Sunday, August 12, 2012
Ordinary 19/Pentecost 11B
Jerusalem Baptist Church (Emmerton), Warsaw VA
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
25
So then, putting away falsehood,
let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one
another. 26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your
anger, 27 and do not make room for the devil. 28 Thieves must give up
stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as
to have something to share with the needy. 29
Let no evil talk come out of your
mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your
words may give grace to those who hear. 30
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit
of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 31 Put away from you all
bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all
malice, 32 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. 5 Therefore be imitators of
God, as beloved children, 2 and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,
a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
For the last month, we’ve been following
the readings from Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. As we’ve moved through the
letter, Paul’s focus has changed. It began with his talking about how the walls
that divide the human race have been torn down in the person of Christ, about
how having a relationship with God is now no longer dependent on whether or not
you belong to a particular group of people, or whether you follow a certain
creed, worship a certain way or on a certain day, or practice a certain
set of rituals or not. Christ made that relationship accessible to anyone who
enters into relationship with HIM.
Now, beginning in this section that we’ve
relatively recently designated as chapter 4, he begins to move into what that
adoption - that relationship - looks like; into what the expression of BEING in
that relationship is - and it started last week with what it would look like
within the body of believers - WITHIN the body of people who HAVE entered into
relationship with God through Christ. Today’s text continues in that same vein.
Paul is getting down to brass tacks, as it were, with the folks in Ephesus as
well as the surrounding towns and cities who he knew would be reading these
words as well.
25
So then, putting away falsehood,
let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one
another.
This is both a concluding thought from
the previous paragraphs, and it serves as a jumping-off point as he moves into
other more specific instructions and admonishments:
26
Be angry but do not sin; do not
let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not make room for the devil.
Something we’ve touched on before -
notice that Paul isn’t saying that being angry is sinful - he is, in fact,
saying the opposite - BE angry … there ARE things worth being angry about -
things that happen, words that are spoken, misunderstandings or intentional
harm that is caused by one person to another, to which the only CORRECT
response IS anger. Anger is a part of the gamut of human emotion with which God
created us. Anger tells us that something is wrong, and it is usually
accompanied with the adrenalin to do something about that which is wrong.
Whether that adrenalin fuels an act or provides the courage to respond with
words in a situation in which we would normally be hesitant to speak out, THAT
is what it’s there for. His middle section of the sentence is a recipe for
healthy response - not letting the sun go down on your anger is simply telling
us to not nurse anger - to not give it permanent lodging - anywhere -
especially in our hearts - to deal with the source, and be done with it. To
speak to the issue, the person involved, to make a palpable change happen and
be done with it. To let it go. Because if we don’t, we open ourselves up to a quick-forming
poison to our spirits.
The next sentence stands out for a number
of reasons: the first is that you have to stop and think about who Paul is
addressing himself to:
28
Thieves must give up stealing;
rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have
something to share with the needy.
The second thought is … so this must have
been common knowledge among the people who were part of the congregation there?
… a friend of mine, Kay Voorhees, a fellow minister, wondered if Paul was
referring to people who were stealing in order to eat, which would have been a
somewhat more common situation then than it is now (though not entirely), or if
he was referring to people in positions of power - tax collectors, for example
- who were using their position of power to steal in a manner sanctioned by the
authorities.
Whatever the case may be, Paul’s call is
away from that way of life and towards a way of life that enables the nobler
ventures of the spirit to take hold - and do so for the good of OTHERS - not
just oneself.
Before we begin to feel
TOO good about ourselves, my friend Kay made another observation about this:
she asked: “when was the last time someone like that became a part of your/my
church family, and got the opportunity to be completely transformed by
following Jesus? Ah, but the rest of us "good" Christians are in need
of his transforming power, too -- otherwise Paul wouldn't have to tell us to
tell the truth, to not hold a grudge, to not be mean.” and we move on to the
next section of instructions:
29
Let no evil talk come out of your
mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your
words may give grace to those who hear. 30
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit
of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 31 Put away from you all
bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all
malice, 32 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
What simple, practical and APPLICABLE
instruction! In these few sentences, Paul spells out a way of being - of
getting along - of living - that opens us up to the possibilities that God has
for us if we just stay away from getting so caught up in ourselves - our envy,
our gripes, our mean-spiritidness, our pettyness, and allow the Holy Spirit to
express himself through us - in being kind to one another, in being
tenderhearted, in forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave us.
Therefore
be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2
and live in love, as Christ loved
us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
How do we first learn? What are the first
things we learn? To smile, to open our mouths, to wave, to kiss, to walk, to
speak, to say “please” and “thank you”? We learn from our parents. It is in
that face-to-face, eyeball-to-eyeball interaction that we learn how to be …
human.
It is the same way for us as children of
God. We have the opportunity and the ability to have that ‘face-to-face’ time
with Christ, that ‘eyeball-to-eyeball’ time when we are with each other,
when we are in the midst of our brothers and sisters, fellow Christ-followers,
and we SEE that kindness, that gentleness, that tenderheartedness that is the
mark of Christ - that living in love that infuses everything we do, how we
think, how we act, how we reason …
You’ve
shown that to me over these last three weeks, as we’ve walked
through the experience of losing loved ones and have gathered together in each
instance and been the comforting presence of Christ to each other.
May we so live in love that it won’t be a
conscious thing, but simply how we ARE.
Let’s pray.
