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Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 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. 29 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. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:25-32 ESV
The picture here is of human lives, formerly erratic and disordered by sin, made into orderly hearts and minds ruled by Christ. Consider all the effects and trouble caused by our sins. Falsehood, the chaos of the tongue which seeks to disorder truth and dishevels workplaces and upends trust, must be cleared away. It must be put away, like the trash it is and thrown to the curb. Anger opens the mouth to release a firehose of rhetoric that bowls people over and causes damage that can take years to mend. Thievery upsets relationships, trust, community, peace and a sense of safety. Corrupting talk while enjoyed for a moment when the venom is poured out on others, leaves participants in a conversation wondering, when I get up to go, will this group of vipers be trash talking me? (Yes. Yes they will, corrupting talk is contagious and spreads faster than the latest variants of viruses).
Reading this list of sins makes me shudder. I have a live example of chaos all around me. There are books left open on the desk, used for the latest sermon. A few on the floor, closed, but not put away back on the shelf. There are three piles of papers, one for the studies at one prison, another for the studies at a recovery centre, and a third pile for a different study at another institution. Unfortunately, when I set down my carrying case, the three piles shifted, fell, and scattered. I had to leave before the mess was cleaned up. There is yarn, donated by friends, which is unsorted, and cluttering up the study—I crochet blankets, sending the completed ones to a seminary in the Ukraine—and an unfinished project in the centre of the floor. It is a mess. To me, the study as it is, is a living depiction the text—all kinds of things open, upended, cluttering, not sorted and bagged up to be put away. It is an overwhelming mess and I fell like I don't even know were to start.
Thankfully, even if I don’t know where to begin, God does. The Spirit has been sent by the Father to believers in Christ. The Spirit who can be grieved by our anger, corrupting talk, thieving, and all the chaos sins brings with it into our lives that is spilling into the lives of churches and workplaces contaminating many places, is All-Mighty. The Spirit begins the project of massive clean-up and renovation. The Spirit of God applies the healing work of Jesus so that our lives are purified, cleansed from top to bottom, inside and out. It is too overwhelming for us to do on our own. It is not something we want to do, unless Christ is front and centre in both our faith and our desires. It is the Spirit Who revives our faith. It is the Spirit to renews our desires. When we see the mess we have made of our life, family, community, work and future, do not despair. Recognizing the mess that is the first step. Confess your need to God for His renewing work. Ask for new life which is based on the work of Jesus. Know that the renewing holiness which the Spirit of God has the power to effect in your life, will be brought to completion. Yield yourself to God. Pray for this clean-up work in your life, your family and your church.
God, the Mighty One, Who brought order at the start of Creation, thank You for the cross. Thank You for Christ, the Holy One, Who faced the ruination brought by Adam’s sin and the devil’s manipulations and for the fact that at the cross Jesus defeated all the powers of sin, death, the Fall and all its consequences. Thank You, Jesus, for taking my place, bearing the anger of God against all my sin. Blessed are You, gracious God, for giving the Spirit, Who is taking the finished work of Christ and applying it to every aspect of my life. I freely acknowledge the ruin of sin. I see the chaos of my own actions, and inaction, where there are so many piles of things and strewn things I don’t even know where to begin with the clean-up. Thank You, that You, in Your power, love and kindness, will bring the order. I yield myself to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Forgive me for work undone. Forgive me to getting in the way. Forgive me for trying to fix things on my own and making greater tangles and messes. Thank You, Triune God, for the miracle of salvation and the depths and width and breadth and height of Your loving kindness poured out on those who have been brought to faith in Your great Name. As Your forgiving work is kneaded and pressed into every huge crevasse and each tiny corner of our lives, may we in turn, be a people set apart for Christ, who show Your work in us this by the kindness we show to others. May we shine with Your forgiving love. May we, having been cleansed, seeing the trash taken out of our own lives, be patient with those around us, people who are now themselves awaiting garbage day and the mighty work of Your Spirit. Father, renew us, by Your Spirit, make us, individually and all of us together, pure and ready witnesses to Jesus work even as now we excitedly anticipate Jesus’ return. Amen.
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