Reinventing Wheels
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
August 13, 2006
A few years ago, my son Chris came home and said, “Dad, I found a car I want to buy.” Now you have to understand that Chris has not had great results with cars. His first car was a 1988 Mazda 626. He saved up for it and bought it during his senior year of high school. He paid for it and drove it home. The very next day, I got a phone call from him. “Dad, my transmission just went out. I’m stuck and can’t get home.” What followed was a trip to a junk yard and six hundred bucks for a used tranny.
So I was a little worried about what sort of car he found. But he drove it home on a test drive. It was a royal blue, 1963 Chevy Impala. It was gorgeous. Come to find out, it looked better than it ran, but it was still a great car.
Soon after he bought it and brought it home, he started talking about putting “20’s” on it. I had no idea what he was talking about. But I learned that “20’s” are those really fancy aluminum rims that are 20 inches in diameter. You put these really thin tires on them and they look really cool. They’re cool if you are a teenager or young adult. I look at them and see a waste of money. But anyway, Chris wanted these wheels bad.
He ended up selling the car a year later. Shortly after we moved to Fort Wayne, he came down here needing another one. He found a Dodge Neon that was only a year old, didn’t have many miles on it, and really wasn’t a bad price. What sealed the deal were the wheels. The previous owner had removed the stock wheels and added some wider ones. The aluminum wheels shined. They were really pretty.
Did you know that there are about 90 new patents approved each year for wheels? That’s pretty amazing when you think about it because the technology really hasn’t changed much in thousands of years. The oldest wheels that we have ever found are about 5,000 years old and were discovered in Mesopotamia or modern day Iraq.
We know that there were wheels in use in the earliest of biblical times. The book of Genesis mentions wagons and chariots. When you go to the book of First Kings, you can find fairly detailed descriptions of wheels which were made for the bronze stands used in the Temple (I Kings 7:32-33).
But basically, wheels are round and they roll along. The new patents which are issued are for new, lightweight material or new manufacturing procedures. One patent is for bicycle wheels with only three spokes. Another is for inline skate wheels with built in brakes that are activated by putting your foot in a certain position. But the physics of wheels really haven’t changed. No matter how many times we try to reinvent the wheel, it still comes out round.
A large portion of the New Testament letter to the Ephesians is spent with ethical instruction. The author realizes that the church receives its meaning and significance from heaven, but life is still lived out here on earth. Christian faith should guide and determine the sort of life we live here. Last week, we talked about the Christian community and how to strengthen it. Today, we’re going to continue with that discussion, because we do in fact live in community and our Christian faith ought to determine how we live together in order that the community might prosper. So Paul gives us a whole series of important and proper behaviors which Christians are called to follow. The advice that he gives is as old as the wheel and just as necessary. It is advice that is just as sound today as it was yesterday.
Sometimes it seems to me that the church is like those who are trying to reinvent the wheel. Now we are trying to do some new things around here. We are doing some new things in worship on Sunday evenings. We are trying to make the church more physically visible so that people will know that we are here. We are trying to find some new ways to advertise and get our name out there. That is all good stuff. If we don’t respond to today’s generation, we quite frankly will not be around much longer.
What we are trying to do is to repackage the message of Christ so that it communicates to people who have not heard. Now, please hear this. We may be trying to repackage the message to make it more understandable to the sensibilities of today’s culture, but we are not changing the message itself. The message has always been about the actions of God through Christ in redeeming the world and reconciling all people to God. We don’t need to change that message. We won’t change that message. We don’t need to reinvent those wheels. We won’t apologize for that message.
We don’t need to reinvent the wheels of community. We simply need to put them in service. There is nothing in this ethical advice that is outmoded or outdated. There is no reason to reinvent anything.
No more lies. Is that outdated? I don’t think so. Don’t let your anger be an excuse for seeking revenge. That sounds as necessary today as it did a couple of thousand years ago. Don’t steal, but get an honest job. That’s the sort of advice we still give our children.
Watch your mouth. One of the television shows that Toni and I really enjoy watching together is “Monk.” If you’ve seen it, you know that it is about a great detective who has all sorts of phobias, obsessions, and compulsions. Since we don’t have cable, we can’t see it anymore, but one of the members of Toni’s church records them for us on video tape. We were watching one the other night; a rerun from the first season. Monk’s assistant Sharona is a single mom with a young son. At one point the boy said a bad word. She said to him, “Is that the same mouth you kiss your mom with?” Paul couldn’t have said it better himself. That’s advice that still works.
Don’t make God sad. Be gentle and sensitive. Forgive one another. Those pieces of advice still work. There’s no need to reinvent anything here.
Obviously, when you look at the prevailing culture, there is extensive evidence that these rather simple ethical prescriptions are often ignored or believed to be non-binding. Just turn on the television. Examples of ethical behavior are often sorely missing from prime time TV. Sadly, church folk are often just as guilty of inappropriate behavior. So I don’t think that we need to reinvent the wheels of Christian community. I think we simply need to put those wheels back in service.
What good does it do if we profess Christ, but that profession doesn’t make a difference in our behavior? What good does our Christian faith do if others can’t see it? How do we honor Christ if we are not changed?
Sometimes I think that we just have a bad set of tires. We try to get good mileage out of the tires of ambition, but it doesn’t work. Now, ambition is fine. Ambition is necessary for anyone to succeed. But when ambition become obsessive, it becomes dangerous. When ambition gets in the way of relationships, it has gone beyond helpful.
Ambition can cause one to forget about the feelings and desires of others. Ambition can blind us to the needs of others if we become so focused on ourselves that our success becomes the most important value. When ambition causes us to neglect the truly important things and relationships, then we need to rethink our priorities. Ambition can cause us to disregard family or friends or values. When that happens, it has become a bad tire and needs to be replaced. The Apostle Paul encourages us to be gentle and sensitive with one another. Overly ambitious people have trouble finding the time to do those things.
We try to run our lives on the tires of arrogance, but ultimately are disappointed. Arrogance is that little voice in your head that says that you are most important, that your needs have priority, that you are smarter and better looking than everyone else. Arrogance is that attribute that convinces you that the world revolves around you. Paul says that we are all connected through Christ’s body. We are all in this together. What is helpful for one is helpful for all, and what is harmful for one is harmful for all. No one is more important than anyone else. We all have our jobs to do. All jobs are equal in importance. There is no room for arrogance in the Body of Christ.
Sometimes we try to run our lives on the tires of acrimony or hostility. Paul instructs us to be forgiving and to watch the backbiting. If we are always talking about one another behind closed doors or carrying grudges, the vehicle of community will only bump and clang along.
We don’t need to reinvent the wheels of community. We only need a new set of tires. Here are the tires which I think will help us have a smooth journey.
We need the tire of charity. Paul instructs us to work in an honorable vocation. The purpose of having an honorable job is so that you are able to freely help others. Giving to the poor and needy is an essential part of the community of faith, and to do that, you need to be gainfully and respectably employed.
Notice that Paul is not requiring feelings of affection for those in need. He is talking about standards of justice and doing what is right. He is not talking about feelings of charity, but acts of charity.
We need the tire of commitment. This is the requirement for surrender of ourselves to Jesus. Commitment is an imitation of Christ who gave everything to us. We therefore give everything to him.
This isn’t a one time thing. Sometimes people have the mistaken idea that they can answer the call to come to the altar as the choir sings “Just As I Am” and that’s all there is to it. But true commitment means a daily “recommitment” to the lifestyle and values of Jesus. Commitment means the willingness to immerse oneself in the daily disciplines of Scripture reading, meditation and prayer, worship, Christian fellowship, and service.
We need the tire of clemency or forgiveness. Having the tire of clemency, according to Paul, requires forgiving others because we are aware of just how much God has forgiven us. Our Lord’s Prayer says, “Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” A community cannot long exist unless it takes to heart the need for forgiveness.
We need the tire of compassion. Ephesians 4:32 in the New International Version says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another. Compassion is actually a way of seeing other people, of putting yourself in their shoes, of understanding them at the deepest levels. Compassion means having a heart for those who don’t have the blessings of life, health, and spiritual vitality. Compassion means reaching out to the lost, the lonely, the sick, and the confused. Compassion means giving of yourself so that others might learn, grow, and live.
There is no need to reinvent the wheel. We only need to remember its true purpose. So it is with the church community. We can’t improve on the plan of God for the Body of Christ. Let’s just keep air in the tires and a willingness to get back to basics. If our life together is a little low on air, that is a problem we can solve together. All we have to do is observe how Christ loved us…and do the same.
