Sermon on Ephesians 4:1-16, for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost 2021 (B) "Walking Worthily"

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Walk, walk, walk. The Bible talks a good bit about walking. Not the walking your dog type of walking, but how you conduct your life. A good walk vs. a bad walk. Walking in the way of righteousness vs. the way of wickedness. God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, while darkness and pitfalls surround the pathways of disobedience and lawlessness. In Exodus today God tests the Israelites: whether they will walk in His law or not (Exodus 16:4). Then Paul urges us: “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” Walk worthily or walk unworthily. The Scripture is full of this contrast.

To walk worthily, you must know the difference between a good and bad walk. Just like to seek health, you must know the difference between health and sickness. You can’t be doing destructive things to the body. To seek justice, you must know the difference between righteousness and wickedness, and so on. You can’t be corrupting the system and muddling the line. So it is with the body of Christ, this one body and one Spirit, that Paul describes. Complicating this, our world is busy blurring every distinction between right and wrong, male and female, healthy and unhealthy, truth and error, and so on. In that blurry and confused place, no one can identify what it means to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” We need the clarity God’s Word provides, to see the difference.

Vs. 2, Paul outlines the difference between a worthy and unworthy walk. We walk “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³ eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” The difference is as simple as seeing the opposites. Worthy walking is shaped by humility, gentleness, patience, and love. Unworthy walking is shaped by arrogance, pushiness, pride, irritability and impatience, not being able to put up with anything (the opposite of bearing with one another in love); and being divisive. It’s easy enough to identify the two but walking it out is where the rubber meets the road.

When daily irritations hit us—the old familiar sore spots with a family member or co-worker—is our mindset humility, yielding our own demands and control to find a better solution or better way of functioning? Or is the reflex impatience and irritability; shooting our mouths at each other, adding fuel to the fire, and hindering growth and healing? Walking worthily is no stroll in the park. It’s more like climbing a mountain. But like everything that takes effort and is aimed at health and strength, it leads to great satisfaction, enjoyment, and peace in the long run. Besides, the view is much better up there. Treating each other with gentleness, patience, and love, and working at unity, is a reward all in itself.

A worthy walk and an unworthy walk both have their origins. The unworthy walk is born in our selfish flesh. The world drives and encourages it. The world rewards us for mirroring it’s unworthy walk. It sells pleasure, easy-gain, short-cuts and dishonesty, and getting ahead at someone else’s expense. An unworthy walk asks minimal or no effort. It’s the downstream drift, the downhill roll of gravity. The stumbling path it walks hides in the darkness all the things that injure, wound, and leave us broken in health and in soul.

But the worthy walk has a different origin. A different direction. The worthy walk begins in our calling to “one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism”. The origin of our worthy walk is our one baptism into Christ Jesus. We are united to Jesus Christ. There are not many baptisms, many lords or many faiths; there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Baptized into Christ we have new life, new purpose, and direction. His Spirit unites the whole body in action. A worthy walk. The worthy walk originates and takes shape around Christ’s life. Humility, gentleness, patience, and love are the life of Christ taking shape around you! He shapes your life to His, so your walk is worthy. This worthy walk is upstream, uphill, against the grain. It takes effort and sets us against the world. It opens our eyes to the wounds and hidden dangers of sin, so we seek a better, a healthier walk.  

I think one of our persistent fears as Christians is whether we can actually “walk the walk.” As Lutherans we intentionally look in that mirror of God’s law, and it’s not always a pretty sight. We examine ourselves and see our sin, our unworthy walking. Knowing this, how do we react to the call to walk worthily? If we focus on our strength, our achievements, our good works and abilities, discouragement is sure to follow. Or if not discouragement, then maybe hypocrisy. We are right to see our weakness and sin in the mirror. The mirror of the law is an SOS: it “Shows our Sin”. But the Gospel mirror has another SOS: it “Shows our Savior”. We see our identity with Christ in the Gospel: one Lord, one faith, one baptism. We can’t “walk the walk” because “we’re all that”…we walk the walk because Christ lives and moves in us, and His Holy Spirit is the soul of the church! Our identity is with Him! That’s the good news mirror!

Everything God gives to conform us to the life of Christ is entirely and freely given in our baptism! A healthy walk comes from a healthy body. Paul describes this healthy body linked together by joints and members. This healthy, living body, this organism is the church! You here are the parts and members connected to make one functioning whole. A body is not disconnected fingers and toes, but individual believers joined into something bigger than ourselves. When our walk becomes unworthy, we’ve taken our eyes off Christ; it’s like having a sprained ankle or a weak knee, where the joints aren’t strong and working together smoothly. We need adversity, resistance, and effort to strengthen the body and get it into shape, just like hitting the gym or taking a walk keeps your body healthy. Apathy, indifference, and disconnection leave the body weak, ill, and poorly functioning.

How does Christ supply, shape, and sustain your worthy walk? “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” Every Christian receives a different measure of Christ’s grace. Some have gifts for teaching, as we celebrate today with our teacher rededication, as we return to school. God enriches our teachers with His grace, to care for the young, for the untrained and unready, and to bring them up in knowledge, maturity, and love for the Lord. It requires all the humility, gentleness, patience and love we described above. Not everyone is called to be a teacher. Others have gifts in stewardship, administration and management. They run businesses and supervise organizations. They see that bills are paid on time and that planning happens. Still others have gifts of service, of practicing medicine, of music, of art and creativity, of working with their hands or building things. We all have different gifts according to Christ’s measure, but we work together to honor Him and serve others.

He also calls pastors or shepherds, men to “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up the body of Christ” Pastors are called to preach God’s Word, feed and protect Christ’s sheep, and be stewards of His gifts. These are just a few of the gifts that Christ measures out. Our different gifts are not grounds for jealousy or envy, but for rejoicing in the uniqueness of how God made us, and how differing gifts compliment and serve the whole body.

As you walk worthily of the Lord, you may wonder what your gifts are. Maybe you don’t see them. Maybe they’re undiscovered or unpracticed. Sit with a fellow Christian or with me and explore what your gifts might be. What are the callings you feel led to? Don’t assume your limitations are an obstacle to Christ pouring out His gifts in you. At the same time, we should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but with sober judgment and humility. In this way we are most receptive to God working in us and shaping our worthy walk to His glory. How will God use your gifts in your worthy walk in Him?

The body of Christ, here in our church and across the world, is still growing. Christ adds new members to His body by Holy Baptism. In His body there we grow and mature in hardship, testing, and by faith. Yet more members will grow into the body. Paul says that as we are “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Christ, the head of the body, supplies its life, direction, and growth. His eyes and mind steer His church to move and walk worthily according to His will. His body, the church, grows, moves, and builds itself up in love.

There are counterfeits and fakes, but there is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all. Accept no counterfeits. The true body of Christ, the true life of Christ walks with His purpose, with His humility, gentleness, patience, and love. The true body of Christ speaks the truth in love and forsakes “every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” We don’t fall for clever fakes and human schemes. We’re on the lookout for fakes that don’t match Christ’s Word. In God’s Word we study and learn the genuine article. God’s Word is truth, and by it we know our head, Jesus Christ. By His Word we know His voice and follow Him, so we aren’t tossed to and fro by the waves and every wind of doctrine. A worthy walk in Him is strong and grounded on His Word, not blindly stumbling off the path into danger and injury.

Let’s review this walk we’ve been talking. You’ve got to know right from wrong, healthy from unhealthy, truth from error, to find the worthy walk. That worthy walk is shaped by Jesus’ humility, gentleness, patience, and love. It begins in our baptism into Christ, and it’s headed uphill toward what is good and God-pleasing. We pause to look in the law mirror and see that our walk is not always worthy. We have sins to confess and need Christ’s forgiveness, so we can correct course and get back on the right path. The gospel mirror shows our Savior and our new identity in His forgiveness, and His grace puts our steps back on solid ground. Only by Jesus and His Spirit do we walk worthily according to our calling. All our unique gifts as individuals, flow from His grace, but those same unique gifts unite us into a growing body directed by Christ, our Head. Grounded in who He is, we walk clear of any counterfeits and fakes. This is our worthy walk in our Lord Jesus! In His Name, Amen.