“BE SURE OF THIS!”

A sermon based upon Ephesians 5: 3-10

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

First Sunday in Lent-C,  March 10,  2019 

(10-14) Sermon Series: Growing Up In Christ (Eph. 4:15)

Sex.  Now that I’ve got your attention...   NT Wright tells of a college bulletin board just like this.  In had one word in the middle of it: SEX.  Underneath, in small print, it said, “Now that we’ve got your attention, how about joining the college Rowing Club?”

“Whoever designed that advertisement,....were simply exploiting the fact that in contemporary Western society people are so obsessed with images of sex that the very word grabs people’s attention.”  Whether it’s in movies, music or in advertisements, advertisers know that when they describe something as ‘sexy’---whether they are selling clothes, computers, cars or dishwashing liquid, when they the idea of ‘sex’ they’ve got your attention (Wright, Ephesians for Everyone, p. 57).

The world of Paul’s day wasn’t that much different, particularly in the cities where Paul preached.  Recently, on YouTube, I heard British Historian, Tom Holland, a notable expert in Roman history, say that ‘in the Roman world of Paul a male Roman citizen had the legal right to have sex with whomever he wanted to, however he wanted to, anytime he wanted to.’  Casual sex, and all kinds of even stranger sexual practices flourished in that world.  We know this because many of the pictures on Roman walls and the images in paintings of that time indicated that, when it came to sexual morality, there was not much restraint.  

Perhaps the strangest fact of all was that some religions, particularly those with secret initiation ceremonies, included certain sexual practices as approved and necessary rituals.  In other words, Temples were built, just so prostitutes could hang around, enhancing the religious experience.  This amounted to using religion as an excuse for approving prostitution, but other times the religion actually believed that the sexual experience was the most ‘blessed’ religious experience of all.  The point was, that those who were ‘enlightened’ could do anything they wanted with their bodies; because it was ‘their bodies’.  Anyone who didn’t understand this was, religiously and culturally, ‘in the dark’. 

People still make such outrageous claims like this today?  In spite of all the broken marriages and homes, all the ruined lives and destroyed intimacy; and even in spite of the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and the breakdown of good moral common sense, there are still people today who believe that you can do whatever you want, however you want it, and what you can get by with whoever you want to be with, "as long as nobody gets hurt". 

Many people’s understanding of human sexuality reduces us to be like all other animals, like one of the young guys I knew in Germany.  He would often would come to our house, wearing a t-shirt stamped with a cartoon image of an animal mating.  He simply didn’t see anything wrong with wearing that.  It was the natural way things are.  In his way of thinking, since we scientifically classified as just animals or sophisticated apes, we really don’t need any rules, taboos or morals about sexuality at all.  As a 60’s slogan went: “All’s fair in love and war.”

What we need to understand, however, is that when we read the Bible, we had better prepare ourselves for a viewpoint that is radically different.   We also need to understand, especially in this text from Paul, is that he was living right in the middle of a world full of moral sexual confusion.  But now, being inspired by the redeeming Holy Spirit and the saving power of Jesus Christ, he wrote to the Christians at Ephesus about a new approach, that among God's people and in God's church was God's new command for a new, different, saving and redeeming way of life.  Paul writes: “BUT AMONG YOU THERE MUST NOT BE EVEN A HINT OF SEXUAL IMMORALITY… (v. 3)

 

MUST NOT BE EVEN A HINT (3a)

When Paul said there ‘must not even be a hint’ or, as the KJV says, ‘let it not be named once’, some people have taken this to mean that the church shouldn’t talk or address the issue of human sexuality at all.  In other words, when everybody else is shaping views of sexuality, the preacher, and may be parent too, should keep quiet.

King Duncan tells how a mother of two daughters, who were the ages 5 and 7, decided it was time to tell her daughters about the birds and the bees.  So, feeling a bit uncomfortable to start the discussion herself, she sent off for a booklet recommended by the PTA, and she told them both to read it.

After having them read the booklet, she called the girls in for a chat.  When she finished her talk, with her heart in her throat, she said, “Now, you may ask me any question you want to.”

The oldest said, “Anything?”

The mother said, “Yes, anything,” then she took a deep breath, thinking, “O.K., Here it comes.”

Then, the little girl asked, “Can we have a new baseball bat?

Like that mother, we in the church have been reluctant to talk about the biblical mandate for sexuality.  As preachers, and sometimes as parents too, we have been hesitant to talk about the Christian boundaries of sexual behavior to our children.   Unfortunately, while we have been silent, our culture has been shouting it’s own agenda with a megaphone.  

Way back in 1987, a study by Planned Parenthood indicated that 65,000 sexual references a year were broadcast over television during prime afternoon and evening hours and that the average television viewer sees 14,000 instances of sexual material every year. Surely, the numbers today, with the use of computers and cell phones, are even more staggering and the content has definitely become more explicit.

One place where the world’s sexual agenda was introduced into our living rooms, was through the lead characters in television dramas. Years ago, people laughed when Republican candidate Dan Quayle chided the television character Murphy Brown for bearing a baby out of wedlock.  Mr. Quayle may have mistakenly spelled potato as “potatoe,” but in this instance, he was making a valid point.  When it comes to sexual practice in our society, Americans are adopting a more secular standard of morality.  Our entertainment world now freely encourages bed-hopping, baby-bearing, and sexual experience, with whomever it pleases.  What was once called sacred or saved for marriage, can be reduced to recreation, taking little or no thought as to the consequences.  Instead of challenging the culture to a higher standard, today’s culture is being reduced to the lowest common moral denominator.

Recently, in Atlantic Magazine, there was an interesting article about one parent’s shock when their child told them, she thought she should be a he.  The highly educated parents didn’t know what to do.  They didn’t want to go against their child’s feelings, but they also didn’t want their child to be confused about their sexual gender.  

What they did, was to go along with their child’s feelings (but did not feed them), while they doubled and tripled their time with their child.  They went swimming, canoeing, biking, and on trips together.  In each possible moment they gave their child freedom to talk, to express her feelings, and also to know that, more than anything else, the parents were there for her.  After feeling the parents love and concern, the child came to realize, she said, that she was just as confused and depressed about being a him, as she had being a she .(https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/when-a-child-says-shes-trans/561749/).

Gender and sexual confusion is just one of the results of a ‘free’ sexual age.  In light of what is happening to many lost souls, don’t we as a society, and even as churches, need to do some serious soul searching about, not just what we’ve done, but what we haven’t done, and especially about what we haven’t said and clarified? Have we made it clear to our own children, not just with words, but also with deeds, what the Bible says about the role of sexuality in a Christian’s life? 

There was at a time, especially in the Roman world, when sexual purity was one of the clear distinctions of the Christian way of life.  As one writer has said, contrasting the early church from its surrounding culture, “Pagans shared nothing but their wives. Christians, on the other hand, shared everything but their wives.”  Bible scholar William Barclay said that ‘chasity’, that is sexual purity only within marriage, ‘was one new virtue, one new behavior, that entered the ancient world with the birth of the Christian Church.’  When Christianity was growing in the pagan, Gentile, Roman world, sexual morality and marriage purity was a practice of faith that rose up in world of moral decadence.  Christians set themselves apart by embracing higher moral standards than the world around them.

In this text, it not only says that the in the churches there should not be ‘even a hint of sexual immorality among (us), but it also says in verse 5, “For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person….will enter God’s kingdom.”   Did you catch the directness of Paul’s speech?  This is something he is ‘sure’ about. No immoral person will enter into God’s coming kingdom, which is God's new, redeemed, transformed world.

Interestingly, the word used here for immoral in Greek is ‘pornia’. You know that word because it is the root of our English words “porn’ and ‘pornography’.  These words are used to label specifically sexually explicit materials, movies, videos, magazines, etc.  While people often make a distinction between ‘soft’ or ‘hardcore’ porn,  the Bible makes no such distinction.   Here, of course, Paul is not referring to sexually explicit materials, but Paul means sexually immoral people.  It is the people who are sexually immoral, along with the impure, and the greedy, and also those who constantly involve themselves in ‘obscene’ and ‘foolish talk’ and ‘coarse jokes’; none of them, Paul says, will inherit God’s coming kingdom (5), but, Paul warns, ‘God’s wrath’ will come on ‘those who are disobedient’.

WHICH ARE OUT OF PLACE (3b)  

Paul goes on to explain, that not just 'sexually immorality' but ‘any kind of impurity,’ like ‘greed’, is ‘improper for God’s holy people’.  Although we are going primarily speaking about sexual immorality today, we need to remember that Paul means a whole lot more.  Constant, continual sexual immorality is only one symptom of falling short of God’s glory.  But it is not the only symptom.  Sexual sins don't make us any more or less a sinner than being greedy does.  Today we are talking about sexual immorality because it is at the top of Paul’s list, but there is a lot more to be talked about.

And this is certainly strong language too, and Paul even adds that he is ‘sure’ about this.  He is 'sure' that the sexually impure will not 'inherit God's kingdom.'  How can Paul be so sure?   How can we be ‘sure’?  How should we still take such direct, moralizing, ethical instruction, especially when it goes so strongly against the current of our world too?  Do we talk Paul seriously, when he speaks of ‘God’s wrath’, idolatry, and sexual immorality?

Since there so much moral confusion these days about what is right and wrong, who is moral or immoral, and what is normal or abnormal.  Since there are so many questions about what it means to be an ethical person, and that even Christians get mixed-up about what kind of behavior is ‘proper’ or ‘out of place’ (v. 4) for themselves, I want us to zoom in on what Paul means when he says that ‘immoral’ behavior is ‘out of place’ (v4) and are ‘improper for God’s holy people’ (v3).  I want us also to consider more closely what Paul infers when he says “God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient’. 

Once I heard a confused youth question such moral demands, asking, “Does this mean God hates people, when we are the only people God has?”  How do we take such strong language, such moral demands and commands, when Paul also declares that ‘all have sinned and come short of God’s glory” (Rom. 3:23), or says that we are not saved by ‘good works’, nor are we saved by good behavior, but we ‘have been saved by grace, through faith…” (Eph. 2: 8-9)?  Didn’t Paul just state this at the beginning of this very letter?   So, as the gospel of Jesus says “God so loved the world… (John 3:16) and Paul has just said that God saves us unrighteous ‘sinners’ (Rom. 3:10), why would Paul now say that ‘immorality’ is ‘out of place’, or ‘improper’ and that ‘God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient?’  If God loves us, and saves us ‘by grace…through faith’ (Eph. 2:8), why then does Paul now say that ‘immorality’ brings ‘God’s wrath?’

While it might sound contradictory, it is exactly because God loves sinners that now says that he now says there is ‘not to be a hint of sexual immorality’, or impurity of any kind among God’s people.  This God who loves us requires us to clean up our act, to change our lives, to ‘put off’ the old, and to put on a whole and a new quality of life---a holy new life so that we no longer live as the world or the pagans do.  Why does God command that?  Does this mean God is against sinners, or does this mean something else?

The short answer is that God commands (Karl Barth) that his ‘holy people’ not live as the world does, because this God, the God of Jesus Christ, the God of Israel, who is the ‘one true God’ (Isa. 65:16) is a moral, ethical, and holy God.  “Be holy, as I, the Lord your God, am holy  (Lev. 19.2, 1 Pet 1.16).”  You can’t get any clearer than this.  The God of Israel commands and demands a moral life because this is what it means to live in relationship with a moral God.  God does not demand morality because he is against people who are immoral, but God demands a higher morality among his people so that God's people can be a holy people who are 'salt' and 'light' in a broken, fractured, and confused world.   

From the very beginning of everything the Bible is about, Israel is about, and everything Christianity is about, at the heart of all that is revealed, taught, and commanded is that this God is a God who demands, commands, and reasons with his people, all the way back to Cain in Genesis, ‘If you do what is right, will you not be accepted’ (Gen. 4:7).   Also, from Abraham, to whom God demands, ‘walk before me and be blameless’ (Gen. 17:1), to Moses, through whom God commands, not only ‘be holy as I am holy’ (Lev. 19:2), but God also says, “Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD's commands and decrees that I am giving you today FOR YOUR OWN GOOD? (Deut. 10:12-13 NIV).  Underline that last line, ‘for your own good?’  What God is doing in Israel, all the way up to what God was doing in Jesus Christ, and up to now, God is calling Jesus' disciples to ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' (Mk. 12:30 NIV).  

This love for God from the time of Moses, up to Jesus too, was to love and be loved by a moral and ethical God; a God who still calls his own people to live holy lives, separated from the confusion of the world, so that they can challenge, and bring hope to a fallen world.  Isn’t this what being a believer, a Christian, and a person of faith means; that we not only give hearts, but we also give our bodies and all our lives to God?  Now, through Jesus, the God who created our bodies, calls us to learn how to ‘control our bodies’ for our own good.

Paul wrote about this fuller form, in an earlier letter he wrote to the Thessalonians, which was passed around by all the churches: “For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.  It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;  4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before.  For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.  Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 4:2-8 NIV).

It is clear, that in the New Testament that Paul was uncompromising when it came to insisting sexual purity is the only proper lifestyle for God's people.  He wasn't writing to pagans or to unbelievers, but he was writing to the churches, who constantly being pressured by the world around them.  Why was Paul so insistent the churches were called to a different way of life?  Let me answer with a true story.  When we were missionaries, we were required every year to go to a mission meeting with all our colleagues to share Christian fellowship, to present mission plans, and to adopt our annual budget.  Since this was a required meeting, we would have to take our whole families, children and all.  Because our Mission Board required this, they would often ask mission volunteers to come from the states to take care of our children while we were in several days of meetings together. 

One of those volunteers was from western North Carolina.  She was a wonderful elderly lady, who had a heart for missionaries and she gave good care to our children too.  Because she came back each year, we developed a relationship with her, and later, when we came home on furlough, she invited us to come and speak to her church.  

During our time there in that church, we encountered an East German girl, who was an exchange student, that lived not very far from where we were working in Germany.  After getting acquainted with her, I asked this German girl what she had learned from her time as an exchange student.  Do you know what she told me?  She said that one thing that she had learned that was different between German church youth and American church youth, particularly church youth is the Bible-belt-south, is that while German Christian youth sleep around and experiment and call this normal, American youth go to church, hear that it is wrong, but they are doing it anyway.  Then she concluded, “At least we are not hypocrites about it.”

Does that story shock you, as much as it did me?  That was certainly not my experience as a Christian youth, but there were only 4 or 5 of us who were serious about our faith.  Still, I had no reason to doubt her.  The question of what is moral, right, and pure is still a very relevant question today, not just among youth, but among all of us.  We live in a sexually free, and according to God's design, a sexually confused world, where secret stories about sexual struggles about hidden immorality, sexual abuse are coming to light almost constantly:  We hear sordid stories about Harvey Weinsteins, Bill Cosby’s, Pedophile Priests, Bill Clinton’s, and from many unknowns too.  This stories should start to give us some idea why a moral God demands and commands from a moral life from his people, which rises above the ‘lowest common denominator’ of how things too often are?  Can't you at least begin to understand why, in a pagan world,  a moral God called forth a people who were called to ‘be holy, because (he is) holy?’  

DO NOT BE PARTNERS WITH THEM (7)

Perhaps the strongest, most confining and demanding word of all, from Paul is in what he concludes: “Therefore, do not be partners with them” (v.7).  Other translations read, ‘don’t associate’ (RSV), or don’t partake with them (KJV) or don’t have anything to do with them (CEB). 

Paul continues to spell out why we should ‘come out from among them’ and be separate’  (2 Cor. 6:17) from immoral behaviors and from immoral people too.  But here, Paul insists on this because it was in this ‘darkness’ (v. 8) that ‘they once lived’, but now, he says, ‘you are light in the Lord’, and you are to live as ‘children of light’.   Paul insists, in the most personal, encouraging, and positive way: ‘you must (now) find out what pleases the Lord (v. 10).’

What I want you to see here, is that the main reason Paul is so insistent, so direct, and so strong about Christians living the moral life---especially when it comes to sexual immorality---is because this was the kind of lifestyle that was destroying the world he knew.   A new kind of morality, was the only way to save that world.  And it was this Christian form of morality that was so promising to the Romans, that they finally came to see it was the only way a sexually permissive world could be saved.   So, we must understand that what  Paul was doing and saying here, was not to condemn people in the world , who were living dark, immoral, abusive lives,  nor what Paul intending to condemn or lay a guilt-trip on Christians who made mistakes, but what Paul believed was that in the moral truth of God and through the amazing, redeeming, transforming grace of Jesus Christ, even a confused, sexually immoral world, could still overcome the heartbreak, the hurt, and personal and societal pain that immoral living had created. 

Paul was not condemning, but Paul was declaring that this moral God, the Father of Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, was alive and at work in the world, is calling people to be moral people for their own good; to rise above the darkness and ceaspools of the world, because of Jesus Christ to show us the light and can save us from all this darkness.  

This is why is so important to treat sexuality, not as something dirty or immoral, but to make it what it is, something so sacred, so special, and so important to God’s good creation and life-giving design, that we must, as Christians, live in such a way that we do not allow God's gift to be corrupted and confused by human sin.  God's ‘wrath’ and moral law, is not intended to punish, but God’s law and wrath is a boundary that proves how God has created this world to be a moral, just, living-giving place.  It is because of the idolatrous, bad, immoral, and impure human choices humans wrongly make, that turns something so beautiful into something destructive, deadly, dangerous, dirty and hurtful.  While we Christians can't change the world, we can change our lives and we can show the world a way of life that is redemptive and constructive.

When I was just coming out of my childhood, I was visiting my cousins, who lived in Virginia, where my uncle was serving as an evangelical Methodist pastor and camp leader.  When I visited the camp, one of the strange rules was that they did not allow what they called ‘mixed bathing’.  In other words, they did not allow young boys and young girls to swim in the pool together at the same time.  In those days, we didn't go to 'camp' at my church, so I had never experienced something like this.   I had only been to Skyview Lake near my home, where everybody swam together.  I remember thinking to myself, when I visited my uncle's camp:  ‘Are these Christians children so weak minded that they can’t swim together without getting the wrong idea?’  I thought to myself, I’m glad I’m not so narrow-minded, since I know how to swim without getting the wrong idea."  

Today, in our world, we see how strange it is to us, that some fundamentalistic Muslims force their women to wear Burkes, or at least to cover part of their heads and their bodies with 'coverings'.  So often, people today, here is the West laugh at this as 'extremism', just like I thought it was when I visited my uncle's Christian camp.  In both situations, it looks like the weaker, and less disciplined we are on the inside, that is in our hearts, the more people need outer safeguards against the weakness of our flesh.   Our western society used to solve a lot of this with modesty and formal dress in public, but this is practically non-existent today, even among some Christians?  Where do we draw the line?  How do we fulfill our calling as Christians, to 'be in the world', but not 'to be of the world?'   How do we live, in such a way that we challenge all the sexual confusion and abuse that is ruining more and more lives?

Now, when I observe what is taking place today, I'm not as critical of my uncle's view of running a Christian camp, as I once was.  Today, as I look around this culture, I realize more and more what my Uncle was working against.  I may think differently about how to establish Christian boundaries of decency, but I do understand what he was trying to do.  He was not against 'mixed-bathing', but help his youth think beyond their hormones.   It's something we are all still trying to help, not just youth, but it's something we must show our culture that in Christ, this is something we can do.  In Christ's power, with Christ's presence in us, and with Christ's promise before, we can do better than what we see falling apart all around us.  While I don't think we have to dress like Muslims to do this,  I do think more modesty and more restraint is needed.

Today, when I visit a co-ed dorm in a state university, and I see what boundaries are missing, I'm always in shock.  For you see, I went to a Christian school, a Baptist College, which is now a Christian University, where they still separated girls into their own dorms and guys into theirs.  You may think that is as backward as a Muslim Burke, but I still think to teach some forms of modesty, discipline, and restraint, is a much better idea for students, especially when they are leaving home for the first time.  Even some very sophisticated studies in morality and ethics suggest that the sexual behavior and abuse that can be linked to the loss of some of these boundaries which were once enforced because, even secular people, once understood the ‘weakness’ of the human flesh.  

So, finally, let me say again, that Paul is not calling Christians to ‘separate’ or ‘disassociate’ from immoral people in any hateful or extreme way; but he is calling God's people to maintain a higher standard, not because we better than anyone else, but because God wants to work in us to bring 'salt' and 'light' to this culture.  God is calling us to ‘disassociate’ from the immorality and the immoral choices that drive a culture downward so we can assume the necessary role as God’s ‘priestly’ people who can point the world to ‘hope’ and ‘promise’ for the future.  It is only in such a moral space, that people can discover a life that brings gratitude(v. 4) and receive the gift of hope for what God has in the world to come.  Amen.

“No Longer…”

A sermon based upon Ephesians 4: 17-25

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Transfiguration Sunday, March 3rd,  2019 

(8-14) Sermon Series: Growing Up In Christ (Eph. 4:15)

"Hoke, you are my best friend."

It took Daisy Werthan almost twenty years to make that statement; it wasn't easy. The relationship between Daisy and Hoke was not mutual or cordial at the outset. Daisy had driven her beautiful new 1948 Packard into her neighbor's backyard. Boolie Werthan, Daisy's son, thought that such an incident was sufficient evidence to warrant that his mother stop driving; she needed a driver, a chauffeur. Hoke Coleburn, a middle-aged black man, was Boolie's choice for the job. Daisy, however, would not accept this restriction, this change for her life.

Boolie may have hired Hoke, but that did not mean that Miss Daisy had to use him. As Hoke stood idle, Miss Daisy took the street car wherever she went, to the hairdresser or the grocery store. Hoke Coleburn was being paid for doing nothing. That is exactly how Miss Daisy wanted things.

As stubborn as she could be, Miss Daisy ultimately did change her attitude. One day she needed a few things from the store. She left the house and began to walk toward the streetcar. Hoke decided that Miss Daisy's refusal to use his services needed to end. As she walked down the sidewalk, Hoke slowly drove alongside in the new 1948 Hudson Boolie had purchased for his mother. "Where are you going," scowled Daisy. Hoke replied, "I'm fixin' to take you to the store!" Although still not content with the arrangement, Daisy agreed to get into the car; her conversion had begun.

Daisy did not approve, but Hoke had become her chauffeur. Whether it was to the temple, you see Miss Daisy was Jewish, the store, or a trip to Mobile to visit relatives, Daisy and Hoke went together. As the years passed, their relationship as driver and passenger grew; they bonded together. Then one day Miss Daisy's conversion became complete. The process had been long and sometimes difficult, but now it was finished. She could finally say, "Hoke, you are my best friend."

Alfred Uhry's 1988 Pulitzer Prize winning play, Driving Miss Daisy, tells more than a story of the relationship between a black chauffeur and an elderly, rich, Jewish widow. It is a story of the challenge to be transformed in mind and heart.

I INSIST… (17) 

Do you still think and believe that people can change or transformed?  The apostle Paul does.  He even insists on it.  In our text Paul writes: “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord…”(17).

When Paul says he ‘insists on it IN THE LORD, Paul acknowledges that this change or conversion is not something that he could do, or that you can do all alone; all by yourself.  No, this is a transformation that can only take place ‘in the Lord’.  This is what Paul has been writing about all along in this passage.

 “In the Lord” you can ‘make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace’ (v. 3).

“In the Lord”‘grace has been given as Christ apportioned it’ (v.7).

“In the Lord”  Christ ‘gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers’ to prepare God’s people for works of service’ (v. 11-12).

“In the Lord” we can ‘reach maturity’ and ‘attain the whole measure of the fulness of Christ’ (v. 13).

And finally, only ‘in the Lord’ will we ‘be no longer infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by ever wind of teaching…. (v. 14).

Do you get the picture here, this ‘transformation’, this ‘change of heart and mind’ and this conversion is only made possible ‘in the Lord’?

Interestingly, when the NIV has Paul saying “I tell you this and I insist on it in the Lord’ (v.17), the original word here is more as the KJV says, “I testify in the Lord”.  You see, in the ancient world, a person’s word or testimony was how you insisted on something.  People did not ‘insist’ or trust in their own opinions or in their own ideas alone, but they ‘testified’ to their experiences in city squares and public places.  In other words, if you had ‘experienced’ it, then you testified that it was true.  Life wasn’t merely defined by only what you felt, thought, or imagined, but the truth was what had happened to you and could, and perhaps should also be experienced by others. 

According to Acts 9, Paul’s testimony was his own experience of ‘conversion’ or transformation on the Damascus Road.  It was a transformation ‘in the Lord’ because Paul, then named Saul, was on his way to Damascus to imprison Christians.  But then we read how ‘suddenly a light from heaven flashed’ and Saul ‘fell to the ground’ hearing Jesus’ voice saying ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4). 

We’ve all hear this story, but we’ve also sometimes misinterpreted it.  We shouldn’t read Saul’s transformation as something that happened all ‘in a flash’ because his conversion was much slower, and more complete, than that.  Yes, Christ spoke to his heart in that moment, but the actual change and conversion took longer.  If you read on in the story, Saul was blinded by the light until Ananias came and laid hands on him.  Also, Saul ‘spent several days with the disciples in Damascus’ (v. 19).  Yes, he soon thereafter ‘began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus in the Son of God’ (v. 20), but later, according to Galatians, ‘after three years’ (Gal. 1:18, about as long as it takes to complete a theological education), we are told how Saul ‘came to Jerusalem’ (Acts 9:27), where the disciples there were still afraid of him, until Barnabas ‘brought him to the apostles’ (v. 27).  Then, Saul spent more time in Jerusalem, until much later, we find him in Antioch, where he was working with other disciples, who then sent Saul and Barnabas ‘off’ to begin their mission work.

When we read closely how the transformation of Saul, into Paul (Acts 13:9), took place, it was not instantaneous or immediate.  Yes, Jesus spoke to him, and yes, ‘immediately’ something like scales fell off his eyes, but his transformation from Saul the Hebrew, to become Paul the Apostle to the Gentile took several years of prayer, fasting, mentoring and discipleship.  We need to get over this misunderstanding that becoming a Christian happens in an instant.  The Lord may speak to you, and perhaps even ‘save you’ from sin and evil in an instant, but you aren’t a Christian until you come to follow Jesus Christ as you learn how to follow in the way and work of Jesus Christ.  True transformation in Christ is a process, a ‘method’ (as the Methodist say), or a way of discipleship, not a instantaneous event where everything happens in one single moment of time.

This is why Paul begins his practical part of his letter to the Romans: ‘Therefore, I urge, you, brothers (and sisters)… Do no conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  THEN YOU WILL BE ABLE to test and approve what God’s will is….his pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12: 2).  In the play, Driving Miss Daisy, Daisy Werthan needed to be converted, that is to be transformed in her mind.  Her attitude toward the loss of her independence needed to be changed. But this did not happen overnight.  It took some time.  But after some time passed she finally realized having a chauffeur was ‘right’ and necessary for her, and through a process of transformation she was eventually able be to say, "Hoke, you are my best friend."  What Miss Daisy learned is that transformation takes time. Trying shortcuts leads only to more problems and more disappointments.

The need to stay the course in our discipleship in Jesus toward our transformation into become a follower of Jesus Christ can be illustrated in the world of science. One day, a student found a cocoon in the wild and brought it to the biology lab at school. The teacher placed the cocoon in an unused aquarium with a lamp shining on it to keep it warm. After one week a small opening was seen on the underside of the cocoon. The students in the class watched as the cocoon shook and suddenly small antennae emerged, followed by a head and some tiny feet. The students were impatient and wanted to see more.

As time went by the insect's listless wings were uncovered, revealing beautiful colors that told all that this was a monarch butterfly. The insect wiggled and shook but could not free itself completely from the cocoon; it appeared to be stuck. Finally, one rather impulsive student decided to help the butterfly out of its difficulty. He took some scissors and snipped the cocoon's rather restrictive opening, allowing the insect to free itself. The top half looked like a butterfly with droopy wings, but the bottom half which just emerged from the cocoon was malformed. The butterfly could not fly, but only managed to crawl around the bottom of the aquarium, dragging its wings and swollen body. Sadly, within a short time the butterfly died.

The next day the biology teacher explained that the butterfly's struggle to free itself from the cocoon was absolutely necessary in order to force the fluid from the lower body into the wings. Without the struggle the wings never developed and the insect could not fly. The action, the method, and the struggle of the whole process was necessary for the full transformation from cocoon to Butterfly.

After insisting that transformation is necessary, and takes time, Paul also gives one of the most detailed discussions of what needed to be transformed in his world, and still needs transformation.   He goes right to the heart of the human problem, speaking of the Gentile need to have ‘darkened’ thinking, ignorance, and human sensitivity and sensuality challenged and changed (see v.18-19).  Without getting to the ‘heart’ of the problem, addressing the root of the human problem, there can be no real, lasting, human transformation, no matter how sincere and willing we are to change.

In his commentary on Ephesians, N.T. Wright tells of having problems with an agency who advertised an apartment his family wanted to rent.  The agency was so unhelpful.  Every time they telephoned, they had to speak to a different person, who never understood their situation.  They gave different answers when questions were asked.  They always quoted different rates.  The worst thing, Wright says, was that they didn’t seem to care whether the place was rented or not.

When he and his wife finally visited the office, it became clear what the problem was.  The secretaries and assistants they spoke to on the telephone were not the main problem.  They seemed to want to be helpful.  But the manager of the office, whom they had not talked to before, was impossible.  He was inefficient, haphazard, and probably had a drinking problem.  He covered all this up by being a bully.  He shouted at this employees and gave them different instructions every day.  “No wonder they weren’t able to help.”  Wright said.  “It was only by confronting the manager directly and making him face the issues could we begin to sort everything out” (From N.T. Wright, The Prison Letters, pg. 50). 

In the same way, it is only when we come to grips with what is the wrong way to live, do we ever begin to discover the right way to live a human life.  And finding out the ‘wrong ways’ takes a slow, intentional, deliberate process of gaining new knowledge, of learning, of understanding, and seeing life from a different perspective than our own.  If we don’t want to live like ‘pagans’ (which is what Gentile means), then we have to come to understand what being ‘pagan’ means, as much as, we have to understand what being ‘Christian’ means.  If we are so used to living in the dark, it will take a while for our eyes to get used to the light, and then, we have to take time to look around in our lives, and come to figure out what doesn’t belong and what is destructive to us, and to others.  

We also have to go beyond the ‘surface’ issues of what is wrong, we have to go to the ‘source’ of why we have chosen to live as we have, and we have to re-evaluate and re-order our lives ‘in light’ of the love that has been revealed in Jesus Christ.  Jesus clearly said that the ‘source’ of how we should live and how we shouldn’t live, is found within the human heart.  In Mark’s gospel, Jesus exposed how the religion of his day was caught up in all kinds of ceremonial traditions, about which foods should or should not be eaten, but Jesus challenged this ‘tradition’ by explaining: “It’s not what goes into a person that defiles them, but it’s what comes out of the heart” (see v.18).  Jesus explained, what goes into a person’s mouth, just goes out into the sewage, but it’s what comes out of people’s mouths, coming directly out of their hearts, that makes people ‘unclean’, dirty, and spoiled.  Jesus went on: “From within, out of people’s hearts comes evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.”  These ‘evils that come from the inside make people ‘unclean’. (Mark 7:17-23)

Thus, if you want to know what’s gone wrong in a culture, in a society, or even gone wrong in a family, Jesus, like a good psychologist would also say, don’t just look at their actions but take a look deeper into their souls, their minds, and into their hearts.  Here’s where the problem is, says Jesus.  Their ‘hearts’ are deceitfully wicked, and corrupted.  This is why their lives have deliberately gone wrong.

Can we still handle Paul and Jesus’ perspective of why and where we need to be transformed?   A society, a culture, and a people, true Christianity still says, can’t be transformed simply by new music, new traditions, new ways, habits or traditions, but somehow the ‘truth’ has to get into their ‘minds’ and their ‘hearts’, so that their own hearts and minds will be confronted, challenged, changed, and transformed.  But what kind of ‘truth’ is it that should challenge us?  What kind of ‘truth’ should we be ‘changed’ into?

THE TRUTH THAT IS IN JESUS (21)  

Paul says, in verse 21, that it is ‘the truth that is in Jesus Christ’ that we must ‘learn’ and ‘be taught’ in order to be ‘transformed’.  But what is  this truth in Jesus Christ?  It’s not just to believe that Jesus existed, or to believe that Jesus saves.  “Even the demons believe and tremble”, the Scripture says.  What kind of ‘truth’ in Jesus confronts, challenges, and changes us into becoming followers of Jesus Christ?  

According to Paul in this passage, the truth about Jesus is an ‘understanding’ of ‘life’ and ‘love’ that overcomes ignorance, insensitivity, and hardening.  This ‘understanding’ restores our ‘sensitivity’ to what is good and right, and it helps us overcome the kind of fleshly, and earthly ‘sensuality’ that only leads us to ‘the continual lust for learning, having, and getting more, and more’ but never leads us ‘to the knowledge of truth’ that renews, restores, and transforms our hearts with meaning, purpose and hope.  What kind of truth ‘in Jesus’ can do this.

Markus Barth, the great N.T. Bible scholar, said that when Paul and the early church spoke about ‘the way’ of Jesus, or they spoke about being ‘taught’ the ‘truth that is in Jesus’, they were referring to a very ‘school’ of teaching that had come directly from Jesus, which was being taught by the apostles and the earliest disciples  (See Ephesians 4-6, Markus Barth, The Anchor Bible, p. 526ff).  Now, wouldn’t it be great if we had such a collection of ‘teachings’ and ‘truths’ directly from Jesus so we could confront the ‘darkness’, the ‘hardness’ and the ‘insensitivities’ of our own culture?  Well, the truth is that we do.  We call it the 4 Gospels.  These Four gospels, especially in how the gospel of Matthew is compiled and written, gives us the details of the ‘truth that is in Jesus Christ’ for the transformation of our souls, hearts, and minds.

Interestingly, in this gospel, as Matthew’s gospel concludes, Jesus instructs his disciples to go out into the world, not to win all the world to Christ, but to ‘go’ and to ‘make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, TEACHING THEM TO OBEY (that is to follow) WHAT I HAVE COMMANDED… (Matt. 28: 19-20).  It is only when the church obeys what Jesus commands, by ‘making disciples’ and by ‘teaching’ and by ‘obeying’ the gospel, that Jesus releases his promise that he ‘will never leave or forsake’ us.

Years ago, when I was in language school in western Germany, we were invited to go to Cologne, a city not far from where we were living, where the English-speaking Baptist church was installing a new pastor.  During the service, after the pastor was charged with his new position, he then got up and preached, challenging his church to take the gospel out to the whole city and win the whole city, which including the surrounding area, had a population of almost 500, 000 people.  Only about 10,000 of those people could speak or understand English, and his church was only an English-speaking church.  Still, even if they could have spoken German too, winning a ‘whole city’ for Christ, was a very unrealistic, idealistic goal.

What we need to understand about the ‘truth’ of the gospel, is that Jesus never challenged us to ‘win’ the whole world, nor even to ‘change’ the ‘whole world’ with the truth of the gospel.  The world remains the world that is in rebellion, and only God can transform it, as a whole.

Instead, however, Jesus commissioned his church to ‘go’ into ‘all the world’ with the gospel and ‘to make disciples’ out of all the nations.  It was by taking the truth to the world and making disciples among those who would believe, that Jesus promised success.  Jesus goals were not idealistic, but realistic, and practical too.  Jesus wanted his church to teach and make disciples out of those who would hear and answer the call and learn the ‘truth’ of the gospel.  We were to give ourselves to this process of ‘making disciples’ which was to bring transformation and hope into the world.

As we know all-to-well, the beauty business is big business. Adorning ourselves, perfecting every perceived imperfection, curling what is straight, straightening what is curly, bleaching this/highlighting that, products that promise to make youngsters look older and oldsters look younger never lose their appeal. “Stuff” made out of low-tech squished fruit or high-tech spliced genes all promise to adorn and ultimately to transform our faces, save our skin, and sanctify our souls. If only we will buy just this ONE product.  Right?

An Arizona based cosmetics firm calling itself “Philosophy” sells a moisturizer it calls “Hope in a Jar.” The label on this jar of “hope” declares” “Where there is hope there can be faith. Where there is faith, miracles can occur.” Here the cosmetics company provides (for a hefty price) the “hope in a jar.” But the consumer must supply their own “faith” if they expect a “miracle” to occur.

Now, we all KNOW that nothing we smear on our face, or rub through our hair, or massage into our “love handles” or cheese thighs is really going to defy the space-time continuum and strip away everything wrinkled, grey, or saggy.  We all KNOW that if that super-secret skin serum being hawked on that late-night infomercial could really do what it claims, its manufacturers wouldn’t have to be advertising it on a late-night infomercial.  It would ‘sell’ without any effort whatsoever.  Everybody would want it already.

While there is certainly nothing wrong with a little ‘help’ from the cosmetic manufacturers,  the problem is that so much that is supposed to give us “hope” is nothing more than “hype.” Unlikely. Unproveable. Unrepeatable. Unreliable. Hype.  And hope that is only based on hype leads us nowhere.

An early Sandra Bullock movie was entitled “Hope Floats.” Hollywood undoubtedly thought “hope floats” was a good, encouraging image. But things “float” because they are full of air. Nothingness can easily be buoyed up with more nothingness.  So much of what this world calls ‘truth’ or ‘hope’ is nothing but ‘lies’ and ‘hype’.  And unfortunately, even some churches get caught up in all this ‘hype’ too, selling their God-given birthright of the true gospel, for a mess of pottage that is nothing but a lot of hot air religion.

So, again, I ask once more, what is this truth?  What is the ‘truth that is in Jesus’ that can transform us, and can also be passed down from one generation of believers to the next, as the truth about faith, about hope, and of course, the truth about love?

BE LIKE GOD IN TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS (23)

What was the greatest problem Jesus came to save us from?  Most people would say it was to save sinners, right?   Well, that’s certainly not wrong, but it’s only partly right.  It’s only partly right because we seldom understand the ‘worst’ kind of sin or sinner Jesus confronted in the gospels. 

If I were to ask you to list the worst kinds of sins, you’d probably go to one of the lists given by the apostle Paul in his letters.  Again, those lists certainly aren’t wrong.  They were the kinds of sins Paul often encountered in the Gentile world and we still encounter in our world.   Jesus and Paul both listed these kinds of sins as sins from the ‘deceitful heart’ or the ‘darkened mind’. As we’ve seen already, Jesus made a list similar to Paul’s in Mark 7, as sins “from within, out of people’s hearts; evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit,… and so on.” 

Sometimes we church folks like to put these kinds of sins on the top priority list of sins that Jesus needs to ‘redeem us from’.  But when you read and examine the sin that crucified Jesus, while it may have included some of these sins, they were all working in the background of an even greater sin.  The sin that put Jesus crucified Jesus was not the ‘sin’ of the publican, the tax-collector, or the prostitute, but according to Jesus the gospel story, the worst kind of sin, the kind of sin that we all need to continually to rid ourselves from, even after we become Christians, is the sin of the ‘hypocrite’, the sin of the ‘pretender’, or the sin of the ‘self-righteous’ Pharisee.  This was ‘greatest’ sin Jesus continually denounced (see Matthew 23) not because the ‘Scribes and Pharisees’ were the worst people around, or the meanest.  Hypocrisy was the greatest sin only because by only holding on to one’s own version of ‘righteousness’ we are being prevented from learning, understanding and becoming the ‘true righteousness’ of God.  This is a kind of righteousness or holiness only revealed to those who are open and willing to learn ‘more’ from the God who calls us to continually ‘serve (God) in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter (Rom. 7:6 KJV).

It is this ‘true righteousness’ and ‘holiness’ that calls us to continually be ‘taught’ to have faith, hope, and love through Jesus, as we constantly ‘put on Jesus Christ, each and every day, just like ‘putting off’ old clothes, and ‘putting on’ new clothes.  You never stop putting off old clothes, and putting on new ones until the day you die.  Then, and only then, will someone else will dress you.  Then, and only then, will you reach final ‘maturity’ and the absolute ‘fulness of Jesus Christ’.  Until then, we have to keep ‘putting off’ the old, and ‘putting on’ the new person, we are still becoming in Jesus Christ.  Anything less, is to fail to obtain the full potential of being transformed in the fullness of Jesus Christ.

There’s one more thing that needs to be said about spiritual transformation; especially when we start using words like ‘righteousness’ and ‘holiness’.  Some people, especially those who don’t want to be accused of being ‘hypocritical’ want to try to be something they’re not.  But this is not what Paul means when he says that Christ’s way of transformation challenges and confronts our lives.  No, the way of Jesus is not introducing the kind of ‘newness’ that is altogether new, but it is a transformation and a renewing of who we already should be and can be again.  This is why we Christians like to talk about being ‘lost’ and being ‘saved’ which really means being ‘found’.  We use language like this because what Jesus does is not create all ‘new’ people, but God’s love in Jesus can make us who we have been ‘created’ to be, and who we already are, if we were to have our hearts and minds renewed and restored.

A final example of the possibility of renewing transformation is found in the story of Dulcinea, one of the principal characters in the popular Broadway musical, Man of la Mancha. The audience learns that Don Quixote, the chief character, lives with many illusions, most especially his idea that he is a knight who battles dragons in the form of windmills. At the end of the play as he lays dying, Don Quixote has at his side a prostitute, Aldonza, whom he has called Dulcinea - Sweet One - much to the laughter of the local townsfolk. But Don Quixote has loved her in a way unlike she has ever experienced. When Quixote breathes his last breath, Aldonza begins to sing "The Impossible Dream." As the echo of the song dies away, someone shouts to her, "Aldonza!" But she pulls away proudly and responds, "My name is Dulcinea." The crazy's knight's love had transformed her into someone who is now completely made new by love.

There is no need greater in our world today, as has always been, and will always be, than to have hearts transformed by the power and hope of transforming love.  Our attitudes, words, and actions can lift people up or tear them down; Jesus has left the example and revealing of God’s love all up to us!  Before others can be touched and transformed by God’s love, we may need to have our own hearts renewed in the wonder of God’s love.

As a little poem goes:  

He drew a circle that shut me out --

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But love and I had the wit to win:

We drew a circle that took him in.

Isn’t this the kind of love that threw Saul for a loop, and launch the greatest missionary of grace, the world has ever known?   And God’s love is not finished yet.  When you ‘put off your old self’ and ‘put on the new’, which starts with ‘attitude of your minds’, it’s still wonderful, how transforming true love can be.  Amen.

“Worthy of the Calling…”

A sermon based upon Ephesians 4: 1-16

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Sixth Sunday After Epiphany-C,  February 17th  2019 

(7-14) Sermon Series: Growing Up In Christ (Eph. 4:15)

One day a couple by the name of Herman and Mary were riding along in their shiny new car. Mary spoke up and said, "You know, Herman, if it weren't for my money, we probably wouldn't have this wonderful new car." And Herman just sat there and didn't say anything at all.

As they pulled into the driveway, Herman turned off the motor and they quietly admired their new home. Then Mary said, "You know, Herman, if it weren't for my money, we probably wouldn't have this new house." And again, Herman just sat there and didn't say anything.

They got out of the car and walked in just as the delivery man finished setting up their new furniture. You know, Herman, said Mary once more, "If it were not for my money, we probably wouldn't have this new carpet and all this new furniture." And once more, Herman didn't say a word.

It happened again as they sat down in their new den and propped their feet up and watched the big screen TV in their new entertainment center. "You know, Herman," said Mary, "if it were not for my money, we probably wouldn't have this huge entertainment center."

And with that, poor Herman had had enough. He turned to Mary and said, "I don't want to hurt your feelings, Honey, but you know if it weren't for your money, I probably wouldn't be here either!"

What is it that brings you here? Why did you choose to become a part of a church?  If you are not a member, what are you looking for in a church? What is the reason to go to church, or why should you become part of Christ’s body we call church?

Many want to follow Jesus and be a Christian, and perhaps even be part of a church, but have they-have we, considered blue-print; the original design by the designer?  In today’s message, we consider the basic ‘design’ and ‘operations’ of the Christian life, which includes living up to the ‘calling’ of being a part of Christ’s church.

KEEP THE UNITY (3)

The most important part of Christian living is not to think about what God is going to do for you, or even to just to think about what you can do for God.  It’ is to think about what it means to live with others who are in the community of faith, we call church. Paul writes in verse three: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace…”

Notice again, the Christian life is not simply about you, what you want, what you get, or what God will do for you, but the Christian life is about how you will live in relationship with other people who share faith and life with you.  ‘Life Together’ is how one famous Christian named it.  To be a Christian means to be a part of a community of believers; to commit to that body, to be faithful to that body, and as Paul says here, to get along within that body too.  We get along with each other by making ‘every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” 

Maintaining unity is a core value of the Christian faith and life.  It is also the most important responsibility when you become a member of a Christian Church.  I love how the Moravians put it in their motto: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, love.”  In can’t be expressed in any better way that this.

Unity is so very important; it is an ‘essential’ itself, because this is who we are to become; caring, cooperative, and community-oriented persons.  Your Christian calling, before anything else like teaching, witnessing, helping, or serving; is to be a cooperative, supportive, and participating part of a body of believers.  Just like human body must work together in ‘unison’ to function and give life, the church body can’t function properly without believers working together, sharing life and making life possible for each other, so that God is revealed and glorified through our lives, to both insiders and outsiders.

Tom Lentz tells how his daughter and her husband lived next door to a difficult family in Columbus, Ohio.  There was a large lot separating their two houses, which belonged to the neighbor. Although the neighbor was quick to claim the property and run off our grandchildren any time they ventured onto this side lot, he was, nevertheless, lax in taking care of it. Branches and fruit fell off the trees where it lay on the ground and rotted. The grass was rarely cut.

Tom, the Father-in-law, asked his son-in-law why he didn't complain to the neighbor about this eyesore that affected the entire neighborhood. He shrugged and said, "I'll take care of it."

The next time the Father-in-law visited he noticed that the lot was clean and the grass neatly cut.  He asked his son-in-law if he had confronted the neighbor, and he said, "No, when they were away we made it a family project to clean up the lot."  The neighbor never offered any words of gratitude for this act of kindness, but that was not the motivation for the good deed.

Isn’t this what it means to respond to a higher calling and to make an effort of ‘unity?  Instead of reacting to a neighbor's insolence, creating what would have certainly been a defensive or reactive spirit of vengeance against the neighbor, widening the gulf between neighborly relations, the response of the son-in-law was in keeping with Paul’s exhortation: "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:2-3).

TO EACH…GRACE HAS BEEN GIVEN (7)

However, this isn’t easy to do, is it?  This is not the kind of reaction or behavior that comes naturally.  We are not born patient. We scream when we want something and grab for things around us. We react and act out, instead of responding in love.  We are not normally inclined to be humble and gentle. We are more likely to argue and fight back than to "keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." Many people, never do reach this level of maturity, until very late in life; if then.

How can we move beyond our own self-centered, self-focused, response?  What it takes to ‘go above and beyond’ our natural reactions, according to Paul’s own words, is ‘grace’.  Paul understands that to ‘make a different response than the world around us, we must learn to react or respond to something greater than the hurt, the evil, and the normal state of things.  We must learn to ‘react’ to God’s grace. 

Grace is where Paul’s conversation ‘supernaturally’ gravitates in this text; and every text he writes.  “Grace and peace” is the greeting of all Paul’s letters.  Here, as Paul continues his discussion of ‘the higher calling’ of the Christian life and way, he explains how God calls us to ‘one hope…one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph. 4:5-6 NIV).  It is out of this oneness of shared hope and common faith that ‘grace’ is given to ‘each one’ of us (v.7).  God’s grace is what we all share and continue to give to each other in God’s new community.  God’s grace is what enables us to live out a higher calling in life.

It is within this discussion of the calling of God’s grace that Paul one of the most powerful, out-of-this-world descriptions of what Jesus has already accomplished for us in his life, death and resurrection.  Quoting Psalm 69, Paul uses an ancient military picture symbolizing Jesus, ascending to the heavenly throne, ‘taking captives’ of the evil, spiritual, and oppressive powers, and then giving ‘gifts’ to God’s people’ (8-11).  The words ‘gifts’ and ‘grace’ are from the same word, charis.  Grace is a gift.  A gift is a form of grace.  Jesus wins a decisive battle against evil and showers God’s people with gifts of grace.

Now, to our comfortable, modern sensitivities this image might not mean much, but to an oppressed, suffering, and life-defeated people, this is picture and promise for a whole opportunity for life.  Instead of living in a reality that drains the life out of you, the gospel promises gifts, resources, and opportunities directly from God.  Through Jesus, God defeated the powers of this world his cross by overcoming evil with good.  So, now that Jesus rules the world, through our lives by faith, hope, and love, we too can receive these ‘gifts of grace’ that give us new promises and new opportunities to receive, share, and live our lives in a more fulfilling and positive way.  These ‘gifts’, which Paul names as ‘apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are not only gifts for the church to receive, but they are gifts that can transform the meaning and purpose of our all our lives, and we all share in the ministries they lead.

So, hearing this, when was the last time you thought of having a teacher, a pastor, an evangelist, or a prophet as a gift?  I recall how year ago, when Revival time came each year to our church, families would invite the evangelist and the pastor into our homes, or we would invite them out to dinner, and we would celebrate the gifts God gives together.  We would treat them with high regard and respect, because of God had sent then into our midst to call, lead, and encourage us.  Because of the leadership they gave to us in the church, and in the community, those who led us, were highly valued, regarded and appreciated by us all.  They, our spiritual leaders, were ‘gifts’.

I like the story about Bernard Shaw. He was an agnostic, but carried on a correspondence for many years with a cloistered nun. It is one of the strangest relationships in history, probably, but also one of the most intriguing and beautiful.  There was Shaw, the intellectual, the playwright, a man of the world, a man of considerable wealth; and the nun, cloistered, who gave up all worldly possessions, to pursue a life of work and prayer.

In one of his letters to her, Shaw wrote, “The next time I’m in your neighborhood, I will peer through the bars of your cell to see the freedom on the other side.”  (Quoted by Mark Trotter, in a sermon entitled “Need Any Water?” preached at the First United Methodist Church, San Diego, CA, March 19, 1995).

Why did Shaw appreciate his friendship with this nun?  She was his teacher to help him know the true nature of freedom and of life.  Only her absolute dedication could teach him about the joyous freedom that comes by abandoning oneself and giving constant attention to the God who enables us to be who we are created to be.  To have such a ‘teacher’ is one of life’s greatest gifts.

TO PREPARE GOD’S PEOPLE (12)

What made teachers, pastors, evangelists, or other prophetic voices so dear to the church of Paul’s day was how they were the ones, who has Paul said, ‘equipped’ or ‘prepared’ the people for works of service, so they could grow and live out their faith by taking part in Jesus’ ministry in the world. 

Do you fully catch the inference here in Paul’s words?  Some translations don’t fully convey the proper reading because a comma is added between ‘for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry’ (as the KJV), as if the leaders do all the ministry.   But the Greek has no comma, reading correctly that the gifted leaders, apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers ‘equip God’s people for works of ministry’.  Do you see the difference?  The teachers, pastors, evangelists, prophets, and apostles were considered ‘gifts’ of for the church because people, needed and wanted to become ‘prepared’ or ‘equipped’ for doing ‘works of ministry’ in the church and in the world.  Every church member and every Christian were to be equipped and prepared to serve in the ministry of Christ’s body, the church.  

In my own days of Christian ‘Formation’, those teachers who taught me faith, both in word and deed, still have a special place in my heart.  Although I marveled at some of their skills, they were gifts to me not because of their great skills of ministry (which some had, but others didn’t), but they were gifts to me, each of them, because they challenged and encouraged me, allowing me the space to grow in my own understanding of faith and in my desire to serve Christ in the world. This is how they became great gifts to me.  It was people who were the church, that have been God’s greatest gifts in my life.

Some of you may know Aesop’s fable about an old crow who was out in the wilderness and was very thirsty. He had not had anything to drink in a long time. He came to a jug that had a little water in the bottom of it. The old crow reached his beak into the jug to get some of that water, but his beak wouldn’t quite reach. So what did he do?  He started picking up pebbles one at a time and dropping them into the jug. What happened as those pebbles accumulated in the bottom of the jug? Why, of course. The water rose until finally the old crow was able to get a drink.

My friends, that is my understanding of the way God has chosen to work in this world. Each of us dropping in our own little pebble‑‑teaching that Sunday School class, making that visit, working on the finance committee and on the church board, making that special gift to missions, serving as an usher, etc. Each of us serving in his or her own special ministry. Doing that little task that may not seem so important at the time, but those pebbles are accumulating in the bottom of that jug, and the water is rising, and one of these days God is going to bring in His own Kingdom. That is God’s plan for the church and for every Christian who is called to become part of Christ’s body enter into some kind of ministry. Are you dropping in your pebble? Are you using your gift to the glory of God? Is your work for Christ a ‘gift’ to someone else?

In her bestselling book, Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott explained why she made her son, as a young person, go with her to church. She says, “The main reason is that I want to give him what I found in the world, which is a path and a little light to see by. Most of the people I know who have what I want purpose, heart, balance, gratitude, joy are people with a deep sense of spirituality. They are people in community, who pray, or practice their faith . . . They follow a brighter light than the glimmer of their own candle; they are part of something beautiful . . . Our funky little church is filled with people who are working for peace and freedom, who are out there on the streets and inside praying, and they are home writing letters, and they are at the shelters with giant platters of food.” Then she says, “When I was at the end of my rope, the people at St. Andrew tied a knot in it for me and helped me hold on.”

MATURE, ATTAINING…THE FULNESS OF CHRIST (13)

When the people of God make efforts of unity and peace because we have received God’s grace; when we respect our leaders as God’s ‘gifts’ to them, who are given to equip them as ‘doers of the word’ and ‘not just hearers only’; then, and only then, is the church is on the right track, moving forward in ministry, to become the ‘mature body’ (v. 15) of Christ, that attains ‘the fulness of Christ’ (13).  

This image of ‘the fulness of Christ’ is clearly described as a working body of many parts that is ‘joined and held together by every supporting ligament,’ which ‘grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.’  (Eph. 4:16 NIV). 

A group of tourists were visiting a rather picturesque town on the outskirts of a well know city. As they walked by an old man sitting beside a fence. One of the tourists, in a rather patronizing way, asked, "Were any great men born in this village?"

To which the old man replied, "Nope, only babies." (Parables, Etc. (Saratoga Press, P.O. Box 8, Platteville, CO, 80651; 970-785-2990), February 1993)

That wisecrack answer holds a lot of truth. There are no instant heroes, there is no instant status or fame, whether in this world or in the Kingdom of God. Growth takes time. Growth takes help.  Growth takes dedication and commitment to the process.

One reason people don’t mature as well today is because we live in the instant age. There is instant coffee, instant oatmeal, instant milk, instant soup, instant breakfasts and even instamatic cameras.  Modern people are impatient people, who can't and won't wait for desires to be met. People today demand instant gratification. So, at fast food restaurants we get fast food. And we complain if it takes five minutes instead of three.

We don't even have to wait in line at the bank anymore; those with the right card can go to an automatic teller machine and make deposits or withdrawals. Today's kitchen has to have a the indispensable microwave. Now, we don't even have to cook. Just pop it in the microwave and three to ten minutes later, dinner.  

But Paul’s words about growth, development, and the process of becoming mature Christians reminds us that ‘maturity’ in Christ does not happen in an instant, nor is it something we can do all alone.  

James Harnish, a Methodist minister, puts it this way, there is such thing as a ‘solo’ Christianity in the body of Christ.  In the church we have been given many gifts—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. And we could expand this list to include:

·                     singers and secretaries and social workers

·                     builders and businessmen and bean counters

·                     doctors and dietitians and designers

·                     carpenters and carpet layers and contractors

·                     lawyers and lecturers and lovers of children

·                     athletes and actors and aerobics instructors,

And of course, there are so many more, but as we come together in the oneness of Christ, nurtured and discipled in Christ’s love, we reach Christ’s fullness and our maturity because we come ‘together’ with one clear purpose: "To equip the saints for the work of ministry, building up the Body of Christ in love."  But notice again, we do this ‘together’; in unity, because there is no such thing as a ‘solo’ Christian or a ‘solo’ ministry in Christ.

You are probably familiar with the amazing story of the migration of the monarch butterfly, a lovely little creature who blesses our gardens and forests in the summer. Every autumn, millions of monarchs from all over the eastern United States and Canada migrate thousands of miles to a small handful of sites in Mexico where they rest for the winter. Then in the spring, they begin their return trip to the north. The amazing thing is that no individual monarch ever makes the trip to Mexico and back.

A butterfly that leaves the Adirondack Mountains in New York will fly all the way to Mexico and spend the winter. In March, it begins the trip northward, but after laying eggs in the milkweed of Texas and Florida, it will die. Those butterflies will continue northward, laying eggs along the way until some of them, maybe three or four generations removed from the original ones who left, make it all the way back to mountains of New York. But when August comes, they will head south, aiming for the exact place their great grandparents visited, a place they have never been.

Sue Haplern says: "The monarchs always migrate in community and depend on each other. Although a single monarch may make it from New York to Mexico, it is the next generation who completes the journey."

Now here is the word for the church. She says: "No one completes the journey solo. It is only as a community that we discover the fullness of God's plan for us" ( From Homiletics, January 2002, page 13).

The old gospel songwriters and revival singers witnessed to it when they sang: When we all get to heaven,What a day of rejoicing that will be.

When we all see Jesus,We'll sing and shout the victory!  What the Butterfly and the Song attest, and this great text explains, is that we will not make this journey alone.  It's only in maturing community that we discover what God has in mind for us.  For there no greater ‘owner’s manual’ for what it takes to be a church than this: “Christ is the head and we are the body who makes God’s grace and love realized in this world as we each do our part to share and show God’s love together.  This is the kind of ‘life together’ in serving Jesus, each doing his and her part, that makes us ‘mature’ and makes Christ real, both in our lives and in this world.  This is how we ‘live a life worthy of the calling which we have received’ in Christ.  AMEN.