Wisdom Quest -- A Message from August 15, 2021

 

This week, we are turning to St. Paul’s letter to the Christians in the city of Ephesus. Ephesus was a Greek city that was located on the Ionic Mediterranean Sea coast in present day Turkey. The city was famous for the large Temple of Artemis. Many pilgrims traveled to Ephesus to worship the Goddess Artemis. Therefore, the fledgling Christian community was a very small minority in a city where the worship of Artemis prevailed.

Whenever people live together in small groups, it seems like conflict and tension arise. People have different ideas about how to wash the dishes and how to clean the floors. Most of the Christians in the Ephesus had the additional tension that arose because they families rejected their new faith. So, disagreements arose and people couldn’t turn to their families of origin for respite.

Here Paul’s words of guidance as he wrote them in the Letters to the Ephesians, chapter five, verses fifteen through twenty:

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,

making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,

speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,

always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the People of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

One of the criticisms I hear about Christians, when I am talking to my non-Christian friends, is that we don’t act any better than anyone else. We disagree. We judge. We have trouble sharing. We say hurtful things. We may be Christian, but our unhelpful human tendencies rule the day.

The church is not for perfect people. It is for broken people who are trying to get better.

This may sound trite, but we have few examples of human beings who get everything right. In fact, I can only think of one human being, Jesus, who was close to perfect. And, even Jesus got tired, got angry, and was sad on occasion. As we think over human history, there are people we hold up as role models, people like Mother Theresa and Saint Paul, who are closer to perfection than the rest of us. And, even Mother Theresa and Saint Paul had bad days. St. Paul wrote about his own sin in his letter to the Romans. He said: “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.”

The church is made up of people like us, the people sitting in this room, the people watching this feed on facebook…People who aren’t perfect, but feel compelled to do better. People who are working on themselves.

As we work to do better, we become a community of people who are cheerleaders for one another. In our reading from our scripture this morning, St. Paul writes we should: “Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.” We are called to encourage each other – to sing hymns to each other. We can quote to each other from Martin Luther’s hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” the words “And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God has willed his truth to triumph through us.” Or, we can sing from Amazing Grace: “I once was lost but now I am found, was blind but now I see.” Or we can sing from “God Will Take Care of You” the words: “No matter what may be the test, God will take care of you; Lean, weary one, upon his breast, God will take care of you.”

In his letter to the Ephesians, in addition to singing hymns and songs to encourage each other, St. Paul also tells us to speak the Psalms to each other. We can remind each other the words from Psalm 46:

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

Or, we can speak the words from Psalm 27:

The Lord is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?

Or, we can speak the words from Psalm 121:

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

Part of our work as Christians is to encourage each other, to encourage other members of the church as they try to live lives following the teachings of God. Hardships befall all of us. Temptations persuade all of us. We are weak. We face challenges. We need our fellow Christians to help us when we are struggling.

This morning’s portion of the letter of the Ephesians is used to demonstrate that we can’t be Christians in a bubble. We are called to be in relationships with other people of faith. We are called to be part of Christian groups, Christian communities, and Christian churches. We can’t be our own discussion partners, we need other Christians to talk things over with. We need to hear how other Christians interpret the Bible. We need to learn how other Christians work to live out our faith. We need help from other Christians to teach our children in Sunday school, to lead us in songs of praise, to sing out when we don’t know the melody of the hymns, to pray for us when we are exhausted, and to visit us when we are in the hospital. We need each other.

Even though we make mistakes, and we fall short, it is important for us try to live up to the standards of self-discipline we are encouraged to follow in the Bible. It is helpful for us to remember to be careful how we live. We are called upon to work to make wise choices and thoughtful decisions. The point about staying sober to avoid debauchery is well-taken. Most of us have experienced the problems that arise when we drink too much alcohol. If only all young people would heed the warning to not get drunk because it leads to debauchery. And, this line in the text reminds us we all must work to have control over our behavior, our thoughts and our words. We are working to follow Christ by modeling our lives on his teachings. WE may not always get it right, but we are all working to do better.

I pray you will take comfort in knowing we aren’t in this alone. We have each other for support and advice. And, we always have God’s Holy Spirit within us and alongside of us to help us when we fall short and encourage us to do better.

Thanks be to God. Amen.