Live in the light

January 16, 2008

Ephesians 4:17-32

“Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, you old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, crated according to the likeness of God in the true righteousness and holiness. So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger 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.”

Not too terribly long ago, an old, dear and respected friend said to me, that she had gotten to the place in her life where she had finally figured out what this life was all about. Basically, she said that we are to be good people who live a good life and help others along the way. I could only wonder what my facial expression was demonstrating because internally I was freaking out! I couldn’t help but wonder why she continued to go to church, why she bothered to call herself a Christian when Christ didn’t seem to figure into her equation of life’s purpose. I’m still “bumfuddled” by that.

The author of Ephesians would have the same reaction. The community around the Ephesian church had been influencing the church folk to live the pagan lifestyle and the preacher here must call the Ephesians to attention. As Christians theirs is to be a life set apart. They aren’t to engage in the pagan ways but to live lives that reflect God’s action in their lives. Among so many other things, this means speaking good of others, being kind and loving, compassionate and forgiving. It means being able to live out the relationship with other humans that God is living out with you. It means growing in your faith, learning and implementing so that lives are changed around you even as your life changes. Live your life in light not in the darkness of the pagan ways.

We live in a world that is not much different. Images bombard us daily with messages of life that can bring darkness into our lives. You know when you are in that darkness—if you are attentive at all --your very gut flags you that something is not right! Pressures are constantly upon us to involve ourselves in things that do not reflect Christ. At the same time there are those Christians who speak out boldly against those pressures and “evils.” Yet, those Christians fail to understand that by their bold voices they repel the very people who need the ultimate message of love that they have to offer.

To me, this passage calls us to do to things. First, remember our baptisms and examine our own lives. Are we living the kind of lives we pledged to live when we first chose Christ and Christ chose us? Can we say that we are kind, tenderhearted and forgiving one another? Can we say that the best things are on our lips and that those words are useful for building others up? If not, we need to work on that. Those are the very basic lessons of Christ’s love. Second, this passage offers us a chance as moderate Baptists to live lives so deeply committed to the Spirit of God that others see how we live and desire the peace that is ours. But it is not enough for us to just live in peace we have to tell people-- without the condemnation and judgment proffered by so many conservative Christians--why life is different for us. We have to tell them how that peace came to us. That should be the most exciting story that we have to offer. I’m guilty of not telling it freely and faithfully and I am ashamed of that.

I should have sat right there and told my friend the story of my Christian journey—of the funny feeling that came over me at age seven—of the non-stop questions about God—of the desire for 28 years to know more and more and more about God—of the epiphany that God does speak to us if we listen—of the remarkable nature of living a life that is guided by God—of Christ as the transformative figure of my life. Instead, I just smiled looked down and hoped the conversation would be redirected. I must have chosen the same path of the pagans and of my friend by my failure that day.

Let us all hear the call of the Ephesians pastor and may God find us faithful in the living and telling of our lives with God! Amen.