August 9, 2015
Eleventh after Pentecost
SCRIPTURE: New Testament: Ephesians 4:25-5:2
Gospel:
John
6:41-51
MEDITATION: Acts of Praise
Pray with me:
May the words I speak be words of encouragement and together may we hear God speaking to us as
members of Christ’s church in our own time and place.
We in the United Church don’t always put a big emphasis on what we might term “acts of praise.” Some
of our brothers and sisters in evangelical churches seem to be much more inclined to speak about this. If
you have ever attended one these churches, you, like me, might have pondered about this focus on
praise. Prayers, songs and words in a service often talk to the congregation about coming together to
“praise God” or to lift up their voices in “praise” of God. The choruses that they sing are often referred
to as “praise choruses.” Now, denominational churches are sometimes “strange places” where we learn
about our way of being church in subtle kinds of messages that we might not even be aware of – they
just kind of seep into our beings by our being part of that particular church denomination or community.
We in the United Church are more inclined to think of “acts of praise” as being the ways that we live out
our faith in our day to day lives and in our communities. “Acts of praise” are reflections of what we
believe about our faith and our relationship to God and the teachings of Jesus. Rather than talking or
singing about “praising God” we are encouraged to live in ways that SHOW that we praise God by our
way of living. How we act in life matters to God and to our lived faith. We offer our lives in faithful,
loving actions because God has offered so much to us. We don’t follow rules of righteous living in order
to BE Christ followers but rather because we ARE Christ followers.
The scripture in Ephesians can set our teeth on “edge” a bit as it points a pretty accusatory finger at the
ways in which we fail to praise God by our actions in life. We are admonished not to tell lies to each
other since they are hurtful. When we hurt someone else we really hurt ourselves because we are all
part of one body – the body of Christ. We are told it is alright to feel ANGER, a FEELING is always OK. The
thing to be mindful of is what we do with that FEELING. It is not OK to hurt someone else because we
are angry. Being angry is not an excuse for being mean to someone. Stealing is always wrong and we are
admonished to just stop that. We are meant to help each other find ways to live and work honestly so
that instead of taking things from people, we give to people. Unkind words are hurtful and our words to
each other should be a blessing not a curse. We should not say hurtful things to or about each other.
Jesus showed us by his way of living that being loving, kind and forgiving is what God wants of us.
This is where it gets uncomfortable because we can all see ourselves doing these things and we can feel
condemned by these rules. BUT, God doesn’t want us to be condemned – God wants us to realize that
we are able to live all these GOOD WAYS, because we are the loved, forgiven, graced children of God.
The verb in this passage is translated as “putting away” – We are meant to “put away” these things that
are harmful and hurtful. BUT if we think of it in terms of our baptism it is more like “strip off.” In the
early church the baptismal practice was to “strip off” old clothing in order to put on a new white robe,
symbol of a new identity through baptism. The Hebrew verb denotes an action done in the past which
has continuing significance in the present. If we “put away” things of the past – what is the significance
of that in the present? The fact of the matter is that our ethics are rooted in our praise. In a world of
hate, we are able to love because we have been loved. In a world wracked by violence and war and
hatred we are able to be at peace because God has made peace with us. In a world that seems to be
short on forgiveness we can forgive because we have been forgiven. If we are to be “imitators of God”
which Paul calls for, and which we might find to be a crazy idea, we must accept that we are indeed
forgiven, loved, adopted, cherished and called people of God.
It really isn’t about following rules, it is about praising God for all the possibility that God has offered us
in God’s enduring love.
When we think about our human lives and how we learn to live, most of us can acknowledge that it is
not so much what others – our parents, teachers, mentors – told us, as it is about how they modelled for
us in their own actions how to live. If it is true that in Jesus Christ, in baptism, all of us have been made
God’s beloved children, then it is not so far-fetched to expect us to act somewhat like the Father, even
to “imitate God.” When we show unselfish love toward someone, it’s not so remarkable because, in
Jesus, unselfish love has been shown toward us. When we are gracious toward brothers and sisters in
the church, all we’re doing is imitating our parent, reflecting some of God’s graciousness in our own
graciousness. In being who we are as Christians, our ethics, and our behaviour is a reflection of our
praise for God and our desire to be imitators of all that we have received. It is not rules we are following,
it is Jesus.
I have spent a lot of time in the last three years, researching, reading, writing and thinking about
forgiveness and reconciliation. This very day, our church is gathering at General Council in
Newfoundland to make a lot of difficult decisions for our future. One of the key things on the agenda is
to discuss how we will work toward reconciliation for the wrongs that our church did in its involvement
with Residential Schools. We know that we are the focus of some pretty deep feelings of angry because
of the harm that we did to Aboriginal children and subsequently to the generations that followed those
children. The church has been expressing its desire to build a new relationship with the First Nations of
our land. The church is struggling to find a way to do this, to recognize the ways we failed in the past and
change our behaviour in the future. It is a formidable task and although we are versed in the knowledge
that God offers us forgiveness, it is not always so readily given with humans. First Nations people are
watching to see if the apologies we have given and the forgiveness we seek are vested in changed
behaviours. It is not easy to ask for forgiveness and it is even harder to offer it. There are many sign that
show that First Nations people are willing to offer that forgiveness but that does not mean that they can
forget all the harm that was done to them. Not all relationships can be healed. Not all behaviours can be
forgiven and forgotten. Yet the love of God is a powerful force that can often help us overcome
enormous differences and move on in healing. The church must play a powerful role in helping resolve
the anger. We as members of the church must be willing to learn about our past involvement in
Residential Schools and come to understand what caused us to act in such horrific ways toward innocent
children. It will not be easy, we will need to depend on God to guide and help us and we will need to be
courageous. We will need to listen carefully and be open to transformation in our thinking and in how
we relate to others in our own communities that we have little understanding of. It will be hard, hard,
work but it is work that we are capable of because of one overriding believe that we have in the church
– We are followers of Christ, imitators of God, loved, forgiven, cherished and blessed.
AMEN