A sermon delivered on August 18, 2024 by the Rev. Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

This morning, we are looking at Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church. In the first part of his letter, Paul is talking about theology and what we believe about Jesus. He is shifting his focus in the part we are reading this morning and is now looking at how that theology, what we believe, shapes how we live. In other words, this part of the letter deals with ethics and how we live and who we become in the world. 

As we zoom down into chapter five, we will note the first part of chapter describes what a person’s life looks like before they get to know Christ. Then, like a parent shouting to their teenager, Paul transitions in verse 14 by exclaiming,”Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you!” Some believe that this is part of an ancient baptismal hymn and serves as a launching point for today’s lesson showing what it looks like to live as a Christian after one’s baptism. In baptism, a person wakes up from death and lives a revitalized life. In baptism, a person renounces their former way of life and are re-clothed with the robes of Christ’s grace. We get an entirely new spiritual wardrobe. 

This morning, I will be reading from Eugene Petersen’s paraphrase of the Bible called the Message. Listen to the Word of the Lord!

Ephesians 5:15-20

¹⁶ So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!

¹⁷ Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants.

^18-20 Don’t drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge drafts of him. Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.^[1]

In the ancient church, when a person underwent baptism, they would strip off their clothes as a demonstration how they were stripping off their old way of life. They go into the water as a sign of their bathing and becoming clean in Spirit and then they would climb out of the pool and clothed with brand new clothes representing their new life in Jesus. Once dressed, the first thing a person hears is, “Be careful how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, because the days are evil” (NRSV). Or as Petersen says it, “So watch your step! Use your head! Make the most of every chance you get! These are desperate times.” 

These are desperate times. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to notice that in our state, nation, and world. Mass shootings are epidemic in our nation. There have been 351 mass shootings and 19 mass murders just this year and it is only August! School Board meetings across the country have been hot beds of contention revealing an Orwellian undertone about the books our young people can read. Fellow Americans threaten other citizens with threats of, “I know where you live, and I will come and hunt you down” over politicized healthcare issues. Then we add to this list all the natural and environmental issues the world we are facing like water shortages, drought, wildfires, melting ice packs, dead zones in the oceans from trash, depleted fish supplies…oh, let’s not forget democracies are under attack, wars, disease…you get the point. Evil and the effects of evil are legion. So, the first thing a new follower of Christ hears from Paul’s pen, “So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!” In other words, he tells us to live circumspect lives because the days are full of people, issues, and circumstances that will harm you and try to drag you down to places you do not want to go.

What does living circumspectly even mean? When Paul writes “Watch your step!” he uses a word in the Greek language we get the word ‘peripatetic.’ A peripatetic is a person who moves around a lot. They are active. In Jesus’ time, a peripatetic describes a teacher who taught their students while walking about; Jesus was a peripatetic, for example, in the same way Aristotle and Plato were. And how do we watch our step? Intentionally. Carefully. Diligently. Circumspectly. In verse 15, Paul uses the same word used when the Three Wise Men came from the east and anxious King Herod told them, “Go and search diligently for this child and then let me know where he is!” Friends, that is what living a circumspect life means.

For Paul, he specifically provides us three instructions on how to watch our step and live circumspectly. The first is thing he says is, “Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you know what Jesus wants.” Petersen is being very gracious in his translation because what the original language literally says is, “Don’t be stupid.” Sounds a tad harsh, Paul! Well, it is! Paul does not want them to forget the new life they have in Christ. 

Last year, I had to privilege of going to Ephesus and walk around. They have only begun to unearth the ancient city from Paul’s time but what they have discovered is amazing. The “Glen Street” of Ephesus is made with these huge, blue marble stones. One of the most beautiful buildings is the ancient stone library. What I learned from our Turkish guide is that excavators have discovered an underground tunnel which ran from the library across and under the street to the house of ill-repute. The guide went on to say how the husbands would tell their wives, “Honey, I’m going to the library.” 

Paul wants us to stay at the library. He tells them to remember their new life came with a high price tag at the cost of Jesus’ death. Paul does not want them to get spiritually lazy and fall back into old ways of living which was living unto themselves instead of for God. He wants them to discern God’s direction for them as a church, so they need to be alert. Be diligent in understanding what the will of God is, Church; do not be foolish and stupid!

Paul secondly instructs them, “Don’t get drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit of God.” His simile can be interpreted in a couple of ways. One way to understand it is that Ephesus was home to an active Dionysian cult whose worship included vast amount of wine drinking and hedonism. Maybe Paul is telling the Church not to confuse the way it worships the Lord with the way the surrounding culture worships their Greek gods.^[2] A second way to understand this instruction is Paul is simply telling the church not to become inebriated with what the world says will make you happy and content. The world says consume but the Spirit of God says give. The world wants us to look out for ourselves, look out for number one, but the Spirit of God says look after each other. Be filled with Holy Spirit, Church, and not overly saturated with the ways the world and culture lives life.

Finally, Paul instructs the community the importance of worshiping together. Worship is the cardio that makes the church community alive and thrive. Worship conditions us to watch our step “out there.” Worship is the context that instructs us, reminds us of the ways of God do not show the ways and values of the world “out there.” Sadly, too many today worship as convenience instead of directing praise to God for the blessings bestowed. We worship when we feel like it. Sadly, worship in our country has become a battleground for styles instead a parade ground to celebrate Jesus. When styles, instruments, garments, and books become the focus of worship, a cancer is in the system. Worship is about God and only God alone; styles and preferences are tertiary to spiritual music that builds up the community’s praise of God and its resilience in the world “out there.” Paul calls us to make music together as a Church and within our hearts! Paul instructs us to saturate ourselves with the presence of God while with one another and sing songs of gratitude! Paul instructs us to be thankful and grateful for all we have and for all that is coming! Sing, Church, sing! 

This, Church, is what it means to watch our step and walk an intentional circumspect life. So, as we go today and head into a new week, let us each think upon how we are walking in this life of ours. Does your life, does my life, show that we are walking circumspectly, care-fully, and attentively with God?

I close with this prayer pastor Eugene Peterson wrote about our text this morning. I encourage you to make it your own. He prays: 

Instead of careless, unthinking lives, We want to understand what you, Our Master want. What we really want is to drink your huge draughts of your Spirit. We want hearts so full that they spill over in worship as we sing praises over everything, taking any excuse for a song to you our Father. In the name of our Master, Jesus Christ. ^[3]

In the name of the One who is, was, and is to come. Amen.

© August 18, 2024, by Patrick H. Wrisley.  Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801 and not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

^[1] The Message (MSG). Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson

^[2] The Dionysian Background of Ephesians 5:18 by Cleon I. Rogers in Bibliotheca Sacra, BSAC 136:543 (July 1979).  Accessed on 14/2021 at http://mydigitalseminary.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/The-Dionysian-Background-of-Ephesians-5_18-by-Cleon-L.-Rogers-Jr.pdf.   

^[3]  Eugene H. Peterson, Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 204.