Ephesians 4:22-32 Three Sundays Before I leave you for a few days, including next Sunday, I thought it best for us to read some instructions about getting along. This is not to say that I perfectly abide by these rules from Ephesians, but rather that here are foundational dos and don ts which all of us may need reminding of from time to time. It all seems simple enough, though not always easy: truth instead of lying, honest work instead of thievery, speaking in ways that build others up rather than tear down, kindness and forgiveness instead of anger and bitterness and gossip; these good and selfless qualities which are based upon God s forgiveness of each of us and the spirit of generosity and mercy given to us. If you heed this teaching- not just of these few verses, because truly this is the core message of Ephesians, I know our guest speaker and his family will feel welcomed next week; I know that there will still be a church for me to come back to the week after that; and I know that anyone who comes here will sense the humble, hospitable spirit that resides in this place. Today is the second of the three Sundays from the sermon title. And next Sunday is the third. It s not that what we do today is exceptional, or really, even different; nor even what we will do next week: we sing and pray, share communion, hear the good news of God s love through Jesus. Next Sunday, the
good news may be presented in a different style from what you are accustomed to, and perhaps with a slightly different emphasis; you might hear the stories of peoples from far away places with whom we likely have very little in common. But the second and third Sundays are important because they are in such contrast to the first Sunday. This day, and seven days hence, God s people gather in love and joy and fellowship and peace, but seven days ago, the first of three Sundays, someone came into a house of worship with a gun in his hand, and hatred and rage and murder in his heart. Events like that always surprise us, and I think we are still trying to understand it. Perhaps it s one of those things we cannot understand, cannot be explained. Or it may be easily explained: that some lives are so bent and corrupted by selfish purposes, so turned inward upon themselves, that anything strange to them they wish to destroy. This kind of person is the extreme opposite of what our passage encourages. Here, in this man in Wisconsin, are lies believed instead of truth, anger that overcame any feelings of kindness, bitterness and malice that did not permit any sense of shared humanity. Here is simply the idea that lurks in darkened minds that my thoughts and perceptions are the right ones, with no place for other viewpoints; an idea that expresses itself in signs and
slogans we ve seen before, such as The only good Indian is a dead Indian ; or God hates fags ; or Kill em all, and let God sort them out. This is not unfamiliar to us, we see it on the news, we ve read about it in the history books- people who look like us, go to church like us, our own people, who perform such barbarous acts! But do we recognize that we too bear negative impulses in our own hearts and minds? that we, too, have xenophobic attitudes, the tribal mentality that responds out of fear or dislike, that we all may act and think selfishly on occasion- actions and thoughts that even may become brutal deedsanytime we repeat gossip, anytime we forward demeaning or hateful emails about others. The fact is, world views and deeds that develop from pride and selfinterest, like these in our scripture, are possibilities for each of us. If it were not so, our scripture would not address the issue. But the scripture also offers a solution. And we discover this answer when we understand that we are part of each other, we are members of one another, as verse 25 has it. There can be no sense of superiority with this understanding, no possibility of justifying the lies we might believe in order to feel better about ourselves, or the anger and bitterness we may feel towards others or to the world or to God. No, we are members even of those who disagree with us, and those who disappoint us, and those different from us;
members of one another because we are part of this new thing God has made- the new nature of verse 24, that joins us all together in the unity of God, that binds us to God and guides us into sharing with one another the nature of God. So, we should not read these verses, or any other scripture, and think, Well, I get most of them right, or, The important commandments I do, or I act the right way to the people who matter, so I m okay. That s just a lie our old nature tells us to make us think that the Bible is merely about morality and piety. But there is a deeper meaning, more powerful- and more difficult, that directs us into moral living, not for the sake of our personal moral life or to make a deeper spiritual life for ourselves, but moral living for the sake of others. Because we are members of one another. That is why we must not lie, must not let our attitudes and actions degenerate into harmful words and hateful feelings, insults and destructive passions and bitterness. It is for the sake of our relationships with others: morality, growing out of our relationship with God as new men and new women, that sees others with a new point of view. You may have heard that one reason more people weren t murdered last week at the Sikh temple, in their gurudwara, is that many of the people, particularly the women, were in the kitchen preparing food for their fellowship
meal, just as we often do- and did last Sunday- sharing the joy of our life together. That s what people do who are members of one another. And maybe you learned this as well, if you ve kept close watch on the story, that after the killer was taken down, while the police and medical people were still there, and reporters and onlookers and so many who wanted to help, the members of the temple passed among the crowd, feeding them with the food they had made earlier that morning. Even in that moment, in their grief and shock, their understanding of being members of one another led them to this astonishing, radical act of hospitality. Here is a powerful witness to the true meaning of humble morality- that moral perfection isn t the end and goal of the godly life, but the beginning of it, where we live morally and righteously- for one another- so that we might share God s love. Many years ago in college I had a small poster of a men s prayer group in an outdoor setting, in the middle of a camp. I don t know where I got the poster, and I m sorry to say I don t know where it went, but it was a beautiful thing, and it affected me the same way as hearing these past few days about the Sikhs in their pain feeding their neighbors. The picture on the poster showed a Wycliffe translator, a white man in a shirt and pants and regular shoes, head bowed in
prayer, sitting on a rock, part of a circle with other men- dark tribal men with bones in their hair and noses, tattoos and paint on their bodies, loin cloths their only covering, holding spears; and heads bowed as well, as they offered prayers to the Lord who had made them all members of one another. Those who wish to hate and kill should consider images like these- of persons different from themselvesand remember how much God has loved the world in Jesus Christ. And in those times we are tempted to think angry thoughts or to speak ill of another, let us also remember that our Lord has made us all his friends, made us to share in his new life that welcomes all creatures, and made us new men and new women so that we may love others as he loves.