Sermon - Rev Judith Perry

Here in the photo on the screen is the prison where Paul, and perhaps later, Peter were held. It’s in Rome. You can visit it, maybe even pray in it.  

The Marmertine prison is now below a church, Giuseppe dei Falegnami built much later, but the prison itself dates back to the 7^th century BCE. It was a nasty place. 

While Peter is buried somewhere under the Vatican, it is easy to visit Paul’s traditional burial site. He was executed and buried outside the Roman walls. 

I have said this before, but you can just go to the basilica San Paolo Fuori le Mura, Saint Paul’s outside the Walls, and walk in, Above his burial place are the chains used to subjugate him.  

I have a healthy suspicion about relics, but there they are. 

Appropriately our Paul read this passage which begins with the writer stating that he is in prison. 

It says something like I am still in this detention centre, locked up for the Lord, but you are free to live out the life to which God has called you. 

Now this is the last service in Saint Matthew’s. Next week we’ll be here, but we shall be in Halifax United, Barrington Street. 

And there is such mixed bag of emotions. There is both anticipation, and there is grief.  

There are those who look forward, and those who find it so difficult to let go of what has been a glorious past. 

I share my grief.  

When technically Saint Matthew moves on in the new configuration, I am distressed that I am the last minister in this church under the name and patronage of the Saint who protects us. 

But we cannot be prisoners of our past. Paul might be in a dungeon, but we are the free people to whom he is writing. In Christ we are all at liberty. 

He writes: I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. First of all, live! There is much more life to come. 

Then live a worthy life.  

Fort Massey and Saint Matthew folks are moving on. Take this life with you. Some may go on to other churches, and some will join the amalgamated Halifax congregation.  

But wherever you go, Paul’s message is for you today and for your journey. 

Paul names five virtues—quiet, unflashy, deeply countercultural: 

Humility 

Gentleness 

Patience 

Bearing with one another in love 

Making every effort to maintain unity 

These are not personality traits. They are spiritual practices. 

Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is being free from the need to dominate. Gentleness is strength under restraint. Patience is the refusal to give up on people.  

Bearing with one another is the gritty work of real community. Unity is not uniformity—it is the hard-won fruit of grace. 

Paul is describing the posture of people who know they have been loved into existence. 

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Humble and gentle, that’s good stuff. But let’s emphasize the advice, or order, or command, to be patient. 

Be patient in this process. Patience whilst you all are trying to figure out a new way to be church.  

There will be hiccups. There will certainly be hiccups, glitches and a few potholes on this journey. 

Then bear each other up in love. 

 Even when things get rocky among you, hang in there with each other. Don’t let your love give up. In the Spirit you are one people, held together in peace.  

Put every effort in to making sure that that vision is a lived reality and not just a pious ideal. 

He was writing to the church in Ephesus which is now in Türkiye.  

The Church in Ephesus is in the Book of Revelation. Where there is a complaint against them in that they have abandoned the love that they first had. 

While Paul told them to live a worthy life and to bear, to hold , each other in love. In time some of them slipped. 

Walk like a penguin across the icy patches. Be careful not to slip. And pick each other up when you do so. 

And this is especially important. Paul wrote: Make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 

These are your marching orders: Make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 

Paul’s urgency is striking. Unity is not something we create. It is something the Spirit has already given. 

Our task is to maintain it—protect it—tend it like a fragile flame. 

In a world addicted to division, the church’s unity is not optional.  

When a community marked by difference—age, background, politics, personality—lives in love, it becomes a signpost of the kingdom. 

Unity is not the absence of conflict; it is the presence of reconciliation. 

So then, Keep the faith, stick together, and let there be peace. 

This unity is evident in everything. The Spirit is one; the body into which we have been incorporated is one; and the quest to which we are called is one.  

We have only one Lord; we share one faith; and we all came into it through the one baptism.  

Paul then sings a kind of creed—seven “ones”: 

One body 

One Spirit 

One hope 

One Lord 

One faith 

One baptism 

One God and Father of all 

We strive for unity because God is one. We live in peace because Christ is our peace. We bear with one another because the Spirit binds us together. 

Paul roots Christian behaviour not in rules, but in reality. We are one—so live like it. 

You are in the process of becoming a reconfigured one. 

Whatever the future holds: we are all children of the one God, who surrounds everything, permeates everything, and embraces everything. 

Halifax United’s credibility does not rest on its programmes, buildings, or eloquence. It rests on its capacity to embody the reconciling love of God. 

When we live with humility, gentleness, patience, and love, we become a living commentary on the gospel. 

When we maintain unity, we proclaim that Christ has broken down dividing walls. 

When we honour our calling, we reveal the One who calledus. 

You have been called—by name, by grace, by love. Walk in a way that reflects the One who called you. 

Walk humbly. Walk gently. Walk patiently. Walk in love. Walk in unity. 

For there is one God, one hope, one Spirit, and one body— and you belong to it.