Walk in Christ 1 Kings 19:1-8 Ephesians 4:17 5:2 John 6:35-51 Pentecost 12 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. To the saints who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Bridge God has always fed His people as beloved children. That continued through the prophet Elijah he s one in a long line of beloved children of God thankfully- (eucharistically-) fed by the mysteriously-special food that s really Jesus. Last week Ephesians (along with its companion texts in Exodus and John 6) encouraged us to have an ever-growing diligence and thankfulness in our knowing-consumption of Him (that is Jesus). Such a Eucharistic lifestyle receives and joyfullyingests the flesh of the Son of God sacrificed and, then, raised as, indeed, THE food that s intended for us ( Bread of Life He calls it). Once thankful (humble, gentle, with patience IN THAT, we re equipped, in humility and gentleness, with patience, to nourish others with Him. How we learn to receive and consume the Lord breeds how we, then, give Him to others. Elijah stands in the lineage of those thankfully-fed by the Heavenly food of Jesus who (as the Angel of the Lord) nourished him on Himself for his journey that would be too great for him without it. The prophet who d expended himself to the point of wanting to die instead arose and ate and drank as the Lord gave it to him to do then (as 1 st Kings tells us) went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights. Jesus, later, told people: I am THE Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst. I AM the Bread that came down from Heaven. This is
the Bread that comes down from Heaven and, if anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever. And the Bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh. And that s Jesus offer: the sacrifice of His flesh it to be eaten in order to provide life. Jesus had always been THE Heavenly food. Last week we were reminded that the manna was food from Heaven / Jesus. What it is (which is what manna means) was daily Bread to trust available, also, the next day. The unleavened Bread of the Passover Meal, Elijah s Heavenly food (in a flat cake of Bread), and our Communion wafer, are all the flesh of Jesus (the fruit of the cross), glorified, when raised back to life, and given for us to participate-in Text which no one can appropriately do in arrogance. Communing-in-faith requires humility, gentleness, and patience, none of which is from an old self. In other words, no one can thankfully consume of Jesus and, simultaneously, walk as Gentiles in the futility of their own minds, darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart, callous, giving themselves over to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. God only has people thankfully commune on His Son as we ve learned Christ ( heard about Him / were taught in Him / know truth / and are, indeed, in Him / in Christ by baptism, receiving Him / consuming of Him in, indeed, humility, gentleness, and patience). Paul is, now, drawing for us a stark contrast between one s previous (before adoption and renewal) / old self and his or her new self, defining that as a change in reality along with an ongoing movement in attitude that reflects itself in actions (a eucharistic joy / a thankfulness to feed upon Jesus / a serious cognizance of being in Christ and hungry for Him / consuming Him deliberately and happily, and appreciative of God s gift of letting us do that again eucharistic as in thankful in our consumption). Put OFF your old self, which belongs to your former manner
of life (Paul says) and is corrupt through deceitful desires and be fed for renewal in the spirit of your minds, putting ON (by offering yourself-up) for the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Putting off your old self is humility, and that leads to gentleness, with patience, but how easy it is for those adopted-into-christ to be, sometimes, lazy or arrogant in gaining God s grace and forgiveness. Luther (highly aware of Satan s efforts) says that we can forget the war that he s waging upon us, sitting-back upon the laurels of grace making us vulnerable and, maybe-even, willing for demonic attack. How persistent Paul is that children of God have a life-long exercise fighting to remain thankful for grace. And our nourishment (by feeding upon Jesus through the Gospel ministry of Word and Sacrament), that s essential for our life-long efforts to remain thankfully God s. Word and Sacrament are, literally, the food of Heavenly strength that got noted sustaining Elijah for forty days and nights through struggles. God insists that we gain that as well, us arising to eat so that we have Heavenly strength for our journeys that are too great. Paul stresses-hard the putting off of our old self and the constant putting on of our new and does-so such that so humility gets built within us and retained. Read the middle paragraph of Ephesians 4:17 5:2 can (I suppose) be done with arrogance and pride, but with honesty-before-god it can only be done with the painful awareness of our shortcomings: Having put away falsehood, therefore (as if any of us could ever have had that perfectly accomplished) let each one of us always speak the truth with his neighbor (pure humility and gentleness with patience, but holding neighbors, as well as ourselves, accountable for eternity). Be angry (when righteously appropriate), but do not sin in that anger, giving no opportunity to the devil, not letting the sun go down on, even, righteous anger (dealt-with-immediately and without stewing ). Where, even, you ve stolen (maybe time or care that should have been given, or attention or thankfulness to the Lord for His food He s given us), steal no longer, but labor, then arise and eat and, then, share with others in need from what you ve
received. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear (which we ve, no doubt, got perfect). And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by Whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. That s despising Him by despising God s gifts, not letting Him build-you, making you more effective because of the Heavenly food you ve been eating, and He s been blessing, to make joy spill-out contagiously. How often even we yawn in the face of the Heavenly food of God in Word and Sacrament, grieving-that-way the Holy Spirit who s within us. And, finally, let all bitterness and wrath and hateful anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Forgive, in other words, (immediately), from the vast amount of forgiveness which God has offered you. To quickly seek forgiveness and forgive is the MOST-PERFECT-EXPRESSION of humility and gentleness, with patience. And that seeking of forgiveness starts with us before the Lord, guilty of our failures even when we have all the full benefits of His gifts. Paul says: be imitators of God as beloved children, and appropriate children of God appreciative His gifts and enjoy-them, with obvious results. It s what we have an example of in His Son, and the reason why we, even, can Walk in Christ in love, as He has loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God, the Father. Application If there is no motivation from the perfect life of God s Son for us, becoming man to, then, die for us then there is no motivation anywhere. What He won was the defeat of our sin, saving us from an eternal death, pushing-back Satan who d have us without it (paying for us by His blood), then risingfrom-the-dead to live and prepare (for us) a place with Him, making us usefulness until then, even during a tough journey.
We can notice the process of the new self of God s adoption-of-us, but only when we notice where we fall short of it and, yet, receive His gift of the abundance of all we re not. When we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When we desire that, and are thankful for it, receiving it in the Words of absolution and the bread of the Meal, their we re SHOWN the renewing of the Spirit of our minds... I was extremely conscious of the hours, then minutes, ticking away in the events of this past Thursday. Struggling for what to feel and do as (in Nashville, so just up the street) our state executed the first person it has since 2009. I prayed (as I was glued to a clock and noted what seemed like most of the hours, then minutes, in a day that I knew as a really-tough-day for a lot of people. I wished that there was so much more I could do. But I prayed for everybody involved (for Warden Tony Mays, for the execution team, for Governor Bill Haslam, for the Supreme Court and the attorneys involved, and for the family of the young victim, Paula Dyer, and for the man condemned, Billy Irick). I prayed but what I knew- and recognized MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE was that (for every one of those people who had to go through the journey of last Thursday too great for them without it ), was, for each, that they d had to receive and consume God s Word and the Heavenly Meal of the body and blood of Jesus ( the food of Heavenly strength enough to sustain Elijah for forty days and nights ). As we come to know what God s made us to be (no longer, in any technical sense, Gentiles or others, but children of God, so members the Divine family, adopted and in-the-household-ofthe-most-high), may we come also to know Who is our nourishment and be, in that, eucharistic (or thankful) and, then, generous in that thankfulness, to humbly, gently and patiently share Jesus everywhere. In +His name. Amen.