Proper 14 – Series B

Regarding the Ephesians text: This text, following upon last week’s text, continues with the metaphor of life as a walk, and we want to stick to that theme. This text, however, does something different than last week. Whereas last week described the walk only in positive terms, today we start to see the boundaries of this community, contrasting this walk with another walk. There is more than one path. Remember, the adult adoptee had to say no to the inheritance of his birth father. We are called upon to say no to the inheritance of our original master – Satan. We have renounced him, his works, and his ways. We are called out of one way of walking into another path, another walk. Today we will notice the differences. This is always a bit dangerous for the preacher. When we start to speak of these boundaries, we are liable to slip into a spiritual pride, noting that we are on the right side of this situation and smugly anticipating the downfall of the other. We remember that we all were dead in our trespasses and only by grace are we saved, through faith, not by works (Eph 2:1-10) We also want to be careful to save something for next week when this passage continues in more detail.