Monday,
January 27, 2020
Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. Don’t participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” Ephesians 5:1-14
With the struggle of our culture
over human sexuality currently coming to a head, particularly in the United
Methodist Church, today’s poignant reading from Paul is a vibrant reminder that
the sins of one group ought not to be categorized worse than the sins of
another. Telling coarse jokes, or
spewing expletives, and even foolish talk seems to be of little consequence,
matched up against sexual immorality and rampant greed. However, Paul lumps them all together and
calls it all worthless deeds of evil and darkness. He flatly says, expose that nonsense;
don’t take part in it, or make excuses for that kind of behavior. Wouldn’t you just love it if Paul didn’t beat
around the bush so much?
Paul’s blunt rebuke for ungodly
behavior is no stranger to me. Years ago,
in a new pastorate, I met a church member for the first time in the nursing
home. She was struggling with the fading
strength of age, complicated by dementia.
Her family told me before I went that Grandma didn’t have long to
live. So, when I arrived at the home I
introduced myself and asked her to share her faith story with me. She immediately began to tell about the
revival that was held when she was a young girl, and how she’d served Jesus at
that church in this way and that way.
When there was a brief pause in the recounting of the last 70 years, I asked
if she was secure in her heart that when she left this world she would meet
Jesus in heaven. She said, Oh,
yes, young man. I know I’m going to
heaven, and if you want to get there too, YOU’D BETTER CHANGE YOUR WAYS! Granny had nailed me like Paul the
Apostle, right where I live.
Funny, I don’t remember much else
we may have talked about on that visit.
What I do remember is being caught up short about how in world she knew
I was such a sinner. This was the first
time we’d laid eyes on each other, and she didn’t know me from Adam’s
housecat.
On one level I knew it was the
dementia speaking, but on another level, spiritually speaking, she was spot-on;
I was (and am) a sinner. And it makes
little difference if it’s greed, coarse speech, foolishness, gossip, anger, lust,
or homosexuality; how much, or what kind of sin does it take to make one a
sinner? When you think about it, it’s
kind of like robbing banks, or killing, or lying; one will do!
And so, this morning I’m thinking
particularly about how United Methodists will treat each other in the coming
days at the meetings where they’ll try to work on how to part and go separate
ways, as opposed to staying together like two fighting cats with their tails
tied together. Or how the people I know
who populate the churches I serve (along with their pastor) will treat our
community. We are, as Paul the Apostle
(and Granny the nursing home sage) said, supposed to be about the business of changing
our ways to be more like imitators of God’s godliness, and less of
the other!
For
You Today
You chew on
that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
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