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Posts Tagged ‘Ephesians’

Husband as Sacred Other

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

If love is a type of submission, as I believe it is, then that is the best place to start with this controversial passage about wifely submission. You see, if ALL are to submit to one another, why must the “wife to husband” submission be “greater” or more submissive as some people imply?

Ephesians 5:22, 24
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. . . . Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

I’m still taking baby steps when it comes to loving as Christ loved others. Here’s my theory: if I can love/submit to my husband a fraction of what Christ models for me to love/submit to everyone, we’ll have a transformed marriage.

The same habitual sins I experience with others in my daily life are magnified at home. For instance, if I judge others, even people I don’t know in the grocery line or sitting in a restaurant, is there any surprise that I judge those closest to me?

Probably, the love/submission relationship was supposed to be easier with our mates, after all, we’ve made a promise to love them, to cherish them, to stand beside them through joys and sorrows, to create families, to build a microcosm of the Church (i.e. Body of Christ). Instead, we build mini-cultures that reflect the culture in which we live. In some families, that means an environment of greed, ambition, violence, mistrust, disease, and manipulation.

I missed something along the way and forgot that my own husband is “sacred other.” He is Holy Spirit illuminated too. And that is the One to whom I am to submit within him. It is not the veiled man, but the core that is holy. And it is the core of man that is more than worthy of love and yes, even submission.

Some of his veil I caused. When two people hurt each other or become estranged in any way, the darkness covers the light within on both sides. I have been looking through two layers of sin: my own and his.

It’s a uncertain business to begin peeling the layers of “outer self” in a relationship while the other is fully clothed and protected. But I am pretty sure that “outer me” cannot love/submit to anyone in the way of Jesus.

Today, I have intention and mindfulness with love and submission for the Holy Spirit.

(FD 9)

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Reverence out of Submission

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 13, 2010| 1 Comment »

This verse precedes several verses that have been held in great controversy, particularly by women. I am no different. But before I get there, I think I have slid over this first verse that actually stands alone: submit to one another and why . . .

Ephesians 5:21
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

I don’t think anyone would have trouble with this verse if it said, “Love one another out of reverence for Christ.” But, because the word is translated as “submit” or “to be subject to,” we get a little hinky about it. It sounds like doormat material. But, isn’t love about submission?

Unlike the idea of “one-upmanship,” a believer is to practice, “one-downmanship.” It’s seeing enough good in another to give him/her the opportunity to rise up, to go first, to try first, to speak first. It’s about valuing other. And that’s love, isn’t it?

In business, managers are encouraged to give credit to the team, to lift them up, to count their praises because it’s the team that makes the whole operation work better. It’s the ones on the frontline who make the leaders look good. A supervisor who praises his/her staff profusely (and authentically), is usually much appreciated and much loved by that staff.

It is no different in daily life with people I encounter every day.

Why does Paul tell us to do this? If we submit and love others, the Christ (that anointed One) will experience our reverence. And we do it because we want to show reverence. We want to be in that place of holiness.

Two Rivers by Mark Bausch

When I read about wisdom, I am told it begins with the fear (reverence) of God. Now, I get a detail, (again) if I submit/love (look to the very best in) others, then I can enter that reverent place. I am in a confluence with Christ. And that is pleasing to the Holy Spirit within.

I can’t make someone submit/love me. I can only do my share. Granted, it’s supposed to be mutual. But just because I’m not getting that sweet treatment doesn’t give me permission to act differently.

This is what so many of us fear. If I “submit,” what promise do I have that the other will submit to me? Answer: no promise, no guarantee. In fact, the other may never reciprocate.

But submit/love comes from a place of personal strength backed up by the power of the Spirit within. Jesus was the ultimate example in submission/love.

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For Everything

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This is pretty straightforward: give thanks for everything. But, over the years, I have lost the context of this phrase and as a result, it has become cliche. Why do I give thanks? To be filled with the Holy Spirit–to experience relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 5:20
. . . always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Giving thanks is a type of submission, an agreement with the giver. When I give thanks, I am in partnership with the God who I have invited to guide my life. I may not understand what is happening, but this mandate insures I enter my life with open eyes.

This is my life today. These are my burdens. This is my joy. This is my sorrow.

And when I scorn these gifts? I grieve the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit was given to me to “have my back.” There is nothing in my life that cannot be faced with the Holy Spirit–it’s God within, for heaven’s sake. That’s the promise. That’s the whole point.

So, now the real challenge: God teaches and I am asked to practice this day. Not in any fake way, but truly, with understanding, I give thanks for this day.

(FD 7)

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The Wise Way

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 12, 2010| 1 Comment »

I don’t want to sound like Master Po from the popular television show, Kung Fu by saying, “Grasshopper, wisdom is the highest level of understanding.” And then a chime dings. But maybe, just maybe, wisdom is just another word for character or plain authenticity?

Ephesians 5:15-16
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

For me, it’s still a challenge to live wisely: I have thought about wisdom for a long time. I even had a bible study group for a time, seeking wisdom, studying the words of wisdom, and the promises from operating in wisdom.

I’m putting the cart before the horse, as they say. Wisdom, or character, evolve as a by-product from our individual days and choices. There are no wise children. Their life experiences are not fully formed.

And yet, it’s not about the age of a person. It is our responses to life, to people, to God, that grows wisdom.

I’ve become so caught up in Solomon’s request for wisdom [I Kings 3:1-28] and the scriptures that encourage me to “ask” for wisdom [James 1:5], that I keep thinking of it as an anointing. If I ask, God will answer and wisdom will drop onto me like a mantle.

In verse 18b of this chapter in Ephesians, Paul says, “. . . be filled with the Spirit.” This is more likely the true foundation of all things wise.

Potentially, anyone can have wisdom from life’s challenges, sorrows, and successes. This kind of wisdom is rooted in the mind. But God’s way of wisdom involves the Spirit. And when Paul speaks of making the most of every opportunity, it’s about our relationship with Spirit. Historically, I have thought about being filled with the Holy Spirit as a “swooshy” kind of thing. I had that initial experience as a young Christian and I know it does happen. It’s a kind of anointing, an empowering presence, a wind.

But, Paul is talking about a different kind of filling here. I believe it’s part of this journey of the inner way, keeping all avenues open by avoiding those things, situations, and people that block the light and draw veils over the soul.

Most people know the proverb passage that says, “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. . . ” [Proverbs 9:10] but we sometimes forget that this word for fear is closer to reverence than anything else. And where and when do we experience true reverence for God?

Photo by Irm Brown

In my mind, the desire for “places of reverence” encouraged the initial designs of beautiful churches and cathedrals. Intentionally, they were created as places where people could feel awed almost immediately. I can appreciate this reasoning today so much better than I could before. Our contemporary churches have lost this aspect of the worship experience.

In that first study group, I asked them, where do you experience that kind of reverence or fear of God? Their answers were varied but clearly, their answers were all choices to be in those places, with those things or people, and there we are filled with the Spirit.

What conscious choice can I make today to enter the wise way, to be in a place of reverence?

(FD6)

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Living in the Light

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 11, 2010| 2 Comments »

God's Light by Max Ash

God is light [I John 1:5]; God is love [I John 4:8]. And I am offered a chance to live my life in the circle of both: light and love. I ask for God’s indwelling and both are available to me. So, why do I continue to shutter the light and edit the love? Why do I “kick against the goads?”

Ephesians 5:8-10
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.

This is the prayer that Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity would recite each day (by John Henry Cardinal Newman)

Dear Jesus,
Help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly,
that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me, and be so in me
that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me,
but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others;
the light, O Jesus will be all from You;
none of it will be mine;
it will be you, shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You the way You love best,
by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching,
not by words but by my example,
by the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do,
the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You.
Amen.

It’s a process, that’s why. It’s a daily prayer, a daily unveiling, an awareness, a practice.

I’m thinking this is more difficult alone than in a group. The whole point of fellowship with other light-minded people is to help keep the light shining, to fan the flame, to encourage the embers, to light the darkness.

“Kindle in me the fire of your love . . . ”

(FD5)

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Empty Words

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , on November 10, 2010| Leave a Comment »

'City of Words', lithograph by Vito Acconci, 1999

What are “empty words” and how do they get so much power? They can mean loud, confused talk; they can mean sheer rhetoric (wordiness); or they can be just idle talk and chatter. Words, words, words: what is said and how we say them; they all matter after all, for good or ill.

Ephesians 5:6a, 8
Let no one deceive you with empty words, . . . For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light . . .

I have been struggling so much the last few days to temper my speech. I have tried to stop myself from speaking maliciously or unintentionally “catty.” I can put such an arch in my voice that even if the words are harmless, the intent is not. I know it and I know their power.

Now, there is another layer to consider and that of empty words, the yakkity yakkity yak that has no value whatsoever really and yet can do harm. How many cliches do I use in a day and what do they bring to a conversation really?

But I still wonder about those empty words that carry enough power to bring down the wrath of God. These empty words are chosen to deceive. These are words that appear to have meaning but don’t. These are words that are spoken to give the listener what he/she wants to hear perhaps. These are “wooing” words. These words do not carry the whole truth. They dissemble. They lie.

Though I confess I have used empty words in chatter, let me not use words to deceive. Once again, make me exceedingly mindful of my words today.
(FD 4)

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Idolaters

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , on November 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

An idolater cannot see the inner way. The appeal of the outside world, where sensuality, lust for things and love of money prevail, blocks the path to the riches of God which are the inheritance of a believer: peace, love, joy, contentment, relationship.

Ephesians 5:5
For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

It’s not so much that all these things and behaviors are “bad” per se, but they cannot coexist in the same space with the things of God, that’s all.

More about idols.

(FD 3)

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