John
10:11-18
“I am the
good shepherd.
The good
shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
The hired
hand,
who is
not the shepherd
and does
not own the sheep,
sees the
wolf coming
and
leaves the sheep and runs away—
and the
wolf snatches them and scatters them.
The hired
hand runs away
because a
hired hand does not care for the sheep.
I am the
good shepherd.
I know my
own
and my
own know me,
just as
the Father knows me
and I
know the Father.
And I lay
down my life for the sheep.
I have
other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
I must
bring them also,
and they
will listen to my voice.
So there
will be one flock, one shepherd.
For this
reason the Father loves me,
because I
lay down my life
in order
to take it up again.
No one takes it from me,
but I lay it down of my own accord.
I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it up again.
I have received this command from my Father.”
Ephesians
5:15-6:9
Be
careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of
the time, because the days are evil.
So do
not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Do not
get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as
you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and
making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at
all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Be
subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives,
be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head
of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is
the Savior. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be,
in everything, to their husbands.
Husbands,
love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the
word, so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or
wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without
blemish.
In the
same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies.
He who
loves his wife loves himself.
For no
one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just
as Christ does for the church, because we are members of his body.
“For
this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
and the two will become one flesh.”
This is
a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church.
Each of
you, however, should love his wife as himself,
and a
wife should respect her husband.
Children,
obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
“Honor
your father and mother”—this is the first commandment with a promise: “so
that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
And,
fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the
discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Slaves,
obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as
you obey Christ; not only while being watched, and in order to please them, but
as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Render service with
enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women, knowing that whatever good
we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are slaves or
free.
And,
masters, do the same to them. Stop threatening them, for you know that both of
you have the same Master in heaven, and with him there is no partiality.
Hebrews 13:1-8
Let
mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by
doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who
are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being
tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. Let marriage be held in
honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge
fornicators and adulterers. Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be
content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake
you.”
So we
can say with confidence,
“The
Lord is my helper;
I will
not be afraid.
What can
anyone do to me?”
Remember
your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of
their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday
and today and forever.
==========================
There is a saying on a tile that is hung on the
wall in my house. It says this:
In this place:
We do love
We do laughter
We do mistakes
We do forgiveness
We do family.
I guess you could call it a kind of household code.
At least it is the code I would wish for my household.
And you might think that the emphasis should be on
the things it says we do – Love,
laughter, mistakes, forgiveness. Family.
But I believe it is every bit as important that it
says “We” do these things. No one person is more or less responsible for them. We love one another. We laugh and bring joy to one another. We make mistakes, we all do. We forgive one another. We are family.
There is a mutuality in this. We own this household
code together.
In Ephesians today, Paul has taken what was a
familiar household code at that time, and remixed it to provide instruction on
the new code of life for Christians. This passage is not one that pastors are
typically eager to take on, and it is one that congregations can feel squeamish
about hearing. That’s understandable, because it has often been used out of
context, and held up as justification for a moral code that emphasizes power
and privilege over mutual love and respect. But we are studying and proclaiming
the Word of God this year based upon the 52 chapters of the Brian McLaren book,
We Make the Road by Walking, and whether we like it or not, this week’s chapter
47, entitled “The Spirit Conspiracy”, is based upon this Ephesians passage, as
well as the passage from Hebrews we heard, and two others from the letters and
epistles that follow the four gospels. So as much as I might have liked to
avoid this passage, we shall explore it and mine it for what God wants us to
learn from it.
The bookends of this Ephesians passage provide the
principal themes. At the beginning, verse 21 in chapter 5 states, “Be subject
to one another, submit to one another, out of reverence for Christ.” And at the
end, verse 9 in Chapter 6 states, “with God there is no partiality, no
favoritism.” The examples in between take three common relationships and the
way they would have been experienced in the culture of that time, and turn them
upside down to reveal how Christ serves the church, and so how we should serve
one another.
Let’s talk about the meaning of “being subject to
one another” first.
Subjecting yourself to one another, the act of
mutual submission, is expressed here by Paul as an act of reverence to Christ.
Paul often instructs the church to behave as Christ behaves. When we think of
Christ getting up from the table, wrapping a towel around his waist, and
kneeling down to wash the feet of his disciples, we have an absolute example of
what it means to subject ourselves to one another.
In John’s gospel, Jesus describes himself as the
good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. This shepherd subjects
himself to the sheep. The work of the shepherd is the work of submission, of
going so far as to risk his life to save the sheep. When Jesus goes to the
cross to save us, Jesus is submitting himself to us. Paul calls us to submit
ourselves to one another.
If we think about the word “submission”, and unpack
it to explore its meaning, we can see even deeper into what Paul is telling us.
Sub mission. Sub – as in supporting – and mission –
as in, well, mission. So a submission is a support of something primary.
So when we submit to one another out of reverence
to Christ, then we are committing to supporting one another’s life of
discipleship.
So wives submit to husbands AS wives submit to
Christ.
AND – husbands love their wives JUST AS Christ
loved the church and GAVE HIMSELF UP for her. To give oneself up for another is
to submit to her. So husbands submit to wives AS Christ, the good shepherd,
submits himself for the life of the church, for the sake of God’s people. Just
as wives submit to husbands. Mutual submission.
The same with parents and children. Children obey
parents, AND parents don’t push children into anger. Mutual submission.
At the time Paul was writing these letters, it was
common in a household for there to be a master and household slaves. Paul takes
this work relationship and uses it to provide another example of mutual
submission, saying that masters should do the same to slaves as slaves do to
their masters. Paul’s intent here does not appear to be the justification of
slavery, but rather the display, once again, of mutual submission as what
Christ intends for the world, what Christ has displayed for us, what we ought
to do as slaves of Christ.
Just as we have been freed from death by Christ, we
are now owned by Christ, we have been bought by Christ, and we are slaves of
Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. We obey Christ and live our lives
in obedience to Christ, out of gratitude for the freedom this life in Christ
has given us. Freed people, and slaves of Christ. Another paradox, another
mutual submission.
Paul sums up this section by saying “With God there
is not partiality, no favoritism”. This statement alone negates the way this
passage is often used to imply power of privilege or hierarchy between husband
and wife, or between parent and child, or master and slave.
And so, as God’s chosen family, how do we treat
each other with no favoritism, with no hierarchy, with mutual submission? This
is what we read all through the gospels and the letters from the apostles – but
it seems to us to be such a strange way to live. How can we be assured of our
own safety and well-being, how can we make sure we are going to be OK, how can
we control our own outcomes if we live like that?
Well, the answer is, we can’t. God already has control
of our safety, our well-being, our outcomes, our very lives. In Christ, we
live, and move, and have our being. In Christ death has been conquered, and we
live forever. In Christ we let go of the things of this life and we rest
assured that our lives have already been saved. Not life as we know it now, but
life as God has given it to us – true freedom in Christ, true life lived in the
confidence and trust that there is nothing that can separate us from God’s
love, true communion with the Holy Spirit. And yes, this is foreign to the
world as we know it. This is why we are called to be in the world but not of
it.
The mission statement recently adopted by New Life
Presbyterian Church attests to the contradiction between what the organizations
and systems and powers and principalities attempt to enslave us in, and the
upside down nature of the kingdom of God. Please turn to the inside front cover
of your bulletin and, as I read the mission statement out loud, think about
what first steps we must take to support this mission – to be in submission, in
support of mission, submitting our lives to the call that we are hearing from
God in this place, at this time.
Assured
of the new life we have received in Christ, we will live out our faith
together through worship, prayer, education, fellowship, and mission.
Being
called to love all people, we will use our gifts to serve God in an
imperfect world.
Equipped
with our faith and filled with the Spirit, we will:
- reach out in
acceptance to a diverse community;
- embrace the
marginalized and show love to all;
- feed the hungry and
care for the sick;
- search for peace and
work for justice.
This is why being a follower of Christ is akin to
being a secret agent for the Holy Spirit – living our lives in submission to
the mission of our Lord and Savior – the mission of mutual self-giving love –
between spouses, between parents and children, between work colleagues, bosses
and subordinates alike, between neighbors, between faith communities, between
one another – knowing there is no “other”, but that we are all part of God’s
family, beloved children, heirs of the kingdom. And in this place, as we gather
around the table to be fed, to receive sustenance, to be equipped for
submission to the mission, here in this place…
We do love,
we do laughter,
we do mistakes,
we do forgiveness,
we do family.
No comments:
Post a Comment