Ephesians--Chapter 5 &6

Ephesians 5 &6: Combatting Evil in Life: Take Up the Armour of God!

Comments: Last night at our Tri Church Lenten Series with our local Presbyterian and Roman Catholic churches, we discussed how we confront evil through the rituals of the church. Yesterday evening we focused on baptism. As we continue to ponder how we live as Christians, how we put on Christ in our lives, I want to set the stage for our final week's discussion by drawing your attention to this famous passage in Ephesians 6:

Finally then, find your strength in the Lord, in his mighty powers. Put on all the armour which God provides, so that you may be able to stand firm against the devices of the devil. For our fight is not against human foes, but against the cosmic powers, against the authorities and potentates of this dark world, against the superhuman forces of evil in the heavens. therefore, take up God's armour; then you will be able to stand your ground when things are at their worst, to complete every task and still to stand. Ephesians 6:10-13

How do we face evil? What is the difference between sin and evil in our lives?

Our commenters Mary Jo and Margie this week spoke about how we deal with estrangement in our daily lives:

Mary Jo said in part: "Resentments will not only kill the spirit but will eventually kill the flesh. Resentments can take over your entire life. Your entire demeanor will reflect the anger and bitterness that accompanies resentment. I try not to carry resentments. As soon as I realize that resentment is creeping into my life I will talk with someone about what is going on. Sometimes resentment is based on miscommunication or misinformation. even if the cause of resentment is based on truth, it will kill me if I hang on to it. It is impossible to be joyful, happy and free if resentment controls my life......What is the hardest thing about being a Christian? Being a Christian!....Being a Christian is like being a hero. It's not that a hero isn't afraid. The hero goes forward in spite of the fear."

Margie in South Africa said this: "To live as a Christian everyday means listening to others rather than criticising them. We need to be THERMOSTATS, not thermometers." As a part of her e-mail, Margie sent a piece on being a thermometer which said in part: "Scripture says you overcome evil with good. In your life, when you deal with those who are negative, critical, rude and short-tempered, you don't have to let them infect you. You can infect them. You don't have to be part of the majority; you can live in the minority. You can act as a thermostat, one who changes the temperature and the attitudes of those around you....when you talk defeat, you draw in defeat....You didn't let them pull you down. You pulled them up."

Do you think that being a Christian thermostat can work in the world? Can it work against not just sin but evil?

Homework: Read Chapter 6. Also, read through the text of the hymn "Onward, Christian Soldiers." (Hymnal 1982, #562) There are many who have issues with this hymn. Some love it. How might it relate to the armour of God? Think about evil in the world. How is it different than sin? How do we stand firm in a world with evil?

Ephesians Online--Chapter 4 Comments

Epheisans Online--Chapter Four Comments and Chapter Five Homework

Hi all! Sorry for the slight delay....we have received historic amounts of snow in Baltimore--about 60 inches in the past three weeks or so. We are all just now plowing out and getting back to our routines and schedules. And now...it's Ash Wednesday and Lent already. As we move into Chapter 4, we are moving from the theme of the first three chapters--"WHY" we follow Christ--to the second three chapters--"HOW" we follow Christ. As a discussion topic, I wondered if some of you had seen the movies Avatar and District 9 to think about how we are as Christians in the world. Two of you had comments that I'll share:

Margie from South Africa said about Avatar: "Lots of Violence! It reminded me of Bush sending his troops into Iraq, destroying the regime. As a Christian, I found it violent but it certainly showed how those with power can become greedy...From the side of the indigenous folk, they were fighting to survive an evil force. We need to be like Jesus in this world and not go with the flow of evil around us."

Mary Jo from Baltimore/Columbia wrote about Avatar: "It seemed to me that the indigenous people were closer to the oneness of their belief system than the invaders. I thought it was wonderful cinematography as well as propaganda. I don't often consciously think of things in a Christian context. To be honest I don't often consciously think of my actions in "Christian" terms. I do look at whether or not something reflects my values and do my actions reflect those same values."

Mary Jo went on to say: "Human nature would make me think that it was as equally difficult to live as Paul suggests at the time he wrote the letter as it is today. The challenge is to understand and/or believe in a "just war" or to beleive in no war. Is God on one side or the other...since it seems that everyone calls to the Creator for help to destroy their enemy? My mother often said that God must weep for what we do in His name."

Mary Jo also recalled a trip that she and Gert took to Jerusalem and the Chruch of the Holy Sepulcher: "The church is divided into different sections because the Roman Catholic and Eastern orthodox both lay claim to the Church. they have come to blows over who has the right to light the Easter vigil candles among other issues. For centuries the secular government has often intervened in their disputes. What an example of Christian love! In ordinary daily life we are confronted by such simple/complex issues as how to resolve differences between friends or who was first in line...and with the recent storm, who has the right to the shoveled parking spaces! For some, the answers to these issues are: to be civil, show respect, and consider others. Is this a modern interpretation of Ephesians 4:32 "be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ?"

All good comments. What do others of you think? E-mail me at mmacgill@memorialepiscopal.org if you can't get the comment piece of the blog to work for you. Lucy in South Africa: what do you think? Alice in Baltimore?

Homework for Chapter 5: What does it mean to be a Christian everyday? Let's continue the discussion we began above. What is the hardest thing to do as a Christian in everyday life? Paul talks about abandoning anger as the sun sets....is this possible in every situation? According to William Barclay, Paul ends Chapter 4 with a list of things which must be banished from life. One of those things is bitterness or pikria. According to Barclay, the Greeks defined this word as long-standing resentment--"the spirit which refuses to be reconciled." (p. 183 Barclay, The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians) What do we do about long-standing resentments? How do we follow Christ into a place of justice and reconciliation?

Let me know. Looking forward to what you have to say.

Ephesians Online--More comments and Chapter 4

Ephesians Chapters 2 &3 Comments

Initial comments: I know some of you continue to find it difficult to comment online. I heard from Margie C. in South Africa that she had trouble as well. Please do e-mail me comments at mmacgill@memorialepiscopal.org and I can include your thoughts. We are also having trouble with the blog posted to the Memorial website. So, we will finish out this course using this method, but move to a better program for our next topic. I love that we have folks in Baltimore AND South Africa studying Ephesians together!

Baltimore context: As those of you in the States know, Baltimore got a record-setting snow over the weekend. Howard County--where Mary Jo lives--got almost 40 inches. It looks like a good two feet plus in Baltimore City. While the Memorial Church sidewalks are plowed, many of the Bolton Hill streets are not passable. There were 30 locals at our Morning Prayer service this past Sunday. No Annual Meeting. Another snowstorm approaching Tuesday night! So, we can all feel a bit like Paul in prison---housebound is fun for a while and then cabin fever sets in! We can feel a bit walled off from our communities.

Speaking of Paul in prison: Mary Jo asked some good questions about if things were becoming rough for Christians in this period---including why Paul was in prison. In general terms, the safety of Christians depended on the Roman leadership. If the emperor was lax about Christian practices, there was peace for the Christian. If the emperor was threatened by the Christian practice to NOT pledge loyalty to the emperor, then persecutions began. Paul was preaching in public places and probably stirring up crowds which made the Roman powers nervous and which made him an easy mark. Persecutions became more common in the second century. An interesting note: Some scholars (Marcus Barth and Jerome Murphy-O'Connor have suggested that Ephesians was written by a follower of Paul from the Essene community of Qumran. The Essenes were concerned with principalities and powers as well as persecution from within the Jewish community.

Several themes in Chapter 1 through 3: The book of Ephesians is roughly divided into two sections--Chapters 1-3 and Chapters 4-6. In Chapters 1-3, Paul (or Paul's followers) sets the theme of God's power in Christ in the church. This theme is marked by and told through forms of prayer in Chapters 1-3. Ephesians 3:14-21 is the concluding prayer in this first section of Ephesians. Here are some interesting themes:

(1)"Rooted and Grounded:" Commentators have puzzled over this mixed-metaphor from farm and building. (3:17) Paul has used these images before when he speaks of the church or household of God "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets" and "is joined together and grows into a holy temple".."for a dwelling place of God." (2:20-22). This is a good argument that Paul or someone who knew Paul well wrote Ephesians. The building/agriculture metaphor is cound in 1 Corinthians 3:6-15 and Colossians 2:6-7. Paul was fond of combining these two images in his uncontested letters.

(2) "Rooted and Grounded" and the "Dividing Wall": In Ephesians, the love of Christ is not only a deeply rooted and cosmic all-powerful force, but this love breaks down walls. In Chapter Two, Paul writes: "But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For his is our peace; in his flesh he has made noth groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us." (2:13-14) What might this dividing wall be referring to? Some commentators have suggested that this was a reference to "the low barrier around the outer court of the Jerusalem temple on which notices were posted in Greek and Latin warning Gentiles against entry." (Bonnie Thurston, Spiritual Life in the Eearly Church, p. 86) Scholar G.B. Caird finds the term to reflect a metaphor from rabbin and biblical theology. The word phragmos ("fence" or "partition") is used in the Greek text of Isaiah 5:2 and Mark 12:1 for the hedge that God plants around his vineyard, Israel. Caird notes that in Ephesians, the metaphor may refer to God's protective hedge which has now become a hostile, rigid, legal system under Jewish nationalism. God's love is so powerful that even this hedge has been overcome. It is safe for Gentiles to embrace the Jewish heritage. Those in Christ are one.

(3) "Infinitely More than We Can Ask or Imagine": Paul ends the prayer of Ephesians 3:14-21 with these famous final two verses. Verses captured as the closing sentences in the Episcopal tradition of Morning Prayer. God in Christ is so powerful that everything is up for transformation. This passage harkens to the annunciation of Mary--"For nothing will be impossible with God"(Luke 1:37) as well as Romans 8:39: "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." These are passages that give hope across the ages. Liturgically, this section of Ephesians is chosen as the reading for Ascension Day. In Feasting on the Word, Joyce Hollyday states that "Because Christ is enthroned in heaven, we can expect the earthly thrones to be vacated by the abusive, imperial rulers, just as Mary the mother of Jesus predicted 2000 years ago (see the Magnificat Luke 1). We can trust that all will unfold "according to the working of God's great power." (Ephesians 3:19) This is indeed part of "the hope to which God has called us."

Cultural Ponderings: Over the Christmas holidays, I saw the blockbuster movie, Avatar. Over this snowbound weekend, I watched District Nine. Both movies speak to the earthly powers' (and maybe heavenly powers') destructive tendencies to the"other." Both movies speak to the dividing walls we humans are inclined to erect again and again. Since District Nine was set in South Africa, I was wondering what our South African bloggers think of that movie. In particular, how does the love of God become all-powerful in the face of violent oppression? Is violence for violence the only answer(see Avatar especially)? How might Paul respond to those situations in a letter? Or is that just too strange to consider? How would we as Christians respond to those films?

Homework: Consider the questions above and then read Chapter Four---which begins the second half of Ephesians--the half that considers how we act as Christians in the world.

Ephesians Online--Chapter Two and Three

Comments on Chapter Two of Ephesians:

Hope that everyone is reading along in Ephesians. We had two comments this week--from Lucy and Mary Jo. Here is my response:

Chapter Two of Ephesians speaks to sin and grace. I have two primary points on this chapter about context. I'll talk more about sin and grace as we move through the letter. Today I want to add to my comments last week about the religious context which Paul speak to in his Letter to the Ephesians. In her book Spiritual Life of the Early Church, Bonnie Thurston explains about the city of Ephesus and its religious character.

The City of Ephesus: According to Greek legend, Ephesus was founded by the Amazons. There were also several permutations of Ephesus. The silt in the harbor led to there being FIVE different locations of Ephesus over the years. In the first century, Ephesus had a quarter of a million inhabitants and was ranked with Antioch in Syria and Alexandria in Egypt as the three great cities of the Eastern Mediterranean. Ephesus was politically important as it was the capital of the Roman province in Asia. It was a major shipping center and was the terminal of important inland trade routes. The city was laid out in a Hellenistic plan with a stadium and theatre. Here is a good description from Thurston's book: "The luxury of the city in Paul's time(57 c.e.?) is attested to by the remnants of marble streets with statues of prominent citizens and canopied colonnades that shielded shoppers from the weather. The city contained public buildings and temples as well as restaurants, a brothel, and patrician homes. The city had six public baths with provision for both hot and cold water. " (p. 68) I like to think of Ephesus like St Peter's Square in Rome---with all those colannades and statues.

The Religions of Ephesus: Second, in addition to being a major city in trade, population and culture, Ephesus was also a great religious center. First and foremost, Ephesus historically had been the center of the cult of Artemis along with the emperor cults, gnosticism and a magical form of Judaism. Artemis was a very popular form of goddess worship in the ancient Greek world. Artemis was the daughter of Leto and Zeus and the sister of Apollo. She is also known as Diana. In most Artemis worship, Artemis is seen as a virgin hunter and moon goddess who is the protector of maidens and women in childbirth. The Ephesian Artemis was different and was more of an Asian fertility goddess and earth mother. In Ephesus, there was the famous Artemision. The Artemision was a temple which served the goddess Artemis. The temple was staffed by eunuch priests, attendants, and thousand of female slaves (who may have been prostitutes). Magic played a large part in the worship of Artemis. Biblical Scholar B.M. Metzger wrote that "of all ancient Greco-Roman cities, Ephesus...was by far the most hospitable to magicians, sorcerers, and chalatans of all sorts." (quoted in Thurston, p. 69) Thurston states that Ephesus "proliferated in magical practice, the aim of which was to gain power over the spiritual world (which, it was believed, exercised influence over all aspects of human life). Followers of Artemis saw her as more powerful than this demonic realm and that the purpose of Ephesians was to address the power of Christianity in relation to these demonic powers. Take a look at Chapter Two once again: How might Paul be speaking to those Christian Ephesians that had been part of the cult of Artemis?

Chapter Three: This chapter has the great prayer in verses 14-21. If you were listening to the Letter being read in a home in Ephesus, what would you hear in this Chapter? What would you want to know about?