Fourth Sunday in Lent, 2011 Immanuel Chapel, Ephesians 5:8-14.
More than 35 years ago the imposing figure of a State Highway patrolman filled the doorway to my office. He had a question, “Should I wear my gun?” I asked, “Do you usually wear it?” “It is part of my uniform” he replied. “Then I guess you should wear it,” I responded. He was one of several members of the congregation I had asked to participate in a Thanksgiving service wearing their work clothes as a way of expressing thanks for their jobs.
In our text, St. Paul asks us to wear Christ along with our everyday work clothes, giving thanks that we are part of the body of Christ Elsewhere, Paul writes, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Gal. 3:27) From that moment, Christ is a uniform we wear for a lifetime. Though we may forget that we are wearing it, ignore our Christ clothing, and think it of less value than a ripped T shirt, our Christ line is not so easily shed nor does it go out of style or lose value. It has a life time guarantee through God’s Holy Spirit to be wearable from now unto eternity. One day, this mortal body will wear out due to its participation in the things that are not of God. It will die. Christ, who gave us the victory over sin and death, will raise us to new life dressed in the immortal and imperishable body received in baptism. This new self is “created in the likeness of God in true uprightness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:24) We are God’s workmanship in Christ created for good works. “Therefore,” writes Paul, “be imitators of God…walk in love, as Christ loved us, and gave himself up for us.”
On Tuesday, Randy, Victor Kamanda, and I attended a meeting at the district office arranged by Pres. Mirly. Pastor Ron Rall from Timothy Lutheran and Rev. Allan Buckmann from Christians Friends of New Americans, Dr. Stu Brassie who is working with us on our Mission Revitalization Initiative (MRI) attended as well as Dr. John Luom from the seminary. As you probably know Dr. Luom is from West Africa. He said that in the United States we are defined by our work. That’s true isn’t it? We ask, “Where do you work?” We tend to take our work home with us. But Dr. Luom said, among the people of other societies, West Africans among them, you are defined by what group you belong to. So if you belong to a religious group, you do not leave your religion at the church door. You take it home with you and you take it to work with you.
That is what St. Paul is after in this section of his letter to the Ephesians. Take your faith with you wherever you go and whatever you do. Wear Christ as your daily garment, for now Christ defines who you are and whose you are. You are a member of the Christ group, dressed in the uniform of a saint, which is who you are in Jesus Christ.
But being saints was not always the case. Paul sets up some stark contrasts to drive home what we were before we believed the gospel of our salvation. “You were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked. But God, being rich in mercy…made us alive with Christ.” At one time you “were separated from Christ,” “having no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus,” you are reconciled to God, “through the cross.” Finally, in our text, Paul asserts, “At one time you were darkness.” Paul is not simply writing about the society in which we live, but ourselves. Before Christ came to dwell in your heart through faith, you and I were darkness itself. But now, “you are light in the Lord.” You didn’t somehow discover a light that has always been flickering within you. Christ Jesus arriving in your life in baptism replaced the darkness with himself. The man in the gospel lesson who had been blind from birth did not suddenly regain his sight on his own. Jesus gave him his sight so that for the first time in his life he could see the light. And Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” Jesus gave the man much more than his vision, he gave him eyes to see who Jesus really was, “a man from God.” He confessed, “Lord, I believe” and began to worship Jesus.
Now Paul continues to use contrast as he clues us in on how to live as children of the light and what is “good and right and true.” We use the gift of the Holy Spirit to examine and test out what is pleasing to the Lord. In other words, give this Christ life a try and you will find what the Lord likes in the behavior of his children. Put it into practice. We were created in Christ Jesus for good works. We don’t have to even guess what we should be doing; God has already prepared ahead of time the works he wants us to do.
Instead of holding on to bitterness, resentment and anger refusing to be reconciled, which then leads to noisy discord and speaking evil of one another; rather be kindly inclined toward one another. Rather than hard hearted be tender hearted, leading to freely forgiving one another as Christ has forgiven you. As beloved children of God, walk in the way of love, imitating Christ’s love for us demonstrated when he gave himself as a sacrifice to God for all the hatred that we might harbor in ourselves. Sexual immorality and coveting are not part of living in Christ. We are members of the body of Christ, we belong to the household of God, we are wearing the Christ line of clothing, and therefore, sexual impurity does not fit into our life in Christ. As we well know today, sexual immortality, and abuse are often more about demonstrating power of position and money, than about anything else. Later in Ephesians Paul writes of marriage and the relationship of husband and wife. It stems out of a reverence for Christ who became the servant of all submitting even to death on the cross. The headship of a husband in marriage is not about power but about loving ones wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. He summarizes that relationship, “let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Paul continues by addressing the misuse of alcohol. Don’t get drunk on alcoholic spirits because that leads to moral corruption and incorrigible behavior. Rather, be filled with the Holy Spirit, because this does not lead to filthy language, crude jokes and foolish talk, but to thanksgiving. The Holy Spirit leads us to speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. It leads to singing and making melodies to the Lord with all your heart. It leads to giving thanks to God always and for everything. Such joyful singing is not in the name of Seagram’s Seven or In Bev Anhauser Busch, but in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We, who are light in the Lord, possess the light of Christ, not merely for ourselves, but also to expose and call attention to the darkness of sin that pervades the lives of those who not believe in Christ and may also be invading the lives of fellow saints. However, our task is not simply to expose the darkness, but bring to it the light of Christ. Because then, just as God was able to call light into being at the very beginning of creation and thus dispel the darkness so in Christ we have the Spirit- empowered word to announce to our community, “Arise, O sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.” Then all might say along with the formerly blind man of the gospel lesson, “Lord, I believe.”
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