A Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness

—Ephesians 4:24

In today’s epistle lesson we resumed the reading of Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church. Every year, in the early autumn, we hear that same letter read in short excerpts at the Eucharist over the course of six Sundays.

Of course, Saint Paul did not write six short letters to the Ephesians: he wrote one letter, and it was intended to be read straight through. Saint Paul wrote a letter to the Ephesians, not a “book of Ephesians,” and the letter was not divided into chapters and verses. In a contemporary translation, the letter is less than three thousand words in length, or about twice as long as a typical homily here at Saint Mary Magdalene’s.

It would not be a bad idea if, from time to time, we each sat down and read the letter straight through, as we would a letter addressed to us individually or as if it were a letter to the church in Orange. It would probably be most useful to read it in a reliable modern translation, such as the New Jerusalem Bible or the New American Bible.

The New Testament consists of twenty-seven documents, which are conventionally called “books,” although that is misleading in modern English. There are four Gospels, of course, plus the Acts of the Apostles and the Revelation to Saint John. The remaining twenty-one documents are letters of varying length. Of the letters, there are two written by Saint Peter, three by Saint John, and one each by Saint James and Saint Jude Thaddeus. The other fourteen have been traditionally ascribed to Saint Paul.

Most of the letters were written before any of the Gospels were written down. They are, therefore, the earliest written record of Christian teaching and of the Christian Church. Unlike the Gospels, which present in roughly chronological order the words and actions of Jesus Christ, as well as his passion, death, and resurrection, the Apostles’ letters tend to address, in one way or another, the question of how Christians should live in this world.

Some of the letters are mainly theological, telling the reader what the Church teaches and what Christians ought to believe. Most of Saint Paul’s letter to the Galatians, for example, is about the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, the new covenant and the old. Much of Saint James’ letter is about the relationship between faith and good works.

Other letters are mainly pastoral or practical, telling the reader how Christians should act, either in general or in particular situations. Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, for example, warns against quarreling within the church, against extravagance,

The letter to the Ephesians contains both theological and pastoral elements. The first part of the letter is about what it means to be a Christian and what it means for Christians, collectively, to be the Church. The second part of the letter is about how Christians should conduct themselves in a largely non-Christian environment. It is from the second part of the letter to the Ephesians that the Epistle lessons for this part of the Trinity season are drawn.

When we read (or hear read) the letter to the Ephesians, we must not imagine that what Saint Paul has written applies only to the people of Ephesus—a city that has lain in ruins for over a thousand years—or only for people who lived in the first century of our era. What Paul has written is meant for us, just as much as for those people long ago and far away.

Saint John Chrysostom, who was the Patriarch of Constantinople at the beginning of the fifth century, preached a series of homilies on the Epistle to the Ephesians. When he reached exactly the part of the Epistle that we heard read today, he told his congregation:

These words are not addressed to the Ephesians only, but are now addressed also to you; and that, not from me, but from Paul; or rather, neither from me nor from Paul, but from the grace of the Spirit. And we then ought so to feel, as though that grace itself were uttering them.

What Chrysostom said fifteen hundred years ago remains just as true today.

In the first part of his letter, Saint Paul reminds the Ephesians who they are. They were, as we are, chosen by God and sealed with the Holy Spirit. They were, as we were, dead because of our sins, children of wrath, led by our own desires. But God, who loved them and who loves us, brought them and us to new life in Jesus Christ. They and we, because we are in Christ, are seated with Christ at the right hand of God in heaven. They and we had been in darkness, but now are children of light.

Moreover, we Christians—first century Ephesians, fifth century Constantinopolitans, twenty-first century Californians, all of us together—are the body of Christ. The Church, indeed, is the body of which Jesus Christ is the head and all baptized people are the limbs and organs. Christ loves and cherishes the Church, which he presents to the Father as a holy and spotless offering, cleansed by his word and by his blood.

In the part of the letter from which today’s lesson is drawn, Saint Paul tells the Ephesians, and us, that our adoption as Christians, our membership in the body of Christ, should make a difference in how we live our lives: “Take no part in the works of darkness; but live as the children of light.” He admonishes us to “grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.”

How would we do that? How would we grieve the Holy Spirit? We would do so if we, being Christians, continued to live as if we were still in darkness. We would grieve the Holy Spirit if, being sealed by the Spirit, we nevertheless stole from our neighbours, coveted our neighbours’ goods, gave ourselves over to anger and revenge and bitterness, become drunk, or acted immorally or disgracefully, or indulged in any kind of impurity or excess.

When we were baptized, our mouths and voices were consecrated to the praise of God and to the building up of the Church. It grieves the Holy Spirit when we lie, when we use foul language, when we curse, when we call our neighbours names, when we shout at one another in anger, when we utter obscenities.

How then should we live? We should “live in love, as Christ loved us.” Instead of telling dirty jokes or speaking of greed and immorality, we should give praise and thanksgiving to God. We should cleanse from our lives all envy, malice, and hatred, and all uncharitableness. We should be kind and compassionate to one another, and should forgive one another, even as God has forgiven us. We should do all such good works as God has prepared for us to walk in.

Saint Paul declared and testified to the Ephesians, and he declares and testifies to us, that we cannot be Christians and live like unbelievers. Being Christians has to change us, it has to make a difference in how we live.

Saint Paul tells us to cast away the old man, the old self, which is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in our mind, and to put on the new man, the new self, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. It sounds a bit like changing clothes, but the image is rather more like that of the caterpillar, shedding its identity and emerging from the cocoon as a butterfly.

We who have been called and adopted, we who have been baptized in Christ and made a part of his body, we who have been redeemed from darkness and made children of light, we who have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, cannot live any more like denizens of the unbelieving world around us. To do so would be to reject all that God has done for us.

But we cannot do it alone, we must do it by drawing on the strength of the Lord and on his mighty power. It is not enough for us to put on the new man, we must also put on the full armour of God: the breasplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit. Only so armed and armoured will we be able to resist evil.

Now to him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Church of Saint Mary Magdalene

Orange, California

17 October 2004