August 10, 2003

Ninth Sunday of Pentecost

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

 “Sorry, We Don’t Serve Devils Here”

     A duck goes into a bar and says, “Give me a drink!”  The bartender says, “Sorry, we don’t serve ducks here!”  The next day, the duck goes back into the bar and says, “Give me a drink!”  Again, the bartender says, “Sorry, we don’t serve ducks here!  Get out and stay out!”  The next day, the duck goes into the bar and says, “Give me a drink!”  Now, the bartender has had enough and he yells at the duck, “We don’t serve ducks here!  And if you come in again, I’ll make soup out of you!”  The next day the duck goes into the bar and says, “Give me some soup!”  “This is a bar, not a restaurant!” says the bartender.  “Good,” says the duck, “Then give me a drink!” 

     Persistent duck.  Do you think he ever got served? 

     In Joshua 22:5, Joshua offers this blessing:

 Love God, walk in all his ways, keep his commandments, hold fast to him and serve him with all your heart and all your soul.

      This benediction sounds a bit like the great commandment given by Jesus in Matthew 22:37:

 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all you mind.

      Ephesians 4:27 puts it simply this way:

 Don’t leave room for the devil.

     It’s all a matter of who we choose to serve, how we choose to fill our lives, our hearts, our souls, our minds.

     You don’t hear me talk about the devil very much and there’s a good reason for that - the Bible doesn’t talk about the devil very much.  You’d be hard pressed to even find one in the Old Testament.  The Book of Job is the exception and there, Satan is a pain in the neck while faithfully serving God!  The devil concept is more developed in the New Testament (it was popular in Greek culture), but if you look at how Jesus treated the subject you will see that he was so confident in the power of God‘s love that no devil of any description ever stood a chance with him. 

     Jesus called people to be confident in the power of God’s love so that evil, in whatever form, wouldn’t stand a chance in their lives, either.  In Ephesians, the Apostle Paul lays out what a life confident in the power of God’s love looks like. 

He said,

 Put away falsehood, speak the truth, make an honest living, let no evil come out of your mouth, put away all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slandering and all malice.  Be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving.

     There will be no room for the devil if we serve the Lord, loving God with all our hearts, souls and minds.

     Barry Pain, a nineteenth century humorist once wrote, “Sin is sweet in the sinning, but foul in the ending thereof.”  We struggle with evil around and within because it feeds our selfish desires, puffs up self-centered pride, perhaps at times even seems sweet.  And yet we know and see it’s foul results in our world, in our personal lives.  It can seem overwhelming at times.  But even so, the Bible makes it clear - in the face of the worst evil the world could dish out, even a cross of crucifixion, Jesus remained confident in the saving power of God’s love.  Trusting him, we can know, we can be filled by this confidence too.

     The closing verse of our Ephesians reading goes like this:

 God in Christ has forgiven you.  Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

      God through Jesus Christ forgives us.  We are God’s beloved children.  We can live each day in the saving, empowering love of God.  Confident in this, we can serve the Lord with gladness.  We can live lives of good purpose and joy.

     We received Madisyn Dedrick into the love and care of the Christian church this morning through the sacrament of Holy Baptism.  She has her whole life ahead of her and there will be happy days and days of trouble as well.  But through it all, we have promised her this - she is marked with the seal of God’s Holy Spirit.  She is a child of God.  She is offered forgiveness and the power of God’s saving love.  We encourage her to serve God, to love God with all her heart, soul and mind for this is the good life, indeed, so good, it will never end.

     We have our whole lives ahead of us, too.  What will we make of them and where shall we place our trust?   Who will we serve?