I.N.I.

a sermon to be preached at Christ Episcopal Church, Accokeek, MD on the 13th Sunday after Pentecost, 19 August 2018, and based on the opening verses of the Epistle for the day Ephesians 5:15-17

Grace, mercy, and peace be your in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Dear Friends in Christ,

In the Gospel for today “the Jews” who were listening to Jesus, that is the Jewish religious leaders who were there, continued a vigorous discussion amongst themselves. Back in John 6:41 they began to complain to each other about Him, to criticize him, to murmur against him because he had said that he was the bread that came down down from heaven. Now here in verse 51, they’re out and out arguing amongst themselves saying “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

They couldn’t quite understand what He was teaching. Apparently in the 10 verses between 41 and 51 some had become convinced or perhaps had become bold enough to venture that Jesus might be speaking truth. But not all of them. (That’s how they got to the stage of arguing.) All of them did not see or understand what Jesus was saying. All of them did not believe. They chose poorly. The believers among them, however, chose wisely.

Saint Paul’s words to the Ephesians that are the opening verses of the Epistle counsel taking this road of wisdom. The apostle writes there: “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Now, I’ve done a little walking in my time, and all of it hasn’t been on smooth sidewalks or asphalt bike paths. Some of my walking has been on rocks or roots or mud. Sometimes all at the same time. In that environment, one has simply got to pay attention, to look carefully how one walks. It could be that Paul had that kind of path in mind in writing to the church at Ephesus. He certainly understood that all kinds of spiritual dangers, temptations, and pitfalls were waiting to trip up believers in their journey through life, their journey with Christ.

And now it’s our turn to pay attention to how we walk. It’s our turn to look out for the dangers. It’s our turn to be wise about our choices on life’s road.

Let’s look first at this word “wise.” Wisdom is talked about throughout Scripture. As a matter of fact, many of you might already know that a goodly chunk of the Old Testament (think of the books like Psalms and Proverbs that aren’t the Law, the histories, or the prophets) are called “wisdom literature.” And even beyond that there are references to wisdom and to the wise person all over the place in the Bible. Just for example listen to Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” Or about the good wife in Proverbs 31 (verse 26): “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.”

We Christians should be like Jesus, should be little Christs. We are called to be like our Lord who, when he was little, “grew and became strong, filled with wisdom” (Luke 2:40) and when he was a teen “increased in wisdom and in stature, and in divine and human favor.” (Luke 2:52).

Wisdom, of course, is not the same as intelligence. One can be wise without ever having gone to school, let alone without having done really well in school. And being smart in book learning doesn’t guarantee any wisdom; it may even count against becoming wise.

In spiritual matters, there’s also a big difference drawn between earthly wisdom and wisdom from above. For details, see the end of James chapter 3. There the apostle writes: “Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambitions in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such [so-called] wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. … But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.” The contrast James draws between the two is pretty stark.

So what Paul writes about in our text is really this holy wisdom that, as James says, comes down from above, not any earthly wisdom. Holy Wisdom, Hagia Sophia in Greek, was the name of the largest cathedral in the world for 1,000 years or so, from about 500 to 1500. It’s an immense building, still standing in Istanbul, Turkey that was converted to a mosque for roughly 500 years and since the 1930s has been a museum. The full name of the church was “Shrine of the Holy Wisdom of God,” that is, Jesus, the Logos or Word (John’s Gospel, chapter 1). Much of that is beside the point here. The point is that God’s wisdom, wisdom from God and of God, this wisdom should be guiding us as we walk. (Remember how Paul started the first sentence of our text: Look carefully then how you walk.”)

Paul draws a contrast for his readers. I think it’s interesting that his next words are “not as unwise but as wise” when he could have written “not as foolish but as wise.” Why did he contrast wisdom with being “unwise” rather than being “foolish”? I think a point he is making may be about substance and heft.

Think of it this way: if wisdom were on a scale of 1 to 100, Jesus would be out past 100 someplace and each of us could be located somewhere along that line. I said “could be” because maybe we are really making positive fools of ourselves for some reason. In that case we could be somewhere on a 1 to 100 scale in the opposite direction, or -1 to -100 for those who remember math classes. The idea would be that this would display a range from complete wisdom to complete foolishness.

Then what about being “unwise”? I think it might be any place on that scale further toward the foolish end than one ought to occupy. You might still be classifiable as “wise” if you’re displaying, say, 27 or 31 units of holy wisdom. That’s okay, of course, unless you were given and expected to use 78 to 80 units. Being foolish, itself, has some substance, just in the negative direction. But being unwise shows a lack of substance, a degree of emptiness where there should be fullness and depth.

I want to suggest that Saint Paul is urging his readers – both the original ones in Ephesus and those of us in Accokeek this morning – to use and exhibit the full range and depth of holy wisdom with which God has blessed each and every one of His children.

Paul goes on to say that we should live this way in order to make “the best use of the time because the days are evil.” I don’t care what your news sources are, they all tell us that the days are evil. California is on fire and the smoke has reached our area. Our brothers and sisters in the Catholic Church are cringing at the Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy sex abuse that came out this week. There are murders and terrorist attacks and wars and executions and disease. Only this week did the last homes of Americans in Puerto Rico get electricity after almost a full year. Floods and drought strike countries at the same time. The “days are evil.” I don’t have to tell you that.

So Paul tells us to make the best use of the time. But be careful here. Don’t think of this as a clock ticking down the time until … what? the end of the world or something. Time is certainly passing, and the clock is certainly ticking closer to the final tick and tock before Jesus’s return. Paul’s got something different in mind, however.

You know how the Bible says that “in the fullness of time” Christ came into the world? That’s Saint Paul again, but in Galatians 4:4. He wrote that “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law.” That’s the same kind of time Paul’s talking about here in Ephesians. It’s actually a great image. It’s like — and maybe some of you did this — a very pregnant wife might look at her husband and say “It’s time.” This kind of time is something almost touchable, full to overflowing, ready to go, like the countdown to a rocket launch or a party. It’s not time running out and down the drain, it’s time building up.

Paul isn’t saying here ‘make the best use of your every passing minute’ but ‘make the best use of now, of your present moment, of when and where you are, because you are in the midst of the culmination of history even as we speak.’ This moment started when Jesus came as a baby in Bethlehem; this moment continues through his coming in the Eucharist; and this moment itself wraps up when Jesus comes again. Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again. He was and is and is to come. This is where and when we are. This is what Paul wants us to make the best use of.

So, how? How do we do that? How do we make the best use of this fullness of time? Read on in the text. Paul ends these verses saying “do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” When we understand the will of the Lord, we will know how to make the best use of the present moment. … Ah… Well… This is one of those things that sounds easy, but takes some unpacking to fully grasp.

All the evidence we have — that is the Scripture and the subsequent history of the Christian Church — shows us that sometimes people discern the will of God and sometimes they don’t. Or, to put it another way, sometimes things go well and sometimes they flop. What we would like, I often think, is to be able to read in the Bible something clearly directed to ourselves, or alternatively to hear a physical voice from Heaven directing us what to do in a particular situation.

But often, it seems, we want good answers to the wrong questions. Take jobs, for example. God wants us to serve and honor Him with our work, but I don’t see where He necessarily wants you or me to work in a particular profession or at a specific site. Just this week I told my spiritual director that even though I’m paid as a librarian – and believe I’m doing God-pleasing work there – I could just as well serve the Lord as an architect or a sandal maker. Maybe for some people it does matter to God, but if so, it would be obvious. And anyway, the Almighty can use and shape any godly work to His own good ends.

So does understanding what the will of the Lord is help us know where to live? Where to get an education? When to retire or leave a job? What car to buy? What to make for supper? Which socks to wear? God can use all our decisions and choices, but I think that also means that maybe the specific details don’t always matter so much. He can be honored with whatever car we buy, or whatever house we live in, and so on.

This is key: Just aim for goodness, truth, and beauty in your decisions. That is the Lord’s will. “To do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). That’s what the Lord requires of us. Be godly as best you know how from your reading the Bible, listening to sound teaching and preaching, and from hanging around other Christian folk. Here are just three Scriptures to note about God’s will: first – in case you’re not sure what God’s will is for you – 1 Thessalonians 4:3 “For this is the will of God, that you should be holy.”

And sticking with St Paul in Thessalonians, here are his directions on how to head in the direction of being holy: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Paul, of course, is not the only biblical writer talking about the will of God. St Peter writes in his first letter, 2:15-16, “For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish. As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil.”

So the Lord’s will is that we be holy; we head in that direction by rejoicing, praying and giving thanks; and we live as free people in God’s will in order to silence the foolish, the unbelievers. This is how Christians look carefully how we walk. This is how we live wisely. This is how we make the best use of the time we are in.

Here’s a plan. First, be well-grounded in the basics: God loves you. Even when you sin. Even while you’re sinning. Jesus died on the cross to gain forgiveness for those sins. That forgiveness is yours when you have faith that it is. The Holy Spirit brought you to faith and currently lives in you, actually sanctifying you (making you holier). You’ve shown your faith by being baptized and in regularly receiving Communion. That is God’s will for you. You are now walking in His will. Yes, we all fall off the path from time to time (and often more frequently than that). But the Spirit picks us up, dusts us off, and sets us on the right path again. Just don’t get in His way. Love God; love people; and so be within the will of the Lord.

God bless you in your walk.

And may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

S.D.G.

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