God's in Charge (so shut up!)

Ephesians 5:15-20 | 8/17/1997

The more we can shut down our vain defenses and open up to God's words, the more we can benefit from the leadership of God's Spirit.

There is a certain earthiness and directness present in the Hebrew Scriptures that is often missing in the New Testament. The New Testament was written in Greek and heavily influenced by the refinements of Greek culture. The patriarchs and kings of Israel, in contrast, are never "prettied up." Indeed, their foibles and faults supply numerous reasons for God to intervene human history.

In keeping with the Hebraic tradition of calling it like it is, Karin Bacon offers the following paraphrase of this Ephesians text:

"God's in charge, so shut up!"

Is there anyone who hasn't suffered through terrible cases of "foot in mouth" disease? Whether we've asked after the health of a recently deceased spouse, called a new love by an old love's name, or started complaining about the rise in grocery prices to someone who has just lost a job, each inappropriate remark is accompanied by that same sinking-into-the-floor feeling and the distinct taste of shoe leather. "How," we wonder, "could I be so stupid!"

"God's in charge, so shut up!"

The human ability to say remarkably stupid things and to make completely unintended connections is profound. In fact, there are now scholars who are studying "error-making" as a cognitive science which reveals much about how the mind works. The good thing about "using mistakes as one's window into the mechanisms of the mind," in the words of two pioneers of this new field of study, is that "there is an inexhaustible supply of fresh new data being produced all the time all around us" (Douglas Hofstadter and David Moser, "To Err Is Human," Michigan Quarterly Review, Vol. 28, Spring 1989, 185-215).

Now that we are well-versed in how creatively humans can twist and torture language without even intending to, we should be even more astounded that God still regularly trusts us to act as divine mouthpieces.

Even though God willingly and lovingly opens the divine reputation to human mouth-maulings, the author of Ephesians, in this week's epistle lesson, reminds us that we should do our utmost to avoid opening our lips before we know what we are going to say. Verse 17 counsels "So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is."

"God's in charge, so shut up!"

And since God is in charge, there is no rush to spit out something, anything, in order to fill up the silence. Ecclesiastes fronts the admonition to "let your words be few" with the observation that "to draw near to listen is better than the sacrifice offered by fools" (Ecclesiastes 5:1). Only when we stop up our mouths and open up our hearts, can we hope to hear God's words for us.

"God's in charge, so open up!"

It is only once we close our own mouths, and shut off the clamor of our own insistent neediness, that we can open up to God's fullest presence and power in our lives. In shutting up our own vain defenses, we open up to God's words and plans, we open up to God's Spirit. Only in this way can we avoid a constant state of foolishness and finally discern "what the will of the Lord is."

When we shut up our fears and open up to the Spirit, Ephesians says, we become empowered by that Spirit. Openness to the Spirit means we are open-minded, openhearted, and openhanded.

1. Open-minded

Note: Open-minded does not mean "empty-minded." Today's text counsels "Be careful then how you live ... because the days are evil" (vv.15-16). The Dionysian revelers who were "getting drunk with wine" believed they were opening up their minds and their spirits to messages from their god by drinking themselves into a wild stupor.

The "wisdom" of Christ calls us to grow quiet and open our minds up to new possibilities of divine communication, that we might begin to understand "what the will of the Lord is" (v.17). With an open mind, we can embrace ventures and visions, grand schemes and global agendas that we previously would have dismissed as beyond our abilities, beyond all hope.

In the earliest days of the age of great cathedrals, the master builder and stonemasons had to open their minds to see the work that would be done by the next generation. Without machinery, relying on hand-cut, back-hauled stones, the construction of a great cathedral could easily extend over the life spans of three or four master builders. Although the first builders knew they would never see the completion of their life's work, they were able to keep their minds open to a vision of how all the tiny pieces would finally come together to form the finished product.

An open mind invites God's Spirit in and gives us a glimpse of the mansion God wants to build for all people, everywhere. Even if it is God's intention that we are to spend our entire lives creating just one brick to use in that mansion's outermost wall, an opened mind lets us get a peek at what the finished product will someday look like.

2. Openhearted

Instead of pouring wine down their throats, the Ephesians are urged to let God's Spirit pour into their opened hearts, filling them with the music of God's songs: "Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs"-- that is, all kinds of music that praise God and constantly declare our thankfulness to God.

To be openhearted to the joy of this singing-Spirit is not sappy sentimentality -- the Psalms confront God with genuine human fears, anger, loss, misery, joy, hope, love and dreams. The psalmists poured out their hearts to God in song, leaving them openhearted to welcome the healing, soothing Spirit into their breast. The epistle writer insists that the Ephesians sing these songs, as well as "making melody" in their hearts (v.19) -- making clear that there must be an unbroken connection between what the lips confess and what the heart feels. The heart which is genuinely opened to God's Spirit directs the words that escape our lips. No false confessions or flowery sounds of insincere piety may escape from a mouth that is controlled by an authentically open heart.

3. Openhanded

The thankfulness we feel and proclaim for God's never-ending gifts must find an active outlet in our lives. Knowing that "God's in charge" means we don't have to worry about the bottom line, we don't have to hedge our bets, we don't have to ration our compassion. Once we quiet down our fears and frustrations, once we successfully squelch the illusion that we must be in control, God's Spirit will show us just how simple it is to open our hands to others in need. When we learn to "shut up" -- to "let [our] words be few" -- we can rediscover the old truism "deeds speak louder than words."

An open hand speaks louder than an open mouth.

To be openhanded is to welcome all those who are as tongue-tied as we are. When we're at a loss for words, sometimes an open hand stretched out to another is the most eloquent speech we can make. When we finally "shut up" and let God be in charge, we find we have a lot more to give to others than advice.

Will we be openhanded enough to give ourselves -- our time, our talents, our treasures--to those within our reach?

Commentary

In the latter portions of the letter to the Ephesians, the writer begins enumerating the ways and means of Christians who walk worthy of the calling (4:1). Although this letter doesn't focus on any particular problematic group or any disruptive practices that existed within that Christian community, the environment in which these believers lived was enough to cause concern. As a thriving city on the crossroads of the cultural superhighway of its day, Ephesus drew people from all over. It felt itself to be urbane and sophisticated. Its easy accessibility made it a center for various cultural and religious activities. The allure of these cosmopolitan traditions and the common acceptance of some of the wildest of the competing "mystery religions" put new Christian believers at risk.

Our text begins in verse 15 by counseling extreme caution for those living in this cultural melting pot: "Be careful then how you live." Note how the writer cleverly usurps the title those self-proclaimed "lovers of wisdom," the pagan philosophers, would claim for themselves. It is the Christians who are "wise." Those outside of Christ are "unwise" or "foolish."

What the NRSV translates in verse 16 as "making the most of the time" is rendered more literally "to buy out" or "to redeem" time. Coupled with the claim that "the days are evil," this text conveys a sense of unmistakable urgency.

The "foolishness" the Ephesians are cautioned against appears to be related to vain human attempts to gain easy access to the divine. Christians are not to waste time by being lured to accept human advice and human "wisdom" as true indications of God's will. Only God can reveal "wisdom" to the believer. It seems quite likely that verse 18 is referring to the drunken festivals frequented by those involved in the worship of Dionysus, where people would lose all sense of themselves and become wild and frenzied. Only in this totally uninhibited state, Dionysians maintained, could they become fully open to divine messages.

Recalling Romans 14:17, the Ephesians are enjoined to be filled with the Spirit. This Spirit is that which fills up both the believer and the one who does the filling. The Dionysians had to be filled with wine before they could be filled by their god. Christians must be filled by the Spirit, so that they may be filled with the Spirit.

Spirit-filled behavior is described here as bursting with song. The writer lists three different kinds of music -- "psalms" are the Hebrew Psalms; "hymns" may refer specifically to Christian-composed songs of praise to Jesus as Lord; "spiritual songs" may be a reference to Spirit-inspired compositions of the moment.

The natural outpouring of the Spirit-filled Christian continually and tunefully results in "giving thanks to God the Father" (v.20). Unlike the Dionysian celebrators, whose attentions turned to their god only during festival days when they were filled with drink, Christians filled and fueled with the Spirit will naturally give thanks to God "at all times and for everything."

Alternative Sermon Idea

Douglas Hofstadter and David Moser's error categories (in "To Err Is Human," Michigan Quarterly Review, Vol. 28, Spring 1989, 185-215) make good theological categories of life-errors as well. [Select a couple of these either to illustrate the direction you're headed in the sermon or to develop more fully in another sermon as spiritual maladies -- spiritual spoonerisms, malapropisms, etc.]

1) Spoonerisms: e.g., swapping sounds like "When your thumb gets nongue."

2) Malapropisms: the substitution of one word for another as in, "I like a magazine with good, objectionable reporting"("objective" was the intent), or "This is up to the discrepancy of the individual" ("discretion"), or "My wife and I took our kids to visit a wildlife refugee" (refuge anyone?).

3) Mixed metaphors: e.g., "I can't stand people who talk behind your back right under your nose," "The proposal is now cast in concrete -- the only question is, will it fly?" "No matter which fork in the road we take, it's not going to be clear sailing."

4) Infelicitous metaphors: e.g., "I always like to beef up these vegetarian dishes with a little broccoli," "Welcome to Israel, a mecca for tourists."

5) Spreading activation: This is when the mind activates in directions that flow into inappropriate areas. For example: Answer this question as fast as you can: "What do cows drink?"
"Milk" isn't right. In spreading activation, the mind unquestioningly leaps from one thing to another. Something activates one thing in our minds, which then leads us down a wrong path.

6) "Malaphors": This is a blend of "malapropism" and "metaphor." A "malaphor" results when you take two phrases and bring them together like: "That was a breath of relief" ("breath of fresh air" and "sigh of relief").

Technically a "malaphor" is a "seamless blending of two (or more) stock phrases (or even just words) into a single new phrase (or word)." In mixed metaphors, the phrases remain intact; it's only their juxtaposition that is strange. In malaphors, both the phrase and juxtaposition are off-center.
e.g., "You hit the nail right on the nose," "She really stuck her neck out on a limb," "We'll burn those bridges when we come to them" (burn our bridges behind us; cross that bridge when we come to it), "What was that phone call-wrong distance?" "He's an easy-go-lucky fellow," "It was pretty upsettling," "I can't make these split-minute decisions," "Every time I come to that conclusion, I balk off of it" (back off from; balk at).

7) Mixed modality errors: e.g., a post-office clerk, to the customer next in line, after having just answered a phone call, says "Main Street Post Office!" or a wife reading a book while husband is watching TV; since the remote is closer to her than to him, he asks her to change the channel; so she turns the page of her book.

8) Capture errors: One action sequence smoothly switches over into another (usually more habitual) sequence: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack Queen, King, Ace ...

9) Cannibalisms: This is the eating of a word by a similar or identical word just before or after it.
e.g., "Hey, look -- an MIT-shirt" (for MIT T-shirt), or "You have to either (a) have a job or (b) independently wealthy."

10) Greasy spoonerisms: This is when your mind takes the lazy route and modifies what is most easily modified, leading to awkward, nonsensical or humorous "greasy spoonerisms."
e.g., "They like to eat at greasier spoons than I do," or "There are bound to be some really big wigs there," or "There's an even shorter cut through here."

Animating Illustrations

Two players are in the middle of a computer fantasy game. After some loud yelling, one of them asks the other: "Okay, now my wisdom is at maximum. What should I do?"

In his "predictions" for 1997, David L. Bailey Sr., of Alloway, New Jersey, placed this one at #6:

"An aging Frank Sinatra will release his first gospel recording, 'I Should Have Done It Thy Way.'"

Someone told me a joke about a man who walked into a pet store and said, "I want to return this talking bird."

The owner said, "Well, sir, we guarantee that all our birds can talk, but we can't guarantee when they will talk."

"No, no," the man said. "The bird talks all right, but I don't like its attitude. For six days I said to the bird, 'Can you talk?' The bird said nothing. Every morning and every night I stood in front of the cage and said, 'Can you talk?' The bird said nothing again. Finally this morning, I lost my temper and shouted at the bird, 'You stupid bird, can you talk?!' "

"So, what happened?" the owner asked.

"That bird looked at me and said, 'Yeah, I can talk. Can you fly?' "
-R. Scott Colglazier,
Finding a Faith That Makes Sense
(St. Louis: Chalice Press),76.

Excerpts from Faxes to God: Real Life Prayers Transmitted to the Heavens by Joyce Shira Starr (New York: Harper Collins, 1995).

Dear God, Can I be God?
- Nathan (age 5, p. 2)

To the Wailing Wall: God, it is a new year and I could use a little help here.
- Abe (p. 6)

Dear God: They say that money is the root of all evil. It sure would be nice to be just slightly evil.
- Jack (p. 10)

Dear God, Don't you get tired of hearing all our complaints?
- George (p. 48)

God moves in wondrous ways, his mysteries to perform.

I know you think I wrote that incorrectly. I did not. I wrote what I meant, and I meant what I wrote. The old hymn is true: "God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform." But it is equally true when you flip-flop the language. We have seen firsthand the wondrous ways God chooses and uses to perform his mysteries in the downtown church.
- Howard Edington,
Downtown Church: The Heart of the City
(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), 60.

I am convinced that God speaks not out of burning bushes but in our burning hearts, from within, through the very processes that God implanted in us; our reason and our conscience, our inner values and guilt system.
- Psychologist Edward Stein
in Pastoral Psychology, July 1996, 390.

Every time I think I'm getting some sense of what "God has prepared for us," I read 1 Corinthians 15:35ff and realize how far I really am from even beginning to "comprehend" the concept of resurrection.

Jesus' resurrection body can be touched and handled (John 20:27; Luke 24:39), bears the marks of the wounds inflicted on Jesus' pre-death body (John 20:20, 25, 27), and not only cooks fish (21:9) but eats it (Luke 24:41-43). On the other hand, Jesus' resurrection body apparently rose through those grave clothes (John 20:6-8), appears in a locked room (20: 19, 26), and is sometimes not (at least initially) recognized. The best I can do is say, "God's in charge, so shut up!"

Jewish rabbis tell a poignant story that drives home the point of Proverbs 18:21. As the story goes (and five versions of this appear in Greek literature), Rabbi Simeon ben Gamaliel one day asked his servant to go to buy some good food for him in the market. When the servant returned home, he presented the rabbi with a tongue.

The next day, the rabbi told the servant to go to the market to buy some bad food. Again, the servant returned with a tongue.

When the rabbi asked the servant why he returned with a tongue both times, the servant made this astute observation: "Good comes from it and bad comes from it. When the tongue is good, there is nothing better, and when it is bad, there is nothing worse."
- William R. Baker, Sticks & Stones:
The Discipleship of Our Speech
(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 17-18.

Children's Sermon

Children will enjoy this story about a little boy who becomes king. Many children have had to deal with
the death of a parent, and this may be a Sunday to help one of those children to discuss his or her feelings. David has just died and gone to sleep with his ancestors. The olfactory sense is seldom a part of the mainline Protestant worship service. Allow the children to imitate Solomon, not by sacrificing, but by burning incense in a high place in the sanctuary, lifting a pleasing smell to the Lord. Let the children sit in the thronelike chair occupied by so many of our preachers and recall with them Solomon's words.

Ask the children, What would you do if you were king or queen? Solomon states, I am only a little child; I don't know how to go out or come in. Solomon asks God to help him be a good king. God responds by saying some would have wished for money or long life, or the death of their enemies, but Solomon just asks for God's help. Our prayers should also ask for God's help and not for things.

Worship Resources

Call to Worship

Leader: Watch your step when you enter God's house.

People: We enter to learn your ways.

Leader: That's far better than mindlessly offering a sacrifice.

People: Too often we do more harm than good.

Leader: Don't shoot off your mouth, or speak before you think.

People: We are too quick to tell God what we think he wants to hear.

ALL: God's in charge, not you -- the less you speak the better!
- Based on Ecclesiastes 5:2,
Eugene Peterson,
The Message: Old Testament Wisdom Books (1996), 362.
Prayer

Prayer of Desire
Lord, teach me to turn toward you, even if I don't yet know how to look at you.
Lord, you are my strength, even if I don't know how to grasp you.
Lord, you are my salvation, even if I don't know how to believe.
Lord, you are my pardon, even if I no longer know how to repent.
Lord, you are love, even if I don't know how to love.
Praise be to you!
- Michel Bouttier,
Prayers for My Village
(Nashville: Upper Room Books, 1994), 88.

Benediction

Figure out what will please Jesus, and then do it!

Music Links

Hymns
Breathe on Me, Breath of God
Praise to God
Jesus, I Live to You

Praise
In the Secret
Draw Me Close
Still Small Voice