April 26, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Find out what pleases the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5.10; 25-27)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Before leaving these verses, I want to reflect on one more view (unless the Lord by His Holy Spirit has more to reveal to me to share with you). I draw our attention to the illustration of Paul’s instruction to the Faith in Christ community founded in Ephesus. Ephesus was a vital city in the scope of the Roman Empire. It was essentially the capital of commerce and trade for Asia Minor. As some have said, “All roads lead to Rome,” something similar could be said for Asia Minor that “all roads lead to Ephesus.” At such a crossroads we would also find the metropolitan experience of many cultures colliding, intersecting, connecting and [like oil and water] existing separately together. The confluence of ideologies was as powerful to channeling life as say that which challenges St. Louis, Missouri, with the waters of the Missouri, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers co-mingling throughout their seasons. Having flown into St. Louis many times, I am aware of the effects of such a confluence for air travel with rising, falling and swirling winds above the waters. More than once, my head came close to meeting the overhead compartments even with seatbelts on. It is a harrowing experience. I might add it is a “narrowing” experience, too, as in those moments you attention is refined and singularly focused. I believe Paul had something like this in mind as he sent word to the community of faith in Ephesus. Even within their congregation a number of ideas and propositions existed which reflected the bringing in of the world to worship as authoritarian. Paul needed to remind them of maintaining their focus on who and whose they were. By faith and faithful commission of their duties and expectations as followers of Christ, as are we meant to be, they become the benchmark by which the world should define and understand itself. If the world comes into that house of God, it is for transition, transformation and consecration. As the old is called to pass away and the new is brought into being, so then they would return to the world to immerse it with the love of God by faith in Jesus as the Christ.

Immersion. That concept exists in the teaching of Paul to the husbands, and prospective husbands, within that Ephesian community of faith in Christ. Paul said, “…cleansing her by the washing of water through the word.” The image is clearly referring to baptism. In Greek the word is baptizmo, or immersion. Regardless of references to baptism by water or the Spirit, the sense given is that of “immersion.” Immersion is to be fully engulfed, surrounded, engaged and under the influence of. And while I understand other forms of “water” baptism such as sprinkling and pouring over or upon the head, there is little room for debate as to the practice of immersion to be symbolic of the “life, death and resurrection” of Jesus. It is emblematic, and thus an instructional witness, as are the elements of bread and cup in the service of communion. Paul is directing husbands to immerse their wives in the word of God with the vitality of the Living Water, as Christ called Himself. It wasn’t the only thing they should do and do well, but it was the centering practice of sacrificial love/immersion in the word/presenting her to God as holy and blameless. What a calling to be a Christian husband! Even I know how much I have fallen short in this which leads me all the more to reflect on this with you and for you. We are being made perfect in Christ Jesus. Just because we were baptized doesn’t mean we were instantly perfect and without fault. We were made clean of the past so that we could pursue a most certain future that leads to eternal life with… God in His Heaven.

The message, remember, becomes a double-edged sword of sorts in that it not only refines and defines the relationship of husbands to wives, but also of the Church and Christ. Not that we have to tell Jesus what His role is supposed to be, though sadly it seems many try, but that we understand what Jesus is doing for the Church because of His great love for Her. She is His spiritual bride. As She becomes more and more in tune with the awareness of that singularity, then embracing what He has done, is doing and will do for Her becomes all the more important to understanding who She really is and is meant to be. These three elements [sacrifice, immersion, presentation] are critical in all our relationships. There is not one relationship we should have in any of our circles of influence that is not governed by these three elements. They are as crucial as the elements of communion in bringing our awareness to focusing on Jesus who is the Christ. He offered them to His disciples and thus to the Church as instructional opportunities to “remember Me.” The question is two-fold as well: who is it we are truly saying we remember and how vitally are we remembering Him? Practicing such remembering in our daily lives at home, at work, at worship and at leisure allows the remembering to become our default behavior and mindset. The day will come when all of that will be presented before God as a testimony of our lives. It is presented not that God has no knowledge of it but that we are aware of that moment when we must hold ourselves accountable for it. In remembering the Parable of the Pounds, we know what happens to the one who did nothing with the gift so that it would not be lost. Instead of investing his life into the nurturing of the sacred trust of the Master, the servant buried the gift and then went on about his life as usual. He, too, was unchanged and thus unchallenged. The result? Barrenness, emptiness and utter despair. Is that we want from our relationships? Is that what we want for the Church?

I ask you.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.