@Ephisians #noroomforthedevil

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as 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, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

In a recent MIT study, they found that on Social Media, falsehoods travel faster than the truth. And not just a little bit faster… sometimes TEN to TWENTY TIMES faster than the truth! The professor who ran this study says, “We found that falsehood diffuses significantly farther, faster, deeper and more broadly than the truth in all categories of information.” You’ll be shocked… SHOCKED I tell you… to learn that political information spreads falsehoods the fastest. I told you you’d be shocked!  

In today’s second lesson, the Apostle Paul tweets to @Ephesians, “Putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.” #noroomforthedevil. For those of you not in the Social Media world, you’ll just have to trust me… that was a good one! 

Falsehoods spread faster than truth these days because of the technology we now have available to us, but the problem of falsehood and truth goes back way beyond the age of Twitter or Facebook… way back beyond the ancient technology of Myspace! The problem of falsehood and truth goes back before even the technology of papyrus and stone tablets and back to the very beginning of everything. Technology certainly cranks up the speed at which lies are spread, but spreading falsehoods isn’t a technology problem. As it was in the age before writing… as it was in the age of papyrus and paper and as it is now in the digital age… trafficking in lies is now, as it’s always been… a human problem, it’s human brokenness, it’s sin.  

One of the compounding problems with living in our world, where the old, human, sin of falsehoods are sped up to 100 Megabits per second, is that spreading those falsehoods becomes almost routine. With each of us literally swimming in a torrential flow of falsehoods every day, when WE do it, hardly anyone notices and then, as Walter Brueggemann says, “we forget to even blush.” This problem with spreading falsehoods may have been the Ephesians’ problem back then, but falsehoods, in all the forms they take, they’re our problem too. Our humanity is showing too. Our brokenness is seen in our mirrors as well. Our sin is no different than the Ephesians’ sin. We have met the Ephesians and the Ephesians is us!  

Fortunately though, we, like the Ephesians, have Paul’s advice for living in a world of falsehoods whether delivered by camel or computer. First he tells us when falsehoods fly… Be angry! It’s understandable to be angry! The inaccuracies, falsehoods and lies used to justify, endorse or cover up inhumanities done to our neighbors warrants our anger. BUT, he advises, don’t let that anger rule your life. Anger needs an expiration. Anger, Paul tells, us should expire at sundown. In the New Zealand Prayer Book’s Night Prayer, there’s a prayer that goes in part: “Lord, it is night. The night is for stillness. Let us be still in the presence of God. It is night after a long day. What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done; let it be. The night is dark. Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives rest in you.” Holding on to anger past sundown leaves room for the devil to muck about. I’m not so sure what that looked like back in the camel age, but in the computer age I think Paul is telling us, “It is wise to not Tweet, email or type any comment after sunset!” Imagine what our world would be like if we took Paul’s advice on that!  

But there’s more here for us from the Apostle Paul than only how we should fight AGAINST falsehood. More than just advice for working AGAINST the devil and more than only a warning to push back AGAINST bitterness, wrath, wrangling, slander and malice. When we see and hear the injustices of our world we are often quick to be angry, and like I said, there is a calling and a place for that sort of righteous anger. But all too often we end up living our lives perpetually AGAINST. 

“Against” is important and anger can be useful and the horrors of the world are so very horrible at times, that it can feel almost like a betrayal of the most vulnerable to let up on what we’re “Against” and not stay angry until the world is finally healed. But here’s the thing St. Paul knew back in the donkey age that still holds true in the digital age:  The world needs to be shown what the love of God in Christ looks like, just as clearly as the world needs to be shown the things that grieve the Holy Spirit!  

It most certainly IS our task to see injustice, to be angry and fight for justice… AND, AND, AND it is ALSO most certainly our task to model what the world will look like when “God’s will is done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The world needs us flawed but faithful people, to speak words that build up with grace JUST AS OFTEN as the world needs to hear us flawed and faithful people name the sins of greed, cruelty, racism, and violence.  

The world needs to see us being forgiving, being tenderhearted, and being kind to one another JUST AS OFTEN as the world needs to see us stand up for those pushed to the margins and then over the edges to be forgotten.  

The world needs us not only to be imitators of Christ in turning over tables and standing up to Empires, but the world needs us JUST AS MUCH to show it how to be imitators of Christ as beloved children, living in love as Christ loved us, giving all of ourselves to God and our neighbor.  

This world of ours moves at the speed of light these days. Falsehood travels up to twenty times faster than the truth! But don’t forget… you and I… we’ve been marked with the cross of Christ in the waters of Baptism… we’ve been sealed for the day of redemption… and God in Christ has forgiven us, set us free and given us life and that life in Christ we’ve been given, will carry us farther, faster, deeper and more broadly than even the most viral Tweet could ever hope to go!  Amen.