“The Don’ts and the Do’s”
A sermon by Sid Burgess for Edgewood PC, Homewood, AL
August 09, 2009
Text: Ephesians 4:25-5:2
Search the Internet for “do’s and don’ts” and you will find quite a few helpful lists: the do’s and don’ts of fashion; the do’s and don’ts of air travel; the do’s and don’ts of car buying; the do’s and don’ts of webpage design; the do’s and don’t of baking bread, the do’s and don’ts of back to school.
As is often the case, the biblical writers do things differently.
The most famous guidelines of all time, the Ten Commandments, begins
not with the “do’s” but with the “don’ts.”
Don’t have any other gods. Don’t have anything to do with idols.
Don’t misuse the name of the Lord. Only after these three don’ts,
does Moses call up a couple of do’s. Do keep the Sabbath. Do honor
you momma and them. But, quickly, the old patriarch reverts to more
don’ts. Don’t murder. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal. Don’t lie.
Don’t covet.
Perhaps the writer of Ephesians--some say Paul, some say not--is modeling his program of Christian ethics on Moses’ recitation of the 10 commandments. In any case, what we get at the outset of today’s epistle reading is a heavy dose of the “don’ts.” Don’t sin. Don’t stay angry. Don’t let the devil make you do it. Don’t steal. Don’t bad-mouth others. In short, don’t make God mad.
To this list of “don’ts,” the author adds a series of “puts.” “Put away . . . all bitterness and wrath and anger.” Put away “all wrangling and slander.” Put away “all malice . . . .” One of my sources calls these “puts,” “The six discards that cause discord.” You want peace and harmony in the home and in the church, “Put away . . . all bitterness and wrath and anger.” Put away “all wrangling and slander.” Put away “all malice . . . .”
Well, enough of the “don’ts” and the “puts.” Let’s take a look at the “do’s.” Do “speak the truth” to each other. Do be kind to one another. Do be tenderhearted. Do be forgiving. So far so good. Most of us learned these “do’s” in Sunday school. But here is one the folks back home missed. It’s not a do, but a “be.” “Be angry.” Imagine that: divine permission to be angry. Now given the context here--the context of Christian community-- I don’t think we’re talking “be angry” because someone misplaced the scissors, lost a jacket, or failed to record a check. I think this directive--“be angry”--is included here to give the Church permission to be angry at injustice, to be angry at crime and violence, to be angry at the root causes of human suffering. In any case, the often repeated wisdom--“do not let the sun go down on your anger”--is sound advice both for the individual and the community.
To be sure, all of the above are excellent guidelines to teach our children and to rule our personal behavior. But the writer of Ephesians has a larger purpose in mind. These standards are offered by the purpose strengthening the witness of the Church--the first century church at Ephesus, and now the 21st century church at Edgewood.
“Speak truth to your neighbors, for we are members of one another.” Whomever the writer may be--some say Paul, some say not--he is clearly echoing the great apostle. In Romans (12), St. Paul writes:
4For as in one body we have many members . . .(arms, legs, hands, feet, head, heart, etc) 5so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.
We church members are connected one to another. Just as we would no more allow our hand to lie to our foot--‘Go ahead, foot, stick yourself into that boiling water, its won’t hurt. . . .’--here in the community of faith, we must pledge ourselves to speak the truth to each other. If the emperor has no clothes on, for goodness sakes tell him! If the preacher’s sermons pack no punch, for goodness sakes tell him! “Not speaking truth to each other is tantamount to not speaking the truth to ourselves, and vice versa.” “Without truth, authentic community fails.”1 And authentic community--not superficial, not shallow, but authentic--is our Christian witness to the world.
There is further evidence that these directives apply to the community. To the Ephesians the writer insists: “Thieves must give up stealing.” Makes a person wonder if the church at Ephesus was a den of robbers! Deacons making off with the doughnuts. Elders hijacking potato salads at the covered dish suppers.
Seriously, here is the point for us. The romantic legends of Robin Hood notwithstanding, greedy thieves with sticky fingers don’t share. They contribute nothing to the common good of the community of faith. What this early church leader seeks is a congregation consisting of people who subscribe to the work ethic “so as to have something to share with the needy.” The life-blood of the Church flows from those who work hard and honestly, then share what they earn with the needy. Now this doesn’t mean we’ve all got to make the big bucks, The something we share with the needy may well be our time and our talent. So work, pay your bills, plan for the future-- all so that you can be free to help those who need it.
Once the writer--some say Paul, some say not--has given us all of these “don’ts” and “puts” and “do’s,” he gives us the ‘bottom line.” We are to “Be imitators of God.” Now, again, this is addressed to us collectively. No need for any one of us to feel personally responsible for fixing all of the world’s woes, for righting all the wrongs, or curing all the diseases. Imitating God is something we strive to do as a community. This is critically important because we provide checks and balances for one another.
Just last week some deluded gunman up in Pennsylvania got the notion that God was mad at women. So he decided to “play God.” Walking into a health club with guns blazing, he killed three women and wounded nine more before committing suicide. It would have been helpful, it could have been life-saving for his victims, as well as for himself, if--before playing God--this man had sought a “second opinion” down at the church--any church, any place where God’s gifts of life and love are held in honor.
Even for the community of faith imitating God is dangerous duty. So our text gives us guidelines. Imitating God means imitating God’s kindness, God’s tenderness, and God’s forgiveness. As we do this work we do so wearing something very special. It is the invisible but forever present “seal of redemption.” The sign and seal that we are given in baptism that assures us and our children that we have been marked as God’s own forever.
Today, we shall bear witness as this very seal is placed upon the tiny forehead of Keira Alyse Bergdoll. It is this seal--this sacred seal--that unites us, that forms us into the Body of Christ where we are to support one another in complying as best we can with “the don’ts, the puts, and the do’s” of Holy Scripture-- “the don’t, the puts, and the do’s” that will enable us to “live (together) in love.”
Now to the One
who by the power at work within us
is able to do far more abundantly
than all we ask or imagine,
to God be the glory in the church
and in Christ Jesus
to all generations, forever and ever. Ephesians 3:20, 21
1 Clark-Soles, Jaime., Ephesians 4:25-5:2, Proper 14, FEASTING ON THE WORD, Year B, vol. 3, p. 327