Difference between revisions of "Sermon for April 28th, 2024"
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So today, we’re going to look at the Apostle Paul’s words—especially those words about wives submitting to their husbands—in the context of the entire book of Ephesians, and also in the context of a very 1st century Roman city. And then (only then) you can make whatever judgment you like, about Paul’s words, or mine. | So today, we’re going to look at the Apostle Paul’s words—especially those words about wives submitting to their husbands—in the context of the entire book of Ephesians, and also in the context of a very 1st century Roman city. And then (only then) you can make whatever judgment you like, about Paul’s words, or mine. | ||
| − | So…to recap: Paul, a lifelong, single, celibate man by his own admission, writes this letter to a church he planted in the Roman city of Ephesus. The church has a mixture of Jewish Christians and Greek Christians, and sometimes the Jewish Christians want the Greek Christians to…well, to be more Jewish. Paul has told them, no, this isn’t necessary. In Christ we are a NEW creation. But (and this is where he goes in the first half of today’s chapter) you do still have to be a NEW creation. You don’t have to adopt all the Jewish laws and customs, but you DO have to leave behind your old ways, your sexual immorality and greed (in verse 3), your obscene, silly, and vulgar talk (in verse 4), and your drunken debauchery (in verse 18). To understand this, all you have to do is remember that Greek and Roman culture, for all its gifts to the world in art, literature, philosophy and architecture, was also the culture that invented the drunken orgy and legalized pedophilia. And | + | So…to recap: Paul, a lifelong, single, celibate man by his own admission, writes this letter to a church he planted in the Roman city of Ephesus. The church has a mixture of Jewish Christians and Greek Christians, and sometimes the Jewish Christians want the Greek Christians to…well, to be more Jewish. Paul has told them, no, this isn’t necessary. In Christ we are a NEW creation. But (and this is where he goes in the first half of today’s chapter) you do still have to be a NEW creation. You don’t have to adopt all the Jewish laws and customs, but you DO have to leave behind your old ways, your sexual immorality and greed (in verse 3), your obscene, silly, and vulgar talk (in verse 4), and your drunken debauchery (in verse 18). |
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| + | To understand this, all you have to do is remember that Greek and Roman culture, for all its gifts to the world in art, literature, philosophy and architecture, was also the culture that invented the drunken orgy, exploitative child pornography, and legalized, systematized pedophilia. And all of those practices were closely intertwined with Greek and Roman religious rituals. So Paul is saying to the Ephesians, in the first half of chapter 5, you don’t have to be Jewish in order to follow Christ, but you also can’t continue to be what you WERE. | ||
Revision as of 14:53, 27 April 2024
Ephesians 5:1-33
1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3 But fornication and impurity of any kind, or greed, must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints. 4Entirely out of place is obscene, silly, and vulgar talk; but instead, let there be thanksgiving. 5Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure person, or one who is greedy (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient. 7Therefore do not be associated with them. 8For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— 9for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. 10Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. 11Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; 13but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, ‘Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’
15 Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. 23For 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. 24Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, 27so 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. 28In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30because we are members of his body. 31‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ 32This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church. 33Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.
United We Stand, Part V
A new Superstore just opened up recently in some parts of the country. It’s called “The Husband Store” and you can go there to buy…a husband. But here are the rules of the store: It has five floors, and once you go up to the next floor, you can never go back down to the previous one. One day, a single woman went into the store looking for a husband. She read all the rules, and then went into the first floor showroom, where there was a large sign that said: “Welcome to the First Floor: All the men on this floor have jobs.” The woman thought to herself that this was a pretty good start, but she had a pretty decent job herself, so she decided to go up and see what was on the second floor. There she found a sign saying, “Welcome to the Second Floor: All the men on this floor have high-paying jobs, and are great with children.” Impressed, she looked around for a while, but soon decided she wanted to see what was on the third floor. She went up, and found a sign saying: “Welcome to the Third Floor: All the men on this floor have high-paying jobs, are great with children, and are extremely good-looking.” The woman was beside herself with excitement…but a thought crept into her mind: “There are still two more floors, and things just keep getting better, so…” She went up to the fourth floor, where she found a sign that said, “Welcome the Fourth Floor: All the men on this floor have high-paying jobs, are great with children, are extremely good-looking, have a strong romantic streak…and they will do all the housework!” This, of course, was everything the woman had been hoping for in a husband. What could the fifth and final floor possibly have that these men didn’t? But now she just had to find out… so she went up the elevator to the fifth floor, where she found another sign. This one said, “Welcome to the Fifth Floor: You are visitor number 6,234,369. There are no men on this floor. It exists solely to prove the point that some people can never be pleased.
Now, before some of you get too offended, please know that you can find both versions of this joke on the internet: A Husband Superstore, and A Wife Superstore. The jokes are almost identical, just with the stereotypical attributes changed. I chose to tell you this version because in the Wife Superstore some of the attributes on each floor are not quite appropriate for a church setting.
But I also wanted you to see how easy it is to get hung up on those stereotypes—If you laughed at the Husband Superstore, would you have been offended by the Wife Superstore? Or if you were offended by this joke, would you have laughed at the other version? Or did some of you feel left out of the joke altogether?
And of course, that’s something I want you to keep in mind as we approach today’s scripture passage, which has some pretty controversial verses in it. As Presbyterians, we never just accept blindly whatever the Pastor says without critical and intellectual examination. But today, I am going to ask you to at least withhold judgment until the end of the sermon. I am going to ask you to give me (and the Apostle Paul in his words to the Ephesian church) the benefit of the doubt, and not walk out halfway through the sermon before I have a chance to bring it all together.
Another important thing we do, as Presbyterians, is to consider the scriptures in their wider context—that’s why you’ll never hear me preach an entire sermon on just two or three scattered Bible verses intended to back up a point I’m trying to make. We look at large chunks of scripture, sometimes entire chapters and books, so that we can put those difficult verses in their proper context. And it also means we don’t skip those difficult verses just because we don’t like—or better yet, understand—them fully.
So today, we’re going to look at the Apostle Paul’s words—especially those words about wives submitting to their husbands—in the context of the entire book of Ephesians, and also in the context of a very 1st century Roman city. And then (only then) you can make whatever judgment you like, about Paul’s words, or mine.
So…to recap: Paul, a lifelong, single, celibate man by his own admission, writes this letter to a church he planted in the Roman city of Ephesus. The church has a mixture of Jewish Christians and Greek Christians, and sometimes the Jewish Christians want the Greek Christians to…well, to be more Jewish. Paul has told them, no, this isn’t necessary. In Christ we are a NEW creation. But (and this is where he goes in the first half of today’s chapter) you do still have to be a NEW creation. You don’t have to adopt all the Jewish laws and customs, but you DO have to leave behind your old ways, your sexual immorality and greed (in verse 3), your obscene, silly, and vulgar talk (in verse 4), and your drunken debauchery (in verse 18).
To understand this, all you have to do is remember that Greek and Roman culture, for all its gifts to the world in art, literature, philosophy and architecture, was also the culture that invented the drunken orgy, exploitative child pornography, and legalized, systematized pedophilia. And all of those practices were closely intertwined with Greek and Roman religious rituals. So Paul is saying to the Ephesians, in the first half of chapter 5, you don’t have to be Jewish in order to follow Christ, but you also can’t continue to be what you WERE.
