Sermon for the Lord’s Day

July 12, 2009

Rev. Lorelei Hillman

Interim Associate Pastor

Ephesians 1:3-14

True confessions time: how many of us are ‘addicted’ to our cell phones?  Can’t live without ‘em, carry them everywhere, they’re on the nightstand when we go to bed?  And how many of us would secretly, really, like to bury them in the back garden or put them on the hibatchi?  I have to raise my hand for both!  But it’s not entirely the poor cell phone’s fault…  We have a cell phone ‘dead zone’ in our house.  You get a call, then it’s ‘dropped.’  Or you can hear, then you can’t, you find yourself shouting, ‘Can you hear me now?’  Then the call is dropped.  You have to sit at the northeast corner of the dining room table, or go into the hall bathroom, or the master bedroom to have a decent conversation, or out in the back yard.

In terms of their faith, this was the sort of situation that the recipients of the letter we call Ephesians were in.  They were feeling a bit ‘disconnected’ – the message was coming through, sometimes clearly, sometimes not so clearly, and some of it was getting dropped.  They were Christians living in a time of transition, when nothing is certain except that change is happening, and they didn’t always know what they meant by ‘being Christian.’

The letter itself says it is written by the apostle Paul, and that it is written to ‘the saints who are in Ephesus (1.1).  The majority of biblical scholars call this a pseudonymous writing, and ascribe it to a devout follower of Paul, a person well-versed in Paul’s own writings and theology, who sends the letter in Paul’s name.  We do know that this was an accepted practice in the first century; relationship was more important to authorship than chronology, so if a pseudonymous author wrote in a recognizably continuous way from their mentor or teacher, the writing was considered to be valid.

Scholars studying Ephesians look carefully at the text, considering any historical ‘match-ups’ that will help date it.  Then they read into the text, looking for clues in the language and the message.  What are the concerns addressed?  Does the word-choice and grammar appear to be similar to letters which are accepted as Pauline?  In the case of this text, there are several marked differences.  First, the writing style is fairly different.  This becomes more important when we realize that a great deal of the letter either refers to Paul’s other letters implicitly, or that the author even quotes sections of Paul’s letter to the Colossians verbatim.  The author knows Paul, but writes in his own style.

Then, too, Paul’s theology is clearly present, but the author uses it in new and fresh ways, particularly to address a different context – the readers of Ephesians were likely not Ephesians!  The author comes across as not known to them, and Paul was very well-known to the church in Ephesus, having helped to establish it, and having lived with them for several years.  Still, connections can easily be made between this letter and Paul’s letters to the Romans, the Colossians, the Galatians, and the Thessalonians.  He (we are assuming the author is male) also uses the Hebrew Scriptures extensively, which honors Paul and his Jewish, Pharisaic background.

Taking all of this into account, and reading carefully into the text, scholars discover that some primary Pauline topics have shifted in focus.  Paul was constantly battling the influence of other Jewish Christian teachers who claimed that in order for a pagan to become a Christian, they had to become a Jew first!  In Ephesians, this appears not to be an issue; rather the author is encouraging the recipients to remember their heritage in Judaism, to stay connected to their religious roots.  Again, the emphasis and expectation Paul put on the soon-to-be-realized return of Jesus Christ is not evident here.  Instead, the focus is on the present reality of Christ and the current, transformed, everyday life of the believer.

Why is any of this important?  Well, to do our best to understand what Scriptures might have to say to us today, we need to be able to consider the context of the writing.  Knowing the context – the historical situation, political and social elements, the author’s background, etc. – help us figure out what the broader message is.  The general conclusion about Ephesians is that it was written by a person who knew and loved the theology of Paul, and was probably written to a church or churches in western Asia Minor (but not to Ephesus) around 80 or 90 AD.

This is the post-Paul, post-apostolic period.  All the first Christian leaders who had known Jesus, or had lived in Jesus’ time, were gone.  The church was, in a sense, set adrift, or set free, from its moorings.  The powerful voices of Peter and James and Paul, and the steadying influence of the other disciples was gone.  The church in transition had a lot of work to do.  They had been pagans, and had become Christians.  Still, they lived in their native pagan society.  Gnostic thought, which depicted the cosmos as layered, from divine heaven through the spiritual realms of atmosphere to the decadent and evil reality of earth, was reasserting itself in their understanding.  Old social norms and cultural customs were beginning to blur the edges of their new faith.

Here is something of what we can know about the churches of this post-Paul, post-apostolic period:

·        Without the strong leadership and guidance of the apostle(s), they struggled to form a new, more mature and independent concept of who they were in Christ.  Were they everything they were supposed to be?  Did they have to be what Paul had said they should be?

·        Was their identity only secured in their apostle, or did they, as a church, determine their own values, goals and priorities?

·        How did all of this translate into ‘the everyday’ – or did it?  Was their faith an in-group reality, or were they meant to be different from their society in all of their values and activities?

The author sees their need and does not flinch.  He comes into their understanding, uses their own symbols and reinterprets them.  This would have pleased Paul, who said to the Romans, “See that monument to the unknown god?  That god is Jesus.”  What the author of Ephesians gives back to the readers is their connection – to their history, to their faith, to their future.  He reassures them:

·        God is in control.  Everything is going according to God’s plan.

·        God’s plan is good.  We can trust it.  God has our best interests at heart.

·        The Gospel is valid.  With or without our trusted, beloved leadership, the Gospel is still in play.  In fact, what we see as temporal is, in fact, eternal.  Remember, Jesus died, but that was not the end of the story, only the beginning.

·        What you have ‘bought into’ is cosmic in scope.  Both heaven and earth are involved.

·        You are part of this, and not just passengers.  Here, we particularly note the language about ‘adoption’ and ‘inheritance.’

·        The promise holds true, and you know it, for you have experienced the ‘seal’ of the promise in the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Praise be to God!

Now, let’s return to context for a moment.  What do we know about transition, and its effect on groups of people, which might help us make sense of what the author is doing?  In transition, people’s feelings can be quite mixed.

      On the one hand                                              … And on the other

      Fear of the unknown                                   Excitement about the adventure

      Grief at loss(es) experienced                         A new energy

               Of stability                                                       A sense of expectation

               Of relationship                                                For making new friends,
                                                                                           getting closer to old friends

               Of the familiar                                                         For trying something new

Not only can different people be experiencing different feelings, but a single person might be feeling all of these things at once!  Anxiety and emotion generally run a bit high during times of transition.

The author has a pastor’s response to the needs of this congregation.  How does he do this?  One of the most striking things about this letter is its high and constant use of liturgical language.  In a sense, the author seeks to ground and to assure the readers in their faith by inviting them into holy space.  When we are, as a community of faith, about worship:

·              All of our thoughts are focused on what is primary and essential about our faith.  God is our center.

·              Which means we can transcend our anxieties and even our expectations, as we are reconnected to our being. (second time, touch bread and cup)

·              We re-establish our relationship – individually and as a community – with the Beloved, our Jesus. (second time, indicate whole table)

Move to the Communion table.

Context is everything.  From this place, what do those same statements mean? [Repeat three points above]

And from this context, let’s go back and hear again what the author is saying to the church in transition:

·        Everything is going according to God’s plan.

·        God’s plan is good; we can trust it.  God has our best interests at heart.

·        Our leadership cannot be taken away.  It is eternal.  Remember, Jesus died, but that was not the end, only the beginning.

·        What is happening here is cosmic in scope.  Heaven and earth are both involved.

·        You are participants, not just passengers.  You are adopted.  You are God’s children, not slaves.

·        God’s promise holds true and you know it – you have received the seal of the Holy Spirit.  This is your inheritance, both honor and responsibility.  Praise be to God!

To God be all glory, now and forever!  Amen.

Resources

Martin, Ralph P.  Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon.  Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.  John Knox Press; Atlanta, GA; 1991.  ISBN 0-8042-3139-7.

Perkins, Pheme.  Ephesians.  Abingdon New Testament Commentaries.  Abingdon Press; Nashville, TN; 1997.  ISBN0-687-05699-3.

Lincoln, Andrew T. and A.J.M. Wedderburn.  The Theology of the Later Pauline Letters.  New Testament Theology.  Cambridge University Press; New York, NY; 1993.  ISBN 0-521-36721-2.

Ephesians 1:3-14

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴just as he chose us in Christ^* before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. ⁵He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ⁸that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight ⁹he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, ¹⁰as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. ¹¹In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance,^* having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, ¹²so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. ¹³In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; ¹⁴this^* is the pledge of our inheritance towards redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.