Steer Clear of the Destructive Stuff
The Rev. Mark Sherwindt, Pastor
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church
Pentecost 11, August 12-13, 2006
When I served as a Pastor in Cincinnati (1981-1994), I enjoyed a local radio host who grew up as a locker-room cut up. He knew everything about high school football, and just enjoyed running off at the mouth, in a funny kind of way. He used to begin his show with a rather catchy opener. “Tonight we're going to talk about drugs, sex, alcohol, violence, abuse, and addiction - in other words, your life.” That is kind of what Paul is talking about in the Second Lesson, when he addresses behaviors in our lives that grieve the Holy Spirit: bitterness, wrath, anger, wrangling, slander, and let's not forget stealing and malice. Words like that will grab your attention. They might even get you fidgeting a little bit in the pew. That is precisely the turn Paul has taken as he moves from the Good News of God's indicative - talking about who God is and what God has done - to the imperative of our response, which is to lead lives that are worthy of our calling.
Without doubt, Paul really outdid himself in talking about the goodness of God. Chapters One, Two and Three talked about God's grace, God's peace, the miracle of the church, the promise of salvation, the power of the Holy Spirit. God has blessed us, God has chosen us, God has claimed us as His children, and redeemed us in Christ. That is the Good News Paul proclaimed in Chapter One. God's grace is the key to the promise of salvation, and Christ's death on the cross has won the peace, and more, this victory has created a beachhead here in the church where the reign of God's grace can extend its reach into the world. That is the Good News Paul proclaimed in Chapter Two. Then, in Chapter Three Paul testifies to the power of the Spirit's presence sending him to his knees in the full and certain knowledge that God is able and willing to give us all that we need, to give us even more than we can imagine. What is it that we need? Paul identifies some of these gifts: apostles, the key to leadership; prophets, the key to understanding; evangelists, the key to heartfelt fervor; pastors, who will care for us; and educators, who will equip us for the work of ministry, for building up the life of the church. That is the Good News that connects Chapters Three and Four: the promise of the Spirit's power filling our lives with the presence of Christ's gifts.
We are equipped; so, let's engage the battle. “Put away falsehood. Don't let the sun go down on your anger. Thieves must give up stealing, and do honest work. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Put away bitterness and wrath and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.” [Ephesians 4:25, 26, 28, 30-32] This is such a great passage. Last week, we enjoyed the lofty rhetoric of God's grand design: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” [4:4-6] That sounds great. What a sense of unity in life, in call, in purpose. What a great place to be, here in the church, the new creation of a community, where God's grace leads the way to our celebration of the peace that is ours in Christ. “For he is our peace,” Paul writes in Chapter Two, “in his flesh … on the cross … breaking down the walls of hostility that divide us, making peace … in his body … by reconciling us with God and uniting us with one another.” [Ephesians 2:14-16]
But now Paul gets down to the reality of life on planet earth, where sin has something to say about what goes on here among us. I love this section. To some degree, the behaviors Paul identifies here have the ring of a general listing of vices that all communities would discourage. But as we know from our recent studies of Ephesians during the adult class at Sunday School, Paul is often quite focused on local particulars when offering his wide-ranging advice on such matters as eating meat sacrificed to idols, drinking too much communion wine, even appropriate sexual behavior for the old and young alike. In today's reading Paul is moved to address a particular problem group, “Thieves, you must stop your stealing, and work honestly with your hands.” It's kind of startling to have Paul addressing thieves who must be among those who are gathered at the church in Ephesus.
Perhaps he was responding to a “Dear Paul” letter the Ephesians had previously written. “Dear Dr. Paul - Life's been tough lately, and we have found that a five-finger discount at the local market has served us well from time to time. Some among us think that we may have misinterpreted the meaning of your teachings when you proclaim that because of the free gift of God's grace freely given in Christ, all things are now lawful for those who believe! Please elaborate. As always - your devoted disciples.” Paul reviewed his teachings. Saved by grace - yes, that's right. Free from the law - yes, that, too, is correct. All things are lawful, but not all things build up in love. That's something these folks must have missed. Therefore, thieves, give up stealing, and do honest work, so that you will have enough not just for yourselves, but to share with others, too.
Well, it is highly doubtful that Paul received such a letter. It is, however, revealing that Paul would encounter the need to address such an issue. So, let's think a bit more about the context. After all, the Christian community in Paul's day had been breaking through historic barriers and building relational bridges to a new world, where peoples formerly divided - by race and religion, by ethnic background and family tradition, by national origin and political allegiance - were actually coming together at the impulse of the Spirit's guidance in the community of Christ's body, otherwise known as the church. That was the historical reality that helped move Paul to conversion. Former traditions, which previously had served to guide these new converts in knowing what they should do and how they should live, were no longer their first line of moral guidance in life. Just think about the challenge present in the Middle East today, where we find Arabs raised in the madrassa schools of Islamic upbringing, where it is taught that it's okay to hate Jews, and where Jews have grown quite comfortable living separate from the Palestinians who surround them and outnumber them: think about the challenge of their living together in peace. The codes with which these divided peoples and bitter enemies grew up will no longer serve them well if what they are trying to do is to learn new ways of getting along with folks they previously resented, or mistrusted, or both.
The way to this new creation appeals to the Spirit, whose presence and power is able to make us Christ's body. On the positive side, Paul exhorts us to be imitators of God, to live in love, as Christ loved us, sacrificially and selflessly, a fragrant offering to God. [5:1-2] From a negative perspective, at the very least, if striving for the highest level of faithfulness is beyond your reach, then steer clear of the awful stuff that grieves the Holy Spirit, precisely because these behaviors destroy the good that God intends. They destroy the peace that Christ died trying to win. They destroy the community that comes into being by receiving the miracle of forgiveness in the blood, and participating in the unity of the body. Look, it would be great if we would live the love that's in us; but at the very least, let's stop the destructive stuff. “Stop the falsehood. Let no evil talk come out of our mouths, but only what is useful for building up the body of Christ. Put away from you the old ways that encouraged bitterness, wrath, wrangling, and slander - and be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.” [4:25, 29, 31] In the end, as it was at the beginning when the church came into existence, the revelation of God fully present in Christ is where we go to find the truth of what God's love looks like, which is the very same place where we find the power to live the love with which God has embraced us, the love to which God now calls us.
Last year, Zion spent a good deal of time forging the terms of a Membership Covenant to put flesh-and-blood on the bare-bones minimalist view of membership that our church constitution requires, namely, communion at least once, and evidence of an offering. That kind of vision for membership isn't going to light up the world, nor even keep the lights on here in the church. Supporting the unity of the church, supporting our sense of community here at the church, supporting the ministries of our church, and supporting those personal disciplines and communal activities that strengthen our church: these became the four pillars to becoming a healthy congregation. There was only one place in the covenant where we acknowledged the need to address the negative, namely, in our refusal to gossip or in other ways to sow seeds of division. Otherwise, we stuck mostly with the positive - by acting with friendliness and love, by respecting one another, by encouraging one another with kindness, by praying, attending, inviting, welcoming, and including others who want to be a part of what God is doing here; by discovering the gifts God has given, by equipping fellow members for the work of ministry, by volunteering when called, valuing the privilege of serving, and practicing the art of including all whom God calls. [Take a look at the Membership Covenant on the back page.]
It's hard to say whether our work on this Membership Covenant transformed the life of our church, but it is clear that folks who have visited us since that time have sensed God's presence, have felt Christ's love, and have found themselves at home in the mission we share and in the life that is ours. We praise God for that, and for Bill and Joy, for Jim and Elaine, for Jennifer and Mason, for Shannon and Hanna, for Brian, Nicole, Lya, Kathryn, and Weston, for John, Ginny, Max, Maddie, Mallory, and Marcus. God has blessed us all with a great church family, with a household of faith that is full of gifts, filled, as well, with the Spirit's power and the Spirit's presence, which we share in Jesus' name. Amen