Paul did exactly that for the Christian communities he founded. And with his letters he indirectly also wrote to us who, on many a day, are mere babies in our ability to be faithful. Thankfully his letters always begin and end with the grace and love that can only come through Jesus Christ. He is quick to remind us of the amazing love of our Savior even if somewhere along the way he tells us some things we’re not really all that happy to hear. It kind of makes me wonder sometimes if he ever regretted hitting the “send” button. I’m sure there were people who did not take kindly to his criticism of the things they were doing. He got on their case about everything from what they believed to how they treated each other, from division in the church to their lack of discretion in following basic moral principles. He meddled in their family life, their political life, their religious life and their social life. For Paul, what one believed and how one lived his or her life were intimately related.

But given his history, of course it makes sense. In the days when he was known as Saul, he was not exactly what one might call a “good guy.” He hated those who had a different understanding than he had of who God was, and his beliefs about those “other” people led him so far as to be a part of a group that was arresting and killing Jesus’ followers. He was a zealot and an extremist on the other side. But he was hit with a revelation, a stunning experience of the love of Jesus so complete that it changed his identity and rearranged his whole outlook on life. From that point forward he was compelled to tell his story and proclaim the truth about God’s love. He had to make people listen – even if he made enemies of his former friends, even if these new converts were woefully bad at getting things right, and even if it meant landing in jail or dying for the cause himself.

With such an awful background one might wonder why Jesus ever chose to reach into his heart in the first place. Couldn’t he have chosen someone else to continue in the line of teachers of the Way? Maybe so. But what Paul could tell like nobody else was how connected our beliefs and behaviors happen to be. When we are full of hate, and anger, and venom – our behaviors come out hateful and ugly to the point of wanting to take revenge on and maybe even kill people who are different. When we are filled with the love of Jesus, all the requirements, all the barriers, all the differences and divisions seem to fade away – or at least seem far, far less important. Paul gets a bad rap for some of the things he says about the place of women in the church, and some of the things he has implied about slavery. He, as a single guy, is not shy to express his own opinions about how things work with marriage and children. And his comments about sexual values seem sometimes quite strict, and at other times he uses the taboos of the day to tell the church that if you think that’s bad, the way you treat each other is so much worse. Hypocrisy happens to be one of his favorite punching bags. For someone who said that in Jesus Christ, there is no longer Jew or Greek – he is quick to rip apart the cultural idols of both worldviews.

So whether you like to read Paul’s letters or cringe when you read Paul’s letters, one thing is made perfectly clear, he writes with absolute certainty that what we believe and how we live our lives are intimately related to each other. The letter to the Ephesians, a letter that may be Paul’s or may have been penned by one of Paul’s disciples – no copyright laws in those days – is actually thought to be written with the purpose of instruction for the newly baptized. It hasn’t the marks of being written to as specific of a congregation as we usually see in Paul, and some of the phrasing is a bit different, and yet it carries much of his characteristic message. In Eugene Peterson’s introduction to this book of scripture, he says, “What we know about God and what we do for God have a way of getting broken apart in our lives. The moment the organic unity of belief and behavior is damaged in any way, we are incapable of living out the full humanity for which we were created. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians joins together what has been torn apart in our sin-wrecked world.” (The Message, p. 1835)

In the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 6 begins with an interpretation of the commandment to “Honor your father and mother.” Even in moving from being under the law to being motivated by love – one goes back to those early childhood memories where discipline and love mingle together to begin to form our own early beliefs and teach us something about what kind of behaviors we are expected to exhibit in this world. In this text we are reminded that in the big 10, this is the first commandment with a promise attached to it. The commandment is two-fold – honor your father and mother SO THAT you will live well and have a long life – SO THAT it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. Amazingly, every little bit of healing that happens along those generational lines does seem to make a contribution not only to the quality of our life right now but to our abilities as human beings to be resistant to disease for the long haul.

In today’s world, I am mindful that there are some parental models that are not worthy of the honor of children. I suspect that has been true for a very, very long time. Obedience alone can be excruciatingly painful for children who live under the thumb of a tyrannical parent. Nevertheless, in most cases, children are able to learn a whole lot from the connection they have to their parents, and parents are blessed with the unconditional joy of babies’ smiles, and small arms wrapped lovingly around their necks. In a mutually supportive family, the love that is shared reminds us of the love of God. It teaches us that mistakes can be corrected, sin forgiven, and that love transcends the distinctions and conquers the evil of this world. We are truly blessed and the promise comes true when we honor our parents, not blindly, but knowing the humanness of their lives and how it connects with the humanness of our own. One of my favorite sayings, and I’m not sure where it came from, is that, “God loves us right now, exactly as we are, and God loves us too much to let us stay that way.” Good parents love their children in the same way – right now for who they are, and enough to keep them growing and growing in their love for God. That kind of relationship doesn’t prevent the scraped knees or any of the greater pains in life, but it does give us a foundation for living well and living long.

So how’s your baptism letter coming? Today John and Wendy are entrusting McKenna to become a part of this family. In her baptism, we recognize her as a child of God, beloved and precious. We walk with her parents as they love her and she learns to honor them. We remember our own baptisms as we connect to the love of God that is never-ending. We also promise as a congregation to nurture McKenna in the faith. We are responsible for guiding her in her beliefs and shaping her understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. And that means that she will learn most acutely from what we do. As she sees us caring for each other, feeding each other, and treating each other kindly with forgiving friendships – she will experience the joy of God’s love and grace and grow into a young woman who can wield that sword of the Spirit we give to her this day