Day 66: The Expansive Becomes Local

In the second half of Ephesians, Paul (or one of his disciples) writes about what this expansive vision of the grace of God means for the community life of the Ephesians (and everyone....).  "Live a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called", he begins, and he goes on to paint a picture of what that will look like.  Humility and patience, compassion and truthfulness -- and most of all, striving for unity, because there is only One Lord, One Baptism, One Faith, even though it looks so much different sometimes (some things never change).  There seem to be many factions and warring sects in the church (much to our detriment, Paul understands), but in reality, there is only one Body of Christ.  Speak the truth, but speak in Love.  Work together.  Come out of the darkness and into the light.  Forgive each other.

Easy words to understand, perhaps.  Harder to do, certainly.

Especially when Paul uses the words, "Be imitators of God, as beloved children."  He just throws it out there, like a bomb, an impossible thing.  In so few words, can you imagine anything so impossible?  Whether you imagine the invisible, immortal, perfect One, or whether you imagine the humble healer, to me it still comes off as mind-blowing and impossible.  Unlike God, we need to practice daily self-examination and repentance.  When Paul speaks about "telling the truth", the first person we need to tell the truth about is ourselves.   (When we get to Philippians, tomorrow, I believe we'll get more insight into just what Paul means by imitating God; at least, that's what I think.)  For the moment, what Paul means by imitating God seems to have something to do with being a Lord who does not lord it over others, does not cling to God's own power.

So one of the exhortations here is to "be filled with the Spirit", not an elective but a required course for anyone who wants to live a life worthy of their calling.  Be filled with the Spirit, guided and directed by the Spirit, returning to the life of God's spirit within you each and every day.

As the letter winds down, Paul ticks off a list of household instructions, some of which might be hard for us to swallow these days, especially those about wives submitting to their husbands.  Paul goes on to explain that Husbands, like Christ, are supposed to be lords who do not lord it over, but still, I think cultural bells go off, that make us say, "even so...."  The advice for husbands to love their wives was radical for its day, and it's interesting that while children are to obey their parents, parents are also not to provoke their children to anger. hmmmm. Interesting.  (I wonder what this would consist of.  Anyone?)

Paul closes with an extended analogy of "the full armor of God."   It is interesting to me that all of the tools are for defense (except the Sword of the Spirit).  They are not for Offense, but for Defense.   In Paul's day, anyway, Christians were much more likely to be wounded than they were to be doing the wounding.  Unfortunately, that is not always the case today.

Day 65: To Ephesus and Beyond

One thing you might notice about the letter to the Ephesians right away is that, unlike Galatians and both of the letters to Corinth, Paul has almost nothing personal or specific to say to the church at Ephesus.  That has led some people to speculate that this short letter really was not written to the Ephesians, but was a letter more generally circulated to all of the churches.  It has led others to speculate that Paul did not actually write it, but instead one of his disciples.  (It would not have been a terrible thing in those days to write a letter "in the name of" one of your teachers.)

So this letter doesn't have juicy details about the sins of the Ephesians, or greetings to individuals that we want to know more about, except Tychicuscxzgt  (Darn.)  But it does have (and you'll just have to trust me on this) those really really long sentences that Paul is famous for (you can tell this especially if you read the original Greek).  I believe the first 15 verses of chapter one are one long sentences.  It also have a wide, expansive vision of God's mission in Christ:  at the end of time, God will bring all things together in Christ, things on heaven, and things on earth.  ALL THINGS.  This is one of the places where Christian universalists get their universal hope.

So Ephesians has this expansive vision of a God who is in the reconciliation business, and this is not just about reconciling individual souls with Jesus, but reconciling strangers and sojourners, Jews and Greeks, lions and lambs, all of creation.  In Ephesians you get the impression that our individual salvation is just a teeny weeny part of a huge plan.

But teeny though we are, we are each a part of something huge:  God's plans for the re-creation of the whole universe.  The doxology at the end of chapter three gives glory to God for just this reason:  because God is doing great things through us and in us, greater than we could even ask for or imagine.

Ephesians is, in a way, like Romans.  It's a miniature theology, only six chapters long.  But Ephesians has more a missionary flavor to it, which might be why, when I was a missionary, I sort of gravitated to Ephesians.   In Romans, we have "peace through God."  In Ephesians, we have the peace that reconciles us not only to God, but the peace that reconciles us to one another.  "He is our peace, because he has broken down the wall of hostility that divides us."

So Ephesians is.... cosmic.  But, at some point, even in this cosmic letter, Paul will get down to earth.

Day 43: Paul's Journeys, until Jerusalem....

This is where it's a good idea to start looking at a map, to keep track of the towns Paul travels through, the seas he sails through, as well as the people he meets.  At the beginning of chapter 19, Paul is traveling through Ephesus and meets some believers who have not yet received the Holy Spirit.  Not only that, they haven't even heard of the existence of the Holy Spirit.  He prays for them, and immediately they begin to speak in languages and prophecy.

Coincidentailly, there are "about" twelve of them. hmmmmm.

In the meantime, things are not going so smoothly in the synagogues.  There are people who are convinced about Paul's message, but many more who are not. One small, odd story concerns some exorcists who do not appear to believe in Jesus but who like to cast out evil spirits in his name.  At one point, the spirits ask the exorcists, "Jesus I know, and Paul I am familiar with, but who are you?"

Personally, the very small detail about people being healed by touching even small pieces of cloth that have been touched by Paul is the strangest to me.  This reminds me of the stories of medieval relics that have healing power.  What do you think about this?  In the midst of all of this trouble, the power of healing through Paul only gets stronger.

Paul decides to return to Jerusalem, which a lot of people think is a big mistake.  Many people try to talk him out of it.

At the same time, Paul is getting into trouble not just with Jews but with Gentiles who feel that he has "dissed" their goddess, Artemis.  He is a friend of no one's status quo.  His truth disturbs everyone, in some way or another.  His words and presence cause riots.

Aside:  during a theological conversation that lasts all night, a young man named Eutychus falls asleep, and falls out the window.  He is pronounced dead, but Paul raises him from death.  (possibly where the saying "bored to death" is from?)  (Just asking.)

Despite many many protests, Paul returns to Jerusalem.  Many of his friends plead with him, pray for him, beg him, but he leaves.  He arrives in Jerusalem to find it just as his friends have feared.  James tries to protect him, but Paul is the center of controversy and gossip in Jerusalem, because of what people have heard about the Gentiles, and what they claim that Paul is preaching.  Paul purifies himself to prove that he's still a good Jew, and James and other Jerusalem leaders repeat what they told the Gentile churches:  all they nee to do is abstain from eating blood, eating food sacrificed to idols, and from sexual immorality.

It does no good.  Paul is set up and arrested.  He appeals as a citizen of the Empire for the right to speak.

And speak he does.

(to be continued)