Do Not Let Things Fester

The Daily Prayer of the Church continues with Paul’s letter to the Church in Ephesus:

 

Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

 

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, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. (Eph. 4:17-32).

 

Paul tells us that we must give up our old ways of life, that we must not let the sun go down on our anger, and that we should work honestly with our hands, not speak evil, and put away all bitterness and wrath.  The failure to do so, says Paul, makes room for the Evil One in our hearts.  Paul is right.  We can let things fester in our minds and hearts. We can dwell on perceived slights to the point that it takes over our lives.  Paul calls us to turn away from such things and to live in the light of Christ who makes all things new again.

 

Let us pray:  Eternal Father, you gave to your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be the sign of our salvation: Plant in every heart, we pray, the love of him who is the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMINDERS

 

Annual Parish Meeting this Sunday, 5 January 2014.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Karen Lehr.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550