The Sermon: Truth & Consequences; Ephesians 6:10-20

Posted on August 23, 2021 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon preached by Rev. Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min., August 22, 2021

This morning we are winding up our study of Ephesians.  So far, Paul has encouraged the church to stand firm in their faith in the Gospel and in the first half of the letter he has been teaching them what grace is and how we through Christ have experienced that grace. The second half of the letter has Paul telling the Church that because of the grace we have received and now understand, the visible changes in our new life with Christ should be obvious to the larger community. Our changed lives become vehicles of grace emanating from the church outward in the community. Like the old hymn proclaims, they’ll know we are Christians by our love. Today, Paul finishes his letter by making it very Crayola, i.e., very easy to understand, that there are consequences when Christians and the Church start living lives that shine and share the extravagant love of God. Listen to the Word of the Lord and see if you can figure what those consequences are!

Ephesians 6:10-20

            10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. 15 As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. 16 With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. 19 Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.[1]

            When I do premarital counseling with couples, I always ask them how they think their life is going to change now that they are together, especially when it comes to their individual families. Interestingly, I often hear, “Well Johnny and I have known each other for years and so we know each other’s families; nothing is going to change at all!”  I then ask them, “So, who are you going to spend Thanksgiving with this year?  What about Christmas?”  This is when the counseling gets very interesting!

            “My parent’s house for sure!  I’ve never missed a Christmas with them!” The other replies, “This is the first I’ve heard of that!” It’s at this point we are off to the races! I’ve learned to use a disarming question about the holidays to teach the couple a little about family systems.

            The first thing I have the couple do is to imagine their newly married family as a little boat like a canoe.  His mom and dad, siblings and grandparents are all crammed in one canoe over here and her family is all in a canoe over there. I remind them that when they get married, they are getting out of their family of origin’s canoe and step into their very own newly christened canoe.

            Tell me, Beloved, what happens when you stand up in a canoe? It rocks! When mommy sees her beloved baby boy stand up in the family canoe to get into a new canoe “with her!” it can get dicey!  Momma may tell her son to sit back down because he’s rocking the boat. Meanwhile, the new bride has already taken her place in the couple’s new canoe and now her new husband is trying to balance getting out of his family of origin’s boat and step into the empty seat in the bride’s canoe.  Think about that picture for a minute. If you were in that situation, what would you be thinking, feeling, and saying? Exactly!

            You see, starting a new family, even a new team at your job, causes people to shift their seats on the boat.  Sometimes family members get angry because the person is stepping out of their family’s boat and into their own. Changes in any system causes reactions throughout the whole system whether it’s a family or a new work team at the office. When a marriage happens, the boat rocks and people are often telling us to sit down so, “My boat doesn’t tip over. YOU don’t want that to happen to me, do you?”

            Families, God love them, each have their own degree of dysfunction baked right into them and that dysfunction will try to keep everybody in their seat on their family’s particular boat. There is that delicate time in marriage when the bride and groom are stepping out into their own vessel, and all are three boats rocking at once. If families are not aware of these realities, there will a lot of hurt feelings and the family dysfunction will perpetuate itself. All of this to say, there is more going on in the bride and groom’s lives than having a lovely ceremony. Their decision to get married creates consequences not only for the couple but for the whole family system.

            Friends, this is what Paul is trying to convey to the Church. He is telling us that when we learn about the grace of Jesus, when we embrace the grace of Jesus, then there are consequences that ripple outward we may not be aware of at the time. So, Paul charges the Church and Christians, “Be strong in the Lord!”

            “But why, Paul?”

            His answer is one we may have a hard time hearing in our time but it’s one we ignore to our own peril. You see, we are to be strong in the Lord in order to stand against the wiles of the devil. Now before you go rolling your eyes and tune me out, I’m asking you to hang with me a moment. You see, the devil is the one who is telling at us to sit down in our old seat and quit rocking the boat!

            When we hear the word, “devil”, we 1) think of a red guy with horns, spikey tail and a pitchfork, 2) we think of the old Flip Wilson show where he passes the blame for every bad thing he does and declare, “The devil made me do it!” or 3) as C.S. Lewis in his classic book, The Screwtape Letters, reminds us, we are prone to not take the devil seriously at all. Let’s reframe this whole ‘devil’ thing.

            To begin with, if you believe in Jesus Christ and his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, then you are acknowledging you live and believe in a spiritual world. If you believe in Christ but don’t believe you’re in a spiritual world, then you indicate you really don’t think Jesus is who he says he is. To say you are a Christian means you acknowledge that there are realities you and I cannot readily see. Paul call’s these ‘principalities and powers’ and “against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6.12).  Those forces seep into our earthly realm as expressions of evil in the forms of bigotry, violence, disunity, factional rivalries, greed, hubris; you get what I am talking about it.  This is what Paul is warning us about. Evil will manifest itself in the Church, in our communities, in our homes or offices and Paul wants us to be prepared and strong in the Lord.  He wants us to be able to stand against the “wiles” of the devil.

            I love that word, “wiles.” We don’t get to use it much, and as such, I had to look up what it really meant. Well, our weekly fun New Testament word for this week is wiles! It comes from the same root word we our word ‘method.’[2] So literally, Paul is telling us to prepare ourselves so we can withstand the methods, the various ways, evil will wrestle with us.  So how do we do that?  Twice in our text, Paul implores us to put on the whole armor of God. Each of the accoutrements of our armor is defensive, except the Sword of the Spirit which is both offensive and defensive. Put on your armor, Church, and be prepared to defend yourselves from the evil that will make its way to your front door! Be alert, Paul tells us, because evil will sow itself very subtly in our lives. For example, you don’t have to kill someone with a gun when you can destroy them with well-placed lies in the form of gossip. Evil’s methods are subtle, and it will do whatever it can to thwart us and the Church in accomplishing its mission.

            Our text has Paul reminding us that as we defend ourselves, we are also to be intentional about going on the offensive. How? Persevere in prayer for the saints, i.e., for fellow members of the Church, this Church. He also says to pray for the church leaders so that we don’t get mired down in the minutia of busy work but are freed up to boldly speak the winsome Good News to fellow members of the church and in the community!

            Friends, when we say ‘yes’ to Jesus there is an automatic ‘no’ that gets voiced in the heavenly realms we may not hear. It’s the voice of evil telling us to sit back down in our seat and quit rocking the boat. There are manifest consequences when we share the winsome grace of God.

So, our work this week is to pause and inspect our armor. Examine your faith and note where it needs buttressing. Think about the methods evil is attempting to subtly involve you in.  And lastly, beloved, pray for each other. Pray for the Church. Pray for your pastors that we may boldly proclaim the winsome news of Christ! Pray for your church leaders for wisdom, courage, and discernment. If you will agree to this homework, then declare, “Amen!”

© 2021 August 22, Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 401 SE 15th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33301.  Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1]The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] Methodeia. See the Greek at https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3180/kjv/tr/0-1/.

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Pastoral Prayer for Sunday, August 25, 2021

Posted on August 16, 2021 by patrick h wrisley

God of all wisdom, we come today gathered as your people to worship you in our spirits in both truth and gratitude. You have showered us with every possible blessing from food to eat, places to rest our heads at night, and family and friends who love and care for us. Forgive us for taking your provisions for us for granted.

Father of Lights, we yank our heads to the side in a doggy-head tilt of confusion over all that is going on in our world the last several weeks.  We witness the effects of climate change in building collapses, rising seas, fires destroying homes and lives all over the world from Greece to Northern California.  Give us wisdom, dear Lord to know how to live as stewards of your Earth, and give us courage to live into that knowledge.

Mother of Gentleness and Peace, we lift to you all who are undergoing violence emotionally or physically and ask you to breathe restoring life into them. Whether in families, in classrooms or on homelands now-turned-battlefields, spread your wings of protection over your children and keep them safe from all evil.  We are ever mindful of the those in Afghanistan as we witness what happens when religious fundamentalism is wrapped up in pursuing power over a nation.  We pray for the innocents, for those who may be targeted by the Taliban, and for those who are trying to escape to a better life.  We pray for our American brothers and sisters with boots on the grounds and for their allies in Kabul that they can be brought home soon.

Spirit of Life, closer to home we pray for those who are in need of healing and grace, especially for those…

…leading us in government;

…the people of Haiti;

…for those grieving the death of a loved one;

…those who are fighting an illness;

…those starting to return to the classrooms as students and teachers;

…for our healthcare professionals fighting the onslaught of COVID hospitalizations;

…for an expression of civitas among citizens of our country that reminds us that we are all in this together and we need each other to make this nation great again;

…for reconciliation among those who are at enmity;

…and for joy whose hearts are full of pain and despondency. We lift all of these prayers up to you in the powerful Name of Jesus Christ as we pray together…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from evil.  For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Sermon on Discipleship: Living Circumspect Lives, Ephesians 5:15-20

Posted on August 16, 2021 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon preached by Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley on August 15, 2021

We continue with our study of Ephesians this morning and pick up in chapter five beginning with verse 15. Last week we noted that this part of Paul’s letter turns from talking about theology and is now looking at how that theology, what we believe, impacts how we live. In other words, this part of the letter deals with ethics and how we live in the world. The first part of chapter five describes what a life looks like before a person gets to know Christ. There’s an obvious transition in chapter five right at verse 14 where we read, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” It is believed 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 and you are now a Christ-follower.  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.

Listen to the Word of the Lord!

Ephesians 5:15-20

15 Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16 making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17 So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20 giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [1]

The first thing a person hears when they wake from their sleep and rise from the dead is, “Live circumspect lives as a person of wisdom as opposed to one who acts like a fool. Why? Because there is manifested evil all around us!”

The days are evil we’re told.  One doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that going on around us. School shootings are at an epidemic level. Our battle with the COVID epidemic has morphed into the COVID endemic that is not going away. We turn on the news and hear stories how the Taliban are going door-to-door shooting family members and kidnapping daughters to sell them of as wives.  People there are so scared they are burying book because books are dangerous and encourage you to think for yourself. Fellow Americans threaten other fellow Americans with threats like, “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 is facing like water shortages, drought, wildfires around the globe, melting ice packs, dead zones in the oceans from trash, depleted fish supplies…you get the point.  Evil and the effects of evil are legion. And the first thing from Paul’s pen today is, “Live circumspect lives because the days are full of people, issues, and circumstances that will harm you and try to bring you down to places you don’t want to go.”

What does living circumspectly even mean? Let’s break it down. When Paul writes the word “live”, he’s using a word we get the word ‘peripatetic’ from today. A peripatetic is a person who moves around a lot. They’re active. In Jesus’ time, a peripatetic was often used to describe a teacher who taught his or her students while walking about; Jesus was a peripatetic, for example. The other word Paul uses is an adverb that describes the type of walking a person is to walk.  How are you and I to walk in this world? Carefully. Diligently. Circumspectly. It’s 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!” One Bible translation has our verse read, “Be careful how you walk.”[2]  Friends, that’s what living a circumspect life means.

My eldest daughter and her husband recently went on a hike in the Alpine Wilderness Area in the Eastern Washington through an area known as The Enchantments. Surrounded by 7-to-10,000-foot mountains, the trail takes you through remote wilderness full of mountain goats, beautiful views and pristine lakes. In order to hike the Enchantments requires two things. First, you need a permit. Second, you must be in excellent physical condition. The trail is a strenuous one-day and one-way hike through twenty-two miles of some of the most rugged terrain in our country. Except for along the lakes, there are no trails to speak of to follow. You have to plot your own most of the time because the trail is made up of large granite rocks and boulders. At one point of the trail, you must climb to a place called Aasgard Pass which is over 7,800 feet high.  In order to get there, you scramble up rock and boulder fields gaining almost 2,500 feet elevation gain in under three-quarters of a mile! As you hike this rugged terrain, you must watch where your feet land; is that rock stable or will it give way when I walk on it causing me to twist an ankle? Hiking up to the pass requires you to read the mountain and choose a safe and efficient way up the side. You climb over boulders ensuring that you have good handholds. And then there are the goats and rams like we see on the Dodge truck commercials.  They eye you all the way up. So not only do you have to pick a safe path, you have to have an eye on the rams and goats making sure they don’t get too friendly! Lauren and Brooks hiked circumspectly, carefully, and thoughtfully.  The had to pay attention to their immediate surroundings or risk injury. Their route was always adapting itself based upon the condition of the trail.

Friends, this is how the Apostle is encouraging the folks in the church in Ephesus to live! He reminds them that now they have been raised in baptism in Christ, their lives should reflect a new way of living and engaging life itself.  He then gives three reminders as they walk carefully in life.

The first is thing he tells them is literally, “Don’t be stupid” which our English versions dilute to being foolish.  Sounds kind of harsh, Paul! Well, it is! Paul doesn’t want them to forget the new life they have been given in Christ. He wants them to remember that new life came with a high price tag with the death of Jesus. Paul doesn’t want them to get spiritually lazy and fall back into old ways of living which was unto themselves instead of for God. He wants them to be able 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; don’t be foolish and stupid!

And then Paul reminds them of a second compare and contrast: Don’t get drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit of God. This can be interpreted in a couple of ways.  One way to understand it is that Ephesus was home to a very active Dionysian cult whose worship included vast amount of wine drinking and hedonism. Perhaps Paul is telling the church not to get caught up in the local ways of worship and stick to worshipping the Lord[3]. Another way to understand this text is simply that Paul is 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 way the world and culture lives life.

Finally, Paul tells the community, worship together Church! Make music together as a Church and within your hearts! Saturate yourself with the presence of God with one another and sing songs of gratitude!  Be thankful and grateful for all you have been given, all that you have, and for all that is coming! Sing, Church, sing! 

This, beloved, is what it means to walk a care-full, thought-full, diligent, circumspect life. So, as we go today and head into a new week, let’s assess how we are walking in this life of ours. Does your life, does my life, reflect that we are walking circumspectly, care-fully, and attentively with God?

I’ll close with this prayer pastor Eugene Peterson wrote regarding our text this morning. Perhaps you can 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 Spirit, 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. [4]

© 2021 August 15 by Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 401 SE 15th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33301.  Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] New American Standard Bible.

[3] 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.

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

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Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery, Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2

Posted on August 9, 2021 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon preached by Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min. on August 8, 2021           

Turn in your Bible to Ephesians 4 as we look at verses 25 – 5:2 this morning.  We are at a point in the letter where there is a significant shift in Paul’s focus.  In the first three chapters Paul talks a lot about what good theology looks like; chapters four to the end deal with what good Christian behavior or ethics looks like. Another way to say it is that there is a shift in discussion from orthodoxy (right thinking) to a focus on orthopraxy (right living).[1]  We can see and hear this dramatic shift in today’s scripture. Today’s text is a reminder to the Church that if we cannot follow what Paul describes as to how the community of faith behaves with each other, then we can guarantee the larger world will not get it either.  Hear the Word of the Lord!

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

4.25 So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not make room for the devil. 28 Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. 29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, 32 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. 5.1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2 and live in love, as Christ loved us[c] and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. [2]

            It was 1978 or thereabouts. The church was started not too long after the Civil War and through its long history, it had a storied reputation. It boasted almost 500 members, which for a Presbyterian church located in a small mountain town, was pretty respectable. The late 1970s and the early 80s brought a new civil war to the community but this time it was within the church itself.

            It’s helpful to know that the Presbyterian Church had a major split back in the 1860’s that separated it into the Southern church and the Northern church. Sadly, the split occurred over the issue of slavery and that split between the southern and northern branches of the Presbyterian Church lasted until 1986 when the two sides finally reconciled and became one again. As the time for reunification drew closer, the church located in the foothills I spoke of a minute ago began to get uneasy.  Well over half of the members did not want to reunify the southern church with the northern churches because of, “Those blankety-blank northern liberals.” The big overriding theological issue at the time was the ordination of women as pastors along with the confluence of a gross sense of jingoistic fundamentalism. This is what split the church. It was ugly.

            Families were torn apart because of the church split. Brothers who grew up together no longer spoke to each other. Cousins were forbidden to play with one another. There was shouting during church services, and it all led up to the fateful day when literally all hell broke loose.

            The pastor got up as he did every Sunday and walked across the street from the church manse to his office at the church. His wife and two little girls would wander over a little later for Sunday school and worship. The day was going fine until the pastor and his family went home to the manse after church. Someone had broken into their home during church services and ransacked their house. Beds were sliced up, walls had holes punched in them, windows were broken. The pastor’s wife had a baby grand piano that had its strings cut and had the poured the contents of the refrigerator dumped into it. Perhaps the most hateful thing they discovered were all the spray-painted epithets and threats down the hallway walls leading to the kids’ room.

            Over the course of time, it was discovered that a group of people from the church who opposed church reunification were the ones who broke into the house during church services and did the destruction. The Sunday following the incident, members of the presbytery came to talk with folks in order to better understand what was going on with the church. The pastor and members of presbytery, along with any members who were not against reunification were literally locked out of the church.  Chains and padlocks had been put on all the doors and armed men blocked anyone’s entry. A few fights broke out. It was not a good day in the Kingdom. The Holy Spirit was grieved.

            Eventually, the court case on church property wound its way to the Georgia State Supreme Court. The church split and the animosity between the two sides forever boiled. Eight years later, I would bring my new family up from Atlanta and begin my first call as a minister trying to breathe life into a congregation that had dwindled down to about 80 people.  Listening to the stories of those church members and townsfolk was a sad lesson in church politics you could not learn in seminary. If only they would have heeded the words from Paul’s letter. Paul’s words are not written in some ancient vacuum; they are applicable today.

            Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and if the people could have imitated God and live in love with one another in the midst of their disagreements, the outcomes could have been so much different. 

            Lies were told. Anger boiled over into expressions of violence. Sides were taken and the church eventually died because the people chose to tear down instead of build one another up.  This is what is behind Paul’s call for ethical behavior and Christ-like imitation.  Speaking truth is difficult at times. Truth can make a person uncomfortable because it acts as a mirror reflecting back to us a reality we may not wish to see. Truth in a community is vital for its health. As one scholar noted, “Without truth, authentic community fails.”[3] Think about that.

            It’s when truth is hard to hear or hard to accept that a person can become angry. The tendency is to fort-up and build a wall between ourselves and the one with whom we are angry with. Paul is telling us that ethically, it is okay for a person to become angry; it is not okay if the anger isn’t addressed, and division occurs. What’s necessary is to be able to express the hurt, the anger, the confusion truthfully so that understanding, consensus, and yes, maybe some compromise, can emerge. Speaking the truth in love is anger’s antidote.

            Church, Paul is reminding us that we are to take care of one another. When we are baptized and made members of a church, we are called to help one another in growing into the image of God. We are called to build up and fortify one another. Why? Because if we don’t, Paul reminds us that we afflict pain upon the Holy Spirit.  Hence, we have Paul’s call to put away bitterness, wrath, and feelings of malice and intentionally, and sometimes inconveniently, replace them with kindness, with tender and deep feelings for one another, and with forgiveness. (Did you know the word for forgiveness is from the same root word we get our word grace and gift from?[4] It literally means gifting someone.)  For centuries, the Church has had to, as Paul says, prevent the devil from getting a foothold inside it.  It’s hard work to do that. It requires speaking the truth in love. It means acknowledging our hurt and moving on together with forgiveness, kindness and love. Paul is not being Pollyanna here; he is telling the church that because of what we believe about Jesus, our personal life should reflect that to one another in the church, which in turn, reflects on how to do it out in the world in our civics and in our politics.  Listen, Beloved, if people like you and me in the church can’t lovingly tell the truth to one another, we can’t expect the world to future it out either.

Friends, as your pastor, I want you to know that I have witnessed this church’s leadership make every attempt to imitate God as beloved children. They speak hard truth in love to each other. They express frustration and sometimes, even anger with one another, but they always work it out. I see the leadership of this church attempt to build one another up in kindness, forgiveness, and by opening their hearts to one another.  I am proud to serve with the members of Session that you have elected by the Spirit’s guidance.

            Over the last year, your Session has had to make some difficult decisions in its desire to pursue truth and in its attempt to imitate what Jesus would do. Our conversations have been lively at times.  Our conversations have lasted longer than many of us wanted but we always arrived at the place where there was no anger, and we could agree to disagree agreeably. It has wrestled with COVID protocols and adjusting church schedules. It has had to make strategic financial decisions as well as address issues of sexual ethics. I am proud to be pastor of a group of leaders who are living out what it means to imitate God.  You need to be proud of them, too. Your leadership knows that in order to change the world out there, we first had better be able to work it out in here, together as sisters and brothers in Christ. The Church is tasked with the responsibility to model for the culture what it means to work things out together instead of becoming fractured and devolving into separatist camps.  Let’s all continue to imitate God together and give the world something to talk about! Amen.

© 2021 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 401 SE 15th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33301.  Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] Connections: Year B, Volume 3: Season after Pentecost (Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship) by Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, et al. https://a.co/4HSJUDi

[2] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[3] Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16) (Feasting on the Word: Year B volume) by David L. Bartlett, Barbara Brown Taylor, https://a.co/7SeCbxS.

[4] Charizomai from the same root as charis, Greek for ‘grace.’  It is a word that literally means actively gracing and showing pleasure upon someone!

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The Sermon: How Do We Know if We Have Grown Up?; Ephesians 4:1-16

Posted on August 2, 2021 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon preached August 1, 2021 by the Rev. Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley.

Ephesians 4:1-16

4.1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it is said (in Psalm 68.18),

“When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;
    he gave gifts to his people.”

9 (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. [1]

            Let’s begin today with a simple, straightforward question: Are you a grown up? A twist on that might be, have you grown up yet? Young people hear their parents tell them, “When you start acting like a grown-up, then you will be able to go and do such-in-such!” Parents attach certain characteristics to what it looks like to act like an adult in the world and try to teach those to their children.  

            What are signs you look for in a person that determine their level of maturity? Is it how someone dresses?  Is it how they act in various circumstances? Do we measure maturity by age or by how knowledgeable someone is? Then again, maybe we measure someone’s maturity by how well they handle increased responsibility.

            The Apostle Paul is writing the church and is imploring them to grow up and act like mature followers of Christ. Apparently, Paul had some rubrics or metrics that determine both a person’s and a church’s maturity, and we will unpack those from our text today. He lifts up at least three indicators of what a mature disciple looks like in our scripture this morning. First, our lives are to look like a disciple’s life. Second, we each have been given gifts to use for the greater good. Finally, disciples of Christ are committed to life-long learning of the faith.

            Indicator of Christian maturity number one: His or her life looks like a disciple’s life. Now, looks can be deceiving and what we see on the outside may not always reflect what’s going on inside. We have all met those Christians who say and act piously and do things like carry a Bible, go to church, and bring a casserole to the pot-luck picnic but they will also gossip, put down and withhold the love of Jesus if they disagree with you. When I say our life needs to look like a disciple’s life, I mean that our life consistently reflects internalized core values which are expressed from the inside out.

            Paul says for us to lead a life worthy of our calling, literally our vocation, as a disciple of Jesus, then our life will bloom with the buds of virtues and values that smell like Christ. He says our lives will be steeped in humility and gentleness. Our lives will display patience and longsuffering. A disciple’s life is reflected in its ability to bear up with others in the Christian community. Another way to say that is to put up with one another for the benefit of the greater good of the church. Humility, gentleness, patience, and putting up with those you disagree with are values and virtues that are only developed over time and practice. Its only when these virtues and values are expressed that all the pieces fall in perfect alignment and the grandeur of the One Spirit, the One Lord, the One God and Father of us all is displayed.

            The second indicator of a mature Christian is whether he or she is using the gifts Spirit has endowed each of us with. The list of gifts in our lesson today is not meant to be an exhaustive list because Paul is echoing other verses from Romans and Corinthians that also have lists of spiritual gifts. As a result of Christ’s death and resurrection, you and I were gifted to foster an environment where the ministry of Christ is practiced in Christian community in order that through the Christian community, that is the Church, Christ is taken out into the world. The Church is where we learn and practice the art of being an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a pastor, and a teacher. The Christian community, the Church, should be the safe environment to explore our gifts and graces in order to leverage them in the larger community. The Christian community, the Church, should be teeming with people who are eager jump in and use their gifts. The Christian community, the Church, should be the place disciples can come together, work on tough issues together and show the world how to lovingly agree to disagree and carry forth together with the mutual ministry God has called us into.

            Christian maturity is measured by the display of basic virtues and values.  It is displayed in our using our spiritual gifts both individually and corporately. The third indicator of Christian maturity is a disciple’s commitment to life-long learning about God and their faith. Paul is imploring us to grow maturely in our knowledge of the faith so we will not be blown about in the wind by the many spiritual snake oil salesman out there in the world today.

            Beloved, how are you growing in your knowledge of the faith? Are you?

            Think with me a moment. Think about a person’s emotional development. As a person grows older and at various phases of her life, her personality changes, the way she processes information changes, and the way she relates and communicates with others changes. In a person’s psycho-social development, it is really obvious when an adult behaves like an adolescent isn’t it?  If a person is not growing in their psycho-social development, we get worried and call-in specialists and counselors to help them get unstuck. Well, did you know growth in our spiritual maturity is the same? One’s spiritual maturity and knowledge is supposed to grow and develop, too!

            Unfortunately, over the three decades of ordained ministry I have seen too many Christian adults act like they are stuck in spiritual adolescence. Their faith has remained stuck in what they remember from children’s Sunday school and youth group when they were younger but now their lives are getting besieged by mature adult problems in a swirly world. They have matured intellectually, physically, and socially but spiritually they are stuck in the past and have not grown in their maturity of the faith.  Sophomorically, they point and say, “Well it says in the Bible such-in-such,” but have failed to grow up in their understanding of God, of who Jesus was, is and the message he is desperately trying to get out. Let’s not forget the Devil knows how to quote scripture with the best of them. The Pharisees and Sadducees knew their Torah and the Law inside and out; that wasn’t the problem.  Jesus kept reminding them it’s how you apply what you know in the Bible with others that shows whether you are a God-honoring disciple or not. Jesus is not so concerned how well you and I can quote scripture as he is if we can apply the ethical, moral, and theological teachings in our everyday life.

            What virtues does your life reflect?

            What spiritual gifts have you been graced with and are you using them?

            Has your faith matured biblically, theologically, and missionally or are you riding the coattails of what you learned years ago as a child?

            Beloved, these are just three indicators that point to our spiritual maturity as disciples and a church. The time is upon us where you will be asked to say Yes! in using your gifts and graces. The time is soon coming when you’ll be given the chance to have the best two hours of the week! Let’s all grow up together! Amen.

© 2021 August 1, Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, 401 SE 15th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301 and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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