Lectionary 20.09                                                          Christ Church , York

I will confess that I am not one who deals well with change, especially when such change comes to those things upon which I rely for their consistency and their stability. So imagine my consternation when I found that both my daily newspaper and my weekly newsmagazine had both undergone a radical makeover in recent months. I will not bore you with the details but suffice it to say that this so called “newspaper” seems to have reduced the reporting of news to something of minor consequence while the section which deals with life style and living, now cutely renamed for this ego centered age in which we live as “your style” has become more prominent, holding forth on every conceivable aspect of our lives and daily living. Such changes should not surprise us since the tabloids and the entertainment shows on television have, for years now, been delving into the lives not only of the rich and famous but of all others as well, dissecting, probing and delineating every nuance of such lifestyles and living. Some of this can be informative, as when there are gardening or clothing tips and much of it is harmless, as in a recent article on brands of sauce. But when we find that our lives and our living becomes reduced to such trivial matters, when our world seems to be more concerned with superficiality than substance, when we deal with advice for parts of our living rather than the speaking to the life of the whole person, then we have lost something of value, something of importance, something of great worth and our beings end up being diminished and reduced as a result.

The words of Paul to the Ephesians this morning come then as a timely reminder of what is important and central in our lives and how we are called to live in a new way in Christ Jesus Our Lord. Admittedly at first reading this prescription for living, this life style laid out by Paul, doesn’t seem to be much fun with its prohibition even against the drinking of wine! Indeed this whole letter to the Ephesians sounds a little prudish at times as Paul in earlier parts of this chapter goes after all sins of the flesh, urges us to be careful with words and thoughts, to stay away from those who do not speak the truth and not to mix with those who live in the darkness. Living that way seems almost irrelevant in our modern age and we may therefore be tempted to write Paul’s words off as being too conservative or too moralistic an approach which have no real meaning for us and our life style today.

Yet Paul was warning his readers that they live in an evil time and surely the same can be said of us today. For it cannot be denied that we live in evil times and by this I do not mean any particular political positions, as when our last President spoke of an “axis of evil.” Nor do I mean that certain people are evil, for such judgments are not mine to make but rather Gods. But nonetheless evil abounds in our world – the evil of terrorism; the evil of war; the evil of hunger and poverty where children die by the thousands every day from malnutrition; the evil of fear, hatred, anger and mistrust which exists between families, cultures, societies and nations; the evil of societies rent apart by the entrenched cultural, ethical and moral positions which each side has taken on an issue. And we acknowledge the reality of such evil in our lives and in our living when we pray each time in the Lord’s Prayer “deliver us from evil” that is from all these evils and from the power of the Evil One himself who “prowls around like a roaring lion seeking somewhere to devour” as Scripture tells us. We live in evil times.

And because we live in evil times, Paul calls for us to consider the life we lead, the lifestyle we embrace. In his words to the Ephesians Paul is not simply being an old moralistic curmudgeon nor is he simply handing out cute snippets of how to live a good and healthy modern life style. Rather Paul is reminding us that it is easy, far too easy, to become consumed by the life styles which the world holds out for us. It is easy, far too easy, for us to embrace the life style of those around us so that we can fit in and be a part of the world. But since we are called to live in the world but not be a part of it, we should not be seduced by it or the things it has to offer. Instead in these evil days we are called to live wisely not foolishly and, in the midst of these same evil days, to redeem this time for the Lord in the right and faithful living of our lives.

And the faithful living of that life begins not with our doing of things, as though Paul wants us to have a prescription, a day to day primer for successful living. Rather he calls for us to be engaged in the “singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…singing and making melody to the Lord.” This is not a life style that most of us in the 21^st century envision for our lives. We are a people of action, movement, those who would rather be about the business of fighting the evil one than just sitting around singing songs. But Paul is reminding us once again that in these difficult and challenging days, we are called to live wisely and such wisdom calls for us to discern the will of God and not our own will. Too often we think we know what is best for us ourselves, for God, for the world and for His Church. We are ready to get out there and make a difference. But to redeem this time is not to think that we can redeem ourselves or the world - that is God’s work and it will be done in God’s good time! God’s ways are not the ways of we foolish humans and it is foolish to think that we know best. Therefore while we are called to redeem this time in which we live, we are called to do it in such a way that we adhere to the will of the Lord. The dramatic gesture and the mighty act may not be God’s way for us. To redeem this time therefore perhaps we need to be listening to the still, small voice of our God who is calling for us to bear a strong witness through lives faithfully lived in the workplace, the neighborhood and the home. No occasion and no time are too insignificant for the redeeming of this time. Living in this world as we do we are called to live a manner of life which reflects our faith, our hope and God’s love for us. Living in this way we live singing those songs and psalms and hymns, for it is in this way that we praise and give thanks to our God and in this manner that we show the joy that we have in our lives as followers of the Christ. Indeed what better way is there than to show that joy than through song and prayer. And such singing in joy is not limited just to this brief time on a Sunday morning, just as our lifestyle in the faith cannot be confined to the time spent in this gathered community. Rather our life style is to be all encompassing, lived out in the midst of the world on a daily basis and thereby a witness to all of what it means to live in the joy and praise and thanksgiving that we have been given through our new life in Christ Jesus Our Lord.

So, Paul reminds us, our life’s goal is not the acquisition of great riches or the living in great material comfort or the gaining of great power such as we read about in those life style sections of the newspaper. Indeed our living wisely will run counter to the way of the world for we understand that the reason for our living is not for ourselves but rather that we might express our faith through thanks and praise to God. For this reason, Paul reminds us, we “give thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is this expression of thanksgiving, seen in the ordinary, everyday actions of our lifestyles as Christians, that becomes our way of life in the world.

And such thanksgiving is expressed most fully when we come to this table to celebrate this “Eucharistic meal” this great thanksgiving which John so vividly describes in the words of Jesus in our Gospel when He offers us His own body and blood to eat and drink, a gift which enfolds us so fully and so completely not into His “style” of life but into Himself, His very being.

We are not called to return then to the life style of those who lived in the First century and to whom Paul wrote in this letter. But in these same words we do have a way of living for us in this age. For the times are still evil and therefore we are also called to exercise care about how we live – as doing God’s will and not our own and as being filled with the Holy Spirit so that we might offer thanks and praise to God in the name of His Son Jesus. And so there is no better plan for living or a better life style laid out for us in any of those newspaper sections, nothing fuller or more whole found in those magazines than this life laid out for us in Christ by the Apostle Paul this morning. May God’s wisdom then guide us and direct us all the days of our lives until that great day when all the saints will be gathered around the throne to raise their voices in an unending song of praise to our God forever and ever. Amen