Living into a Life Worthy of Our Calling:

Extreme Makeover--Ephesians Style

Ephesians 4:22-5:2

Old Testament: Exodus 19:3-6,

Plus the Ten Commandments

Many years ago my mother gave me a framed note card with an inscription that said, "What we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God." That inscription, in a very real way, captures the basic structure of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. For the first part of the letter relates to us what God has done for us. And the second half of the letter describes the essence of an appropriate response of gratitude.

What we are is God’s gift to us. We are God’s children, adopted into his family by God’s sovereign choice, a choice borne out of God’s love for you and for me. We are, because of the redeeming and reconciling work of Jesus Christ, part of the same family--in Christ, we are one, brothers and sisters by faith. What we are is God’s gift to us--and it is purely a gift of God’s grace, not something that God owes to us because of something that we have done.

What we become, then, is our gift to God. It’s not that Paul so much comes out and says this directly, but clearly it’s a guiding principle behind the imperatives and exhortations that comprise the second half of the letter. It is out of a heart that desires to respond in profound gratitude to God that Paul encourages us in the first verse of the fourth chapter, "Therefore... I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." And so Paul will take the rest of the letter to help us understand what it looks like to "live a life worthy of the calling."

The portion of the fourth chapter that we will not be reading today deals with the unity of the body of Christ, and the responsibility of each part of the body to contribute to the overall functioning of the body. This is something we have discussed on a number of occasions, so I’m not going to go into it today. Nevertheless, it is very telling indeed that the first item of discussion following the exhortation to live the worthy life focuses on the need for unity and full participation in the life of the church.

This morning we pick up in the 22^nd verse of the fourth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Hear now the word of God...

...The grass withers, and the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever.

If you watch any TV these days, I’m sure you’re aware of the trend that has been going on for a couple of years in the reality shows. I’m talking about the amazing number of makeover shows that so many of the networks and cable channels are airing. It started out simple: maybe Oprah would send a member of her audience to a salon for a day, and the person would get a free hairstyling, as well as about $500 worth of cosmetics. We’d get a before photo, and an after photo, and that would be it. But these days, it’s much more elaborate than that. Maybe a person gets "ambushed" by their friends and family, and they are whisked away for a week in which they get a completely new wardrobe, new hairstyle and makeup, as well as some fitness training; all the while, video cameras are rolling, and the end result is a 30-minute or hour-long reality show that chronicles the change, with a few tear-jerking stories interspersed throughout the story.

Or it gets taken to the extreme, and a person is selected for a series of surgeries and cosmetic procedures that transform the person who begins as a tragic "ugly duckling", but by the end of the show they have been transformed into a triumphant swan, full of grace and beauty. And the family and friends, who haven’t seen this person in months, gasp in amazement at the transformation. And again, there are tears.

Or you have some family that has been overwhelmed with sorrow in their lives, and suddenly a TV crew shows up on their front doorstep, and sends them on a one-week vacation while their home gets a makeover. In the meantime, the whole community stops whatever it’s doing so everybody can pitch in; the local Sears or Lowe’s or Home Depot gladly donates the contents of their entire store into the home (for free, of course!), and the family returns from their vacation to a completely new home.

...and all their problems are gone.

...and everybody lives happily ever after.

And they call them "reality" shows!

Let me suggest that what Paul calls for in the fourth chapter of Ephesians is a makeover of sorts. "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self... [and] to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." It’s a makeover that is informed by the command to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. The expectation that Paul has is that we clothe ourselves in a new self, a self that is transformed by the presence of the risen Christ in our lives.

It’s interesting that elsewhere Paul notes that whoever is in Christ is a new creation. He doesn’t say that whoever is in Christ will someday become a new creation. He says that it’s a present reality--you ARE a new creation, already, right now. And so here in Ephesians, Paul is simply saying that we are not to postpone living into that new reality, that we should begin living into our new reality today.

Paul says that in Christ we have been created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. And our text ends with the command that we be imitators of God. Nested between the declaration that we have been created to be like God, and the command to be imitators of God, Paul begins to lay out for us a series of principles that are designed to help us live into the righteousness and holiness that is expected of the people of God.

As I thought about the commands to live a holy life, I was reminded of the Old Testament law, and the Ten Commandments. In the 19^th chapter of Exodus, God declared that Israel was to be a nation of priests, a holy nation; and then, in the 20^th chapter God gives the Ten Commandments. Do you see what’s going on? God makes the people of Israel into a special people, with a special purpose, and then immediately God gives the people of Israel the law as the means by which they can fulfill their purpose. In other words, if Israel was to be a nation of priests, and a holy nation, then they would need instructions on how to live into that destiny.

The same thing is going on here in Ephesians. Paul declares throughout the first half of the letter that we are God’s children, that God has set us apart for a special calling. And now Paul helps us understand what it means to live into that calling. And he gives us some commands: put off falsehood and speak truthfully; in your anger do not sin; stop stealing, and get a job; don’t give in to unwholesome conversation; be kind and compassionate. . .

Now wait a minute! I thought the gospel was about grace, not about obeying a bunch of rules. I thought that Jesus came to wipe away the law, so that it was no longer necessary.

Wrong!

The gospel is about grace. It is by grace, not by law, that we have been saved. But the law still has a purpose. The purpose of the law, the purpose of the continuing commands that we find in scripture, is to provide structure to our lives as the community of faith, and to help us fulfill the task of faithfully testifying to the world about the wonders of God.

I remember when I was in seminary one of my professors likened each of the Ten Commandments to a piece of a wall that is designed to protect the community of faith. As the people obeyed the commandments, then they would strengthen their relationship with God, and they would be strengthened as a community.

Even John Calvin noted that we can’t do away with the law. He said the law had the effect of convicting us of our unrighteousness, in that none of us is able to fulfill all that the law demands--in this regard the law points us to our need for a Savior; he said that the law restrains wickedness, in that it lays out consequences for disobedience and transgression; and his third use of the law was that it instructs us in righteousness. That is, the law lays out for us the ways of God, whether it comes to us by way of the Old Testament form of the Ten Commandments, or the numerous imperatives we find in the New Testament. It is God’s law that shows us how we can enrich and edify one another in the body of Christ. It is the law that shows us how we can be imitators of God.

But our mutual edification is not the only goal of the law. The law defines how we can be the people of God in such a way that we can faithfully convey to the world who God is. That’s what it means for God’s people to be a nation of priests. One of the priest’s main functions is to convey God to others. When God declared that he would make Israel into a nation of priests, it was so that Israel would become God’s instrument of revelation of God to the world.

And though the Temple was destroyed, and the sacrificial system of the Old Testament was rendered unnecessary by the death and resurrection of Christ, there still remains a need for the people of God to serve as a nation of priests.

The Old Testament purpose of Israel is the New Testament purpose of the Church. We are to serve as priests of God for the world. It is still our purpose to convey God to the world.

The truth is, how we are church for one another is one of the most powerful witnesses we have. The question is, is the way in which we are the church--is the way in which the community of believers lives out our faith--is it an accurate portrayal of the person and character of God? When people look at the church, what kind of God do they see?

Earlier this month in the Myrtle Beach paper, the comic strip Kudzu spent an entire week making light of controversies in mainline American churches. Under the guise of a church softball league, a dispute breaks out, in which the Presbyterians want to rename first, second and third base to correspond with some of the more far-out suggestions for the Holy Trinity; the Episcopalians refuse to play unless there is a gay umpire; and even the Baptists enter the fray, insisting that the softball is really flat. While it’s easy to be tongue-in-cheek about some of those issues, the fact is there is more conflict in mainline American Christianity than there is unity. What kind of God do we proclaim to the world, when we’re pointing the finger at each other?

When people look at the church, what kind of God do they see? It is the answer to that question that Paul addresses in his series of commands in this letter to the Ephesians. It’s because our witness to the world is so crucial that Paul enjoins us against destructive anger, and encourages a spirit of forgiveness. It’s because our witness to the world is so crucial that Paul will not allow falsehood to split us apart, but that a spirit of truth in love must always prevail. It’s because our witness to the world is so crucial that we must abandon selfishness and seek the welfare of others.

When people look at the church, what kind of God will the world see?

Years ago, Harry Emerson Fosdick, then at the height of his influence as minister of the Riverside Church in New York City, was making a tour of Palestine and other countries in the Middle East. He was invited to address a gathering at the American University in Lebanon, where the student body comprised of citizens from around the world, and representatives of sixteen different religions. Fosdick was somewhat at a loss as to what to say to such a gathering. And so he began his speech by saying, "I do not ask anyone here to change his religion; but I do ask all of you to face up to this question: What is your religion doing to your character?"

Someone else has said, "What you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear a word you say." The church speaks, not so much with words, but in the way we live the life of faith.

When people look at the church, what kind of God do they discover?

I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love. . .

Amen.