Sermons for the Month
The Mirror Reflects A Person ... Transformed
DATE: August 10th, 2003
SERVICE: Ninth Sunday After Pentecost
TEXT: Ephesians 4:25-5:2“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
I'm sure you looked in a mirror sometime this morning. When you did, what did you think? I really like my haircut. Why do I have dark circles under my eyes at 7 a.m.? My, that overnight teeth whitener really works! Or, perhaps, you just groaned. Did any one look in the mirror this morning and say, "Look at that, a transformed individual!" You didn't? Why not?
That's the whole point of today's lesson from Ephesians, as people who are reconciled with God through God's grace, we are transformed. Or, to use the language of the Gospel lesson, whoever receives Jesus as the living bread that comes down from heaven is a new person, nourished from the inside out, a recipient of eternal life. Having thus been transformed we are expected to, and empowered to, live transformed lives.
With that in mind, I'd like to tell you about three incidents that occurred while I was on vacation. The reason I'm telling you these very unimpressive accounts is this - day in and day out we are faced with the opportunity to live as transformed people, and often it happens in ways that would be easy to overlook. During my first weekend off I went to Charlotte, N.C. to preside at an "Affirmation of Marriage" service for my friends' daughter. She and her husband were married in a civil ceremony last fall, but a "wedding" was held on July 26.
It so happened that my friends did not have room for me at their home, and had made arrangements for me to stay with their friends who lived in another part of the city. On the morning of the service I decided to go for a walk. My mind was on my sermon for later that day, so I did not really note the appearance of the home in which I was staying, nor the address, nor even the street name. Well, to make a long story short, after about 45 minutes of walking I realized I was lost.
There I was in a strange neighborhood and all I knew was the names of the people with whom I was staying. Of course I had gone out of the house carrying nothing but a copy of the sermon I was trying to memorize. The first people I asked for assistance were also out for a stroll. The name of my host was unfamiliar, but they were very kind and offered a supportive word or two.
I walked for another 10 minutes or so - literally around in circles - and came upon two men and a child working in the yard. I asked if I could use their phone book to look up my hosts address, thinking that they could then direct me to the street. It was with some trepidation that I entered the home - after they would have none of my insistence that I could wait outside. They too were helpful, first attempting to use the computer and then the phone book, but there was no listing for the name. Since the woman of the house seemed uncomfortable with my presence, so I moved on.
Then I encountered Shirley, a woman of about 70 who was trimming her magnolia trees. I explained my situation to her. Shirley was a gem. She invited me into her garage, put a chair in front of the fan (I must have look quite a sight by then in that southern humidity) and brought out a cell phone and two phone books. I looked up the number for and called my friends' church. No answer. I looked up and called their home - only to receive a "this number has been changed recording". When I finally dialed the correct number the busy signal was loud and clear.
As I was doing this, Shirley was looking under the last name I had given her for a familiar street name. Finally, when I reached my friend and asked what street the family I was staying with lived on the response was, "I don't know, look it up!" When I insisted that I had tried I learned that the first name I had been given was not the one printed in the phone book.
In the midst of all this confusion Shirley was a delight, a true example of southern hospitality and Christian charity. When we finally figured out where I needed to go she said, "Honey, you've had quite a day. Do you want me to carry you?" (That's a quaint way of asking if she could give me a ride.) As I walked back relieved, but embarrassed, I thought about how we Christians should carry one another whenever we get lost in this life.
Stories number two and three are shorter. The second one occurred at the Beach where we spent a few days after the wedding. One evening I took the entire clan - seven adults - out for supper. When the bill arrived I noticed that the waitress had neglected to charge us for our drinks. Now, granted, it was only pop and iced tea, but the total still was over $10. When I pointed out her mistake I thought she would faint with surprise. Someone commented that I should have just let it go because, after all, $1.50 is too much to charge for tea anyway.
Story number three is similar. I was home for a day in between my two trips and went to Marcs to buy some school supplies for our collection here. After I got to the car I realized that somehow a package of garbage bags had gotten into my bags - probably paid for and left by the previous customer and then placed with my purchases. When I took them back into the store the clerk said, "You didn't have to bring these back, no one would have known."
As I said earlier, the point of my telling you these things is not to say anything about me - other than the fact that I have a terrible sense of direction if I'm thinking about a sermon - but to remind all of us that day in and day out we are presented with opportunities to live as the transformed people of God. We do so not because we are "supposed to" or because we will go to hell if we don't. Never forget that we are saved by grace not by works. Instead, we live as transformed people because that's exactly who we are, because that's what the Holy Spirit empowers us to do, and because doing so creates a world that is closer to the place God intended it to be. We will never live a perfectly transformed life, and when we make mistakes there is forgiveness and opportunities to start again.
So, in his letter to the Ephesians Paul lists some of the characteristics of transformed living. I've condensed them into a few phrases that you can take home as a reminder. Perhaps you could post them on the refrigerator or the bathroom mirror. Let's look at them together. A reminder from Ephesians 4:25-5:2
Being transformed means we:
It means that we give up:
- Tell the truth
- Deal with anger appropriately
- Are honest
- Speak only that which builds up
As transformed people we are:
- Bitterness
- Wrath
- Anger
- Arguing
- Slander
- Malice
- Kind
- Tenderhearted
- Forgiving
We strive to be imitators of God, living in love.
Admittedly, that's a tall order. But, being transformed people is not a small thing, and that's what we are. Look in the mirror and see beyond what's obvious. Instead, note in front of you someone who has been fed by the living bread of heaven, Jesus, and who is a new creation. Then, empowered by the Holy Spirit, live a transformed life and experienced what I felt during the past two weeks - gratitude, surprise and a sense that what we do - even the most unimpressive things - can make a difference.
AMEN