Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary
Today’s 2nd NT reading, Ephesians 4:25-5:2, is concerned with practices befitting the Christologically-anchored, revolutionary reconstruction of human community described in Ephesians chapters 1-3. There is nothing specifically Christian about most of the vices, virtues and practices described in today’s text. Similar lists abound in ancient literature. What makes this material distinctively Christian isn’t the specific behaviors cited, but the theologically-framed motivations that accompany them.
Focusing on just one or two of the communicative practices commended in this text will be more productive than racing through the entire list. One might take up themes such as these:
1) laying aside partisan, misleading communication, and instead, taking care to speak the truth (4:25);
2) acknowledging that anger can be justified, yet refusing to let it fester (4:26-27);
3) embracing honest work, not for our own benefit and security, but for the sake of meeting human need (4:28);
4) resisting the impulse to indulge in corrosive criticism, denigrating sarcasm, and talking behind others’ backs; and choosing instead speaking that “builds up” community members (4:29-30);
5) resisting the temptation to nurse grudges, pick fights, and denigrate those who disagree with us, instead of cultivating kindness and forgiveness such as God has extended to us in Christ (4:31-32); or
6) “imitating” God by living out of love and, like Christ (5:1-2), giving ourselves away for others.
What will “speaking truth with one another” look like in a world in which what counts as “truth” is itself bitterly contested? Many of us seek our reality-establishing information on the internet, quite unaware that the information that reaches us is managed by algorithmic background software designed to feed us whatever keeps us clicking from link to link. Why? Because more time online correlates with the spending that makes media platforms profitable. Statistically, information that reinforces our grievances is most effective! A first step in “speaking truth” with one other (theme #1) may be to broaden our information sources, deliberately reading material that challenges our views.
The idea of embracing our work not to achieve a more luxurious lifestyle, but to meet human need is a radical one; yet, this is a theme (#3 above) worthy of a thought-provoking sermon. A quite different sermon might take up allusions to ancient baptismal rites in 4:24-25. One would “strip off” one’s customary garments (“the old self”) and, after immersion, be “clothed with the new self,” signified by a simple white robe, the same for rich or poor. All became students, learning the ways of God.
Christian communities are meant to be living demonstrations before the world of the revolutionary “new humanity” forged in Jesus’ death and resurrection (see Eph 2: 11-22). Yet, down the centuries, Christians have splintered into ideologically opposed “camps,” denigrating each other in harsh terms. What would happen if Christians gave up slandering and demeaning each other in ever-more-colorful language? What if we decided to redirect our energies toward meeting human need? Perhaps the most revolutionary act people of faith can undertake in our angry, un-civil world (and the hardest) is simply to choose to treat every person, including those we believe are “dead wrong,” as beloved creations of God. What might change if we dared to embrace this most fundamental truth?
** An expanded version of today’s homiletical commentary is posted at http://www.workingpreacher.org.
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