| |||||||||||||||
 |
     | ||||||||||||||
In his commentary on this lectionary text, Walter Brueggemann writes “The preceding passage (Eph. 4:1–24) admonishes Christians to take up the new way of life, even the new self that has been granted them by God in Jesus Christ. That powerful and eloquent claim, however, may give rise to certain questions…. What does this new life look like? How will I know if I am living it?”1 This passage is laced with specific ethical demands, stated as commands in imperative language and coupled with the underlying motivation for their existence… All are commanded to “Speak truth to one’s neighbor” because, the writer claims, all peoples are somehow interrelated, “members of one another.” I would guess that we all have some experience of how lies have a way of eroding confidence and trust and genuine communication and—if left unchecked—act like acid to corrode and destroy the bonds between us…. I would also suspect that we are all conversant with expedient falsehood—the polite social lie, the self-preservation lie, the desperate lie, and perhaps even the manipulative lie… I remember a particularly cheesy ad campaign for Isuzu cars and trucks. Joe Isuzu, spokesperson and liar extraordinaire would announce some impossible car feature or price structure or rebate with the words, “Yeah, that’s the ticket!” But even the five-year-olds in that Kindergarten class knew—that was NOT the ticket—and remembering their own experience of telling and being told things that they later discovered to be untrue, they too chose to ask each other to “Speak Truth” even when that was hard… “Speak truth” we are admonished, to preserve relationship. When I first read the next imperative command, it really raised my eyebrows… “Be angry” it says, “but don’t sin...” Now, how different is that—from the spoken and unspoken cultural messages that admonish all but the most powerful to “NOT be angry.” I was amazed that this passage does not follow the etiquette and safety considerations of life—ancient or modern—that encourage us to shove our anger deep inside, to disguise it, to ignore it… “Be angry, but don’t sin…” Biblical Commentator, the Rev. Dr. Sidney Fowler, with the Human Rights Campaign notes that this passage “dreams of a community in which people are safe to be honest about who they are and where they are and it calls the readers to be that community…” The passage itself, he advises, “raises the question: can today’s church be a safe space for people who experience the extremes of grief, despair and anger? Are we too quick to deny whatever looks discomforting?”2 I’ve lived most of my life in a part of this country where one might actually hear the spoken phrase, “such a nice, Christian boy…. or such a nice, Christian girl….” There was always a goodly amount of saccharine sweetness in such talk, and I would often wonder: Is pallid politeness all we have left? Shall we be “nice” Christians, or shall we be real? “Be angry, but do not sin” we are called to deal with anger, to safeguard our souls. To those who steal: “Give up stealing… work honestly…” and in doing so gain the capacity to share with those in need. Erik Herrmann writes, “the pattern has been set… by [God’s] love for us in Christ. To walk in this love is to walk the path of sacrifice and giving of self.”3 This ethical imperative is not about being “Robin Hood” taking from others to provide for the needy. It is exactly about this sacrificial giving of self. It calls us to labor for the things that we share with others, so that we gain a physical, embodied understanding of what giving is meant to be… Even the lab school kindergarteners were quick to note that toys and belongings could only be genuinely “shared” by the child who actually owned them. “Give up stealing… work hard… share,” we are called to genuine generosity, to participate in the love of a caring God. “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths…” and again found to my surprise that this was not an admonition to silence, but was instead an admonition to speak. My mother and grandmother were quick to tell me, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Again, these words of wisdom were about being polite and exhibiting manners. I’ve had occasion to wish that I had paid them closer obedience—perhaps you have too… When I first read this verse from Ephesians, it seemed another adage to mind one’s mouth—literally “do not let any rotten, decaying word come out of your mouth…” But, just as I expected an admonition to silence, there was the imperative to speak! Speak, it commands, what is useful for building up people and relationships. Speak, it commands, where there is need for honest and caring speech. Speak, it commands, and let your words give grace to the ears of all who listen. Kate Huey, a lectionary blogger for i.UCC, writes: “this week’s passage challenges us to examine, among other things, our talk…. Not so much our public or official speech, really, but our everyday, person-to-person talk, with one another and about one another.” “Don’t speak evil… Speak what builds up” we are commanded, to share God’s grace with all who hear. And when this list of ethical imperatives reaches its height, we hear these words, “do not grieve God’s Holy Spirit….” And we are called to put away what damages our relationship to God and to one another—bitterness, wrath, anger, wrangling, slander, malice—and to BE MADE kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving; because that is who God is and who God calls us to be in Jesus Christ. The indwelling Spirit of God grieves for us as we give in to the forces that tear at the fabric of relationship. We are called follow the guidance of that same Spirit and lay those things aside for the sake of God who loves us and redeems us and forgives us. To BE MADE new by God’s own instruction and care. Yet even today we might still have the questions… NEW LIFE! What does it look like? How will I know if I am living it? The Presbyterian Confession of 1967 gives a modern take on these questions. Affirming that, “The reconciling work of Jesus was the supreme crisis in the life of humankind,” it assures us that “when the gospel is proclaimed and believed…. the Spirit brings God’s forgiveness to all, moves people to respond in faith, repentance, and obedience, and initiates the new life in Christ.” “The new life” it proclaims, “takes shape in a community in which people know that God loves and accepts them in spite of what they are. They therefore accept themselves and love others, knowing that no one has any ground on which to stand, except God’s grace.” “The new life [doesn’t] release people from conflict with unbelief, pride, lust, and fear. They still have to struggle with disheartening difficulties and problems… The new life finds its direction in the life of Jesus, his deeds and words, his struggles against temptation, his compassion, his anger, and his willingness to suffer death.” The community that this confession describes is often called a community of reconciliation—both a place where one can be reconciled with God and which seeks to participate in the restoration and reconciliation of the world around it. It is a community of God’s people where we learn to “speak truth to our neighbors.” It has within it the safety and acceptance we need us to explore and deal with our anger before it consumes our souls. It encourages us to honest, self-giving that cares for all those in need, within the community and beyond. It helps us cast aside both evil speech and malignant silence so that we can speak God’s grace—directly and indirectly—to those who hear. It is the gathering of God’s own people where, by God’s own Spirit, we are reshaped into new and authentic ways of living where we practice our best earthly imitation of God’s faithfulness, kindness, forgiveness, and love. And under all its ethical imperatives, we are called to speak and live and remember who we are and whose we are. Speak truth, deal with anger, work hard, share, Speak grace, live into God’s likeness, walk in love. Friends, we live in a broken and fearful and angry world, filled with bitterness, wrath, wrangling, slander, and malice. We are called from it to gather in community, to support each other as God’s indwelling spirit makes us whole. But we are also called forth, back out into that broken and fearful world to speak truth, to speak grace, to share the steadfast loving kindness of God with those who do not know it, who may not appreciate it, who don’t believe it, or who struggle to hold on to it. Along with all the do’s and don’ts for action in that long-ago Kindergarten classroom, there was one admonition that I clearly remember. In paraphrase it was this: “Be kind, and use your words…” Friends, in a denomination that is often termed the “frozen chosen” we often try to walk the walk without talking the talk. “Be kind, and use your words…” Should I dare to compress these ethical commands to the Ephesians, while hoping not to injure them, I might say this: Give expression to the grace of God in Jesus Christ in your living and in your speaking. “Be kind, and use your words…” With so many ways to choose, I wonder how we will choose to speak the living word?
|
|
||||||||||||||
