March 20, 2022

Ephesians 5:1-9

Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA

Keep the book open! 724, stanza 6. It’s a terrible place to leave off singing the hymn, don’t you think?

Who clings with resolution

To Him whom Satan hates

Must look for persecution;

For him the burden waits

Of mock’ry, shame, and losses

Heaped on his blameless head;

A thousand plagues and crosses

Will be his daily bread.

It shows us the reality of life under the cross. I suppose that first line could be a question: “Who clings with resolution to Him whom Satan hates?” Do you? Do I? Are we going to resolutely cling to the One whom Satan hates?

Who’s that? It’s Christ. You have to pick a side.

And if you’re with Christ, then Satan is your enemy. That’s what today’s Gospel is about. The devil is the strong man, but Jesus is the stronger, who invades the devil’s palace. The incarnation is the invasion: Christ enters the world to do combat. The first Sunday in Lent has Jesus in the wilderness, as a man, not exercising the powers of the divinity. The devil assaults Him, and Jesus fights back … with what? The Word. That is your weapon against the devil’s assaults. Memorize the Bible. Meditate on it, recite it in times of temptation and trouble.

Today Jesus tells a little parable about a man who is set free from the devil, but then his life is just empty; he doesn’t grow into being a Christian. The devil assaults the man, and takes him back. It’s terrifying.

So today’s Epistle calls us to action. But it’s a little awkward. Ephesians 5 starts with “Therefore.” That’s a silly place to start. You can’t start with “Therefore”! Something was said before that’s working up to this point. At the end of Ephesians 4, St. Paul teaches us this: “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (vv31f). Is there any bitterness in your heart? Do you speak ill of others? Are you kind to your enemies? Do you forgive others, “As God in Christ forgave you”? That forgiveness is what we are called to imitate: “As God in Christ forgave you, therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children.”

“Be imitators.” This is more than action. It is an identity. When you were baptized, you became a disciple of Jesus. Man was made to be in communion with God. You were made to be like God. Like Father, like Son … like sons and daughters. “As God in Christ forgave you, therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children.” You are a people of forgiveness.

“But I don’t want to forgive. It means I lose power. It means that the person who is bullying me wins.” But it doesn’t. The way of Jesus is the way of forgiveness, the way of self-sacrifice. “As God in Christ forgave you, therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” The fragrance mentioned here is the smell of the incense rising up as the sacrifice is offered. In death, in giving yourself up, in sacrifice, in forgiveness, God is well-pleased.

This path of imitating God means that sexual activity is oriented not toward your own pleasure but toward your spouse and open to procreation. It is God’s gift in marriage to participate in His ongoing act of creation. “Be fruitful and multiply” is the blessing that stands over marriage to the end of the world. But when sexual activity is oriented toward your own self, it destroys you. That’s the stuff of Satan’s palace. It promises freedom but only enslaves. Therefore God’s Word warns us today of the catastrophe that comes from misusing His gift: 

Sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

But “What if you marry the wrong person?” That’s a question one of my Catechism students asked me last week. Potentially underlying that question is the idea of soul mates – that there is one right person, and only with that person can you be truly happy. Underlying that idea is the concept of marriage as a vehicle to personal fulfillment. One book I recommend to couples preparing for marriage is titled Sacred Marriage, by Gary Thomas. The subtitle is a question: “What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?”

Now that changes everything. God has called you to holiness, sanctity, to be saints. So what if you marry the wrong person? Well, I can guarantee that when you marry, you marry a sinner. And the person you marry is marrying a sinner too. We are all of us sinners called to be saints. “As God in Christ forgave you, therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children.” If you’ve married someone who sins, then as God in Christ forgave you, therefore, be imitators of God, the God who forgives. That extends out into every area of your life: As God in Christ forgave you, therefore, be imitators of God, the God who forgives.

“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” What are the “empty words”? The empty words are the deception that notions of sin, especially sexual sin, are old fashioned and no longer apply. You’ll hear the empty words in slogans like “God is still speaking,” which is code language saying that God changes His mind and what used to be sin is now okay.

The Commandments don’t change. God forgives sin, and calls us to flee from it. As Christians, we have to hold both of those thoughts together: God forgives sin, and calls us to flee from it.

“At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” Today God calls you to a new life. A life where the world’s priorities are not yours. This new life involves actions, because all of life does. But it’s not merely action, but being. Be imitators of God. Be resolute. Be faithful. Be a disciple of Jesus. It won’t be easy:

Who clings with resolution

To Him whom Satan hates

Must look for persecution;

For him the burden waits

Of mock’ry, shame, and losses

Heaped on his blameless head;

A thousand plagues and crosses

Will be his daily bread.

But we’re going to keep singing:

Though life from me be taken

And everything I own,

I trust in You unshaken

And cleave to You alone.

So what if things go wrong? Jesus routs the strong man. He tramples down death by His death. ✠inj✠