Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that 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!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:17-32)
Getting the Church Inside People: Throwing Off Our Grave Clothes
Ephesians 4:17-32
In his great book, Practice Resurrection, Eugene Peterson shared the following story that really spoke to my heart this week:
A woman in her late twenties began attending my congregation at the invitation of some friends. After a few weeks she asked if she could have a conversation with me. She wanted to become a Christian. She knew virtually nothing about the Christian faith, had no idea of what "becoming a Christian" involved. We talked and prayed. She was ready. She made the commitment to follow Jesus. She presented herself for baptism.
But she didn't know much about the faith. She had never gone to church, never read the Bible, had just more or less gone along with the culture she had grown up in and did what her friends did. She asked for more conversations. So we met every two or three weeks in my study, talked and prayed together, explored the meaning and implications of this new life on which she had embarked. It was all so fresh and new, an interior life that she had never even known she had, a community that she never knew existed. She was a "Gentile," American style, and knew nothing of church.
Conversations like this are always interesting, listening and observing serving as the Christian faith, this practice of resurrection, comes alive in a person for the first time. She took everything in, embraced everything thing readily and gladly. But one thing puzzled me. She lived with her boyfriend. Eventually I learned that she had always lived with her boyfriends, beginning when she was twenty. The living together rarely lasted more than six months or so. She wasn't interested in marriage. She told me all this without apology and not as a confession but quite casually, as we were getting acquainted with one another. I wondered if I should say anything. Surely, she knew that the Christian way had some sexual implications for the way you lived. She was in church each Sunday. She was becoming acclimated to church, this Christian community. I assumed that she would eventually notice. I waited for her to bring up the subject.
One day on impulse I said, "We have been having these conversations for seven months. Astrid, would you do something for me?"
"Sure. What is it?"
"Live celibate for the next six months."
Surprised, she said, "Why would I do that?"
"Just because I asked you. Trust me. I think it's important."
I learned later that her boyfriend moved out before the week was over. A month later when she came to see me, she didn't mention it. But the following month she brought it up: "When you asked me to live celibate for six months, I had no idea what you were up to. You asked me to trust you, and so I did. It's been two months now and I think I understand what you were doing. I feel so free. I've never felt so `myself' before, never felt so at home with myself. I thought everybody did what I was doing - all my friends did. I just thought this was the American way. And now I am noticing so many other things about my relations with others - they seem so much more clean and whole. So uncluttered. And do you know what? I have been thinking that I might want to get married someday. Thank you."
The celibacy decision survived the six-month mark and continued for two more years, at which time she and her fiancé exchanged vows and I blessed their Christian marriage. (Eugene H. Peterson. Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ (Kindle Location 2230). Kindle Edition.)
· What do you think about this pastoral conversation between Astrid and Pastor Peterson?
· How was Astrid’s life transformed by this experience?
· What might “throwing off our grave clothes” look like in our story?
Spend some time meditating on these lyrics from Pastor Ray’s song. How might God be inviting us to cast aside the old way of life and embrace the new hope of our calling in Christ?
You knitted me together
in my mother’s womb
Since that time I was heading down
To a fiery tomb
Life was stitched with sadness
Lining sewed with gloom
Stench of death was on my clothes
Till Jesus called me out of that tomb
Your life may be unraveling
Garments stained with sin
Holdin on just by a thread
Not knowing where to begin
Clothes all stripped and tattered
Your fabric wearing thin
But there’s a Label filled with life
If you let the savior in!
I’ve heard it said You are who you wear, also how you dress
So if you’re dressing well
my friend you wear the best
So Throw off your Grave clothes
Put on the new line
Made by the savior
Bought with the blood of Christ
So throw off your old self
Put on a new mind
Clothed in compassion
Sharing the love of Christ
If you missed Sunday’s service and would like to catch up, it can be accessed here. We hope to see you Sunday and that you’ll participate in one of our weekly Bible Studies on the book of Ephesians.