The 12th Sunday after Pentecost | 11 08 24 | Ephesians 4:25-5:2 | Evan McClanahan |

 NRSV

A Tender Heart Meets the Real World

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our reading from Ephesians is some of the most tender writing you could ever hope to read. And this from a guy who oversaw the first martyrdom in the Church, the stoning of Stephen. Yes, Paul is earnestly pleading for peace and harmony to reign in the hearts and minds of those who follow Christ. In his letter to those in Ephesus, he calls on Christians to speak the truth, to refrain from gossip, to live honestly, to forgive one another, and to be kind.

These are the kinds of passages – tender-hearted and bleeding with vulnerability that would sink deeply into the culture where Christianity was in the majority. Those who heard or read these passages were no doubt moved by them to the point that others recognized the differences between Christians and non-Christians. Therefore, Christians developed an expectation of kindness, prudence, modesty, and hard work. Cruelty, dishonesty, laziness, and loose living were rightly stigmatized.

Of course, Paul’s teaching is not easy to follow. It is a high standard! So let us consider the instructions he offers for ourselves.

1. We are to put away falsehood. How often do we exaggerate or lie about our neighbors? If we assume the worst about them or believe a rumor, we are not putting away falsehood at all, but reveling in it. It is fun to believe things that are not true. It can be a dopamine hit to the brain, like a drug. It’s exciting. The truth, after all, is often boring. But we are to assume the very best about one another, for anything else could be reveling in falsehood.

2. Interestingly, Paul says we are to “be angry but do not sin.” This seems to mean that there are occasions for anger. When we witness or experience evil, for example, anger is an entirely justified response. But we are to moderate our anger and not let it consume us. It needs to run its course. We are to return to our default Christian setting of hopefulness. Our anger, therefore, cannot continue overnight. But at least we do not have to lie about the reality of our being angry! “Minnesota nice” is not a demand placed upon the Christian.

3. We are not to steal. I’m hoping this one is a bit more obvious, though there are all kinds of clever ways to steal. But we are to work with our hands so that we have something to share. One wonders, then, if receiving money for doing no work at all is, in fact, stealing if the recipient is able to work? I think I could make that case. Institutionalized theft is still theft, after all.

4. We are to harness our tongues so that our speech is positive and we build one another up. Have you ever known someone who maybe didn’t say much, but when they did, it was always appropriate and well-placed? Then you may have known those who had no filter and, while they were honest, hurt others with blunt speech? We want to try to be more like the first person.

5. Here is one of the best proof texts for the personhood of the Spirit of God. Paul tells us not to “grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” Well, if the Spirit is just an “energy” or “force,” He cannot be grieved. He, rather, is not just an emanation from God, but a person who can, on His own merits, be grieved by our sin. Notice, too, the language we use at our baptism. We say you have been “sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.” That language is directly from Ephesians 4 where Pauls says “you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.”

6. Finally, we are to put away bitterness, wrath, and anger and instead be kind, tenderhearted, and to forgive. Make no mistake; not only would these Christians have had the usual interactions with one another that needed to be smoothed over with the virtues of kindness and forgiveness. But Ephesus was a rough and tumble port city that would have been a melting pot – or a boiling pot – of people from all over the world. This was a clash of civilizations where any one group of people would have likely had a grievance against every other group of people.

And yet, Christianity is like a salve to those kinds of wounds. We speak of racism in our day, but we either forget or we just don’t know that tribalism is as old as humanity and it absolutely enveloped early Christians. It is in that harsh, unforgiving, and tough environment that Christians are to extend kindness to one another and be brokers of peace. It is hard, because we make ourselves vulnerable to others with no guarantee of success. But it is the only path to peace.

So what I have just taught is really just a repeat and elaboration of Paul’s teaching which is pretty firmly in the category of ethics or Law. This is how Christians are to live. There are tremendous benefits if we live in such a way, so, in a sense, it produces the good world that we want. The Gospel is that we are forgiven; God has been kind to us; God does not steal from us; God is not angry towards us. In short, God is merciful to us and that is why we strive to be merciful towards one another.

So far, then, this is boilerplate Christianity. I would be well within my rights to stop here. I would commit no sins if I just let things stand. But my concern is this: what happens if the kindness of Christians invites evil? For we know that evil is a part of our sinful world, and as much as we hope to convert the world to our peaceful way of life, sometimes, evil will fight us tooth and nail. What do we do then?

I’m thinking particularly of the riots in England this week, sparked by the murder of three young girls by a Rwandan immigrant. England becomes less and less recognizable due to the importation of about 1 million foreigners every year. Not that there is anything wrong with foreigners per se, but almost none of them are Christian and the English themselves are hardly Christian.

Now that some English have said “Enough,” they are instantly labeled “far right” Nazis. But what should they do? Just watch their civilization change before their very eyes? Become a minority in their own country in a few decades time, perhaps losing the very right to be a Christian? While being kind for years as non-Christians moved in and established homes, at some point do they have the right to say, “Yes, but this is what we believe and how we do things here?”

I think they do. Even when Christians were in the minority, they resisted persecution saying that they could not disobey God in order to obey men. So while Christians preach all of the virtues listed above/before, they do resist evil.

Or what about our own schools? What are the values that should be taught? Who gets to decide? Should the Ten Commandments be on the wall? Or a rainbow flag? You can’t have both. Should Christians silently accept that they are in the minority when it comes to these ethical questions? Or should they run for School Board, show up to meetings, and make their feelings known?

If the government tells us we can’t worship again due to an illness that is spreading, should we close our doors again? (We never closed our doors, but many churches did, of course.) Or should we say no?

Being kind, being honest, being compassionate does not mean we are to be doormats. We should have self-respect enough to demand to be treated with respect. And we should treat others with respect because we love God and we love our neighbors. But we have a point-of-view, and we quite radically believe it comes from God Himself. We need not be ashamed of it!

Of course, not every issue is one that concerns Christian ethics. That is a matter of discernment. My only concern is that we will not assume that the beautiful words that Paul wrote in Ephesians, words that surely built a civilized and kind world, are always taken to mean that we should not press our values when there comes a point of conflict. For the whole world benefits when it knows Christ, and the power of his love. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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©Evan McClanahan

Pastor@flhouston.org

First Lutheran

Houston, Texas, USA