How to kill a church

Pentecost 12B
St Paul’s Church, Ipswich
11 August 2024

The theme sentence for our liturgy today came from the Epistle to the Ephesians. You can find it at the very top of page 2 of the service booklet:

Be imitators of God, as beloved children,
and live in love,
as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

As the Old Testament reading grinds its way through the troubles besetting the dynasty of David, and as the Gospel offers yet another reflection on the metaphor of Jesus as bread from heaven for a hungry world, I want us to pause and think about this direct and simple piece of spiritual wisdom from the Pauline tradition.

If you flick over to page 5 of the service booklet you can see that the Christian community in Ephesus at the time of this letter must have been quite an interesting bunch of people.

We do not even have to read between the lines.

It is there in plain sight.

They were known for speaking falsely to one another. No one could trust anything that the church people said to them because they were inclined to misrepresent the truth.

They were inclined to get angry with each other. That was not such a big deal, but they held grudges and then the power of evil was set loose among them. It seems there is nothing wrong with having strong opinions and even expressing them forcefully, but all that needs to have a sunset clause. Literally, when the sun goes down, draw a line under the arguments and start afresh next day,

Some of them were known to be thieves. Seriously! It seems they had not yet given up their stealing, but they are told the time to do so has arrived. For them repentance included a change of lifestyle and a new focus on assisting the needy, rather than nicking stuff from the rich.

Then there was the gossip. What? In a church? Need we ask! Loose lips do not just sink ships. They also damage people and destroy churches. Our words are to be acts of grace for those who hear us, rather than spiritual poison that seeps from one soul to another.

They were to embrace a new set of values: instead of bitterness, wrath, anger, wrangling, slander and malice (what a fun church they must have been), they were to be kind to one another, tender-hearted and forgiving one another.

That is quite a turn around. A real conversion!

Yet these are the people to whom our theme sentence today is addressed. These are the people—liars, cantankerous, and corrupt gossips—who are addressed as “beloved children” and called to live together in love.

It seems that God does indeed think more highly of us than we deserve!

In their life together they were to reflect what we see in God and what we see in Jesus: selfless love.

Had I recently seen a huge argument in this church, or experienced grudges being held long after the sun had set, then this would be a really tough sermon to give.

Maybe I have just not been here long enough yet?

No matter how good or bad things may have been in the past, the call for conversion and a fresh start is very clear in today’s reading.

If we want to kill this parish, today’s reading gives us a checklist of nasty attributes to unleash. That spiritual poison will kill this place dead.

If we want to renew and refresh this parish as we wait for our new priest being appointed, then today’s reading is also very clear.

What reputation do we want this faith community to have around town?

It is ours to create and ours to destroy.

Have we earned a reputation as genuine people who care for each other and look out for the needy?

Are we building a church where others can say: These people act like Jesus!

As today’s theme sentence says:

Be imitators of God, as beloved children,
and live in love,
as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.