Source: https://www.cappleby.net.au/index.php/sermon/new-testament/ephesians/eph53-20
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 18:58:20+00:00

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but now in the Lord you are LIGHT.
"…the interplay between light and darkness is a fundamental feature of human existence. Day and night, brightness and shadow, establish the contours of the world we see. … Light comes gently with the promise of dawn but glares down from the noonday sun; it gives the assurance of vision yet threatens exposure. Darkness may fall quietly around two lovers while cloaking the movements of the thief; it can lull the weary to sleep but also awaken the terror of the unknown.
Although light and darkness may signify many things the Gospel ... focuses their meaning ... by connecting light with God, life, and knowledge, and by associating darkness with their opposites."
One of the things that I find helpful when I'm reading the Bible, and especially when I'm reading Paul's letters, is to ask myself: What picture is the author painting here? That is, what are the most important images they are using here and why are they being used? In today's reading I see three pictures Paul paints for the Ephesians – three different but related pictures; three of images of things that are opposed to each other – opposing paths, opposing choices.
"Making a living and having a life are not the same thing.
Making a living and making a life that's worthwhile are not the same thing.
Living the good life and having a good life are not the same thing."
What does it mean to have a good life?
How do you make a life that's worthwhile?
I think that what Paul is saying here to the Ephesians in today's reading is the same as what Robert Fulghum is saying – with one crucial difference (as I'm sure Ken would agree), and I want to come back to that difference near the end of the sermon.
v. 6-7: "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be associated with them."
v. 11-14: "Take no part in the unfruitful works of DARKNESS, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the LIGHT becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is LIGHT."
v. 5: "Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure person, or one who is greedy (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."
I think Paul's next words in v. 6 are especially important: "Let no one deceive you with empty words." You may have seen the recent episode of 60 Minutes where they surprised everyone by discovering a high rate of excessive alcohol consumption among young people and the self-destructive behaviour related to it. Paul could have told them this sort of thing has been going on for thousands of years. But it is true that it seems to be an especially widespread and destructive problem today. Is it a problem because people young and old are desperate to have a good life and on every side voices are saying "live the good and you'll have a good life"? "Empty words"!
v. 11: "Let your life show by contrast how dreary and futile these things are."
I thank God that my Christian friends at university showed me how dreary and futile these things are, even if they seemed attractive at the beginning.
Light or darkness? Wise or foolish? One of the things I think we see very clearly in Paul's letters is that he is anything but an ivory tower theologian. He is very well aware, isn't he, of the pressures there are on the Christian lives of the Ephesians? He doesn't pretend that there is any easy escape from these difficulties. What he does say is that there are two possible responses that the Ephesians can make.
v. 15-17: "Be careful then how you live, not as UNWISE people but as WISE, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be FOOLISH, but understand what the will of the Lord is."
v. 10: "Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord."
v. 17: "So do not be FOOLISH, but understand what the will of the Lord is."
The voices won't go away but we can choose to listen to another voice: a voice that will help us to make wise decisions, or what we might call "sober" judgements.
This leads us to Paul's third pair of opposing images: Light or darkness? Wise or foolish? Drunk or sober?
v. 18: "Do not get DRUNK with wine, for that is debauchery; but BE FILLED with the Spirit."
I was tempted to say that Paul's point here is that "If you drink and pray you're a xxxx xxxx." But after hearing last week's sermon and reading the first verses of today's reading I thought better of it. In any case, Paul is not talking about drinking alcohol here is he? He is contrasting being drunk with being sober. It's another powerful contrast isn't it? We know, don't we, that if people drink alcohol often enough in large enough quantities it will become their pattern of life and the thing that drives the other things that they do. In time it will affect relationships, work, maybe even lead to a life of crime. Paul is suggesting, isn't he, that what is repeated takes control of people's will. Excessive use of alcohol repeated constantly will master a person's life but repeatedly seeking to understand what the will of God is, and being "filled with the Spirit" (v. 18), will help us to become wise, to make sober judgments, to have a good life and make a life that's worthwhile.
v. 3-4: "But fornication and impurity of any kind, or greed, must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints. Entirely out of place is obscene, silly, and vulgar talk; but instead, let there be thanksgiving."
v. 19-20: "…as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Now in Paul's picture of the light overcoming the darkness, Jesus is pictured as being like the rays of the rising sun. Did you notice verse 14?
Christ will "shine" on you. It is in the light of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, that people become light. In fact, the change ought to be so profound, Paul tells the Ephesians, it's like being raised from the dead!

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