Sermon
Ephesians 5:8-14 (NRSV)
8 For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord
you are light. Live as children of light— 9 for the fruit of the
light is found in all that is good and right and true. 10 Try to
find out what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the
unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is
shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; 13 but
everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for everything
that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
“Sleeper, awake!
Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
Year A
Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 26, 2017
Title: A Third Culture?
Cross~Wind
The advice that most preachers get
is not to go negative in their preaching. Certainly, in the United Methodist
Church, most of us preachers do not like to go negative. Many of us have heard
hurtful things said from the pulpit. Some of the hurt was intentional, but most
probably was not. With almost every “No” we can think of exceptions. We will
likely think of ways we have transgressed in our lives.
Yet, if we pause for a bit, “No” is
an important word in many settings.
Parents are frequently negative.
They protect children by telling them not to cross a busy street, touch a hot
stove, talk to strangers, and even not to ride a bike without a helmet.
The office is negative. You are not
to post offensive posters, make sexual advances, use inappropriate language,
offer or receive bribes, and so on.
Schools have rules like not running
in the hallway, no bullying, no religious proselytizing, no prayers, no
plagiarizing, and so on.
If you work for any level of
government, you probably have a long list of do and do not.
Sports are among the most negative.
The rules of golf defy explanation. The NFL rulebook is negative.
Yet, in the church, everything is
to be sweetness and light. In particular, the preacher is to be positive. For
me to come clean here, I am among those preachers who do not like to go
negative. You see, my thought has been that most of us throughout the week have
probably had enough negative to face throughout the week. I would rather lift
people up with faith, hope, and love. I still think such themes out to be our
focus as preachers.
Yet, the Bible has many places
where it says “No” to the old life in order to embrace the new life of the
people of God. For example, Paul was not shy about saying no to sexual
promiscuity, impurity, obscenities, greed, and darkness. Such a “No” may seem
harsh. Yet, I invite you to reflect upon the “No” Paul offers, especially when
he considers the old way of life or offers a list of vices or works of the
flesh. Do such negatives apply to today?
If we take our Bibles seriously, we
cannot avoid negative preaching. The Bible does say “No,” and we as preachers
need to share it with our congregations. You see, such negativity may save a
life, a family, a marriage, or the calling of a pastor.[1]
Our passage today will give us some
‘No.”
Ephesians 5:8-14 have the theme of
once in darkness and now in light.
This passage is part of an extended
exhortation that employs the rhetorical motif of “old” vs. “new” ways of life
(4:17-5:20). Paul is suggesting that human beings are not morally neutral. We
are either darkness or light. Darkness creates people who live in it; light
creates people who live in it. Our actions reflect our identity. Our passage
will get specific about what life in the light is not, but stay general as to
what it is. This emphasis on rejecting a past shameful behavior and adopting a
path in life acceptable to God seems aimed at Gentiles who have become part of
the Christian community. Thus having asserted in the first half of the letter
that God has “broken down the dividing wall” of hostility between Gentiles and
the community of faith (2:14), the author moves in the second half of the
letter to spell out the ethical implications of this inclusion for the Gentile
converts. They are to produce the fruit of light. It takes time for this fruit
to grow to maturity. It becomes a way of life. We live in a confusing world, so
it will require some discernment to learn what pleases God.
Introduction
When we become old enough that
another generation is behind us, we become aware of the significance of
cultural change, even if we do not have that phrase in our minds. The
generation behind us will not be aware of events that shaped us. Baby boomers
and up could ask where they were when Oswald shot JFK. A long time ago now, I was
in a group that asked that question, one person said he was too young to know. Cultures
change because formative events for one generation receded into the background
and new formative events emerge.
Friday night I caught the end of
The Wizard of Oz. You know the phrase that came from the lips of Dorothy: "There's
no place like home!" This phrase is an American idiom that means that home
is the most satisfying place to be. It comes from the song, "Home! Sweet
Home!" that has been around for about 180 years. The first two lines read:
Mid pleasures and palaces though we
may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no
place like home.
Apparently, those ten words touched a very profound need
people have for safety, peace and companionship.
What do you call home? A common
question at parties is the simple question, “Where are you from?” In a world
that is increasingly mobile and global, however, it has become a complex
question.
According to a Pew Research study,
six in 10 Americans have moved to a new community at least once in their lives,
and the definition of where one's "home" is has become fluid. For
example, 38 percent of Americans do not consider the place they are now living
to be "home." Some consider "home" to be where they were
born and raised. Others say it is where they lived the longest, where their
family comes from or where they went to high school.
A growing number of Americans have
spent their developmental years in another country. A youth pastor with whom I worked
spent his early years in Guatemala. Sometimes, I would say things and he would
get this longing look in eyes about his place of origin. He led mission trips
to the country. Ruth Unseem, a sociologist and anthropologist, would call him a
third culture kid. His parents spent their formative years in America, he spent
his in Guatemala, and with him in America, he is finding a way to have his feet
in both. Third culture kids can have a difficult time answering the question of
where they are from. They do life differently.
You can stay in the same state all
your life and feel disoriented, wondering where your home is now. The culture
can change so quickly that you experience it as foreign. Cultures are not
static. We can still think of culture, but it has a history and therefore it
changes. For that reason, the culture in which we grow up may not feel like
home. In fact, it may almost feel like a foreign country. No wonder nostalgia
hits us. We long for what feels like “home.”
Application
You get a sense from reading the
letters of the apostle Paul that he was also a third culture kind of person. He
was a Roman citizen. He received his formative education in Jerusalem. Yet,
when he learned of reconciliation and forgiveness in Christ, he became part of
a different culture and sought to expand it.[2]
I find myself wanting to push us a
bit as a congregation as we consider new ways of engaging our changing culture.
I want us to consider that we are third culture Christians.
The First Culture: A Relationship
For those who follow Christ, the
first culture, our "home," is not as much about location as it is
about relationship. God is indeed the Father of us all. God made us in the
divine image and therefore to be children of light. Our home is in God, and
wherever we find ourselves, we recognize that God is already there.[3]
God intended us to live at home
with God. No one will have genuine satisfaction in their lives unless they discover
this. Notice that Paul does not say here that heaven is our permanent home and
that, as the old hymn says, this world is not our home, we are "just
a-passin' through."[4]
Indeed, from beginning to end Scripture is all about how God makes God's home,
God's dwelling place, with us. God created us to live with God within creation
-- a home that is both our past and our future.
The Second Culture: A Culture of Darkness
Problem is, however, that from the
beginning humans have wanted to move away from home and away from God. The
rebellious nature of sin invites us to look elsewhere for a home where we can
be autonomous and create a name for ourselves. When that happens, we become
"darkened in [our] understanding,
alienated from the life of God because of [our] ignorance and hardness of heart"
(4:18).
Sin moves us from "light"
to "darkness" and to a culture that is really a form of exile from
home. The second culture of sin has its own language and customs as well. Paul
calls them the "unfruitful works of
darkness" (v. 11) and lists some of the accents they take on:
fornication, impurity, "obscene,
silly and vulgar talk," drunkenness, and debauchery (vv. 3-4, 18).
Most of us would recognize such
behavior as toxic. If we are around such persons, they will bring us down to
their level. It does not take long in life before most of us realize that
hanging around certain people tends to bring us down. We learn the difference
between those who inspire us to be better people and those who bring out the
worst in us. Certain types of people get us in a bad place. Life is too short
to stay in relationships like that. I have noticed this trait expanding with
Twitter and Facebook. People freely post divisive and hateful things they would
never say in person. However, sadly, some people are getting that way. They are
just as rude in person as they are online. Unless we develop certain internal
strengths, we may have to distance ourselves from them as much as we can.
Like third culture kids, it is easy
for us to pick up the way of life in this second culture. We can begin to make
our home there to the point that we forget from where it is we came and to what
family we belong. We can become confused and muddled to the point that we no
longer know who we are. Like the Ephesians, we can become so much "in
darkness" that we forget that we are actually children of light (v. 8).
As we have often heard, we are to
be in the world but not of the world. We need to engage the darkness of the
world by being light. At that point, we can offer good news, new life, and the
fruit of light.[5]
We need to live in a third culture
that is more like the one that Jesus describes for his disciples -- a culture
that is always on the go into the world. We are to make disciples of Jesus
Christ for the transformation of the world. We are to fish for people. As John
18:36 puts it, the kingdom or culture of Jesus is not from this world of
darkness.[6]
Rather, the kingdom or culture of Jesus is for this world. After all, Jesus
taught us to pray, "your kingdom
come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).
The Third Culture: Engagement
We need to become Third Culture
Christians. Our "citizenship," our passport country, may be heavenly
in nature, but our job is to colonize a dark world with the light of Christ,
the Savior who is coming into the world to dwell with us forever and to finally
make all cultures one in his kingdom (Philippians 3:20). It is the light of his
kingdom that makes everything "visible,
for everything that becomes visible is light" (Ephesians 5:13), a
kingdom where those who were dead in darkness will be raised again because the
light of Christ shines on them (v. 14).
It is this third culture that
requires us to live with a foot in both worlds. Paul cautions the Ephesians not
to associate with them, not to be like them, but that does not mean we do not
engage second culture people with the good news (v. 7). We identify with second
culture sinners because we have been there ourselves, but we also remember
where we have come from and that our real home is with God in God's new
creation, a home made possible by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We
are not from the world of darkness, but we are certainly made to do Christ's
work for that world -- a world that Christ loves enough to die for (John 3:16).
Conclusion
I am finding myself wanting to push
us a bit. What does living in that third culture mean for us? Well it might
mean:
- That our accent changes when we are with others who live
in the second culture. That we have an accent of love, compassion and
forgiveness rather than condemnation.
- That our circle of friends expands to include not just
other Christians, but also those who may come to know Christ through us.
- That we learn how to "bless" in many different
languages.
- That our passports will look like they have been to God's
kingdom and back, going anywhere he sends us.
- That we are at home wherever we are because we know that
God is already there.
It is a big, wide, wonderful world
in which we live, created by God for us to dwell with him. May we be Third
Culture Christians who live and work in it for God's glory and light within it!
Going deeper
One could divide the letter to the
Ephesians into two distinct, yet related, halves. The first three chapters
contain the author’s sustained reflection on the implications of Christ’s death
for the relationship between Gentiles and those who stand in the tradition of
Israel (which includes the author and his community). The author informs and
shapes the last three chapters by the theological ideas of the opening three
chapters, but they have a decidedly more ethical and practical function.
(Scholars sometimes characterize the first half of Ephesians as “indicative”
and the second half as “imperative.”) The present passage stands in the ethical
section of the letter.
Ephesians 5:8-14 (NRSV)
8
For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. [Interestingly,
he does not say they are “in light” but that they are light.
Formerly, they were darkness, not “in darkness.”[7]
This distinction, though subtle, reveals an important aspect of the thought in
this epistle. It stresses the integral link between action and identity. Most
importantly, the Ephesians are light “in the Lord,” illustrating that their
identity as light arises from their being in the Lord. Consequently, they are to
behave accordingly. The author introduces a light vs. darkness dualism to
illustrate the "that was then -- this is now" character of a
Christian's new life. The implication here is weighty. A human is not a morally
neutral being who happens to reside "in" a particular locus: first
“in" the darkness before Christ came, and then "in" the light
after Christ. The author describes people as being of either one element or
another. Before Christ, there was only darkness. After Christ, some become children
of light, others not. The author develops the caption in verse 8a in successive
steps.]
[First, in verse 8b-9, light
creates people who behave as creatures of light and witness to it.] Live [paripat] as
children of light [Ephesian Christians are children of light. The image of
believers as children occurs first in 1:5 as those whom the will have God has
adopted through Jesus Christ. As adopted children, they are the beloved
children of 5:1 whom Paul urges to imitate God. Thus, the phrase “children of
light” continues Paul’s familial imagery, reminding his hearers to remember
their new status as beloved and adopted children. They are no longer children
tossed around by different doctrines or deceitful words (4:14); they have
obtained a new status as children of God, i.e., children of light. This present
status now guides their behavior.] —
9 for the fruit of the light [There is a sense of spiritual
natural selection at work. Christ is the variable factor that allows some to be
fruitful. Good trees, after all, bear good fruit. Likewise bad trees bear bad
fruit (Matthew 7:17-20).] is found
in all that is good and right and true. [The apostle characterizes “light
fruit” in verse 9 as all goodness, righteousness and truth. The Greek rendering
of this verse omits a verb; thus, one must supply the verb “to be,” resulting
in the translation, “For the fruit of light is in all goodness, righteousness,
and truth.” Previously, in 2:10, Paul writes that “we are what [God] made us,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our
way of life.” What type of fruit should the Ephesians produce as children of
light? Fruit manifests one’s elemental being. The verb peripat used
in 2:10 is the same verb used at the end of 5:8, in which Paul tells the
Ephesians to live as children of light. The verb, often translated as live,
means to walk, denoting a way of life. Therefore, the fruit of goodness relates
to the good works for which God created the Ephesians. God prepared these good
works in advance that they might live and walk in them in the present. The
contrast between past and present is typical of the realized eschatology of
Ephesians. The new being reflects itself
in the new conduct of the saints. The text is specific about what life in the
light is not. It stays general as to the quality of life in the light as good,
right, and true.]
[Second, in verses 10-12, life in
the light conforms to the will of the Lord, rejecting works of darkness.] 10 Try to find out [The verb dokimazw in verse 10 means to examine,
test or discern. As children of the light, the readers need to discern as they
live in love and as imitators of God (5:1). Part of the discernment process is
to separate oneself from the works of darkness (5:11). Paul characterizes these
works as unfruitful and, although he does not provide a list of these works
here, he does relate in previous verses what they entail (2:1-3; 4:17-22, 25�5:5).] what is pleasing to the Lord. [The mood
of verse 10 is not entirely clear and open to interpretation. It may be a
sarcastic, plaintive cry, as is made by a parent to recalcitrant children:
"Would you please try to find out what is pleasing to God!" On the
other hand, it may be a pastoral exhortation to have discipline in the practice
of faithful living that will lead to the discovery of deeper ways to please
God. The believer patterns her or his life after Jesus, who was the perfect
sacrifice of love and became the "fragrant offering" which was
pleasing to God (5:2).] 11 Take
no part in the unfruitful [Those who are darkness, who do things in secret,
are fruitless. One's status vis-ˆ-vis
Jesus produces either fruitfulness or barrenness. Hence, there is a product
associated with belief.] works of
darkness, but instead expose them. [The author admonishes believers not to take part but rather to expose
these works. The verb legcw occurs in other texts to refer
to divine condemnation (Wisdom 4:20; 2 Esdras 12:32-33) and to confront sinners
with their sin, thereby convicting them and perhaps convincing them of
righteousness (Leviticus 19:17 LXX; Sirach 19:13-17; 1 Corinthians 14:24-25).
Interestingly, although believers are not to speak of the works of darkness
(5:3, 12), they are to expose them.[8] Paul does not specify how
this exposure should be carried out, but the verb legcw seems to imply bold
confrontation and, if needed, active opposition.[9]] 12 For it is shameful even to
mention what such people do secretly; [The text lifts up a final note of
redemption. In community, Christ calls us to reprove one another, to
discipline, to correct, in order to restore relationships. Being
"exposed" in this way is a faithful expression of trust in grace.
Therefore, faithful living is about being open, not closeted. A believer should
not keep secrets or do secret things that imply shame. A believer who
"exposes" another's sin should not treat the wrongdoer with contempt
or as gossip fodder; this, too, is shameful. Rather, since the light of Christ
reveals itself in truth telling, then Christians need to be truthful. When
people are honest with self and others, speaking the truth in love, then the
light shines in power. It is a wake-up call, as the three-lined hymn which ends
verse 14 declares.]
[Third, verses 13-14a show the
revelatory power of light is transforming not just informative. Verse 14a shows revelation by the light
produces light even where nothing else appeared to prevail but darkness and its
works. However, this has been a
difficult text.] 13 but
everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for everything
that becomes visible is light. Therefore it [Isaiah 60:1-2] says,
“Sleeper,
awake! [Barth discusses the notion of awakening in verse 14, recognizing
that it became important under the influence of pietism and Methodism.
Awakening places that which befalls humanity in its vocation and therefore its
illumination in the light of the resurrection. Awakening also stresses the Word
that calls humanity similar to the word that raised the daughter of Jairus and
raised Lazarus. Awakening here also clearly refers to Christians who are in
need of awakening.[10]]
Rise
from the dead, [He directs the readers to wake up and to rise from the dead
— acts that are possible only because of God’s proleptic act in Christ Jesus.
God has already raised them up and seated them together with Christ, and now
the hymn reminds them and directs them. It reminds them that in this new life
they are no longer dead and no longer walking in darkness and secrecy.
Furthermore, the hymn directs them (the verbs “awake” and “rise” are
imperatives) to respond to God’s act on their behalf.]
and
Christ will shine on you.” [A few early manuscripts read, “Christ will
touch you” rather than “Christ will shine upon you.” This reading may have been
influenced by an early Christian legend that Adam was buried beneath the site
of Jesus’ cross, and when his blood fell upon the grave Adam himself was
resurrected (for the connection between Adam, Christ and resurrection, see also
1 Corinthians 15:22, 45). However, within the context of Ephesians, one can
find direct connections between Christ’s resurrection and glorification and the
new life the readers have already received (Ephesians 2:4-6). It is as Christ
“shines upon” them that they become “light” and gain the strength to “live as
children of light” (v. 8). To state it in terms of recent Christian tradition,
the risen Christ enables the turn to a new manner of life that is the purpose
of the Lenten journey to Easter. In the previous verses, Paul has emphasized
believers as light. The last line of the hymn, however, “Christ will shine on
you,” corresponds to his statement of 5:8, “For once you were darkness, but now
in the Lord you are light.” In both instances, the apostle affirms that the
believers’ source is Christ. Christ shines on them, enabling them to be light
and to walk as children of light. Those who were dead, buried in darkness and
secrecy, now shine through the one who is “far above all rule and authority and
power and dominion, and above every name that is named” (1:21).]
[The writer makes some changes.
These changes certainly go beyond simply variations caused by imperfect memory
and move into the area of interpretative paraphrase. The reference to these
verses from Isaiah appears to arise from the fact that it shares the sharp contrast
between light and darkness. Nevertheless, there are in the Isaiah passage no
references to either resurrection or to the Messiah. Rather, the parallelism in
those verses links “light” with “the glory of the LORD” as a kind of metonymy
(the use of an attribute of a thing to refer to the thing itself) for the God
of Israel. Following a well-established pattern in New Testament texts, the
author links the word “rise” with the concept of resurrection (“rise from the
dead”). From there, one takes a short step to identifying the one who has risen
directly with the Christ whom God has raised from the dead. It is now Christ
who “shines” or brings light upon others and in the process joins them with his
own resurrection.]
[As the letter concludes, it is
apparent that the battle for the "survival of the fittest" is ongoing
between the children of light and the "cosmic powers of this present
darkness" (6:12). The author's use of the light vs. darkness motif is not
the same as in other places in the New Testament. For example, in John's
gospel, Jesus is that light that illumines the darkness (1:8). In Ephesians,
there is little emphasis on light dispelling darkness. Rather, the light stands
in opposition to the darkness. This drastic, dualistic worldview seems more at
home in the monastic and apocalyptic communities found in the first-century
desert of the Negev or the equally mysterious communities of the Gnostics of
later centuries. However, one should be careful making too quick of an
assignation of precedence or trajectory. Despite its cosmic language, there is
a pointed pastoral concern here. Behind the somber tone hides a community or
communities of Christians who have forgotten their standing as believers.
Doctrinal confusion, doubt, backsliding and everyday stress have caused
division within the community.]
[Sometimes, Christian leaders need
to address believers in stark "black-and-white" terminology in order
to re-focus on the essentials. Even the "saints" sin and need to be
agitated to return to purity of doctrine and lifestyle. Certainly, the early
Christian community had the same sinner/saint mix as any modern congregation.
However, it may well be that the language is more harsh than the actual action.
If every Christian community rid itself of everyone who said frivolous things,
or used vulgar language, or was greedy, or manifested no fruit or light, there
would not be much of a church left in the first century or the 21st (5:3-5).]
[Exhortation to holiness is always a two-edged sword. When
humbly inner-directed, the self-evaluation calls one back to basic truths about
Christian faith and fellowship. When, however, the call to holiness becomes a
self-righteous proclamation used to divide who is in from who is out, then
there is a very real danger of leading the Christian over the edge of joyful
proclamation toward fear-based judgment. What is certain is that claiming to be
part of the children of light necessitates living as if one really believed it.
Fruit is, after all, what fruit does.]
[1] --For more
about pastors and porn, see: Morgan Lee, "Here's how 770 pastors describe
their struggle with porn," christianitytoday.com, January 26, 2016.
Retrieved October 22, 2016.
[2] born in Tarsus in Cilicia (modern day Turkey), a
Roman center for trade, and educated in Jerusalem, a thoroughly Jewish culture.
After his conversion on the road to Damascus, Paul winds up traveling
throughout the Mediterranean world to a myriad of other cultures from Asia
Minor, to Greece, to Rome. In each place, he learns how to communicate using
the symbols and conventions of that particular culture in order to bring the
good news about Jesus to them. Paul was looking at culture through the lens of
Christ and the kingdom of God, which gave him a very clear sense of home as
well as a way of relating to whatever culture he found himself in.
[3] In Ephesians 3:14, Paul reminds his readers that it
is God the Father "from whom every
family in heaven and on earth takes its name." From Genesis we learn that
God created us in God's image, to be in relationship with God and reflect his
glory through our life and work. As such, Paul says, God made us to be "children of light" (v. 7). For
Paul, being at "home" is to be "filled with the Spirit" of
God. Home is a place where the custom is to sing songs of praise and
thanksgiving to God (vv. 19-20). This "home" produces in us the
"fruit of the light" -- all
that is "good and right and true"
(v. 9) and "pleasing to the Lord"
(v. 10).
[5] However, here is the thing: we can define these two
cultures from each other in such a way that it is possible to be so entrenched
in one that we never engage the other. This is a particular problem for those
who only stay spiritually at home in the first culture. If all I focus on is my
personal home with God, for example, then I will never reach out to those in
the second culture who need to hear the good news and need a new life. We can
wind up having a worldview that is all about our own isolationist,
stay-at-home, Jesus-and-me way of life.
[6] One of
the great misquotes of Jesus concerns what he said about the relationship of
his kingdom of light to the present world of darkness. Most often, Jesus gets
quoted as saying to Pontius Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world"
(John 18:36). The Greek, however, clearly has Jesus saying, "My kingdom is
not from this world." It's not that Jesus is focused on a heavenly kingdom
somewhere far away that's our permanent home address. Instead, Jesus says his
kingdom isn't the kind of second culture kingdom that the present world makes
its home in -- it's not from this world -- but it is a kingdom that is
certainly for this world.
[7]
(Margaret MacDonald, Sacra Pagina, v. 17, ed. Daniel J. Harrington
[Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2000], 314).
[8] (Pheme Perkins, New
Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, v. 11, ed. Leander Keck [Nashville: Abingdon
Press, 2000], 437).
[9] (Sacra Pagina, 315; Perkins,
437)
[10]
Church Dogmatics IV.3 [71.2] 511-2.
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