e-vo for week of August 5

Dearest e-votees-

Our appointed epistle lesson for this week has some pointed things to say about how we are in relationship with others. This is one of those texts that is easy to use as a club on others that we think are missing the mark. So much more would God prefer that we would examine ourselves through the mirror of this text.

God’s mercies are new every morning for us and for those that we deem have failed us and our communities. May we all grow into the likeness of God.

Peace,
Karl

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So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves 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. Let 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. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. 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.

Ephesians 4:25-5:2, NRSV

I picked up a pithy saying from a hospital chaplain’s office while out doing a visit one day. It says…

Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you
-not because they are nice, but because you are.

I keep this saying posted on my bathroom mirror at home. I see it often and it greets me as I rise to face the new day. To be sure it would be better if the language of “politeness” and “nice” were upgraded to language of service and sacrificial love but the point is still there. The presumption that I am nice is patently false. Every day I need to go to the baptismal font engage God’s mercies and let the old Karl be drowned and the new Karl rise up to engage the day. There is a persistent call on me not merely to be nice but to be loving in the ways that Jesus loved. For all of us who are baptized that call rings out.

Our text in Ephesians helps clarify that call on us. We are to engage people lovingly and truthfully. We are to engage our feelings but to not let them draw us into sin. We are to work towards reconciliation. Those who have dishonest means of gains in their lives (that would be all of us I suspect) are to put them aside and labor more honestly. We are to share with the needy and avoid grieving the Holy Spirit.

Our talk is for building up others. Gossip and slander are to be put away. Anger and bitterness and wrath are to be expunged. Jockeying for position (which necessarily shoves others aside) is not for us and God’s people. We are called to be imitators of God. We are called to be imitators of Christ.
If we want an example of treating from one’s own character rather than in response to the provocation we need look no further than the cross:

“Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”

has everything to do with who Jesus is. We are called to be imitators of that.

God, stir us to love all sacrificially particularly those who don’t deserve it. That is how you are with us and that is how you want us to be. Help us to grow up in ways that please you all to your glory. Amen.