Spiritual Progress

Rev. Patty Ebner

August 4, 2019

When I woke up yesterday morning, I began my day with a cup of tea, some reading and silent meditation.  I pulled this card from a box of inspirational words which reads:  “Right now, in this moment, your soul has again created opportunity for you to be, do, and have what it takes to know Who You Really Are.  Your soul has brought you to the words of wisdom and truth before.  What will you do now?  What will you choose to be?”

I then picked up “Jesus Calling” written by Sarah Young.  The reading spoke to the power of words, how they can either bless or wound another individual.  Its words emphasized “the ability to verbalize” as an “awesome privilege” and one which requires assistance in wielding this mighty power in a responsible way.”  God’s concluding promise in the devotion was “I will enable you to be quicker to listen and slower to speak so that you may have more Joy.”  I can’t imagine that more appropriate words could be placed on a document for a minister who spends a majority of her time in conversation with others or at the pulpit on alternate Sundays.

As I began to mentally prepare for today’s message, I was once again reminded just how much I respect, admire and appreciate each of you.  Quite often though, what I know about you and the high opinion I hold of you, works against my ability to bring a message which will inspire and challenge you, to bring a message which crosses the “t’s” and dots the “i’s” in your paths to a fuller understanding of God and God’s purpose in your life.  After all, you are a really great group of people, with strong and open minds, souls full of love and acceptance.  What are the words which will make a difference in your lives?

Fortunately, I learned in seminary that the purpose of the preacher’s message is to “share the good news.”  In reading the words of this morning’s scripture, one might wonder where the good news appears in words which ask us to give up all of our earthly desires, whether material or behavioral, to live a life hidden in Christ, and finally to peel off the labels which have defined us and helped others to better understand us.  To that end, I looked at the verses in four different versions of the scripture. In an excel spreadsheet, I compared the words from one version to another to see if anything in particular stood out to me.

I noticed that tenses are often different from one version to the other and that certain behaviors are named differently.  “Fornication” as “sexual immorality”, “passion” as “lust,” and “greed” as “covetousness” or idolatry.  While none of these are surprising or out of the ordinary, I really appreciated the expansion of “seeking” to “setting one’s heart on” the things above.

In verses 8 and 9, I noticed that “getting rid of” language was changed to “putting them all away,” and “stripping off” was expressed as “taking off” or “putting off.”  I appreciate these modifications as well.  Putting them all away could mean that if I want to find them again, I can choose to do so.  And putting off might indicate that a certain behavior is always available to me but does not have to be embodied every single time I have the urge.

In verse 10, I love the active, dynamic presence of God, through which we are being renewed.  “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its Creator.”  While the words are slightly different in each version, what’s critical is the knowledge that our understanding of, our interactions with, and our relationship to God our Creator, is dynamic and always subject to change.

Finall