Thomas J Parlette
“Walking and Talking Like a Christian”
Ephesians 4:25-5.2
8/8/21
I’ve got a pop quiz for you today – how many steps does it take to walk around the world? Since we aren’t Jesus and can’t walk on water, we are excluding oceans and major bodies of water. Well, there is a website that measures such achievements as walking around the world. According to their calculation, it takes the average person around 20 million steps to make that walk. Can your Fitbit measure 20 million steps? I don’t know – it might melt down at 10 million.
Among the handful of people who have proof that they completed this walk is Steven Newman, the first person to walk solo around the world. It took him 4 years.
The first woman to do it was named Rosie Swale-Pope, who at 57 jogged around the world to raise money for various charities. She wore out 50 pairs of running shoes by the time she finished.
A man named George Meegan holds the record for the longest unbroken walk. He traveled 19,019 miles in 2,425 days. (1) My legs are tired just thinking about these walks.
Did you know there is a travel company in England called WorldWalks? They specialize in setting up walking and hiking tours all over the world. They hire experienced world travelers and hikers to serve as guides. However, there a few walks that even their guides won’t attempt. On their blog, WorldWalks list 5 of the toughest walks in the world. These hikes are so challenging that you can’t even hire a guide for most of them. But you better not try to walk them alone – because there is a high risk of injury.
One of these walks is called “The Snowman’s Pass” in Bhutan, a tiny nation near the Himalayan Mountains. The Snowman’s Pass takes at least 20 days to complete, and even the most experienced hikers say that only about half of the people who attempt actually finish it. I don’t know about you – but they lost me at Himalayan mountains. Nope, don’t walk to go on that hike, thank you very much.
Another challenging walk is in the Kalalau Valley in Kauai, Hawaii. This trail winds through jungles and under waterfalls and through steep, narrow passageways that are so dangerous, no guide will accompany you on this trip. If you choose to tackle the Kalalau Valley trail, you’ll have to walk it alone.(2)
We often speak of our faith as a journey, a walk with God – which can also be considered among the hardest walks you can do. Our Bible passage from Paul’s letter to Ephesus alludes to this walking in the way of love, walking in the footsteps of Christ, in the things we say and the way we live.
Paul wrote this letter to the believers in Ephesus to teach them in practical terms how to be Christians, how to be the church. The early church was made up of all sorts of people – rich and poor, Gentiles and Jews, slaves and free, men and women. They were confronting centuries of prejudice and cultural differences. People who were completely divided by ethnicity, race, class, culture and gender were coming together to create a brand-new, never before seen movement.
And imagine how these new believers felt when they understood Paul’s background. Before Paul became a Jesus-follower, he was a member of the prominent Jewish sect called the Pharisees. The name Pharisee actually means “the separated one.” Pharisees separated themselves from the people around them by their religious devotion. And Paul’s commitment to the Pharisees drove him to persecute those who followed Jesus, even participating in the stoning of a Christian named Stephen.
So when Paul speaks about the life-changing, radical love of Jesus, people sit up and listen. Paul is making the point here that their commitment to Jesus doesn’t set them apart from others. In fact, Paul says, Jesus-followers will be known by how well they live in community with other people.
Paul’s strategy for teaching these new Christians how to be followers of Christ, how to be the church was really quite simple. He pointed them to Jesus himself. Live like that. Be imitators of God. Live in love or as it says in some translations, walk in the way of love, just like Jesus did. Basically, Paul points out three kinds of ways that we show the love of Christ.
First of all, walking in the way of love requires an active love. In Jesus’ life, love was a verb, not a noun. Love was an action, something you did, something you engaged in – not a feeling or an emotion.
Almost 100 years ago, there was a Scottish pastor by the name of George Morrison who preached a sermon on the subject of “unconscious ministries.” He said that other people watch what we do more than what we say. Anyone with children knows this to be true. Our attitudes and actions have a tremendous influence on those around us, even if we don’t realize it. By remaining faithful in hard times, by choosing our words and attitudes carefully, by humbling ourselves in a culture that glorifies self-promotion, by choosing to walk in the way of love, we are exercising an “unconscious ministry” that causes others to experience the presence of God.(3) To accomplish this, it might take a radical transformation.
The Gilman Greyhounds are a high school football team in Baltimore, Maryland. Back in the early 2000’s, they had a coach named Joe Ehrmann. Under Ehrmann’s leadership, the Gilman Greyhounds went undefeated for a number of seasons and were the top-ranked football in the Baltimore area.
But Joe Ehrmann’s main purpose wasn’t leading a winning football team. Joe Ehrmann saw his main purpose as teaching his players a new definition of masculinity. According to a profile of Ehrmann in Parade Magazine, he believed that true masculinity is based on “loving relationships and living for a cause greater than yourself.”
Ehrmann taught his players the ethic of servant-leadership, putting others’ needs before their own. He even created a rule that if any of his players saw a student sitting alone in the cafeteria, then that player was required to join the student and eat with him.
Seniors on the Gilman football team were also required to present an essay at the end of the year with the theme, “How I Want to Be Remembered When I Die.”(5)
Coach Ehrmann brought about a radical transformation in the culture of his football team because he encouraged his team to walk in the way of love.
Quentin Hogg was a British educator in the late 1800’s in London, England. He felt such compassion for the poor street kids in London that Hogg disguised himself as a shoeshine man and worked alongside them so he could understand their needs. He realized that many of these children were in desperate need of an education, so he began teaching them to read by using Bible texts. Hogg founded a training school for the poorest children in London to provide education, job skills and religious training.
Quentin Hogg once wrote to a former student, “We hear much talk about creeds, professions of faith and the like; but I want you to remember that when God started to write a creed for us, God did it, not in words that might change their meaning, but God set before us a life, as though to teach us that whereas theology was a science which could be argued about, religion was a life and could only be lived.”(5)
When God started to write a creed for us, God didn’t do it in words. God did it through the life of Jesus. Jesus went out into the community, into the fields and marketplaces, the synagogues and the homes to meet people where they were. By some estimates, Jesus walked over 3,000 miles during his three years of ministry. He wasn’t waiting for people to come to him, he went to them. He was always going out to preach and teach and heal and spend time with people. He put his faith into action and walked and talked in the way of love. And that’s exactly what we are called to do today – to demonstrate an active love.
Walking in the way of love also requires consistent love. In the Bible, this is referred to as “steadfast.” It refers to love that is reliable and unchanging. The Christian life would be so much easier if God would let us define love any way we wanted to. We want to define love in terms that are conditional, emotional or circumstantial.
Conditional love says, “I love you if…” or “I love you when…” Conditional love says, “You’re not lovable yet. You’ve got to earn my love. Once you meet my standards, then I will love you.”
Emotional love says, “I will love you until my feelings change. Until I no longer get that spark when I see you. Until you make me angry or disappointment me.”
Circumstantial love says, “I will love you until our circumstances change. Forget about those old wedding vows of “for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.”
But God’s love, as demonstrated through Jesus Christ, is consistent, it is steadfast, unconditional, everlasting love. People will experience the presence and love of God when they see us walk in the way of love consistently.
There is an old story about 4 religious scholars who were debating about their favorite translation of the Bible. One of them liked the King James version. One of them liked the Good News version, and another stood by the Revised Standard version. Finally, the last scholar spoke up and said, “I personally prefer my mother’s translation.”
The other scholars were amused by this statement until the man explained his choice. “My mother translated each page of the Bible into her life. It is the most convincing translation I’ve ever seen.”(6)
Walking in the way of love requires an active love. Walking in the way of love requires a consistent love. And finally, walking in the way of love requires a sacrificial love – just as Paul notes that Jesus gave himself up as an offering for us all.
There is a mission organization in Grass Valley, California, called Christian Encounter Ranch. It is a residential counseling program for young people who come from backgrounds of substance abuse, abandonment, neglect, and many other forms of abuse and trauma. Through outdoor activities, Bible studies, and counseling, many young people find healing from their traumas and a new life of hope and purpose.
Almost 40 years ago the board and staff of Christian Encounter Ranch came up with a unique way to raise money for their ministry. They sponsor an annual 24-hour bike ride on the last weekend of July. It consists of 24 hours of riding through challenging nature trails in the hottest part of the summer months in California. It’s no surprise that this unique fundraiser is named the Agony Ride. Every year, the Agony Ride raises thousands of dollars for ministries at the Ranch.
Mikenna Kossow is a former resident at the Ranch. Now she participates in the annual Agony Ride. She says, “I struggled with feeling loved, seen and important when I came to the Ranch as a student. During my first Agony Ride, I was amazed that complete strangers who didn’t even know me or the other students, would put themselves through complete agony for 24 hours to make sure we could experience the healing we needed and could feel the love of Christ from being in community. I ride now to show current students that they are not alone, that someone cares about their healing and that they are deeply loved.”
The Executive Director at Christian Encounter Ministries, Nate Boyd, says, “Many of our residents have wrestled their whole lives with a haunting question – “does anyone actually care about me?” The Agony Ride answers this with physical, indisputable evidence. It stirs up hope that life may be worth living after all, and it provides the means to pursue that hope.”(7) You could say those people who ride the Agony Ride are actually riding in the way of love.
In our passage for today, Paul invites us to walk and talk in the way of Christ. You can invite people to church, you can study the Bible, you can participate in community ministries, you can do all kinds of things to tell people that you are a follower of Jesus. But if you walk in the way of love and speak life-giving words to people, you won’t have to tell them. They will know your faith by your active, steadfast, sacrificial love.
May that be so for us all.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, pg71
2. Ibid… pg71
3. Ibid… pg72
4. Ibid… pg72
5. Ibid… pg72
6. Ibid… pg73.
7. Ibid… pg73-74
