Sermon Title: "Lies, Loose Lips, and Loopholes"
Date: August 9, 2009
Minister: Rev. Charles Ensley

Lesson:  Ephesians 4:25-5:2

We all have a code of conduct, a certain morality by which we live our lives.  And except for a few deep, dark or embarrassing secrets here and there, I imagine many of us live within a fairly well-prescribed set of standards.  We might even credit them to the Ten Commandments.  We don’t go around killing those who bother or offend us.  We attempt to be faithful to one spouse.  We know it’s dishonest to steal, and there are repercussions.  We know it’s not right to share falsehoods, or lies, about our neighbors, co-workers, friends, even family members.  And while we may well admire our neighbor’s attractive wife or muscular husband, hot new car or remodeled kitchen, we know it is not right to covet, or lust over them.  As I have said many times over the years, a great number of the crimes in this country would be eliminated if people only lived by the tenets of the Ten Commandments. 

Now, rewind the tape, or reverse the DVD a few thousand frames back to the First Century of the Christian Era.  Go to the scenes in Ephesus, in the northern Mediterranean.  What you have are first-generation converts to Christianity.  These were not Jews, who would have had the Ten Commandments as part of their historical and religious make-up.  They were pagans, people for whom anything was fair game.  Paul, either writing from prison, or one of his followers attempts to set them on the right path, to avoid the cracks and loopholes where evil dynamics gain entrance.  While our text today warns them “do not make room for the devil” (4:27 NRSV), the older New English Bible says “leave no loop-hole for the devil.” 

We are faced with some of the same temptations that the letter to the Ephesians addresses, no matter how strong we think our faith is.  Little cracks in our conscience and small fissures in our faith can give evil entranceway into the soul.  For this reason, Ephesians sternly cautions us to guard against five certain behaviors.

Loophole # 1 – LYING:  Lying is one of those cultural faux pas that never seems to go out of style.  Ephesians starts with the Christian’s need to close this loophole and “put away falsehood” because the pagan culture of the First Century taught that lying could be a perfectly acceptable activity.  Darius said, “When telling a lie will be profitable, let it be told.”  Plato said, “He may lie who knows how to do it in a suitable time.”  Recently converted Gentiles need to be told that truth-telling was a pledge and badge of discipleship.

Even today, in many walks of life, lying is part of the way things work.  I found a survey from a dozen years back revealing that 75 percent of teenagers admitted to cheating at school.  A survey of 6,000 college students at elite schools conducted by a Rutgers University professor found that 67 percent admitted to cheating.  Isn’t it discouraging to find that business majors were the worst (87 percent); humanities majors were the “best” (only 63 percent).  We have all experienced the downside of lying and cheating in business in the past few years, starting with Enron and most recently Bernard Madoff. 

No wonder M. Scott Peck almost makes lying synonymous with evil in his book, People of the Lie.  Our text today sees “people of the lie” as one of the church’s most dangerous loopholes because “we are members of one another.”  As a unified body of Christ, to lie to one another is to lie to ourselves, and to lie to Christ himself.  Only a completely amoral person could be at peace with lying, for we know God knows the moment the lie passes our lips.

Loophole # 2 – ANGER:  There is significance to the fact that Ephesians does not declare:  “Never be angry,” rather stating, “Be angry but do not sin.”  There is value to righteous indignation, enragement over injustice, justifiable anger about how you or someone else has been treated. 

Have you ever tried to rebut a person who is in the heat of a rage; try to calm them down; reason with them?  How successful was that?  Usually you have to let a person blow off stream, get it out of their system.  You’ve seen children who are hysterical, eventually succumbing to exhaustion because they’re all worn out.  After a cooling off period, reasonable heads will prevail.

Ephesians warns that our “cooling off” period should not be lengthy—“do not let the sun go down on your anger.”  How many marriage counselors have told couples not to go to bed angry?  I doubt they would have a very restful night of sleep ahead.

Yet, even in the church, people let their anger rage over some person or event, and then simmer on, long after a reasonable “cooling off” period.  It is a tempting loophole to revel in our rage, to relive and reignite the flame of our fury, to let that be the end-all reason for leaving the church and never coming back.  And that is a loss for the whole body of Christ.

It is true that Jesus got angry.  The most notable incident was driving the money-changers out of the temple, or condemning the Pharisees as a “brood of vipers.”  But Jesus did not rage at Judas who betrayed him; he did not curse at Peter who denied him; he did not blast Pilate who condemned him to death.  On Good Friday afternoon, the sun did not go down on an angry Jesus.  The time for wrath had passed; the time for love, resurrection and reconciliation had begun.

Loophole #3 – GREED:  Our country is awash in a backlash of greed.  Huge corporations falsified their profit-and-loss statements.  Banks and credit card companies extended credit to customers who could not afford it.  Yet the companies continued to troll for new business, and gullible Americans continued to go into debt.  Mortgage companies gave home loans without adequate verification of income, and people agreed to mortgages with loopholes and conditions they did not understand, nor could afford.  Corporations paid out enormous bonuses to executives, while producing products consumers neither wanted nor could afford.  The great American car companies—The Big Three—turned out unimaginative vehicles, and wondered why once-loyal customers flocked to the foreign market.  Gasoline prices surge and the average driver cannot understand nor predict their ups-and-downs.  We guzzle the raw material this world provides and then throw away as “worthless” trash more goods than most small countries can even produce.

Back in the letter to the Ephesians, the writer says:  “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.”  What is it about thievery that makes the thief incapable of sharing?  Thieves rob banks, investment brokers embezzle funds—not once, but again and again, often amassing more cash than anyone could reasonably expect to spend.  Enough is never enough.

And when Christmas itself has been turned into a far bigger commercial venture than Mary and Joseph could have even imagined, what do we do?  We go out on December 26, not just to return purple scarves and striped orange and black pajamas (yes, I got those from my aunt one year when I was a teenager!), but to pull out the credit cards and buy even more on the second biggest shopping day of the year for retailers.

Loophole # 4 – LOOSE LIPS:  The late Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of Teddy and a Washington socialite, used to say, “If you can’t say something good about someone, sit right here by me.”

I

t used to be spoken words, gossip or a written letter were bad enough.  Now, with the advent of e-mails, a letter containing venomous attacks can be forwarded endlessly and discussed by persons who should never have been included.  Words, once they escape from our lips, or computer keyboard, can take on a life of their own. 

Christians must close the loophole excuse, “It’s just talk.  I’m entitled to my opinion.  So what?  Let them deal with it.  I got it off my chest.”  Words of cruelty, revenge, hatred and prejudice implant themselves into the hearts of others, and with just a little encouragement, they take root and grow, often spreading untruths and hurtful accusations.  Ephesians suggests:  “Let no evil words come out of your mouths, but only that which is useful for building up, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.”

Loophole # 5 – STINGINESS OF SPIRIT:  A stingy or small spirit is often referred to as a “mean spirit.”  It’s not a meanness that denotes cruelty or abusiveness.  It’s a meanness that takes no joy in others.  These persons think only of their own needs and no one else’s.  They find no happiness in anything in life.  Nothing is done right, by anybody.  There is no pleasing them, and it’s all about them.  They are often short, sharp and cryptic in their responses and, try as you might, you can’t get them to loosen up and enjoy what’s around them.

Churches sometimes have a few of these folk.  It’s an unfortunate attitude for them to have, for it prohibits them from glorying in or enjoying the abundance of riches God has bestowed upon us.  It starves their capacity for grace, empathy and forgiveness right out of the body—their own, and the body of Christ if their attitude is contagious and affects others. 

It is not until the last two verses of today’s lesson that the positive thrust behind the list of all the loopholes and “do nots” is finally revealed.  Here is the most important word of hope for the early Christians in Ephesus, and today’s Christians in Belmont Shore:  “…be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us…”

(Sermon theme and names of five “loopholes” adapted from sermon resources based on this text, entitled “Close the Loopholes,” Homiletics, July-September 1997, Vol 9, No. 3, pp. 35-37)