OK, here’s the deal. We are moving house in less than a week. Which means it is crunch time. Final approach. Down to the brass tacks. Time’s running out. The clock is ticking. Hey, I came prepared with a bucket full of cliches, just for this occasion.
My point here is that there are lots of things I need to be doing today. And this bible study has fallen down the list a bit. Not because it isn’t important. By no means! This is one of the primary ways I have of preparing to preach on a Sunday morning. Even when what comes out on Sunday is very different than what is written here. It is still preparation for that most important of tasks.
Plus I have heard from many of you who appreciate the opportunity to spend a little time reflecting on the bible with me. Not all can come to the bible studies at church, but this mode is a little more accessible, a little more convenient, and it often causes people to stop and think, or so I am told. And that is always a good thing.
So, I’m not saying that my opinion of this task has diminished in anyway. All I’m saying is that since I am not preaching, and since the sword of Damocles is hanging over all our heads here on Candlewick Drive, I need to shorten our reflections a tad and get back to packing.
Of course, I could also use it as an opportunity to invite all of you and all of those you know to come to a loading/moving party next Thursday and/or Friday. But that would be a misuse of the forum. Wouldn’t it? Yes, I think so. Darn.
So, I feel drawn, if not compelled to get to other tasks. I feel I need to do my share of the preparations, to carry my load, to maintain the bond of peace and unity here in my house. Of course, considering I don’t even think the kids are out of bed yet means I do have a couple of minutes to at least show you the passage that will be read in worship tomorrow.
Ephesians 4:1-6, 25 - 5:2 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. ... 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, 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. 5:1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2 and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
It was all those ones in the first part of the reading that got me. Paul seems on a unity bend here in Ephesians. Makes you wonder what was going on in the church. Whether they were arguing about service times or the color of the carpet. Something serious that was dividing the church into factions. Or maybe it was theological, what was right, what was acceptable, what were the proper words to say at baptism or communion. Or maybe it was that some weren’t doing their share. Boxes were being packed and stacked and some were sitting at computers staring into space.
Sorry, got a little too praxis there. But you know what I mean. There are so many things that divide us. Sometime it is conflict or disagreement. Other times it is divergent interests or responsibilities or commitments. Or a culture that invites us to think of ourselves first, not what would be good for the whole.
And for some it is that they don’t belong to a whole. Families often live as independent of one another, each doing what is good in their own minds, instead of contributing to a sense of unity. Corporations don’t value loyalty like it seemed they once did. Even nation seems more about individual rights and freedoms than it does about community, about sacrificing for the good of all.
Paul surrounds this talk of unity - and the long list of “one” - by talking about call. Live a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, he says in verse one. And then “just as you were called to the one hope of your calling” there in verse four before he gets back to his litany of one. We tend to think of call as an individual thing, each are called. We discern our call. And that is certainly true. But, Paul points out here that our call is to community, to set ourselves aside long enough to participate with the body in building the kingdom. We are not called just to be special in and of ourselves, but we are called to participate in something bigger than ourselves.
Which is why the second part of the reading, from verse 25 through the first two verses of chapter five (and you do remember that the chapters and verses were added in hundreds of years after the letters were written and are somewhat arbitrary) is all about how we can get along as a community.
Paul knows that living together isn’t easy. Tell me about it. When a moving deadline approaches, it becomes even more evident that living together isn’t easy. And the first six verses aren’t implying that we will all be the same, having the same thoughts and inclinations and ways of operating. No, we are still who we are, we still bring the gifts we have been given to the community. And that is great in that if adds to the vast and diverse tapestry that is the human community called the church. But it is also difficult because we bump up against one another and sometimes get upset by different points of view.
So, to both acknowledge this inevitability and to build in systems and procedures that will help us deal with these difficulties, Paul talks to us about how we go about getting along. He reminds us the lying, even when we think it is safer is a dangerous thing. He reminds us that anger left unchecked causes more damage than we realize, to us and those around us. He says there are no short cuts in the life of the community, just a need for labor and effort on everyone’s part. And then that sniping, the pulling down, that tearing each other up is the very antithesis of what community is about. We are in the business, he reminds us, of building up. Why do we find tearing down so much fun? All that stuff (wrangling, for example, what the heck is that? Oh, wait, I’ve got teenagers. I was a teenager. Never mind. Wrangling. Got it.) All that stuff gets us off the track of trying to be like Christ. Trying to love like he loved. Trying to participate in the community of faith called the church. So, get back to the ones, he says, and remember to what we were called.
Speaking of calling, someone is calling me. There is another box to be taped up. Gotta go.
My point here is that there are lots of things I need to be doing today. And this bible study has fallen down the list a bit. Not because it isn’t important. By no means! This is one of the primary ways I have of preparing to preach on a Sunday morning. Even when what comes out on Sunday is very different than what is written here. It is still preparation for that most important of tasks.
Plus I have heard from many of you who appreciate the opportunity to spend a little time reflecting on the bible with me. Not all can come to the bible studies at church, but this mode is a little more accessible, a little more convenient, and it often causes people to stop and think, or so I am told. And that is always a good thing.
So, I’m not saying that my opinion of this task has diminished in anyway. All I’m saying is that since I am not preaching, and since the sword of Damocles is hanging over all our heads here on Candlewick Drive, I need to shorten our reflections a tad and get back to packing.
Of course, I could also use it as an opportunity to invite all of you and all of those you know to come to a loading/moving party next Thursday and/or Friday. But that would be a misuse of the forum. Wouldn’t it? Yes, I think so. Darn.
So, I feel drawn, if not compelled to get to other tasks. I feel I need to do my share of the preparations, to carry my load, to maintain the bond of peace and unity here in my house. Of course, considering I don’t even think the kids are out of bed yet means I do have a couple of minutes to at least show you the passage that will be read in worship tomorrow.
Ephesians 4:1-6, 25 - 5:2 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. ... 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, 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. 5:1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2 and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
It was all those ones in the first part of the reading that got me. Paul seems on a unity bend here in Ephesians. Makes you wonder what was going on in the church. Whether they were arguing about service times or the color of the carpet. Something serious that was dividing the church into factions. Or maybe it was theological, what was right, what was acceptable, what were the proper words to say at baptism or communion. Or maybe it was that some weren’t doing their share. Boxes were being packed and stacked and some were sitting at computers staring into space.
Sorry, got a little too praxis there. But you know what I mean. There are so many things that divide us. Sometime it is conflict or disagreement. Other times it is divergent interests or responsibilities or commitments. Or a culture that invites us to think of ourselves first, not what would be good for the whole.
And for some it is that they don’t belong to a whole. Families often live as independent of one another, each doing what is good in their own minds, instead of contributing to a sense of unity. Corporations don’t value loyalty like it seemed they once did. Even nation seems more about individual rights and freedoms than it does about community, about sacrificing for the good of all.
Paul surrounds this talk of unity - and the long list of “one” - by talking about call. Live a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, he says in verse one. And then “just as you were called to the one hope of your calling” there in verse four before he gets back to his litany of one. We tend to think of call as an individual thing, each are called. We discern our call. And that is certainly true. But, Paul points out here that our call is to community, to set ourselves aside long enough to participate with the body in building the kingdom. We are not called just to be special in and of ourselves, but we are called to participate in something bigger than ourselves.
Which is why the second part of the reading, from verse 25 through the first two verses of chapter five (and you do remember that the chapters and verses were added in hundreds of years after the letters were written and are somewhat arbitrary) is all about how we can get along as a community.
Paul knows that living together isn’t easy. Tell me about it. When a moving deadline approaches, it becomes even more evident that living together isn’t easy. And the first six verses aren’t implying that we will all be the same, having the same thoughts and inclinations and ways of operating. No, we are still who we are, we still bring the gifts we have been given to the community. And that is great in that if adds to the vast and diverse tapestry that is the human community called the church. But it is also difficult because we bump up against one another and sometimes get upset by different points of view.
So, to both acknowledge this inevitability and to build in systems and procedures that will help us deal with these difficulties, Paul talks to us about how we go about getting along. He reminds us the lying, even when we think it is safer is a dangerous thing. He reminds us that anger left unchecked causes more damage than we realize, to us and those around us. He says there are no short cuts in the life of the community, just a need for labor and effort on everyone’s part. And then that sniping, the pulling down, that tearing each other up is the very antithesis of what community is about. We are in the business, he reminds us, of building up. Why do we find tearing down so much fun? All that stuff (wrangling, for example, what the heck is that? Oh, wait, I’ve got teenagers. I was a teenager. Never mind. Wrangling. Got it.) All that stuff gets us off the track of trying to be like Christ. Trying to love like he loved. Trying to participate in the community of faith called the church. So, get back to the ones, he says, and remember to what we were called.
Speaking of calling, someone is calling me. There is another box to be taped up. Gotta go.
Shalom,
Derek
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