10 Pentecost Yr B

Last week I said the Christian life is much more about practice than it is about a set of rules, it is more about intentionality than it is about morality. All week long at Vacation Bible School we practiced a life of being baptized. We were reminded of our baptism by getting wet again and again, and we listened to stories that helped us remember our baptismal promises of prayer, respect, forgiveness, loving our neighbor and proclamation. We affirmed that we are all children of God, the delight of God’s life and we are marked as Christ’s own forever. Before us today is this letter of Paul to the Ephesians, helping us once again to remember what the practice of the Christian life looks like.

Paul says 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. Put away all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander and malice, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians was as important to the Ephesians as it is for us today. The purpose of Paul’s letter was to build up the community of emerging Christians in Ephesus.

I think what is so very important in all of this, and you’ve heard me say this before, is that to be Christian is not to be perfect, but to be forgiven, to be Christian is not to be perfect, but to be healed, to be Christian is not be perfect, but to be reconciled, to be in unity with God. This is what Paul is so good at pointing us to. The people of Ephesus lived in a broken and hurting world; you and I live in a broken and hurting world. But we also live in a beautiful, joyous world. It is never one way or the other way, it is always both. Your words may give grace to those who hear.

I believe that our words make real what is in our hearts. We must practice grace, we must use graceful words and actions, and when we do so, we become the agents of new life, of healing and reconciliation in our little piece of the world. And we build up the community; we create with God the new world that God promises for us.

Perfection is not the goal. Success is not the goal. Prosperity is not the goal. Despite what we see and hear and read all around us. Even the removal of disease is not the goal, no matter how much we want that. We all know people who we love and care about that we would like God to just remove the disease right here and right now. Disease just isn’t fair, especially when it hits good people; it’s only bad and evil people that should get disease, right? But we forget that the joys and pains of this world are all of a piece. It is in the midst of all of the joy and the pain that our words may give grace to those who hear, it is in the midst of all the joy and the pain that we can live the reality of resurrection.

During this last week of Vacation Bible School, I would go home in the afternoon and put my feet up, and inevitably take a bit of a nap, but one afternoon I caught a little bit of Oprah. Her guests were famous people who were telling their stories of disease and healing. She interviewed Scott Hamilton, the figure skater, who told his story of being diagnosed with testicular cancer, and then on the heels of that having a brain tumor. He spoke about the joys of his life being so sweet because he experienced the pain of disease. I am never one to suggest that any disease is God’s will and I am never one to suggest that some are more blessed by God than others. But I am one to suggest that we can find Jesus walking with us through it all, if only we open our eyes and ears to see and hear. And we have the words of grace for each other that help one another see Jesus. You have all sorts of stories like this to tell, we have stories to tell right here at St. Andrew’s. The reason I bring this one up and remind you of your own is that these are stories we must tell so that we give grace to those who hear. These are stories of pain and suffering, of death to life as we have always known it. These are stories of resurrection.

Healing is not the restoration of the body exactly the way it used to be. Healing is not the resuscitation of a dead body. Healing is the gift of new life, in ways that we could not and can not even imagine. This is what Paul is talking about. In a broken and hurting world, our words and our kindness to one another, our practice of being tender-hearted, and forgiveness of one another, show forth God’s goodness and effect God’s grace.

What would the world look like if this were our practice? What would our church look like if this were our practice? What would our little corner of the world look like if it were our intentional practice to say words that may give grace to those who hear? I think if we were intentional in our practice of loving, of tender heartedness and of forgiveness, we may come closer to the mission of the church which is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ. Our work is not only here in our church; it is even more importantly outside the walls of our church. Our witness in the world is to God’s abundant and amazing love, love that heals and forgives, love that brings wholeness.

You are the agents of resurrection; you are the people who can proclaim by word and example the love and forgiveness that brings about healing and wholeness in the world. If you don’t proclaim this Good News, it won’t get done. We have Good News for the world to hear, Jesus is the bread of life, whoever comes to him will never be hungry or thirsty again. Jesus contains all of our longing, all of our dis-ease, all of our pain and suffering. And Jesus creates new life out of what the world deems dead.

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.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Come let us adore him.