Do you believe that you could come to church, and hear a word from the Lord?  Do you believe that we could come to church expecting to hear from God?  In the middle of all that is going on in our lives and all that is going on in the world, do we believe that we could get up, get dressed, get in our cars/on the TTC/get on our feet and come to church and hear a word from the Lord?  I absolutely do!  I was at a preaching conference at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church early last week.  I was reminded of this truth when we looked at 1 Kings 18.  Here’s how it begins, “After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year of the drought saying, ‘Go, present yourself to Ahab; I will send rain on the earth.’”

This was good news.  There hadn’t been any rain in the land for three years.  Don’t we long to hear good news?  In the middle of everything, don’t we long to hear good news?  So, dear church family, hear this word from the Lord via brother Paul via me this day.  I’m hearing it too.  It’s from the end of the passage, so we’re beginning with the end.  We’re beginning with good news:

Christ has forgiven you.

Christ loved us, and gave himself up for us.

May we grasp these truths newly this day.  Let’s ask for God’s help as we listen for God’s word to us today. 

Here’s some more good news about what it means to be in Christ.  If you’ve heard me much at all you know I like this image a lot.  In Christ, you’ve been given a new set of clothes.  In Christ we’ve been given a whole new way to walk.  In Christ, we’ve been given a whole new set of clothes.  The gift of grace is always first.  I know that we’re in the part of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians where is talks about what being in Christ looks like in our lives.  We always begin with the truth that we are in Christ.  It has always been this way with God.  Before giving the ancient Israelites instruction regarding how they should live, God reminded them of their relationship with him – “I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” (Exodus 20:1)  God speaks first of relationship and rescue.   “So then, “is how Paul starts v 25 to begin his  “Don’t do that do this” list, or “Not to do/To do” if you like.  Before that, Paul lays down some gospel truth (literally good news truth).  “Now this I affirm  and insist on in the Lord…”  The word translated insist is not Paul merely insisting on something as we would say “But I insist.”  It’s witness, testify.  “Let me testify,” says Paul and we say “Testify brother Paul!” 

Remember who you are, you all.  Remember whose you are, you all.  You have been brought from death to life.  You’ve been made one in the Holy Spirit of God.  Unified.  Not uniform, but unified.  There is one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all.  Let us hear this good news.  This is our relationship.  This is who we all are in Christ. 

We’ve been given a new set of clothes.  I’m feeling most ecumenically minded these days. So ecumenically minded that I’m going to speak about infant baptism for a few moments.  I remember seeing the baptism of an infant at a Greek Orthodox Church for the first time (after having heard about it for a while with my whole Greek connection).  When a child is baptized in the Greek Orthodox church, the remove the child’s clothing.  The child is then immersed three times in the baptistry.  Afterwards, the child is given a whole new set of clothing – a dress or a little white suit typically.

Why is this so?  This goes back to a practice of the early church.  Baptism is a kind of initiation act into the church which includes the symbolism of dying and rising with Christ.  “I have been crucified with Christ” as Paul once wrote.  “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  When the candidate was going into the baptistry, they would remove their clothing.  Once they were baptized, immersed (dying with Christ) and lifted up out of the water (rising with Christ), they were given a brand new robe.  We don’t baptize people without clothes in our tradition.  Here at Blythwood when you are baptized, you are given a white stole to wear on your shoulders as a symbol of new clothing.

Why am I going on so much about baptism?  Paul is speaking to those who have been crucified with Christ and raised with Christ.  Paul is speaking to those who are in Christ.  This is who we are in Christ.  Remember the good news with which we started.  Christ has forgiven you.  As we come to the table today we come with imaginary signs.  I can see them in my imagination. They’re neon and flashing) above our heads and the signs simply say, “Forgiven.”  Simply yet so profoundly.  Forgiven.  Live in love as Christ loved us.  Live in love for Christ loves us. We’re already nudging up against talk of how to live; of how to walk.  The heading above verse 25 in my Bible says “Rules for the New Life.”  Before we ever get there though, we rest in this truth of what it means to be in Christ.

We’ve been given a new set of clothes.  I/you have been given a new set of clothes.  Remember the word of the Lord from the prophet Isaiah.  “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” Fancy!  (Is 61:10)  Remember how the song went as the Psalmist sang, “You have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.” Ps 30:11b

New clothes.  This is who you were, this is who you are.  Remember.  I was dead and I have been brought to life.  I was blind but now I see – in a mirror dimly sure but one day I will know as I am known.  Before the “how” there is the “who.”  Before any talk of how we should live there is who God is and who we are in Christ and in the Holy Spirit of God.

“Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live in the futility of their minds.”  Paul is talking about pagans which simply means those who are not in Christ.  To live without Christ is to live in futility.  Things are tough out there in this old world and we recognize that.  We’re all of us in it if not of it.  Someone has put it like this:  “There is much sadness, pain, and regret packed into the word “futile”—endlessly striving and never arriving, forever searching and never finding.”  Chasing after wind.  Forever searching, never finding.  Forever seeking to be fulfilled, never being fulfilled.  Numbing ourselves.  It starts at an early age, as this cartoon from the New Yorker suggests.  I’ve learned the rules of the game and followed them and achieved the purpose of the game, but I feel nothing.

“They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.  They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”  We may hear this and say “Mmmhmm!”  We may also say “Hang on, some of my best friends are pagans.  Some of my family members are not in Christ.  They do moral things.” Of course.  We also pray that we would come to know Jesus and be in Jesus too, don’t we?  We also know that Christians aren’t always by definition loving and generous..  Paul knew this too.  His life had been saved once in Ephesus with the help of some city officials who were friendly too him.   (Acts 19:31)  Paul is speaking of an orientation of life without God that is ultimately futile, a chasing after wind, devoid of any kind of lasting meaning or purpose.  Then comes the turn.

“That is not the way you learned Christ!” (20)  Not learned about Christ, but learned him.  That is not the way you learned truth.  We learn Christ and we’re learning Christ.  We learn Christ by coming to him in trust.  We learn Christ by living life as parts of his body known as the church.  We learn Christ by spending time speaking to him and hearing him speak. 

We’ve been given a new set of clothes.  “You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts (misdirected desire of any kind), and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds (be transformed by the renewing of your mind), and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (22-24)  We are a sharp group here and we want to be good students of the Bible.  I’m sure you noticed that our NRSV Bible says “Clothe yourselves with the new self.”  Is this a demand or is Paul talking about something God does?  Do we clothe ourselves with the new self or have we been clothed?  In the original we’re not told.  The original verb is infinite which is not definitive either way.  I think both are operative here.  God has given us a new set of clothes.  Wear them well, saints.  Let us put these new clothes on and wear our new clothes well.

So let us hear these rules, not simply as a burden or another burden on our already burdensome lives.  Let us hear them as welcome words.  Let us welcome them in these days when there is so much anger and so much division.  Let us welcome them in these days in which the level of public speech seems in so many ways to  have sunk to an all time low.  Don’t lose heart dear saints.  Don’t get sucked into the undertow dear saints.  Let us wear our new clothes well.  They have to do with our mouths or our speech, our hands, and our hearts.  They’re going to come at us quickly!

  Paul starts with four pairs.  Don’t do that, do this.  Let us be known not primarily for what we are against, but what we are for.  Put away falsehood, speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another.  We’re part of the same body.  Paul is speaking in terms of brothers and sisters in Christ here, but we’re in no way to limit this truth-speaking.  Be angry but do not sin.  Do not let the sun go down on your anger.  Righteous anger?  Ok but don’t let it turn to resentment and bitterness.  Give up stealing in all the ways we may steal.  Do work well (if we’re working) and do everything as if we were doing it for God.  In so doing everything can be done for the praise of his glory and we’ll be able to help others too.  Let no evil (literally rotten like rotting fruit) talk come out of our mouths but only what is useful for building up.  Are our words building up or tearing down?  Our we speaking blessings or curses, life or death?  So that our words may give grace to those who hear.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.  Remember the Holy Spirit that unites us with God and with one another.  The Holy Spirit is in you, and for me to speak or do untruth to you thwarts the transforming work of the Spirit of God in you and in me.  Put away (take off and get rid of) all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander together with all malice… How much does the world need this in us?

Be kind to one another.  Tenderhearted.  This is not simply a call to be nice.  I was speaking to someone recently who started working at a church.  They said “Everyone’s very nice!” I said “That’s a baselines expectation!”   Be kind.  Tender hearted.  Seeking nothing but one another’s good, even when it’s costly.  Forgiving one another because we are going to mess these things up.    

Which brings us back to the good news with which we started.  As God in Christ has forgiven you.  Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. We come to the family table, which has a dress code.  It’s not about whether we’re wearing a suit of a sweatshirt.  We’ve been given a brand new set of clothes.  Let us wear them well, this day as we gather, and every day as we go from here.  May this be true for all of us. Amen