St. Paul in today’s Epistle lesson said to the Ephesians, and by extension, to all Christians: “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” In the Collect for today, we prayed: “Lord, grant Your people grace to withstand the temptations of the devil and with pure hearts and minds to follow You.”
Both of these are concerned with the way, the walk, the following of a believer in Christ Jesus. People in some other church bodies may even ask: “how is your ‘faith walk’?” An interesting question. How is your “faith walk”? What does St. Paul mean “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called?” This is not a walk in the park or how you move about, but how you live this life as you travel toward the end of this life. You have heard this before, but there are only two ways. The way of the world, the flesh, and the devil on one hand. And the way of the Lord on the other.
The two ways are very different, quite often they look different, but most especially the two ways are different because their motivations are different… even if they both say they come from “love”. One is motivated by selfish love. The other selfless love.
St. Paul describes very briefly in chapter 4 the way of the world. He said: “you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!”
The way of the world: is the worship and love of self in all its ways. For many, it is as Paul described: tied in with material and sensual pursuits for the self. For others, it is the building up of itself in pride: pride in being better than other people, economically, spiritually, or any other way.
Speaking of how selfish and self-centered people are. A few years back I was watching Family Feud. They had surveyed 100 people and asked them: “If you could do something nice for someone who would it be?” Think for a moment what the number 1 answer was. “If I could do something nice for someone who would it be? I thought maybe, spouse or Mom, but nope. The top answer was: “myself”. How selfish. How crazy that people think that they are so victimized and put upon that the first person they think to do something nice for is themselves? …. But maybe they are just more honest than most. I do think the kneejerk reaction for most people is to want to treat themselves. To think whatever they get that is good, they deserve, but whatever they do not attain, they still deserve but are just being cheated out of it.
Are we ever like that? How about judging others in order to make ourselves feel better? Have we been unwilling to help others unless we knew could get something out of it? We just heard a few weeks ago about the Levite and Priest who decided not to help the injured man on the way to Jericho. How was their faith walk? They walked right on by. They loved themselves and had no time to show mercy. The Pharisees in today’s Gospel most likely would have just walked by or ignored the man with the dropsy. It was the Sabbath, and the Pharisees took the Sabbath rest so seriously, that to them, exerting too much effort on the Sabbath was a sin. To show mercy would take work, not to mention the fact that they believed that people who suffered in this life were probably getting what they deserved: biblical karma, they figured, I suppose.
But everyone gets far better than they deserve in this life according to the Law. According to the Law, there is only one way of living in order to deserve any grace, any blessing, or any joy, and that is in keeping it perfectly. Anything less than keeping the Law is the way of disobedience, sin, and deserving temporal and eternal death. That is what we deserve. We have not walked according to the Law. We have not walked in a manner worthy of the calling to which we were called.
To walk rightly according to the Law is to be like Jesus… What did Jesus do? He loved. He served. Lived humbly, gently, wisely. Extending words of Truth, the hurt He dispensed was the hurt of the Law cutting through the false front of hypocrisy, pride in sin, to warn in order to turn people from error and repent. He was selfless in His loving and serving even to the cross of Calvary.
We have not been humble. We have not been gentle, patient, or bearing with one another. All too often we are not eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace because we do not allow God’s Word and His Law to rule our hearts and minds. False teaching, false believing, false living, schism, and infighting all come from living to self. Loving only ourselves and the things and people of this life. Showing that we have no faith in the true God, but these other things: they are our priorities. They are our gods. That is path that we have taken.
Why? because we have fallen victim to the siren song of our flesh and the world around us. The goal of success as measured by the world is but a mirage and trick constructed by the devil to ensnare you and me first by coveting that which we desire, and then by acting in pursuit of those lusts and gods. All so that we fall from the purity, the holiness which Christ has earned, achieved, and then by grace had given to you and me.
On the other hand, if we put our faith in being able to fulfill the Law, we are doomed to fail. If we are honest, even with our best efforts, we must admit that we have already failed. The man with dropsy knew that he could never heal himself. That he was helpless and could not control his bodily movements. Just so his spiritual condition. Yours and mine too. The more we try on own to control our efforts, the more we will flail and flounder. So, let us humble ourselves, and die to self. This is how you can walk in the manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Repent and leave all your pride at the cross. Remember that you have been baptized into the one Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You have been rescued from the world and its blindness and futility. You are no longer separated from God, but He has called you to believe, to partake in that one faith and confession of Jesus Christ. This is the one hope to which you have been called. Jesus Christ has died for your sins. He has risen again. And you have been baptized into that salvation which He has accomplished. Today, again you are forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ. You are set by the Lord upon the right and true and only path of righteousness, joy, salvation, and eternal life.
But this walk, this path is not an easy one. The way of faith is a way of trust. The devil knows how hard it is for us to trust, especially when suffering befalls us here on earth. The way of the cross is not for the weak. The walk is often set with traps by the enemy, and we daily battle against the devil, the world, and our flesh. But do not fear. Do not be tossed about by every wave of false teaching, craftiness, and temptation that arises. God has equipped you for this walk; these battles. You have been called and baptized as individuals, but you have been called into the one body of Jesus Christ, which is the Church. Here in this congregation, we are called to stand together against our demonic foes when they arise, and walk together by faith. Yes, bearing with one another: which, by the way means bearing each other up: carrying each other when we are weak. It doesn’t mean just putting up with each other. So, we show each other mercy. We strive to serve one another in humility and love: in our physical needs, but also spiritually, exhorting each other to remain true to God’s Word. True and consistent in attendance to Bible Study, to the Divine Service. This is where you are made strong. For in Christ Jesus Christ, you are not weak any longer. God’s strength is made perfect in faith, humility, and repentance: what to the world seems to be weakness.
That is why Paul says: God gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, pastors/ teachers, to equip the saints, to build up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ who is the head, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Receive His Love and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Remember whose you are. Walk by faith. God guiding you by His Word, strengthening you through His Eucharist. The path of the walk given you is lit by the cross of His Son Jesus Christ who is leading you forth through your unknown earthly future. Keep your eyes on the cross. Remember His sacrifice and love for you. Walking in a manner that is right and proper is a result of His Spirit living through faith in Him. God’s Love covers the multitude of our sin and He will bring His Church through it all to our destination: paradise with Jesus Christ. Amen.
Pr. Aaron Kangas