of God.
So let’s get on board. Today as we gather at the one Lord’s Table, let’s ask ourselves: what gifts do I bring to this table? What can I do to build up the unity of the ONE church universal, its mission, its unity? As we ponder that question, trust that the ONE Spirit will guide you in living your life worthy of that calling.
Now we move to our “table of unity.”
Go straight into Holy Communion