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“Shaping Community”
Sermon by Rev. Peter Dennebaum,
First Congregational Church UCC Chappaqua -
08/09/09
God’s peace with you!
Eph 4: 25 – 5:2
Rules for the New Life
1)25 So
then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our
neighbors, for we are members of one another.
2)
26Be
angry but do not sin;
do not let the sun go down on your anger,
27and
do not make room for the devil. (diabolo) do justice to everyone
3)
28Thieves
must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with
their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.
4)
29Let
no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful
for building up,*
as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.
30And
do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked
with a seal for the day of redemption.
315)
Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and
slander, together with all malice,
32and
be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as
God in Christ has forgiven you.*
feeling/emotions
51Therefore
be imitators of God, as beloved children,
2and
live in love, as Christ loved us*
and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Some theologians think that
this epistle to Ephesus was originally a general ecclesiastical instruction,
which was around in Christian congregations before the year 90 AD. And that a
student of Paul’s took this early document of Christian Life Instruction and
addressed it in Epistle form to the congregation in Ephesus. As reason these
theologians suppose that it appeared strange to this student that precisely this
congregation had not received a letter by Paul, which had been such an important
mission center for Paul in the years 52 to 56. So around 30years after Paul’s
death in the year 60 AD the second or maybe already third Christian generation
went on to work on their heritage.
Let us have a look what the
passage tells us, which we just read together.
When I read it first I
laughed: I thought I could hear my Dad speaking. And whoever here today is
parent him- or herself might have tried or still tries to get these values
across to the Chases or Stephanie’s, or Betsy’s on this earth.
Check yourself: I can find 5
life rules.
1.
Speak the truth!
2.
Do justice to everyone!
3.
Labor!
4.
Take care about what u
say!
5.
Forgive!
Interesting I find the
explanations for each of the five life rules.
The first rule “Speak the
truth”: We should speak the truth as we are all members of one another. This
picture I do understand: The last time I tried to bend my knee against all
physical ability side wards I got immediately punished with hurtful pain for
days. When one member of our body, in this case the brain doesn’t work trustful
together with the other body parts, in this case the knee – the whole body gets
into trouble. This truth is correct for our own bodies as the social bodies like
family, circle of friends, neighborhood, town, country or the world family.
Without truth no authenticity, no happiness and no love…. Everything starts with
truth. Not only speaking the truth, more: Living in truth!
The second life rule “Do
justice to everyone” isn’t said this way in our text, but it is meant. Our text
says “Be angry, but do not sin”.
The first part of the sentence
is freeing: We are allowed to be angry. Members of religious groups, in which
angriness is not accepted as part of our human nature, end up usually in
passive-aggressive behavior. And this is not healthy at all. Again: Truth, here:
Self-truth is first.
The second part of the
sentence is fascinating as it is written in theological code. Sin is not
moralistic as so many prayers of confession often want us to suggest. The best
definition for sin I know about comes from Martin Luther, who defined sin as “to
be curved in yourself”. A person, who is curved in his self, is not open for
relationships. Sin is therefore tragic, but never moralistic. When I was
catholic I had to confess my sins to a priest on a regular basis. I still
remember how difficult it was for me as child or teenager – I usually hadn’t
stolen something, I had spoken more truth than I maybe should have and certainly
never had murdered. So I usually ended up to say that I should have helped more
elderly ladies across the street – I always felt stupid to come up with hokey [huki]
somethings.
And then I heard the story of
Anna. The little girl Anna asked in all her innocence an adult: “Why must people
get made always to look so small? If God is so big, why are people not allowed
to stay with straight spine and all their beauty?”
“Sin” is the opposite of
relationship in which God calls us. “Do not sin” means therewith uncoded: “do
not leave relationships”. The second life rule is therewith: “Be angry, but
don’t destroy in your angriness the relationships u r in”. And this means
nothing else than to give justice to everyone - justice to yourself by accepting
your anger, but also justice to the person or the people u r angry about; they r
still human beings.
The next three life rules are
easy and fast described:
Third rule “Labor!” is
interesting wise not for the purpose of own wealth, but sharing. Oswald von-Nell
Breuning, in the Nazi time imprisoned and after the war professor for Economical
and Social Ethics called in his whole life for an Christian alternative to
capitalism and communism. He called this Christian alternative “Laborism” –
labor as the way to self-fulfillment – an ongoing huge challenge facing
unemployment and labor conditions. But it shows: We Christians still have a job
a do.
The fourth and next to last
Christian life rule is “Take care about what u say!” We all know how destructive
we can be with words. This rule trims somehow the first rule about “truth”. If
we would always speak out what we think we would hurt often other people.
Respect and mercy must be part of our consideration. Not everybody might be as
strong as you are.
Only this rule has a
mysterious addition. The “Take care about what u say!” is connected with the
Gods Holy Spirit, which seals us for the day of redemption. What has the Spirit
to do with the Word? Just compare the beginning of Genesis and the beginning of
the gospel of John. In Genesis its Gods spirit which creates life, John starts
with “In the beginning was the word…”. Gods Spirit IS word, IS breath, IS wind,
IS word. The word can heal. The word has power. We should use the word not
destructive, but constructive.
The last and
fifth Christian life rule is about forgiveness. And only because of one reason:
Because God has already forgiven u! I let it up to u, if u believe that Jesus
sacrifice was therefore necessary. But one thing is for sure: We never can
forgive ourselves. Forgiveness is a gift, which we receive. Not earn.
Forgiveness is a gift, which can change the world. Everybody can sentence people
to death. But only forgiveness shows real strength. Forgiveness is not the
waiver of justice. Forgiveness is much more. Forgiveness is divine.
Let us recollect and
summarize. These are the 5 Christian life rules, which had been preached in the
first Christian generations:
1.
Speak the truth!
2.
Do justice to everyone!
3.
Labor!
4.
Take care about what u
say!
5.
Forgive!
If u want to have a last look
into the text in your bulletin, then please look at the last sentence. This last
sentence is a kind of summery, explaining why we should kept these 5 rules:
Because we are imitators of
God, because we are Gods children, because we should live in love.
We are not God. Yes. But this
is no reason to make yourself small. The opposite is the case: To protect Gods
creation, or better, what we have left so far over, and to govern in Gods name
we have to step out of this Sanctuary and take over responsibility in our jobs
and society.
We are now in charge. Jesus did his job.
The first Christian
generations did their jobs. Other people during the times have done their jobs.
Now it is on us to keep the ball rolling. With these 5 rules u will change –
your self AND the world. You will become more peaceful and with u the world.
Amen |
