Ephesians 4:22-28

October 6, 2024

“And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” [Gen. 2.25]. In their primal state, our first parents were free of lust, free of selfish desire. Nothing was hidden from God or each other. Nakedness is more than an absence of clothing; it is an absence of secrets. The primordial nakedness indicated honesty, integrity, purity.

But immediately after sin, what happens? The gaze of our first parents turns inward. Filled with shame, evil desire, and the fear of death, they sew leaves of figs, and cover themselves beneath the makeshift clothing. They hide from God.

Since then, man hides. We cover the truth about ourselves from spouse, co-worker, pastor. We even harbor the delusion, like Adam, that God will not see, does not know.

In recent centuries baptismal services became impoverished. Immersion gave way to sprinkling, and the nakedness of the candidate became itself a thing of shame. But in the early centuries of Christianity, nakedness and baptism went together, and it directly relates to today’s Epistle reading.

Hippolytus (late 2nd/early 3rd century) gives us a detailed description of a baptism.

Those who are to receive baptism shall fast on the Friday and on the Saturday. And on the Saturday the bishop shall assemble those who are to be baptised in one place, and shall bid them [all] to pray and bow the knee … And they shall spend all the night in vigil, reading the scriptures [to them] and instructing them.… And at the hour when the [rooster] crows they shall first [of all] pray over the water.

[When they come to the water, let the water be pure and flowing.]

And they shall put off their clothes.

And they shall baptise the little children first. And if they can answer for themselves, let them answer. But if they cannot, let their parents answer or someone from their family.… And when the presbyter takes hold of each one of those who are to be baptised, let him bid him renounce saying:

I renounce thee, Satan, and all thy service and all thy works.

And when he has said this let him anoint him with the Oil of Exorcism saying:

Let all evil spirits depart far from thee.

And also turning him to the East, let him say: [Then there are prayers and a confession]

And let them stand in the water naked. And let [a] deacon likewise go down with him into the water…. [Then comes a threefold immersion in the water, at each article of the Creed]

And afterwards when he comes up [from the water] he shall be anointed by the presbyter with the Oil of Thanksgiving saying: I anoint thee with holy oil in the Name of Jesus Christ. And [so] each one drying himself [with a towel] they shall [now] put on their clothes, and after this let them be together in the assembly. [The Apostolic Tradition]

Notice that after the baptism, clothing is put on. We know from other early documents that this was a white robe. All of this signifies a new birth; as we were born naked, and then clothed, so in the nakedness of shame, with confession and water and the Word of God and the Name of the Holy Trinity, we are born anew, born from above, and clothed with a garment not our own. We are clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

This is the origin of the italicized part in our baptismal liturgy that we print but do not say: “Receive the white, holy, and spotless robe which you shall bring before the judgment seat of Christ so as to receive eternal life.” This is from the Reformation rite, when baptisms still followed the ancient custom. I’ve left it in our rite as a reminder of what once was, and what may yet come again.

Now it’s certainly true that one can simply descend into the haze of liturgical nerdery. We shouldn’t simply repristinate for its own sake. The purpose of the ceremony, the purpose of the nakedness, followed by the clothing, was to drive home the point that there is something deeply, profoundly wrong with us, with our original birth. As lovely as Audrey is, she’s a sinner, and corrupt to the core. Receiving mortality and corruption from Aaron and Amy, who received it from Adam, Audrey is brought to Christ, from whom alone she can receive life.

And that life entails not just some future retirement in a far distant heaven, but a this-worldly life lived in radical discipleship to Jesus. It is a life renouncing the demons and their activity surrounding us.

Another early document, called the Apostolic Constitutions, includes at baptism a more lengthy renunciation of the demonic powers:

“I renounce Satan, and his works, and his pomps, and his worships, and his angels, and his inventions, and all things that are under him.” And after his renunciation let him in his consociation say: “And I associate myself to Christ, and believe, and am baptized into one unbegotten Being….”

“I associate myself with Christ.” Disciples of Jesus do not leave the world, but we renounce its prince—the devil—and we renounce its principles. We renounce lies, we renounce lust, we renounce licentiousness. We confess Christ, we practice charity, and we defy the demands of the world to worship the image of the beast.

Now see all that embedded in today’s Epistle: “Put off” – that’s a clothing word – “Put off your old self,” literally “your old man,” the old Adam, the evil desires.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had clothing that is so soiled that it must be discarded, there is no remedy, no detergent on earth that can undo the damage. If you have little children, maybe you’ve experienced… well, the technical term is “poopcident.” The clothes need a thorough cleaning - or perhaps, just throw them away.

The stench of our sins is greater. The clothing of that life must be incinerated. “Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.” That life is gone; put it off and never put it on again.

St. Paul follows that with language that echoes baptism: “Be renewed.” “Be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and … put on the new self,” the new man.

What does that life look like? It’s Aaron and Amy’s job to raise Audrey into the life of a disciple; and its the whole church’s task to aid in the endeavor. Education and careers and sports and money matter next to nothing compared to this renewal of the human person that each of us is called to grow into. St. Paul describes it today as putting away falsehood, speaking the truth. When you get angry—and it happens, because people are mean and we are weak—when you get angry, don’t sin. Go solve it right away, don’t let the sun go down on your anger. Because when we’re angry, we give the devil a foothold, an opening right back into our lives. He wants to bring that old man, the old Adam back out in you. And then go to work and do honest work. Don’t steal, don’t take advantage. Share, give away what you have. This is the new life, the life of the baptized that receives good gifts from God and the more he receives the more he gives away.

The foundation of all of that is the gift Jesus gives the paralyzed man: holy absolution. What does it matter if you can walk, but walk in the old life and journey straight to the abyss? Better to enter into life paralyzed. But the foundation of his healing is holy absolution.

Here’s what you do this week: Put off the garments of sin still clinging to you. Throw them away. Put on the new garments of righteousness, and holy absolution. You’re baptized. You’re a new man in Christ. Be that man. +INJ+