Rooted & Grounded Together

Ephesians 3: 16 – 19

 

This week I spent several days with clergy and lay members from across the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

 

Annual Conference is a little bit like a family reunion. Every year I reconnect with the people that I only see once or twice a year. There are colleagues who have become friends. There are pastors whose children I have prayed for from birth to graduations and beyond. There are people who have mentored me over years of ministry and those whom I have mentored. There are people with whom I have shared accountability, mission projects, committee meetings, worship planning, hard conversations, and holy moments.

 

Every year my circle of relationships grows a little wider and deeper.

 

That means more hugs in hallways. More stories over shared meals. More reminders that the Church is bigger than any one congregation.

 

This year, as we gathered, we were grounded in the scripture you heard this morning from Ephesians:

“I pray that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.”

 

I've been carrying those words around for months. As part of the conference worship team, I first began praying with this text last fall. And that means I have been carrying it since my renewal leave.

 

Some of you know that renewal leave was a gift I desperately needed.

I slept.

I spent time outdoors.

I listened to water lap against shorelines.

I picked up watercolors and paintbrushes.

I breathed deeply.

I laughed more.

 

And somewhere in all of that, I remembered things that are easy to forget when life gets busy and complicated and hard.

I remembered that I am more than what I accomplish.

I remembered that God loves me before I produce anything.

I remembered that my identity is not rooted in what I do, but in whose I am.

 

In other words, I spent some time tending my roots. Roots matter. Anyone who has ever planted a garden knows that. Anyone who has ever watched a tree survive a storm knows that. Roots matter.

 

But here's something else I was reminded of:

Trees do not grow roots for the sake of roots.

 

Roots are not the goal. A tree grows roots so that something else can happen.

So that branches can stretch toward the sky.

So that fruit can grow.

So that shade can be offered.

So that birds and bugs and animals can nest.

So that life can flourish.

 

Roots are not the destination. Roots make growth possible.

I think that's what Paul is getting at in this prayer.

 

Notice what Paul does not pray for here:

He doesn't pray for bigger churches.

He doesn't pray for larger budgets.

He doesn’t pray for accurate minutes or expanded programming.

He doesn't pray for influence or power or success.

He doesn't even pray for people to become more knowledgeable.

 

Instead, he prays that Christ may dwell in their hearts and that they may be rooted and grounded in love.

 

Why?

 

Because Paul understands that when people are rooted in Christ, something grows. And what grows is love. Not sentimentality. Not niceness. Not politeness. Not busy-ness.

 

Love.

The kind of love that changes lives and communities.

The kind of love that creates room at every table.

The kind of love that chooses relationship over resentment.

The kind of love that refuses to give up on the person who is driving you crazy or who doesn’t do things the way you would do them.

The kind of love that begins to look a lot like Jesus.

 

It’s important to hold onto that, because the people receiving this letter were not living in easy times. The church was divided. Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians were trying to figure out how to live together. They carried different histories. Different assumptions. Different traditions. Different understandings of how God and the world worked.

 

If we're honest, they probably irritated one another on a regular basis.

 

And yet the author does not tell them to become peaceful or identical. He does not tell them to erase their differences. He does not tell them that unity means uniformity.

 

Instead, he points them toward a deeper identity. In Christ. Like Christ.

Christ is what holds them together.

Christ is what nourishes their roots.

Christ is what makes love possible.

 

And maybe that is why this text feels so relevant today. Because we live in a world that is constantly encouraging us to divide ourselves into categories.

People like us.

People not like us.

People we understand.

People we don't.

People we agree with.

People we don't.

 

The culture keeps asking us to choose sides.

The gospel keeps inviting us to build tables.

 

The culture tells us to protect ourselves.

The gospel teaches us to love our neighbors.

 

The culture rewards outrage.

The gospel forms compassion.

 

And the church must decide which story is shaping us. Because the story we choose will feed our roots. And whatever is feeding our roots eventually shapes the yield, the harvest.

 

And there is good fruit.

And there is dangerous fruit, right?

(PAUSE)

 

Paul also says, "I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth."

 

Notice that phrase: with all the saints. Not by yourself. Not alone. Not through private spirituality.

 

With all the saints.

 

The love of Christ is something we discover together. The word "you" here is plural. We’ve highlighted this for a few weeks now - southern translators might say "y'all." Maybe even "all y'all." Once again, Paul is not praying for isolated disciples.

 

He is praying for a community.

A people.

A church.

A body.

You all. Us.

 

That is because Christ-following has never been a solo project.

We learn love from one another.

We practice love with one another.

We are shaped by one another.

Your faith strengthens my faith.

Your courage strengthens my courage.

Your generosity teaches me generosity.

Your witness teaches me something about following Jesus.

 

This is one of the great gifts of baptism. When we baptize someone, we don't simply celebrate an individual's relationship with God. We make promises to one another.

We promise to nurture.

To teach.

To encourage.

To pray.

To walk together.

To help one another grow into the people God created us to be.

 

In baptism, we become connected.

Rooted together.

 

And that is what our upcoming worship series is really about.

 

Over the next five weeks, we're going to spend time with the baptismal vows that we make as United Methodists. Some of us have spoken those words ourselves. Others had them spoken on our behalf before we were old enough to answer. But every time we witness another’s baptism (or confirmation – next week), we recommit ourselves to those promises.

 

And at their heart, those promises are really questions about love.

What does love look like when the forces of evil are present?

What does love look like when injustice is rampant?

What does love look like when Christ calls us to trust grace? That is to trust that we are really loved by God no matter what?

What does love look like when another person needs encouragement, guidance, or belonging?

What does love look like when we are sent into the world as Christ's representatives?

 

Every week we will come back to the same truth.

We are rooted in Christ so that we can love boldly.

Not because love is easy.

Not because love is sentimental.

Not because love is always rewarded.

But because love is what grows when people sink their roots deeply into Christ.

 

A healthy tree does not produce fruit for itself. A healthy tree offers fruit to others. A healthy tree does not create shade for itself. It creates shade for those who gather beneath it.

The gifts of a tree are always for the benefit of something beyond itself.

 

Perhaps the same is true for discipleship. We are not rooted in Christ simply for our own spiritual well-being. We are rooted in Christ so that the love of Christ can grow through us.

So that our neighbors encounter grace.

So that lonely people find belonging.

So that wounded people discover healing.

So that divided communities find reconciliation.

So that the world catches a glimpse of God's kingdom.

 

THAT is Paul's prayer.

That Christ may dwell in us.

That we may be rooted and grounded in love.

And that from those roots, something beautiful may grow.

Not just for us.

But for the sake of the world God loves.

Amen.