It’s late, I know that. This has been a day. A good day, though. Or maybe a bad day, depends, I guess. What was that comedy routine? Someone telling their friend about how their day went and after every statement the friend said “That’s good” and the response would be, “no, that’s bad.” Or vice versa. Um, maybe you had to be there. The point is we don’t always know what is good and what is bad in a given situation.
I started my day with a funeral. Well, that’s bad. No, that’s good. Or maybe it’s both. There is sadness and grief certainly. There is loss and an uncertain future. All things that we see as bad. But at the same time there is relief that suffering is ended. There is joy that a life well lived is now sealed with a promise of eternity. There is the confidence in those promises and a hope of seeing our loved one again. That’s good.
I went from there to moderate a conversation on church unity in the face of significant disagreements. The case study being the division caused by opinions and belief about same sex relationships and homosexuality in the church. Oh, that’s bad. No that’s good. There is a fear of the inevitability of schism, that our differences are unreconcilable and the sooner we can figure out how to divide the property the better off we will be. There was even a member of another denomination who has already gone through a split on these same issues and said that yes it was bad, but now it is better. Remarkably freeing, was the phrase he used. Amicable divorce another used. That’s bad, in my opinion. No matter how friendly a split might be (and frankly I can’t imagine it being friendly at al) it is still a split. A break in the covenant, an admission that despite our rhetoric we don’t really believe in reconciliation. We don’t really believe in healing what is broken. We just need to learn to go our separate ways. That’s bad. And yet the very fact that we decided to talk about it is good. That we want to talk about how we might learn to live together even when we disagree, and what we can live with in disagreement and what we can’t. By choosing to talk about it we are standing in the face of the inevitability. That’s good. It may still happen, this schism thing. But it will definitely happen if we don’t talk. So, that’s good.
After that and some other ad hoc conversations started from that more formal one (which I saw as good), I then participated in a presentation of letters to the church. A group of us were asked to write a letter, like Paul’s Epistles to the church of today and then we talked about those dreams and visions. I was honored to be asked and loved being a part of the conversation. It was good. But not everyone got to share their dream, and that was bad. But everyone had a chance to reflect on the dreams that were shared, and that was good. But none of these dreams may do anything to change the future of the church, and that’s bad.
Then I came home for a quick supper and then back to the Festival for the concert with Amy Cox and then Rend Collective. Both of whom were great, by the way, and that was good. But it got to be late and I still hadn’t done my bible study, and that was bad. Is bad. Because I’m not done yet. That’s bad. But if you are reading this then it was completed at some point and that is good.
But I can’t quite see how, and that’s bad. Maybe, and this is good, we should actually look at the text and go from there. Oh, that IS good.
Ephesians 5:1, 8-11 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children,... For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light-- 9 for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. 10 Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
OK, now first, I can’t remember why I didn’t do the second verse too, so we could have a complete sentence to begin with. Ephesians 5:1-2 Therefore 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. That would help. Live in love, why wouldn’t I want that? Leaving that out would be bad. Maybe I assumed it would be implied? Dunno, am looking for the good here.... Makes it shorter? Weak.
Secondly, why include verse 11? It just kind of muddies the waters in my opinion. Much better to end with “Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.” Now that is a mission statement we could get behind, don’t you think? Well, no, not exactly. It wouldn’t make a good mission statement. It would make half of a good mission statement. A background for a mission statement, the homework before going on the mission trip. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord, could be an academic exercise. OK, find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Then find out what is pleasing to Chuck Pagano, coach of the Colts. Then find out what is pleasing to Kim Kardashian. Then find out, on second thought never mind.
See, not a mission statement. Unless you follow Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord and then do it, for heaven’s sake! It doesn’t become a mission until there is action, until there is movement, until there is service going on. But why expose works of darkness? Are we being called to point fingers? Or worse, to wag fingers? Or to give the fin... never mind. Some metaphors get you into trouble. Maybe verse eleven isn’t an action verse, but is instead a result verse. Maybe it isn’t so much about pointing fingers as it is bringing light. What happens to shadows when you turn on the light? What happens to darkness when the light is brought? We expose works of darkness by living the opposite. We expose works of darkness by being light. Not a negative approach to the world, but a positive one. Not a shaming, but a glorifying. Not a pushing down, but a lifting up. Find out what is pleasing to the Lord and do it, be it, let it shine.
Live as children of light. Now that’s a mission statement! But how do we do that? What does it mean? Live as children of light, by ....? Paul defines the function of God’s people as the fruit of the light. Jesus says by their fruits you shall know them. So, Paul says, yeah is their fruit the fruit of light? Paul would have flunked creative writing with all his mixed metaphors. Fruit of light?
The fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Finally, whew, we got there. The sixth of the nine fruit of the Spirit is goodness. All that is good. Last week we learned that God’s goodness is that blessing that empowers us to act, to live and to love. So, what is this fruit of the light found in all that is good?
Paul loves his dualities. Light/dark, spirit/flesh, heaven/world; these and many more represent the ordering of existence from Paul’s point of view. But we need to take care not to go too far with any of them. They are metaphors. He never meant to imply that there is nothing good in darkness, that there is nothing good in the flesh, that there is nothing good in the world. He would be appalled to hear we took that so literally. He does, however, want us to know there is good and not good all around us. He does what us to know that there is a choice involved here. And he is asking us to choose good. To choose God. Find out what is pleasing to God. Find out what is of God in the world. God created the world and called it good. But not everything is good. So we choose. The fruit of the light is that never-ending process of determining what is of God and what is not, what is pleasing to God and what is not. What will bring us peace and what will not. What will make us love like Jesus told us to love and what will not.
We are invited to harvest the fruit of the light by living and choosing and being God-pleasers every single day, every single moment. Hard work? That’s bad. No, that good, because it is work we were made to do, and we find our joy in it. That is good.
Shalom,
Derek
No comments:
Post a Comment