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Boy Scout Tr #240

Scripture: August 20, 2006

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Last Sunday, I talked about what the letter to the church in Ephesus tells us about what brings us and keeps us together. In baptism, we are united. In baptism, we are family. Baptism tells us this: Remember we are all in this together. “One Lord, one faith, one baptism...”

All through Paul¹s life as a missionary, his challenge was to call two groups of people together who were not expecting to be together, not even wanting to be together--the Jews and the Gentiles, the Greeks and the Israelites, the worshippers of one God and those who previously worshipped many gods. An unexpected alliance. And an offensive alliance to many. Even, the thought of eating at the same table was sickening. However, Paul kept reminding them that because of their baptism, they were now family. Family. A very special family--Paul goes on to say.

Today¹s reading from the Letter to the Ephesians goes on to tell us that our identify has been changed in baptism, we are a new people, and we are expected to lead new lives. We are, in Paul¹s words, “to be imitators of God.”

Will Willamon, who is now a Bishop of one of the conferences on the other side of the continent tells a story about the first church he pastored. He was brave enough or naive enough to ask the congregation what they thought of his sermons. Well, this church took its role of breaking in new pastors very seriously. They were very forthright in their comments. “Well,” someone said, “you don¹t step on our toes enough. You are the preacher. You are suppose to tell us where we¹ve gone wrong and then tell us what we need to do to get right.”

Now, I suspect there are people who come to church to get their weekly dose of scolding: stop smoking, be faithful, don¹t cheat on your income tax, be kind yet firm with your children, don¹t use profanity, love everybody, and for goodness sakes, volunteer to help in the Sunday School, join the choir, or sign up to be an usher or something, and enjoy mopping the floor.

Now, I¹ve heard this kind of preaching. I¹ve heard it like this. “You people try hard to ACT like Christians so that you can BE Christians.” In fact, for a long time I used to think this was the purpose of going to church--to give me instructions on how I was supposed to straighten up and fly right so that I could become a good Christian and be sure to make it to heaven when I die. In fact, I heard this kind of preaching so much in my growing up years that I stopped trying all together. I started to believe that I was never going to live up to the standards of being a good Christian. I felt like a failure. So, I leaned back and let the world lead me for a while. Because I heard what Paul said and the church said this way. “Be imitators of God--then, you will be a good Christian.”

Well, the trouble with this logic, as reasonable as it may sound, is that it is backwards. It is reversed from the reasoning in today¹s Scripture.

Yes, Paul urges the readers to do many good things. We all heard it. “Be angry, but do not sin...don¹t make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing....Let no evil talk come out of your mouths...Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander...”

Sounds like one of those old time sermons, doesn¹t it? Don¹t do this. Do that. Isn¹t this what sermons and church is supposed to be about? Full of moralistic exhortations of “shoulds,” “oughts” and “musts.” To top it all off, Paul gives us the task of all tasks, the “should” of all “shoulds”. Paul tells us “to be imitators of God.” Well, I say, Paul was crazy. It¹s impossible. We may as well not try. Besides that--isn¹t that how Eve got us all in trouble. What were the serpent¹s words, “If you eat of the fruit, you will be like God.” She ate, her eyes were opened, and she was banished from the garden of Eden forever. Oh, and she took Adam with her.

Except, like I said before, this kind of reasoning is backwards. It¹s the rewards and punishment reasoning. Let us take a very close look at Ephesians. Paul doesn¹t tell the Ephesians to do all these good things in order to be Christian, but rather he tells them to do all these good things because they are Christian. There¹s a difference. Paul urges them to do good things not be become Christian, but because they are Christian. He doesn¹t say to them (as many of us preachers are sometimes guilty of implying) “You pagans ought to do these things so that you can be good enough for God.” Rather, Paul says, “Do these good things because God has made you good.” From the very beginning, in Genesis, “Then God said, ŒLet us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness...So God created humankind in God¹s image...and God saw everything that God had made, and indeed; it was very good.”

Today¹s Scripture in Ephesians does not say, “You ought to act like somebody.” It says, “You ARE somebody, so act like it!” The serpent said to Eve, “You are a nobody like you are--do this ONE thing and you¹ll be somebody.” The serpent sucked Eve into believing his line. Adam and Even forgot the truth. The truth being, that God created them, and blessed them, and said they were very good and precious already. They did not need anything more--until that crafty voice slithered into their lives and turned things around. And we have tended to get it backwards ever since. A nobody first--but if you get it right--then you will be rewarded and be a somebody

Paul says, it is the other way around, like it was from the very beginning. We people are somebody. We are the ones whom God has loved, the ones for whom Christ has lived and died. We are not unloved, wayward nobodies; we are nothing less than royalty. Now, we are to become who we are. We are to live up to our potential.

I hope that this message is preached to you over and over again. I hope that I give this message to my friends, my children, my colleagues. I hope and pray that I never give it the other way. But you know what? Sometime I do. Even with my own children. With my colleagues. With you. But you know who I give it to the most--MYSELF. It¹s like a tape I have trouble turning off in my head. If only I was a better person, then God would love me, and bless me, and bless us. I confess, I seldom tell myself that I have already made the grade, that I don¹t have to prove myself. That I am somebody, just as I am, that I always have been. We all are. We are nothing less than royalty--God¹s children. And the rest is simply our response to who we already are. The do¹s and don¹ts and shoulds and oughts and musts are our grateful response. We are to do good things because we are good people, because we are created in the image of God.

It is hard to be a disciple of Christ, a Christian. It is hard to do good things, to act well toward others, to wish others well no matter what, and to live together in love in the Church. But the difficulty of the Christian life is truly believing that we are loved and worthy and precious. The hard part is truly believing with our mind, body, and soul that we are God¹s own royal children, trying, as all good children do, to imitate our loving Parent. When we don¹t truly believe, we are cutting ourselves short, we are settling for less, we are living in mediocrity, we are going with the flow of the world.

Several years ago, Archbishop Desmund Tutu was in residence at Emory University. One day, he went to see the President of Emory at the President¹s office. He walked in, looked around, and then said to the University President, “Jim, I think before we begin to talk we should have a word of prayer.” The president said, “Well, of course.” After all, how could one say no to Desmund Tutu?

And so the Rev. Tutu prayed. It was a very lovely, gentle, kind affirmation. The University President was too embarrassed to say that there were not very many prayers said in his office. It was an administrative office, he told himself. But, that prayer changed the context of the conversation. Desmund Tutu didn¹t want anything from the President, but it really made things different. When Tutu left, the President of Emory felt better because he had been there.

A few weeks after that, Archbishop Tutu called on the chairman of one of America¹s top corporations in New York City who happened to be a friend of the President of Emory University. After the visit, the friend had called, “Isn¹t Tutu at Emory with you?” The President answered his friend, “Well, yes, for a few months.” The chairman of the large corporation said, “You know, he came to see me. Strangest thing. He walked into my office and the first thing he did, was look around, then he asked me to indulge him and let him have a word of prayer.” The University president smiled and asked, “Did you?” And the corporate executive said, “Of course. But that¹s the first time anyone has ever prayed in my office.” Then President¹s friend became very serious, which wasn¹t like him, perhaps reflecting on the trouble that had descended on him and the corporation. He said, “After Tutu left I wondered what would have happened if he had come to see me two years ago.”

In both situations, Archbishop Tutu had quietly, graciously affected the context around him, just by being and acting according to his own nature, praying according to who he was, a precious child of God. His prayer was gentle, affirming and kind, an imitation of God. HE, HIMSELF WAS NOT GOD. But through Bishop Tutu, God was made visible, in the administrative offices of high places. And that is what we are called to do. We are called to make God visible because of who we are, wherever we are. We are to imitate the love, the forgiveness, the grace of God in our lives because we are loved, we are forgiven, we are children of God.

In a world of hate, we are able to love because we have been loved. In a world of war, we are able to be at peace because God has made peace with us In a world of retaliation and bitterness, we can forgive because we have been forgiven.

So this is the word of the day from the Letter to the Ephesians. Be the forgiven, loved, adopted, cherished, and called people that we already are. Go forth and be!

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us..”

Amen.

Note: Thanks to Will Willamon for the illustrations.