Hold Someone’s Hand (Ezekiel 16:46-52, 59-63)

Sunday, October 12, 2014

            Is it easier to hug another person or to avoid being involved with that other person?  This is kind of tricky.  Some folks are huggers: they just hug everybody.  For others, it is less certain.  Maybe they came from a family of hand-shakers.  Maybe in their experience, there has not been much physical affection.   It could be their culture is not as affectionate as other cultures.  I went through a phase in my early 20’s where the only real contact I wanted with other people was of the violent kind that came in rugby matches; no hugging or affection!  I walked around proudly showing off my bruises and blackened eyes.  Then I went on a trip to Mexico.  All the men hugged me and all the women kissed me.  I had more affection in one week than two years.  It was great.

            But, be careful with this.  In my life now, in the sexual climate of the United States, I have to be aware of how my actions could be perceived.  It would be foolishly irresponsible for me to be oblivious to how someone might interpret what I do or how I do it.  I hug female friends, but I also watch for cues or hints that someone might misunderstand my intentions.

            Hugging comes with risks.  Innuendo is one.  Vulnerability is another, and here I mean literally the act of the embrace, and metaphorically, the posture of embrace.  The best book out there on this is titled Exclusion and Embrace by theologian Miroslav Volf.  To present yourself to another, arm open, face inviting, heart expectant is to let your defenses down.  You have opened the gate in the wall that is safeguarding your heart.  You are saying to the other, this is how close I want to be.  I want to pull your body to me.  This is not sexual.  It is intimate.  Intimacy scares us.  Vulnerability scares us.

            It is also risky.  What if you decide the hug is worth it, the relationship is worth it and the other feels differently.  You open, and the other closes.  Now what?  Are you embarrassed?  I certainly am when that happens.  It definitely does happen.  I am left there, arms opened.  More significantly, I have opened my heart, and the other’s closed posture is an unmistakable message.  Stay back.  Stay at a distance.  I do not want you close to me – not in body, not in spirit. 

            Mistaken intentions, unwanted vulnerability, terrifying intimacy, needless risk – is the posture of embrace worth it?  We could leave the gate in the wall locked up tight.  We could protect ourselves by never opening ourselves to anyone.  A lot of people live this way, emotions withheld, arms stiff, bodies rigid; it is a cold way to be. 

            To live rejecting embrace – this is so isolating.  Those who live this way lose the art of living in relationship and God made us to live in relationship.  To live in a perpetual defense mode keeping the world at bay is to say to the creator God, I know you made me to walk with others, but I cannot.  We all go through seasons in which we shut others out.  Sometimes solitude is necessary.  But if rejection becomes our life, we in effect say to God, I know you created me for relationship, but it hurts too much.  I have been beaten up by lovers, by friends, by family, and by strangers.  I cannot do it.  Then your experience becomes more powerful in defining your life than God’s wisdom. 

            Yes, embrace is confusing, exposing, intimate, and risky.  It is all those things.  If you choose to embrace others and relationships of love with other humans who sin as much you do, you will get bruised and burned.  You will also be living in the way God created you to live – life in relationship.  I intend to show that faith is comprised of a life in which we live by God’s designs even when our experience would suggests this is not always the best idea.  No, it is not easier to hug than to not hug.  But it is better.  Embrace is the pathway to life lived as people who are made in the image of God. 

           

            Is it easier to worship God or to rely on the self?  I know that I am asking it in the midst of a worship service.  The answer might seem painfully obvious.  But, let us look at it. 

            When we truly worship – worship in spirit and in truth as Jesus says (John 4) – certain realities are in play.  First, we really believe there is a force, a personality, a being, a reality present – one we cannot necessarily see, feel, or hear.  But this thing – God – is here.  We set ourselves up for a diagnosis of some mental illness.  We gather, study, sing to, pray to, and give our allegiance to this empty space that we claim is occupied by … what?  God.  What is God? 

            Moreover, we not only claim God is real.  We also assert God is all powerful.  Dina typed out the worship bulletin.  Starlyn selected the songs – song that were written by people, humans and sung by the humans you see up on the stage.  I wrote this sermon.  Yet, we all conspire to say God is the one who is in control.  Are we sure?  Are you?  If we are truly worshipping, we have to be pretty convinced that this whole idea of God is real.

             Yet, we cannot be because doubt always has seat in our gatherings.  Some Sundays, you are so in touch with God, you feel a light and see a heat in the sanctuary that normal human senses could not perceive.  You don’t need convincing any more than you would need someone to prove water is wet.  Some Sundays, you know God.  But someone a few rows behind you isn’t so sure.  He got himself here.  He came.  The effort to do that was all he could muster.  He is right now hearing this sermon and thinking, oh, I don’t know.  This whole thing might be a farce. 

            He leaves less convinced than when he came in.  But then, over time, he sees God.  Others don’t what he’s talking about, but he knows it is God.  And in a month, he’s back in church and it is real.  By then, things have happened in your life, and your faith is being hit by gale force winds and you are unsure.  Is this house built on drifting sand or a firm foundation?  You do not know.    Then there is the Sunday where you are sure and your friend is sure and everyone here is absolutely sure of the reality and presence and love and power of God; everyone except the pastor.  He or she has days of doubt too.

            To worship is to acknowledge uncertainty.  If we want a positive spin, we say it is mystery.  That sounds nice.  But often mystery is scarier than it is inviting because it is mysterious. 

            I mentioned the power of God.  That’s another thing to acknowledge when we are trying to figure out if a life of worship is easier than a life in which we eschew worship.  When we worship, we are bowing, whether we literally go to our knees or not.  We say that God is the one in charge, the one with the power, not us.  Do we want to say that?  Do we want to name our weakness?  Do we want to confess sins?  Do we want to have to ask the unseen, unfelt, all powerful one for blessing?  Is life easier like this?

            No!  No, if we put our hearts into worship, life is not easier.  I say this not because getting up for church on Sundays is all that difficult.  It is not.  Thousands of people get up every Sunday, go church, and they do this without fail all their lives.  Not all of them truly worship, truly pour their hearts before God.  For many this is just part of the weekly routine.  If we really believe God is here right now, there can be nothing routine about this moment.  If we seriously think God is all-knowing, we cannot hold anything of ourselves back in this moment of worship.  To hold back would be a pointless waste of the time, time in God’s presence. 

            I say a life of worship is not easy because it is a life in which we give up control.  We pray, often very specifically, but God chooses when and how to answer.  We seek, but it is God’s decision as to how God will reveal God’s self.  God calls us by God’s initiative.  Worship, in one sense, is an exercise in waiting.  In hope and in faith, worship is a life of waiting to see what God will do in the world and how God will involve us in what God is doing.  Of course that is not all worship is.  Some might take great offense at this definition.  Fine.  Take offense.  Or embrace the definition and get to waiting, but always waiting in faith, expectantly, and hopefully. 

            No, this life of worship will not feel easier than a life of ignoring God.  It is though better than the godless life because God does act.  God is involved in the world.  God indeed does call us before we ever step toward Him in worship.  Giving ourselves to a life of worship does not guarantee we’ll be in the starting lineup on God’s team.  But it does orient us toward God – the God of infinite grace and infinite love, the God who calls us to be His sons and daughters.  Living in worship is better than avoiding God.  Living in worship points us to Him.  However it plays out, to choose the opposite of worship is to choose to turn away from God’s love.

            I have made the claim that embrace while not easier is better than a relationless life.  It is better to choose embrace.  I have made the claim that to live in worship while not easier is better than a godless life.  It is better to live in worship.

            What did Jesus name as the two greatest commandments?  Love the Lord your God with all your, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.  Obeying this by loving God begins in worship.  The second of the commands Jesus names is that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Neighbor-love begins when commit ourselves to embrace. 

            The prophet Ezekiel did his work about 600 years before Jesus came on the scene.  But what Jesus said about God-love and neighbor-love was as true in Ezekiel’s days as in Jesus’.  In God’s view of how the world ought to work, God-love and neighbor-love are absolute truths going back to the very beginning, Adam and Eve.  Ezekiel’s prophecies come after God had determined that his people, the nation of Israel, had worshiped idols of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. 

            Idolatry is at the root of all sin.       Idolatry is giving worship that belongs to God to someone or something other than God.  It is a failure of Jesus’ first command – the command to love God.  This failure always leads to a failure of the second command – the failure to love people. 

            Ezekiel was an Israelite priest, but he lived in Babylon.    The Babylonians had overrun Jerusalem, defeated the Israelites in battle and enslaved the most powerful among the people.  Are you one of the educate elite among the Israelites?  Off to slavery in exile in Babylon you go!  Are you an army officer?  Off you go to exile.  One of the religious leaders, a priest?  Off you go! 

The first 25 chapters of Ezekiel are comprised of prophetic allegories Ezekiel wrote and shared among the exiles in Babylon.  He graphically tells of God’s punishment.  Israel practiced idolatry, exploitation, and host of other sins and did so for many generations.

In Ezekiel 16, the prophet likens Israel to Sodom.  The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is found in Genesis 19.  Abraham’s cousin Lot is lives in Sodom.  Along with its sister city Gomorrah, Sodom is known for sexual excess and perversion.  God is going to wipe out both cities, but first, Lot and his family must be rescued. 

Angels come to extract Lot, but when the men of Sodom see the angels, they have other ideas.  These angels appear as human men.  The men of Sodom are going to spend the night raping them.  Lot shelters the men in his home not knowing that it is they who will rescue him, not the other way around.

At daybreak, the angels hustle Lot out of town and then Sodom and Gomorrah are obliterated by fire from Heaven.  Some interpreters believe this story is a condemnation of homosexuality.  The men of Sodom intended to have relations with these angels whom they took to be men also.  That would be rape, a crime of violence that is sexual in nature but not the same thing as consensual homoerotic relationships.  The Sodom account definitely relates to sexual purity, but it would be wrong to hold this up as a cornerstone defense in arguing that homosexuality is sinful.  It would be wrong because it would be missing the point of the story.

Other readers make the case that the real failure in Sodom was a failure of hospitality.  There clearly is this failure by the men of town.  They want to take something from the visitors instead of offering shelter and food to the visitors.  Just as there was sexual sin involved in the story, there is the failure to care for travelers.  But again to say the Sodom account is primarily about the sin of not showing hospitality is to focus on a detail instead of the overarching theme. 

The overarching theme is faithfulness to God.  This is seen in worship and neighbor-love.  In Ezekiel 16, the prophet says to the people of God who now wallow as slaves in exile, “The people of Sodom … were never as sinful as you.  … They had everything they needed [yet] they refused to help the poor and needy” (from Ez. 16:48-49, CEV).  In the verses leading up to this, Ezekiel rails against the exiles for idolatry (see v. 36).  Both idolatry (failure of God-love) and Sodom (failure of neighbor-love) enrage God. 

In verse 60, God reminds the beleaguered exiles that he has not abandoned them.  They have not stopped being God’s people.  They are just under God’s heavy hand of discipline.  God will one day fulfill all his promises to Israel.  We Christians believe that day came in the life of Jesus, his death on the cross, his resurrection, and his sending of the Holy Spirit.  He is God’s final answer to sin.  He defines worship and embrace, God-love and neighbor-love for us. 

We live awaiting the final consummation of the Kingdom – Jesus’ return, the resurrection of all the dead when those in Christ will enter the Kingdom and those not in Christ will be banished.  That’s coming. 

Until then, we bear witness to the goodness of God, and we do it in a posture of embrace as we love our neighbors.  As we await Jesus’ return, we worship, loving God with our heart, soul, strength, and mind. 

In the commentary on Ezekiel Franz Delitzsch and Carl Friedrich Keil translate the Biblical text into German.  Later, James Martin, translated their work into English.  His rendering of their translation of Ezekiel 16:48 sets for me a concept that is the essence of what it is to love in God-love and neighbor-love, worship and embrace. 

“Behold this was the sin of Sodom, [your] sister, [Israel]; pride, super abdundance of food, and rest had she with her daughters, and the hand of the poor and needy she did not hold” (p.219).  The hand of the poor and needy, she did not hold.

We can learn from Israel’s mistake by asking God to help us see the needy in our midst – the spiritually needy, those who suffer from poverty of relationships, and the emotionally needy.  Whatever actions of love we show to help someone come from hearts that beat with love for God.  We have embraced His Gospel when it is said of us they held the hand of those who needed to be held. 

Open your arms in embrace.  Bend your knee in worship.  Live in God-love and neighbor-love.  Bear witness to the Kingdom God and the Lordship of Jesus by holding someone’s hand. 

AMEN

Book Review of Dancing on the Head of a Pen

I immediately did one of the things Benson says he, as a writer does.  I am not in the middle of a writing project, but I wrote something, a fictional dialogue, because of what I read in his routine.  I tried to copy his approach.  I don’t know if I will become a writer, but I plan on continuing this practice at least for the next month or so.  I am going to do what he says he does, and see what comes of it.

I can’t think of a better endorsement that I could give than that for Dancing on the Head of a Pen, Robert Benson’s short book about what he does as a writer.  He takes the reader through his process.  He does so succinctly and clearly.  By the time he’s finished, I think, “Well, I can do that.”  I don’t know if I can write books.  But I can do the things he says he has done.  And when he has done those things, at the end of the line, a completed book comes out. 

As I said, this is a very short account.  He says nothing about how to get a publisher to read the work he’s written.  He says not one word about how to market the book.  He talks about editors, but he never mentions how someone starting out can get an editor.  Because I know a couple of authors who have succeeded in writing, getting published, and actually getting a few people to buy their books, I know Benson has left out a lot.

However, I don’t think his goal is necessarily a “how-to” in writing novels.  His goal is “how-he” or “how-I.”  He’s saying to the reader, “this is how I do it.”  So, I don’t think he can be faulted too much for what he leaves out though I do think he leaves a lot out.  Dancing on the Head of a Pen is a snippet of his work as an author, a glimpse.  And because he is a competent writer, it is well written.

For the prospective author, other works will have to be consulted if a finished product is to come.  Benson will put belief in the one who wants to write.  Read Dancing on the Head of a Pen, and you will think, “I can manage that much.”  And if you or I manage that much, we just might find we can do the things he leaves unsaid that are needed to complete the work.

Disclaimer - I received this book for free from WaterBrookMultnomah Publishing Group for this review.

A Conversation with Mo-mo

Mo-Mo is a person, a combination of people.  Many of the people I have known and loved and argued with and admired and criticized over the years are combined in Mo-mo.  I am not sure of who all is in there.  I’ll figure it out as she and I talk.  I don’t know exactly where the name comes from, Mo-Mo.  I’ll ask her, but not tonight.  Tonight I want to discuss a New York Times article with her.

“Hey.  Sorry I am late.  Traffic.  I … hey, don’t look at me like that!  Don’t give me the wave off or the hand.”

“Just kidding P.R.”

“I like that smile better.”

“Don’t be a weenie, P.R.  Come here.” 

She leans over to hug me.  Mo-mo is tall, a couple inches taller than me.  And young.  When I was in high school, she was starting kindergarten.  Didn’t know her then. 

But high school is way in my rearview mirror now.  I am 44.  Mo-mo pops in and out of my life.  Even when time goes by and I don’t see her much, she remains an extremely important figure in my life, a true friend, a sister who I have known over a decade.

“What are drinking?”

“Just a macchiato.”

“With a shot of caramel?”

“Always.  How about you?”

“Pumpkin Spice Latte.”

“And what was on that plate while you were waiting for me?”

“Again?”

“Yes,” (sigh), “Again.”

“Relax P.R.  We’re good.  You need another hug.”

I smile and shake my head.

“I had a Blueberry muffin.”

“Was it good?”

“Wonderful.”

“I am glad waiting for me wasn’t too horrible.  It is loud in here though.”

“You don’t like crowds.”

“And you love them.”

She smiles and nods toward the end of the counter where a blonde-haired, nose pierced woman is leaning so close to her man in skinny jeans they seemed fused.

“They started out fighting.  Awful language.  Did not care a whit that the whole place heard them cussing each other.  The manager was on the verge of throwing them out, so they shut it down.  But they were still glaring, especially her at him.  Within a few minutes the looks changed and before you know it they were all twinkly-eyed and sweetie.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I think they’re engaged.”

“You love the crowd – the show.”

“I do.”

“I see you have the Times.  Did you read about Michael Dunn?”

“You mean, did I read about Jordan Davis?”

“Yes.  Did you?”

“I did.  Rob, this Jordan Davis’ story.”

“I am sorry.”

“Isn’t this what is supposed to happen?”

“Yes.”

“A kid – unarmed – is murdered because a hot shot white dude didn’t like the rap music blaring from his car.  The asshole should spend his life in jail.”

“Yes.  And you’re right.  It is the story of a 17-year-old being shot.  His life should be the story.”

“But you said, ‘Michael Dunn.’  Half the time in these stories, the poor dead black kid’s name isn’t even mentioned.  Even you, a conscientious person …”

“I am trying to break my habits, be aware of my privilege, Mo-mo.  You know that.”

“Yeah.”

“Here, the story mentioned Dunn.  It is about him being convicted.  Most of the time, the white guy gets away with it, especially in Florida.”

“This is what is supposed to happen.  He kills a kid.  He goes to jail.  It just …” (tearing up a little) “… why does the right thing have to be the exception?  Why should this result actually surprise us?”

I sit and give her a moment.  I am expressionless and breathing slowly, deliberately.  I put my hand on her hand.  She offers a hint of a smile.

“P.R., you feel the same way about loud rap music as Michael Dunn.”

“Who’s Michael Dunn?”

“Very funny!”

“You’re right.  I hate rap.  Hate it.”

“How did you ever survive that time at my parents’ house?  All my cousins were there?”

“Oh my gosh, Little Tom, and that music.  It’s so foul, Mo-mo!  I can’t believe your dad let him play it as long as he did.”

“You stuck in there P.R..  You didn’t appear too annoyed.”

“I was shoving pigs-in-a-blanket in my face and talking to your uncle Willie.”

“Do you still email him?”

“We’re facebook friends.  We chat sometimes.”

“Pastor talk?” 

“Yeah.”

As we talked, our attention was drawn to the story on the TV in the café.  An NFL player had punched his girlfriend in a casino elevator.  The video was graphic.  I was speechless.  Mo-mo had a lot to say.  I had put in hours and hours hearing her rants, teasing out her opinions, helping her refine her thoughts.  I actually felt happy, not because of the story, but because I could sit with my friend as she talked it through.  I felt happy to have this friend, someone so different than me.  We were in the café almost two hours before she had to go. 

I walked her to her car and then headed on my way.  I had to visit the hospital where I would pray at the bedside of a cancer patient.  She is 41, the mother of 3 kids.  She is not going to make it. 

Veiled Hope

            I am reading the Prophet Ezekiel.  This Biblical book is not for the faint of heart.  The opening chapters tell of the Priest Ezekiel’s visions received while living in Babylon among the exiles of Judah.  God repeatedly and graphically describes the punishments has loaded on the shoulders of his people for their sins.  The God of Ezekiel is angry.

            I am reading the Contemporary English Version, which like many versions inserts titles into the text.  The title for 11:1-13 indicates the mood: “Ezekiel condemns Jerusalem’s wicked leaders.”  Ezekiel 11:22-25 is subtitled “The Lord’s glory leaves Jerusalem.”  And the title for chapter 12 is “Messages of Doom for Judah and Jerusalem.”  Good times!  God is not playing around here – “condemns;” “the Lord’s glory leaves;” “Doom;” – this is serious stuff.

            However, note that these divisions do not account for 11:14-21.  In that section, a little hope slips in.  God is severely ticked off at his people, but God is still God.  And God cannot be God without holding out hope even in hopeless situations.  Please note this, remember it, and go back to it whenever despair knocks at the door.  God always holds out hope, even in hopeless situations. 

            “It’s true that I, the Lord God, have forced you out.  … I will be with you wherever you are.  … I will gather you.  … You will be my people and I will be your God” (from 11:16, 17, & 19).  From God’s perspective, the horrors of the Babylonian exile were directly tied to the sins of the people of Israel and Judah.  Historians would look and see a powerful empire, Babylon, who overwhelmed many small nations in its path, Israel being just one.   In that historic interpretation, Israel never really recovered to be the called out nation again. 

Israel went from one overlord to another, Assyria to Babylon, Babylon to Persia, Persia to Greece, Greece to Rome.  Israel never again gained independence until 1948.  Today, Israel is essentially a secular state and a powerful ally of the most powerful of secular states – the United States of America.  This can all be explained by a historian and the explanation won’t have much to do with theology.

God, view though is very different.  In God’s view, Israel fell, but was never forgotten.  God came to ultimately redeem Israel and the world in the incarnation, Jesus of Nazareth, God in the flesh. 

So which view colors ours, that of the secular historian or God’s perspective? 

I write this as we near the end of 2014, at a time of turmoil in our country and around the world.  America struggles with racial tension and uncertainty regarding immigration.  Terrorism in Nigeria, the threat of democracy’s utter failure in the way Russia is bullying Ukraine, protests in Hong Kong, and the seemingly endless war in Syria are some of today’s stories that come together as testimony that the world is fallen.  There will be no peace and no hope for peace because hatred and violence reign. 

In the face of the bitterest realities that plague us today, Ezekiel, the prophet who presents an angry God, hints at hope.  Every problem I named in the previous paragraph, God ties to sin, to rebellion against Him.  Yet God does not abandon humanity to die in the consequences of our sins.  God continues to promise He will be with us.  He will gather us.  In Christ, we will be his people and he will be our God. 

Does such good news truly come from the dark chapters of anger and wrath?  It does.  Even in judgment God is still God and whenever and wherever God is God, there is mercy.  Mercy and discipline, grace and accountability – we can count on it all from God.  Writing as a Christian, I especially believe that the gathering hope Ezekiel hinted at comes full force in the gospel and in the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit. 

I am reading Ezekiel.  It is not easy.  Sometimes it goes down like medicine which tastes to awful it distorts my face to drink it.  But I need that medicine.  Even more I need this word from God.  So I continue taking it in knowing am blessed because of it.

Book Review Learning to Breathe Fire by J.C. Hertz

Learning to Breathe Fire is the story of the work-out phenomenon known as “Crossfit.”  It is written by J.C. Hertz, a writer for Rolling Stone and a crossfit devotee.  Hertz offers the reader a history of the movement that is designed to celebrate all that crossfit is.

My sense of this book is that if one is already favorable to crossfit, then he will love the book.  If one if predisposed to disinterest regarding crossfit, he probably won’t be swayed toward the fitness movement.  In order to promote the benefits of crossfit, the author has to denigrate other fitness practices (treadmills, weightlifting, yoga).  Her argument for crossfit is convincing.  I read her enthusiastic promotion and find myself wondering if I ought to try it.  Her dismissal of other techniques is off base.  I know people who have in fact gotten in shape on Stairmasters, who benefit from doing yoga, and whose bodies have dramatically improved through weightlifting plans. 

The simple truth is there are a lot of different effective work-outs and fitness plans.  Crossfit can be great, but it is not the only thing that can be great.  If you are not interested in crossfit, I don’t think this book will change your mind.  After a while the stories begin running together and the further into the book the reader goes, the more it sounds like an agenda and less like a story.  If you are already interested in crossfit, you might love the book.  But, you’re already going to boxes, so do you really need to read it?

I do not recommend this book.  It is not terrible.  The writing is fine.  My low-grade is undoubtedly tied to my own lack of enthusiasm.  This is not because crossfit is bad.  It just is not for me. 

Disclaimer - I received this book for free from WaterBrookMultnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Maturity in Christ (Ephesians 4:1-5:2)

Sunday, September 28, 2014

          Imagine you are in the city of Ephesus on the west coast of what today is the nation of Turkey and you are looking out over the Aegean Sea.  It is 60AD.  You feel good because it is Sunday.  There will be a guest speaker, one familiar and beloved in your church.  His name is Tychicus.  He has traveled with the great apostle Paul.  Today, he will share something Paul wrote, a message about life in Christ.

You smell the bread that has been baked for the Lord’s supper.  Everyone in the church is a dear friend of yours and you all sit close together in the courtyard of the house.  People have mocked you for your faith in Jesus.  Some say he is a weak god or no god at all.  Some dismiss you for taking this time on Sunday to worship.  Some accuse you of distorting Judaism and preaching bizarre doctrines.  It is not always easy to live in this town as a Christ-follower, but you and your friends in the church have leaned on one another. 

The church is not perfect.  Sometimes a new member wants to be both Christian and pagan and it is uncomfortable when he has to be confronted.  Sometimes traveling evangelists accuse you of being too Jewish; other say your Ephesian church is not Jewish enough.  Much of the time, you aren’t sure.  There have been arguments among the members.   But you love each other.  Through the turmoil, you all huddle together, build each other up, and now are her together again on a Sunday.

Tychicus has promised that this word from Paul will bring clarity to the divisive issues.  What he will share, will show the church how to live as the people of God, to be human the way God always intended humans to live.  Everyone is here for this.  Friends have greeted each other.  Songs have been sung, prayers prayed.  Now as Tychicus stands to speaks everyone leans in. 

(And we pick it up in Ephesians 4).

Ephesians 4-5:2 (NRSV)

4 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ² with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³ making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

⁷ But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. ⁸ Therefore it is said,

“When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;
    he gave gifts to his people.”

⁹ (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended^[a] into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰ He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) ¹¹ The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³ until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. ¹⁴ We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. ¹⁹ They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. ²⁰ That is not the way you learned Christ! ²¹ For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. ²² You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, ²³ and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

²⁵ So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. ²⁶ Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷ and do not make room for the devil. ²⁸ Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. ²⁹ Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up,^[b] as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. ³¹ Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, ³² and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.^[c] 5 ¹ Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, ² and live in love, as Christ loved us^[d] and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

          What jumps out at you?  Upon hearing this, what do I carry that empowers me to obedience and effectiveness in my own witness?  What sticks with you?  What will you remember?

          Fortunately, we live in the 21^st century.  There weren’t pens available in 60AD.  There was not a lot of paper.  You could not sit and take notes.  Tychicus did not have copies of the letter from Paul to pass out to all in attendance at the Ephesian church.  Today, we have enough Bibles for everyone to have multiple copies.  You can, on your own, go back and read and reread Ephesians 4 and I think doing so would benefit you greatly.

          One thing note is where Paul discusses the reason we are given spiritual gifts.  In Verse 11, he says some are gifted as prophets, some apostles, and evangelists, and pastors.  Most people are not any of those.  This is an incomplete list as are the lists of spiritual gifts in 1^st Corinthians, Romans, and 1^st Peter.  The point is everyone who is in Christ is gifted by the Spirit – but why?

          In verses 12 and 13 it says our gifts are meant to build up the body of Christ.  When the members of the church are using their gifts in harmony with others also using the gifts, the church comes to fully know Jesus.  When we live in our gifting and those around us live in theirs, all of us help each other become mature in Christ. 

          I also like verse 24 which says for us to clothe ourselves with the new self.   This is similar to Romans 13:14 where we are told to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and Colossians 3:14 which says “above all, clothe yourselves with love.”  How do put on the new self and put on Jesus and love as if we were putting on a shirt?   This is hard.  We still get tempted in sin.  Keeping our focus on two realities is essential.

          First, we look to Jesus, not the cultural values of the world around us.  Ephesians 4:17 mentions Gentiles.  Here ‘Gentiles’, means people without God in their lives.  In v.19 it says of them that they “have lost all sensitivity.”  In other words, they have completely lost the ability to feel sin. 

Whenever we want to be acceptable to our peers outside the Kingdom of God, and whenever we long for pleasures that are not Godly, we begin to rationalize.  It’s OK to have sex without marriage.  It’s alright to watch videos that are dehumanizing, lewd, and violent.  It’s OK to smoke things and drink things that blur our vision and kill our brain cells.  It’s OK to hoard goods for our pleasure.  We stretch the categories so that what was a sin yesterday is seen as acceptable behavior today. 

Jesus did not fall for this because he was always focused on the Heavenly Father.  He was always driven to show people what Kingdom life is like.  One example is in how Jesus used power – the power of God.  Andy Crouch describes Jesus as being incredibly disciplined.  He went away for silence and solitude.  He fasted for 40 days.  He always observed Sabbath.  He is a role model when it comes to living a spiritually disciplined life. 

Yet, Crouch also points out where Jesus allowed himself to be interrupted.[i]  One telling example from Mark chapter 5 is when Jesus went to heal the daughter of Jairus.  Jairus was the synagogue leader.  Healing his daughter would be a high profile miracle, sure to garner much credibility for Jesus. 

Along the way to his house, a woman with uncontrollable bleeding, stole behind him in the crowd.  She believed if she just touched him anonymously, she’d be healed.  She was right, but she did not count on Jesus knowing.  He immediately felt the power go out of him.  He summoned her in front of the crowd.  He was on a very important mission of healing for a very important man and he just stopped so he could heal an unclean woman, a nobody.  He gave attention.  He called her “daughter” so everyone could hear. 

In the delay, the daughter of Jairus died.  Still he went and he raised her, but behind closed doors.  Only Peter, James, and John and her parents witnessed Jesus bring the girl back to life from death.  He ordered them not to talk about it (Mark 5:43). Jesus performed an act that would do very little for his reputation, the healing of the bleeding woman.  He did this in full view of the public, showing them that this cast-off person was an image bearer, a child of God made in the image of God.  The healing of the powerful man’s daughter was done in private because Jesus does not seek public acclaim.  He did not court influence.

We read Ephesians 4:20 where are chastised to not succumb to the gradual degradation that comes from continually minimizing sin and justifying sin.  Rather we are to walk in the way of Christ.  Ephesians 5:1-2, “be imitators of God [and] live in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.”  To be mature in Christ is to realize that the power and the influence and the fame and the wealth valued by the world is nothing to God.  But worship and building up the church and restoring the image of God in broken people is everything.

First we look to Christ.  This includes staying constantly connected to Christ through prayer and worship.

Second, we realize our weakness.  We cannot be faithful; we don’t have the will power.  But the Spirit at work in us can do all things.  To stay in step with the Spirit, we have to make Spiritual disciplines a way of life. 

This is hard.  I fall into stretches where I lead a spiritually undisciplined life.  In those seasons, I don’t think God is far from me.   I believe the Spirit is always close and also whispering God’s love to me.  But most of the time, the Holy Spirit will not compete for my attention.  In a relationship, we give the other – a friend, a parent, a spouse, the Holy Spirit of God – our attention.  We don’t squeeze in a few minutes here and there for those we love.  Too often in my life, I have crowded God out, only squeezing in a few moments.  God is speaking, but I miss the message because I am only half listening.

Spiritual disciplines open us up for what God is preparing to do in us.  God empowers us to walk in the way of Christ.  Spiritual disciplines tenderize us and make us receptive to God.  The disciplines remind us how much we need God.  And though disciplines may seem challenging, when we step to the challenges we step toward blessing – the ultimate blessing of seeing, hearing, and feeling the very real presence and love of God in our lives.

I am starting again.  If you have tried disciplines before and it did not seem to work, try again.  If you want ideas or someone to just pray with you and for you, come see me.  I mean it.  This time, I have started small.  I am giving something up, completely, something that has sucked up way too much of my time and emotions.  And I am doing some modified fasting.  It kind of feels like Lent in September, but not really.  It is my awakening that to live “in Christ” and to grow to maturity in Christ, I have to give him more of myself.  I simply must. 

Look to Christ.  Practice spiritual disciplines.  Living in your spiritual gifting.  There is a lot more in Ephesians 4.  Read it throughout the week.  As you pray read it, waiting to see God will do in your life.

We are now at the end of a journey that really does not end.  Since June, we’ve focused on the idea of life in Christ.  Go back and again read Colossians, 1^st John, and Ephesians.  Maybe reading those letters and praying in those letters is your first step in the disciplines.  Read imaginatively, placing yourself in Colossae and in Ephesus.  Imagine you are a first century Christian hearing these messages for the first time.  Listen closely and allow God to speak through word, as He draws you to himself, and shapes your life.

We are in Christ.  We close with a word from Ephesians, chapter four, verse 4-5. 

⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

AMEN

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[i] Crouch, Andy (2013).  Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power.  IVP Books, Downers Grove, IL, .242-245.