Walking Wise

Ephesians 5: 15-20

 

 

          We have been talking a lot these last months and weeks about the church. We have talked about what is wrong with church leadership at its highest levels. We have talked about our core beliefs and how they have been subject to erosion. We have talked about the Holy Spirit and how both we and the church need to be guided by that spirit. We have noted how much things seem to have shifted and how relativism seems to have crept into our religious system, our Christian values.

          Today, let’s take time to look back at the early church and specifically, some of the things that set it apart as a model for us to follow.  We can use as our example today the church at Ephesus. Paul wrote to the Ephesians while in prison, probably in the early 60’s AD. He loved this church. It was a template for everything right about Paul’s ministry. In the first chapter of the book, Paul addresses them as “the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.” He goes on to say that he has heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus and in their love toward all the saints. Ephesus is one of Paul’s success stories.

          In the first part of chapter five, Paul talks about how believers were darkness but now are light. He encourages us to walk in the light, to use the light of God to expose the darkness of sin. Now in today’s passage, we turn to another metaphorical contrast. As Paul used darkness and light to contrast the way of the world with the way of God, so now he does the same thing with wisdom and folly.

          When I read Paul’s letters, sometimes I like to just pick out the verbs first. Look at the verbs in this passage: look, understand, be filled, addressing, singing, giving. Those are the “do” verbs. There are two “don’t” verbs: don’t be foolish and don’t get drunk. The verbs sort of set the stage for what Paul wants to church to see. He wants the church to use that illumination he has been talking about to find its way in the world.

         Next week, we send our children and grandchildren back to school. Some will be going for the first time, or riding on a school bus for the first time, or entering high school for the first time. For some parents, they will be without their child at home for the first time. The start of the school year is always a collection of first times. It is exciting and numbing at once.  There is a newness in the air even if you have been there and done that, for this time it might be different. It might be just what you hoped it would be. Whatever it is or isn’t, you have to step out to find out. It can’t happen at home.

          In the days of Paul, the church was as new as that first day of school. Those who believed the gospel still didn’t know how to act.

They were in the middle of defining all those first times of the early church.   They were the trend setters. They were helping the church take shape.

          And Paul says to the church at Ephesus: “Look carefully then how you walk.”  Understand the Lord’s will.  “Be filled with the Spirit…giving thanks always.” “Sing and make melody with your heart.” He gives some suggestions for how to live the Christian life.

          “Look carefully how you walk”, says Paul, “not as unwise but as wise.” He goes on to say that we should make the best use of our time. Time might also be translated as opportunity. Make the best use of your time, your opportunities. Why? Why is it so important to make wise use of your time? “Because the days are evil,” says Paul. The second half of the first century A.D. was an ugly time, especially for Christians. But then, the twentieth century was rough too. More Christians died in the name of God in the last century than any other in history. So when Paul said to the Ephesians that the days are evil, he really had nothing on us. We too live in evil days and are surrounding by a culture which says to look out for yourself and not for your neighbor.

          But what was Paul’s point anyway? Make the best use of your time and opportunities because the days are evil, meaning what? Perhaps Paul meant that if we walk in wisdom, we can actually do some good. We can lessen the evil around us. We can walk wisely in an age of folly. We can make a difference. 

          Paul warns us to not be foolish, to not get drunk. Sort of two sides of the same coin. You can be foolish without getting drunk, but you can hardly get drunk without getting foolish. Rather than just advising us not to get full of alcohol, Paul says in a wonderful twist on the concept of getting full, to get full all right, but on something else.  He says to “be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Paul loves the idea of Christians being filled; he just wants us filled with the right stuff. Remember that in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, the effect on them looked like drunkenness. It was powerful. The Holy Spirit can do that. He does it today. For those of you who have experienced too much to drink, you may remember that at first, it is a real lift. In a little while, that temporary high is replaced with depression. Not so with the Holy Spirit. There is nothing temporary about that feeling and nothing depressing about it either.

          The challenge for the church today is the same as that which faced the early church in Ephesus. Understand the will of God and walk wisely through the world. In spite of all that appears to the contrary, it is a world in which the Holy Spirit can and does rule. Life in the Spirit makes life on earth a feast to be enjoyed rather than a task to be completed.

          This is not an admonition against drinking. It’s a warning against anything that takes control of your life besides God. Alcohol and drugs are the easy to spot enemies. It’s more difficult to deal with anger and jealousy and pride and all those subtle vices that take our lives apart a piece at a time. Anything when done to excess becomes its own god in our lives and will deflect us from living in the Spirit.

          It’s important to note that Paul calls upon the Ephesians to celebrate. The Christian life is not about being all serious and observing the don’ts. It's about celebrating the dos. Do walk wisely. Do God’s will. Do be filled with the Holy Spirit.  Do “sing and make melody to the Lord with your heart.” Do “give thanks always and for everything to God.” With all the do’s that Paul advocates, who has time for the don’ts.

          So it’s time to go back to school; time for new challenges, new friends, new teachers, new experiences. Do take God with you to school, whether it be elementary or middle or high or college or the school of life. Do take God with you on the school bus and to the classroom and to the cafeteria and to the ball field and the gym. Do take God with you in the car and to the breakfast table, even to work. Sometimes new can be intimidating, even scary. It will not seem daunting if the Holy Spirit comes along with you. Be filled and experience the joy of fullness that doesn’t stop.

          Christians live in a counter-culture in the middle of the greater culture around us. The church is called to be the hands and feet of Jesus ministering to a world which will never know him  without us. It is a precious and wonderful calling. It can be scary, even dangerous, but it is meant to bring joy not only to us, but to all who hear the message with their hearts. When we see each other in the light of Christ, we pay no attention to social values. We see instead the dignity of every person.

          Let us follow the example of the early church. Wherever you go, whoever you meet, tell the story. And “sing and make melody to the Lord in your heart.”