Sermon from November 27, 2005

Many years ago, I had knee surgery. After I had put on the patient's gown and waited a few minutes on a gurney, a nurse came in to wheel me down to the Operating Room. I found out many years later that Kay Stumpf of our congregation, a nurse anesthetist at the time, was in the O.R. that day. She heard what happened next.

The nurse wheeled me out into the hallway, and as we made our way to surgery, she called out in her best drill sergeant voice, "Okay, guys, clean up your act, I'm bringing a reverend down."

I don't like moments like that, but they go with the turf. They also offer a window into how millions of people think about religion. When a pastor is present, people suddenly remember their moral standard - "I'm bringing a reverend down" - and the brief moral blip on the screen is the call to abstain from something - "Okay, guys, clean up your act." Whben the religious irritant has been removed or, in my case, anesthetized, then life can get back to normal.

Religion is what you must not do, and God is the One who goes about looking for people, who are otherwise having a good time, and putting a stop to it. Pastors bear some responsibility for this perception of God, and I leave you with your own conscience to discern how deeply this kind of thinking has infected you.

The New Testament offers a refreshingly different way of thinking about God. If we are to live lives worthy of the Church's vocation, we need to replace the depressing habit I have tried to describe and learn to think a new way. The New Testament letter of Ephesians illustrates a better way of thinking about God.

The Morals and Their Motives
In October, we looked closely at verses 22-24 of chapter 4. They introduced us to the Grand Pattern of Human Restoration: get rid of the old, ungodly habits; learn to think a new way; and learn new godly habits that are worthy of the Church's vocation to be holy.

Since millions of people think of religion as a call to abstain from something, let's focus first on verse 22. Part of a life worthy of God does involve abstaining from sin. The verse says, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. Stop living the way you once lived, with all your hell-raising, selfishness, lying, cheating, and bullying.

Ephesians 4-5 gives specific examples of behavior that we are to abstain from. There aren't many surprises about this behavior. What may come as a surprise is the motivation given for getting rid of these old habits. The motivation represents the new way of thinking that characterizes the New Testament.

Verse 25 starts off with something we learn very early in life: don't lie. Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor. This moral principle was universally held and sometimes drastically enforced by some mothers in my childhood, who threatened to wash their children's mouth with soap, if they caught them lying again.

Christianity, which never destroys what is good in nature, reinforces this natural rejection of lying. Where Christianity distinguishes itself is the motivation it offers for telling the truth. Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. That one body is the Church. We belong to each other. Lying undermines our solidarity and the Church's effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

When did anyone ever say to you, "Don't lie, it hurts the Church?" The notion that lying might diminish the Church of Jesus Christ is a new motive for telling the truth. Here is another new idea in verses 26-27.

"In youranger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. Our shorthand for this is: don't go to bed angry. It is a piece of wisdom that we do well to pass on to every newlywed couple. But how often do we add the spiritual dimension of verse 27?

Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. People sometimes ask if I believe the devil is real, or if the name devil is just a way of talking about the forces of evil in the world. I have no idea of what the devil looks like. Those cartoon drawings of what he looks like are a diversion.

But I do believe that an intelligent being with malice toward God and man is at work to harm the human family. The last words of verse 27 imply that the devil has limitations: do not give the devil a foothold. Unresolved anger gives his malice access to us that otherwise he would not have. We can prevent that.

The apostle was saying to the Church - that's who he was writing to - that if you want misery to break loose in the Church, then allow anger among the brothers and sisters to go on unresolved. Don't stay angry at each other; it hurts the Church.

Let's move on to verse 28. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something with his own hands. The young churches of the Roman Empire were fragile. We know from verse 17 that Paul insisted to the Ephesians that Gentile believers must no longer live the way they did before they became Christians. He needed to say that, because their former way of life still had a hold on some of them, including some of their old thieving habits.

Again: don't steal. How basic can you get? Everyone knows that, including pagans. But look at the motive Paul gives for honest work: he must work, that he may have something to share with those in need. Not taking what belongs to someone else and being able to give to someone else in need are different motives for being honest.

That is remarkable. Has anyone ever said to you, "Be honest so you can be generous?" How did Paul learn to think that way? He doesn't tell us here, but I'd like to offer an educated guess at why generosity came to mind. He learned it from Christ.

That is the apostle who wrote: You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich - 2 Corinthians 8:9.

The love of Christ for His people and all people had given the apostle new aspirations and motives. We never hear him say anything as coarse as, "Clean up your act." He never leaves the impression that God is out to spoil the fun. Can we be like that?

Look at verse 29: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths. Related to this, look at Ephesians 5:4: nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place.

Now, look at the alternative speech and its motives that Paul introduces in verse 29. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Once again, it is the well-being of the people of God that teaches us to govern our tongue. Ephesians 5:4 replaces obscenity, foolish talk and coarse joking with thanksgiving.

Look at one more example in Ephesians 5:3. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed. 

Sexual immorality has long been a theme in preaching. Parents labor over how to talk persuasively about it with their children. What is instructive are the motives we use to dissuade people from sexual immorality. "You'll get AIDS or some other disease." "You don't want to get a girl pregnant." "You'll break your mother's heart." "Your father will break the boy's neck." "You'll go straight to hell." Haven't we heard it all? It is a morality of fear, and it has been singularly unpersuasive.

Maybe we should give the Bible a hearing. It has a novel approach, one part of which comes at the end of this verse. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people.

The apostle had a lofty view of the Church. It takes us back to the first proposal of this sermon series. The vocation of the Church is to be the global community that is gathered around Jesus Christ and serves as the dwelling place where God the Creator and Redeemer lives with the human family - a kind of beachhead from which He has begun the liberation of the nations of the world from the disorders of sin. If you think the Church is nothing more than an irritating appendix that could be excised without noticeable loss, it will take this powerful motive right out of your hand.

God is the ultimate Realist. He knows all the failures of the Church that we know and more; but He bet His life that He could turn the Church into something beautiful. If He is at work to make the Church into something beautiful, why shouldn't we?

Going Higher
So, the Church's vocation involves abstaining from sin. Ephesians 4:24 says that we are to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. A life worthy of our vocation, a life worthy of God will involve renunciations. But Christ always replaces the old habits with new habits of holiness. We don't just say no to life. There is so much about life to say yes to, so much to affirm. But the thing that takes our breath away is the new motivation that goes along with these new habits.

Ephesians 4:32 gives a good example. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. I forgive you, because God forgave me. Internally, everything changes. It is not only about my forgiving you, important as that is. It is about God and His forgiveness. Deep in the recesses of our souls, something new has entered the command and control center of our being. When we are in conflict with another person, we may well stew about it. God's forgiveness has become part of the stew, a transforming unpredictable power.

The opening verses of chapter five can set you back on your heels. Be imitators of God. Have you ever in your life thought for five straight minutes about imitating God? He's not blowing smoke at us, and in the rest of this text he gets specific about that imitation.

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Christian love means intending and, where possible, for the sake of Christ, doing what is best for the other person, regardless of who the person is, regardless of what it may cost us, and regardless of what we get for our efforts.

Such love has dimensions that are heroic but are anything but huge. In reality Christian love has to do mostly with little things, because life has tod o mostly with little things. Large or small, such love is in imitation of God.

Look at one more example of godly motivation from Ephesians 6:5-8. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve whole-heartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

Verse seven is revolutionary for men and women, who go off to work each day. When we lived in Portland, OR, a familiar bumper sticker read: "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go." But the Bible said to Christian slaves: Serve whole-heartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.

It's not about getting the boss off your case, or even about the integrity of the work, or putting bread on the table. Our jobs, with all their rewards and hassles, all their opportunities and risks, are central ways we have of serving the Lord. Paul wrote this counsel to slaves, who had little hope of escaping slavery. He said they could serve God in their slavery. We should be able to do it, don't you think, with our compensation packages, paid vacations, profit-sharing plans, health insurance, and civil rights? We might, if we took seriously the mind-renewing counsel of scripture.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity 
The Apostle Paul once made a statement about his personal spiritual motivation that sums up what this sermon is about. You can find it in Philippians 3:12b. I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. At the heart of that statement is the conviction that Christ had taken hold of his life for some splendid purpose. I believe that about us. I believe that about the Church. If you can believe it, it becomes a powerful, positive motive.

I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. If Christ has taken hold of us for some splendid purpose, then let's do everything in our power to discover that purpose and take hold of it and pursue it with all our might.

That kind of motivation is several light years removed from "clean up your act, I'm bringing a reverend down." It is far removed from the sense that religion is what you must not do, and God is the One who goes about looking for people, who are otherwise having a good time, and putting a stop to it. It is far removed from a morality of fear.

I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. This is not for the spiritual elite. This is not reserved for pastors, priest, and missionaries. This is for all the people of God in their flawed condition of temptations and contradictions. There is no one else for Christ to take hold of.

We can live with a morality of fear. It is like jousting with shadows on the wall of a cave, when we could walk out into the sunlight and journey to the New Jerusalem. Let's journey together in the sunlight. God has taken hold of us for His splendid purpose.