At the end of the service I went down in front of the altar railing (as is normal when I stay at Flintstone). But then I gave instructions for everyone to move from their pews to form a circle around the section of pews to my left, allowing some who needed to stay seated on the back pew to do so. I mentioned that as they were moving to get in place, the song that was coming up on the screen was "They Will Know We Are Christians". I asked them to join in with the chorus or more if they knew it. The version I chose included Scripture throughout the video. Though I had intended to used invitational language and invite rather than instruct, all joined in, except our next to youngest, who was in the middle of us all. Usually he participates in everything from helping with the offering and giving out hugs. But last week he stayed put. The beauty of the moment was that, he, too, was in the circle.
At the end of the sermon, there will be a link to the song used for the benediction, as well as the song used at the beginning of worship, "Unfinished" by Mandisa.
Here is the sermon, with the reminder that things were added or taken away.
Maybe there is something here to encourage you.
Blessings on your journey,
Debra
----------------
“Be Imitators of God”
Ephesians 4: 25-5:2 (CEB)
August 12, 2018 (12th Sunday after
Pentecost)
Flintstone UMC
Ephesians
4: 25-5:2 (CEB)
25 Therefore, after you have gotten rid of lying, Each of you must tell the truth to your neighbor because we are parts of each other in the same body. 26 Be angry without sinning. Don’t let the sun set on your anger. 27 Don’t provide an opportunity for the devil. 28 Thieves should no longer steal. Instead, they should go to work, using their hands to do good so that they will have something to share with whoever is in need.
29 Don’t let any foul words
come out of your mouth. Only say what is helpful when it is needed for building
up the community so that it benefits those who hear what you say. 30 Don’t
make the Holy Spirit of God unhappy—you were sealed by him for the day of
redemption. 31 Put aside
all bitterness, losing your temper, anger, shouting, and slander, along with
every other evil. 32 Be
kind, compassionate, and forgiving to each other, in the same way God forgave
you in Christ.
5 Therefore, imitate God
like dearly loved children. 2 Live your life
with love, following the example of Christ, who loved us and gave himself for
us. He was a sacrificial offering that smelled sweet to God.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS
IS THE WORD OF GOD FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
THANKS BE TO GOD.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
It sounds fairly
simple, doesn’t it? Be imitators of
God. Do what God does. Live like God. Act like God.
How simple is it?
Today’s passage
provides us with practical ways we can imitate God, ways in which we can live
out godly action. The passage starts off
in 4:25 and begin to close in 5:1 with “therefore”. Anytime you see a “therefore” in a verse, you
want to ask yourself, ‘what’s it there for?’
Immediately
prior to the beginning of the passage, in
verses 23 and 24, the apostle had told them, “renew the thinking in your mind by the Spirit 24 and clothe
yourself with the new person created according to God’s image in justice and
true holiness.” The first “therefore”
leads into how to go about this transformation.
The second “therefore” follows all the ways to be imitators of God and
reiterates once again what to be, how, and why.
The importance of the transformed life is highlighted here for us.
Let’s go through the
passage again and see what things might help us be imitators of God. Note that there is a mix of “dos” and
“don’ts”. What catches your attention
most today?
--Get rid of lying.
--Tell the truth to our
neighbor.
--Be angry without
sinning. Wait. Does that mean it’s okay
to be angry? Yes. It’s what we do with our anger, how we act on
it, what we allow it to do to ourselves and others that makes it not okay. Notice that the passage reminds us to keep a
short leash on anger—“don’t let the sun go down
(or set) on your anger.” This is to keep us from allowing it to fester
or for bitterness to set in. If we
practice dealing with our anger and frustrations, then we are less likely to
take it to the next level.
--Don’t provide an
opportunity for the devil. (This can go
with the anger or stand on its own.)
--Don’t steal.
--Work.
--Don’t allow foul
words to come out of your mouth.
--Only say what is
helpful for building up the community. (Are you familiar with the expression,
“if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”? It sounds similar to these two put together,
doesn’t it?)
--Don’t make the Holy
Spirit unhappy. (Though it doesn’t give
details here, we get that we’re not to…..)
--Put aside all
bitterness, losing your temper, anger, shouting, and slander… and every other
kind of evil (in case you were looking for a loophole.)
If these are mostly the
don’ts and what NOT to do, then, how are
we to IMITATE God? What does imitating
God look like?
Some things have been
given already, but the more positive focus comes next in verse 32:
--Be kind,
compassionate, and forgiving to each another, in the same way God forgave you
in Christ. (Oh. God forgave us in Christ and we are to
imitate God by doing the same for others.
Hmmm.)
5:1—Reiterates how we
are to live, as imitators of God, as dearly loved children. Why as children? Have you ever noticed how children so easily
imitate? They imitate facial
expressions, sounds, tones, words, etc.
Just this past week, a meme (a picture with words came across my FB feed
from Clergy Coaching Network):
 |
| Clergy Coaching Network, August 7th |
--Children imitate
us. We teach them. If we are to imitate God, what aspects of
God’s character and God’s teachings are we imitating?
Today’s passage ends
with the best way we are to imitate God: “Live your life with love, following
the example of Christ, who loved us and gave himself up for us.”
To be an imitator of
God means that we will live a life of love, as did Christ. Christ gave his life out of love for us.
Love. Imitating God is about love.
Listen closely to these
next two verses I’m about to share.
Don’t think you know them just because you start to hear them. I’m reading from the New Living Translation:
16 “For this is how God loved
the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who
believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save
the world through him.
(John 3:16-17)
This is how God loved
the world. God loved the world through
Jesus. We are called to love the world
too, as imitators of God.
What does loving the
world look like for us? In our times, in
our community, in our work place, in our family, how do we imitate God?
“Imitating God” means
putting our focus on the actions that flow from God’s character.” ~ Richard
Ward (Feasting on the Word, 331)
BENEDICTION: "They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love"
OPENING SONG: "Unfinished" by Mandisa
No comments:
Post a Comment