August 13, 2006

Lead a Righteous Life
 

by Rev. Dr. Jim Carlson

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Sept 11 Attacks – 30% of Americans couldn’t remember what year it was. Most who couldn’t remember were over 55.

Event was defining moment for Americans – still need to be reminded. Easy to forget importance of defining moments.

Ephesians is circular letter – written to a number of churches.

Encounter with Jesus is defining moment – everything changes. People still need to be reminded of how.

Ephesians 4 reinforces idea of new life in Jesus. Vs. 17 – The readers cannot live like the gentiles anymore. Old and new nature. (Slide).

Today’s passage shows big difference between old and new life. Pattern is: Prohibition, Commandment, Motivation. (Slide)

Big difference between the old and the new seems to be the way we treat one another in the church. If we can’t operate this way with one another in the church, how can we expect to treat people outside the church with this kind of love?

Think about the way we could practice these new ways or relating to one another in our own church. What would happen to us if we were all honest with one another about how we felt? What would our congregation look like if we really took to hear the idea that we are members of one another?

The author is basically saying we are like body parts working together. Imagine what happens to our bodies if our organs begin to attack one another? We wouldn’t be around much longer. That’s the kind of relationship we’re trying to develop and maintain in the church. So when someone dies or leaves the church, it should feel like an amputation because they are part of us and we are part of them.

According to the author, anger must be resolved in a timely way. There is no place in the church for long standing unresolved anger between people. And yet most of us can think of situations in which two people or two families have attended a church for years while barely putting up with one another.

I’ve been in congregation where the pastor is placed in the middle of a shooting match between two families who have been struggling for control of the church for years. Our author would say, “That’s the way you used to operate. That’s how people outside the church operate. The church doesn’t operate that way.”

Our author tells us that people who used to steal must stop stealing and make an honest living. Now we used to read verses like this and think of mostly poor people trying to make a living dishonestly. And of course when you find new life in Christ, those old ways of stealing must be left behind.

But I want to suggest that the church needs to rethink the whole idea of stealing. Because even in the church there are some people who steal big time from others without even being challenged. Nothing gets done until the district attorney comes in and makes an arrest. And then of course the church is shocked. Let me give you an example.

(Slide) Bernie Ebbers is known as a generous man, a church deacon, and a civic leader. He teaches a Sunday School class for young, married couples. He helped Easthaven Baptist Church purchase stock and sell the stock for some $1 million for its building program.

A graduate of Mississippi College, a Baptist institution, Ebbers chaired the school's New Dawn Campaign, which had a goal of raising $80 million in five years. After the first year of the fund drive, the school had raised almost $58 million. Ebbers said the board of trustees had "stepped out in faith when it began this campaign, and as a result, the Lord has blessed it." The board increased the campaign's goal to $100 million.

Bendon Ginn, Ebbers' pastor, said, "He's probably the most unassuming member of this congregation," according to the Jackson, Mississipi, Clarion-Ledger. "He comes in quietly, politely, and sits in a place so as not to be easily seen." Ginn claimed that Ebbers had a good heart.

Congressman Billy Tauzin, (R-La.), had a different take on Ebbers and Worldcom. Tauzin, whose committee investigated Worldcom's financial improprieties, said this week, "This was a pure case of theft, of inside stealing, again, from their own investors. This is a company simply determined for several years to misstate its earnings to the American public by hiding its costs as capitalized expenses, doing so in the face of advice from their own officials inside the company that it was improper and illegal to do so," Tauzin said, according to The New York Times.

After the Sunday morning worship service two weeks ago, Ebbers told fellow church members, "I just want you to know you aren't going to church with a crook," according to a story in the Wall Street Journal. "I don't know what the situation is with all that has been reported. I don't know what all is going to happen or what mistakes have been made," he said. "No one will find me to have knowingly committed fraud." Church members gave him a standing ovation.

Jurors in his trial last year saw things differently. Ebbers, the 63-year-old former CEO of Worldcom, a telecommunication giant, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for what is widely regarded as the worst business fraud in history. His accounting fraud exceeded $11 billion, resulted in the nations biggest bankruptcy, cost thousands of employees their jobs and wiped out the
retirement savings and investments of countless trusting investors.

How is it even possible for this kind of thing to go on in the church? We think the message has gotten through to people in the church, but in some ways it hasn’t. The author tells us that those who steal should work to accomplish good things. That way they’ll have something to give to the poor. Again the difference between the old and the new life is clearly shown in this chapter.

The last part I want to highlight is the remarks the author makes about the way we talk to one another. He tells his readers not to let any rotten talk come out of their mouths. That word rotten refers to trees which no longer bear fruit, or produce that has gone bad.

He’s saying something that still rings true for us today. Whether we’re saying something good or saying something hurtful, our words are not neutral. And when we speak, we always have the choice to say something which helps or hurts other people.

The author is telling us to avoid words that are damaging to other people. The only words we should use with one another are words which build up, which strengthen the other person.

If we took this seriously, then the time we spend here would be a time of building each other up. We would walk out of church strengthened and healed and encouraged, and we would have done the same thing for the other people we meet.

Do you walk out of church feeling that way on a Sunday morning? Are you riding high, ready to take on the world, ready to be the kind of person you know God wants you to be? I want to put out a challenge to each of you as we fellowship after the service. Find one person to whom you can say a word of encouragement or grace.

Tell them it means something to you that they’re with us this morning. Say something to make them feel better. Help them go out of here feeling better than when they came. That’s the way we should treat one another in the church.

The difference between the way people operate with one another outside the church should be significantly different from the way we treat one another. In a dog eat dog world where the rule is the survival of the fittest, the church is to be a haven, a place of forgiveness, of grace, of kindness, a place which works for the good of others, a place where the truth is spoken.

We are supposed to be imitators of God. That doesn’t mean we’re supposed to act like we’re sitting in God’s chair. But it does mean that the sacrifice Jesus made of himself for us is to be the defining image of who we are.

Just as he gave himself up for the benefit of others, we also should be willing to give up a life of self-serving greed and pleasure for the opportunity to present ourselves as a living sacrifice, offered every day of our lives for the benefit of others. If we really want to be his disciples, that’s the only way.