Beloved Children

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

August 11, 2024

 

            I am a sucker for a home improvement show. I mean it. Property Brothers, Fixer Upper, Curb Appeal, if it is on, I will probably watch it. I’ve discovered a designer named Sarah Richardson who is based in Toronto, and I will watch her shows for hours. Last summer, I discovered that the only two seasons of the show, Curb Appeal: The Block, were streaming, and ... well you know what’s coming. I got into the show, and I got Brent into it too. We watched every episode. A few of the episodes I’ve watched more than once. The show isn’t even airing anymore, but we still watched it and, I will say, got some really good ideas from it. Like I said, I am a sucker for these shows.

            I think what I love the most about these home improvement shows is the transformation, the before and after, the big reveal. On all these shows, you see the original room or the original home, and then you hear and see the ideas that the designers have for renovation, updating, and improvement. As the designer is talking about what they envision for a room or a house, you’ll see the computer sketches that they would show a client as animation on a screen. For example, if Joanna Gaines is describing a change she wants to make in a room, she’ll narrate that while the sketch of the new room takes shape. So, we’re going to rip out the wall between the old kitchen and dining room, and add an island, new cabinets, reorient the appliances, etc. etc. And you see the drawing on the screen. Then in 30 minutes to an hour, you see the transformation from demolition day to reveal.

            Most of the time, the transformation is stunning, even when the design taste doesn’t match our own. Just to see the difference that can be made is amazing. Sometimes you can’t believe you’re looking at the same house or the same room or the same front yard. It’s incredible and so satisfying. But if you have ever lived through a renovation, you know that it’s not so easy. And it certainly doesn’t happen without a lot of mess in the middle.

            Last winter, we had two small, dated, yucky, slowly deteriorating bathrooms renovated into one large bathroom. If you’re ever interested I can show you before and after pictures. The transformation from what was to now is amazing. But it was the mess in the middle that wore me down. On these home improvement shows that I love to watch, you don’t see the extent of the gigantic amount of dust that happens in a renovation. I would come home every day and just start wiping down furniture and counters so we could survive. And the next day, I would have to do it all over again. On a show you don’t fully appreciate the mess, or the noise of the equipment being used, especially at the beginning. It was overwhelming. Forget those days when we might work from home. I was trying to finish my dissertation through all of this, so I spent quite a few hours in Starbucks with my laptop and a pile of books in front of me, just hoping the employees wouldn’t get tired of seeing me there. And as materials for the project came in, they either took over our front porch or were stacked in the house. We shared living room space with the new vanity for about a month.

            Of course, this is just from my perspective as the homeowner. The work itself is incredibly hard! It must be exhausting, and certainly it takes a physical toll on the people doing it. Our contractors worked hours and hours five days a week to make the project happen. I can’t even imagine trying to do that much work on our own. We know that at some point we’re going to have to do some necessary reno on our kitchen, but right now I just can’t even go there in my imagination, much less in reality.

            What does all this renovation and transformation talk have to do with the point that Paul is trying to make in this part of the letter to the Ephesians? Even though Paul does not use the word transformation in our verses today, throughout the whole letter he is speaking to the change that comes when we live into Christ. In the verses immediately preceding ours, he writes,

            “You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” That speaks to transformation.

            Then we move into the verses before us today. In my study Bible, this part of the chapter has the heading, “Rules for the New Life.” And then we read what those rules are. Putting away falsehood. Speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry, but don’t sin. Don’t let the sun go down on our anger. If members of the community steal, then they need to stop stealing and work honestly. What we make should be shared with the needy because that helps the whole community. We can’t let evil, slanderous, gossiping talk leave our mouths, because that tears down the community rather than builds it up. We need to put away bitterness and slander and wrangling and malice. We must be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving of one another as we have been forgiven. We must be imitators of God, because we are all God’s beloved children.

            At first glance, Paul makes it seem that if you just follow these simple rules, you will be transformed, You will be imitators of God, Paul makes it sound easy, just as those home renovation shows make the transformation from the old to the new look easy and quick. But just as a home renovation is hard and long and messy, living into this new life to which are called is much harder and more difficult than it looks. There is a whole lot of mess in the middle.

            Much of that mess comes from doing what Paul instructs us not to do. One commentator I read pointed out that we are never told to “Be happy but do not sin.” Or “be joyful but do not sin.” No, we are charged with be angry but do not sin. There is something about anger that tempts us into sin, isn’t there? Anger has its place. There is such a thing as righteous anger. Anger can motivate us to work harder, do better. As protestants we descend from a long line of people who used their anger for the good of all. We descend from people who protested, hence the name protestant, against sacred and secular abuses that harmed and exploited people in the name of God. Protest, righteous anger, is in our DNA.

            But anger can also cause great damage. How many times have I let my anger get the best of me? How many times have I said or thought things in anger that I don’t mean, that I regret with all my heart? Too many times. Way too many times. And even when I’ve tried to sweep my anger under the proverbial rug and forget about it, it has come back to haunt me. Anger can lead to bitterness and wrangling and slander. Anger that stays with us past the sun setting makes it very difficult to be tenderhearted, kind, and forgiving.

            But it’s not just anger. Do we speak the truth in love to one another? Let’s face it, y’all, we are in a contentious election season. And it is only going to get harder. Truth is not something we can count on right now. However, misinformation and disinformation from all sides is.

            And then there are these words about stealing. We may think that since we don’t actively steal to make a living that these words do not apply to us. But where was the blouse I’m wearing this morning made? What country? Who made it? How old or how young were the hands that sewed it? How much were they paid in comparison to how much I spent. That’s not theft per se, but it does remind me that the way I spend my money here affects people in other parts of the world in ways that I cannot fathom.

            So, trying to put on this new self and take off the old is much harder than it looks. This transformation that Paul calls us to engage in is not easily done. There’s a whole lot of mess in the middle. There’s a lot of dust and noise. It’s not easy and it takes more time than we imagine. It really takes a lifetime. It seems to me that what Paul is trying to help the Ephesians and us understand is that to be imitators of God as God’s beloved children, to be transformed, to live into Christ is to live into our baptisms. We are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection. We are baptized into the grace of God that works in our lives whether we know it or not. We are baptized into the larger story of God and God’s people. We are baptized into the Holy Spirit, that blows where it will and that sends us in directions we would not choose and empowers us to do that which we think we cannot.

            In just a few minutes we will baptize Anna Margaret. We are not baptizing her because we are afraid of God or God’s wrath. We aren’t baptizing her because she is a sinner with no redeeming qualities outside of baptism. We baptize Anna Margaret to bring her into this larger story of God’s love and grace and joy and redemption. We baptize her and make promises to her and to her family to help them in this lifelong work of transformation, of imitating God. We make promises to her and help her just as others have made promises to us, just as others help us. We baptize Anna Margaret because she is a beloved child of God, just as we all are. We baptize her into God’s grace and love and joy and hope and redemption and resurrection.

            But in saying “we” I don’t want to mislead you. Ultimately our transformation is not a DIY project. Our transformation from the old to the new is not something we do ourselves only. We do make these changes in community, leaning on one another for help. But our community is surrounded and embraced and upheld and empowered by God, by the Holy Spirit, by the life and death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. It is ultimately God who transforms us, God who helps us in our anger and in our joy. It is the power of the Holy Spirit who moves and challenges us. It is Jesus calling us to live as he lived, and to be willing to die as he died that is our call as well.

            We are all beloved children of God. We are all part of this larger story of God and creation and life and love. And God is transforming us. And God never leaves us even when we forget these new rules, when we sin, when we fall short and fall away, even when we are covered in the dust and mess of transformation. We are God’s beloved children. We are all God’s beloved children. Thanks be to God.

            Let all of God’s beloved children say, “Alleluia!”

Amen.