Acts 2:1-21

Who doesn’t want to be like the early church?!  I know I do.  Who wouldn’t want supernatural signs of the presence of God such as speaking in foreign tongues and having tongues of fire over one’s head and having 3000 people turn to Christ in one day?!  Who doesn’t want the unity, the joy, the growth, and the excitement?

Then why don’t we have these things?

There are 2 general answers.  On the one hand, we could all be a bunch of spiritual losers who just don’t measure up to the faith and love and holiness of the early church.  In this theory, the church has been on the road to de-evolution (“Are we not men?  We are Devo”) ever since the first century.

But I’ve got a problem with this theory.  If the church has been in decay ever since, shouldn’t we have evaporated by now?  Shouldn’t we all have become devils?  The truth is the early church was not as universally holy as we make it out to be, and we’re not as universally on the highway to Hell as we make the world out to be.

Theory B, please.  Theory B is that the things of the early church were needed for a particular time in the early life of the church, and these things have passed away.  We shouldn’t look for such things because God works in different ways now.

Certainly, there’s a lot of truth in Theory B.  Most Christians who have ever lived never spoken in tongues and never will.  God’s miraculous manifestations have never been the normal way He comes to us, and they never will be.  I’m not holding my breath for Him to place tongues of fire over my head or manifest Himself through me to thousands by a mighty rushing wind around me.

But surely there’s something about the early church that we all love and want to emulate.  If we don’t have the kind of love, unity, and joy they had, then we ought to examine ourselves for the reasons why.  On the other hand, we live in very different circumstances from the 1^st century church in Jerusalem, and sometimes our inherited assumptions about the church and how it ought to be need to be re-evaluated.

Maybe there’s a theory C, in which we are to be like the early church in principle but not in every detail.  Maybe there’s a way to affirm the continuing work of the Spirit in our lives without falling into a dead literalism in reading Acts that misinterprets the work of the Spirit today.  I sure hope so!

All of this is to say that when we read through Acts, or the letters to the churches in the New Testament, we should look with both of our eyes opened and focused.  With one eye, we should see what the Spirit wants to show us about how we should live as His Temple.  This may be a painful and challenging process.  With the other eye, we should look and see that not every detail about the early church is normative for our experience today.  Just because something happened in the book of Acts or the early church doesn’t mean that it has to happen that way today.

For today, I choose to allow myself to be both inspired and challenged by the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the early church.  In Pentecost, I am reminded that the Holy Spirit is alive and well on planet earth.  He may not come in the same way as He did to the apostles in Acts 2.  But He is just as alive and active.  My job, and yours, today, is to look for signs that He is here among us.  Think of it as a spiritual scavenger hunt.  Only you’d better be prepared to look in some unlikely and ordinary places.

The Case of the Missing Holy Spirit in our lives is like Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Purloined Letter,” in which the most important letter was invisible because it was so visible and out in the open that it was overlooked.

By Pentecost, I am assured that Jesus Christ truly ascended and now reigns at the right hand of the Father.  Pentecost is a sinew that connects the ascended Christ with His Body here on earth.  On Pentecost, Jesus Christ truly began continue to do and teach the things He began while He was physically on earth.

And therefore every day in the life of a Christian is a day of Pentecost.  Every day is a Feast of Firstfruits, in which we give thanks that the Lord has provided increase in our lives by His Spirit.  Every day is a new giving of the Law, the Law that is written on our fleshy hearts and not on stony tablets.  Every day is a day that we are enabled to keep God’s holy Law because by His Spirit we are united to Christ and His righteousness.

Every day is a new Genesis 1 in which we are given life and renewed in the inner man by the Holy Spirit, and every day is a day that the Spirit of God has breathed new life into us, the life that is the Son.  Every day is the day that our dry bones are made alive and the promise of the resurrection is renewed, even as it’s rehearsed by our daily ritual of rising from sleep.  Every day is the undoing of Babel and a false human attempt at unity, for every day is another day spent in the unity of the Spirit who makes real to us the one Body and one Spirit, the one God, one faith, and one baptism.

Every day is a day for us to truly be the Body of Jesus Christ once again.  No matter how much we may have disintegrated or strayed since yesterday, today is the day of Pentecost, and the Church and her marks are all here, every day.

The church is one, and so we are called to be of one accord and to share a common space and share common lives.  I’m currently reading a book about the ways in which the Internet and new media are restructuring the way the church is.  Your very act of reading this is one embodiment of this, for without the Internet, there would be no Give Us This Day and many of you would not know me.

The Church is holy, represented by the tongues of fire.  The Spirit of Christ is the Holy Spirit of God, and so if we want what the early Church had we must seek their holiness.

The Church is catholic, represented by the tongues from many different nations.  Even while we inhabit our local churches, we must also seek the fullness of the church in our cities and towns and lives.

The Church is apostolic, and so we must hear anew every day the words and teaching of the apostles, and enter into their holy lives.

Who wants to be like the early Church?  Then seek to hear and see and feel the Holy Spirit today.  For if you truly find the Church, there you will find the Spirit, and where you truly find the Spirit, there you will find the Church.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, powerful Consoler, sacred Bond of the Father and the Son, Hope of the afflicted, descend into my heart and establish in it your loving dominion.  Enkindle in my tepid soul the fire of your Love so that I may be wholly subject to you.  We believe that when you dwell in us, you also prepare a dwelling for the Father and the Son.  Deign, therefore, to come to me, Consoler of abandoned souls, and Protector of the needy.  Help the afflicted, strengthen the weak, and support the wavering.  Come and purify me.  Let no evil desire take possession of me.  You love the humble and resist the proud.  Come to me, glory of the living, and hope of the dying.  Lead me by your grace that I may always be pleasing to you. Amen.  (Saint Augustine of Hippo)

Point for Meditation:

1.  Sing an appropriate hymn such as “Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove” or “Come Holy Ghost, Our Souls Inspire” (Hymns #369 and #217, respectively, in the 1940 Episcopal Hymnal). 

2.  In what ways might the Holy Spirit be coming into your life today?  Prepare for such visitations that when they occur, you will be ready to respond appropriately. 

Resolution:  I resolve to seek one thing in the presence of the Holy Spirit today: peace, love, joy, unity, or whatever else He is telling me I most need. 

© 2012 Fr. Charles Erlandson

The Holy Spirit – CC Image courtesy of Librarian by John Kroll on Flickr

Acts 1

“The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach . . . ” (Acts 1:1).

I find this to be one of the most illuminating verses in the New Testament.  Yes, it is a little strange to think so, but then if you’ve been reading Give Us This Day you have seen strangeness and oddity (and even weirdness) bubble up from the surfaces of the page, like crude oil, black gold, Texas tea, bubbling up in Jed Clampett’s back yard.

Luke’s “former account,” is, of course, the Gospel According to St. Luke, and if you read Luke 24 and Acts 1 back to back you’ll realize they belong together like man and wife, like peanut butter and jelly (or banana).  What does Luke say about his Gospel?  That in it he wrote about the things that Jesus Christ began to do and to teach.  This can only mean that in his present book (“The Acts of the Apostles”, which some later editor added) he will be writing about the things that Jesus Christ continues to do and to teach.

Which brings us to verse 9.  In verse 9, Jesus ascends into heaven, never to be seen in the flesh again until we get to heaven.  But this presents an interesting little tension in the lives of Christians: how can Jesus Christ be around to continue to do and to teach when He’s sitting at the right hand of the Father?

The answer to this question is why I think this little, odd verse is so illuminating.  In the book of Acts, St. Luke is writing about the words and works of Jesus Christ as the Spirit of Christ lives in the Body of Christ to be the presence of Christ on the earth.  The main character of the book of Acts is therefore not St. Peter or St. Paul, the greatest tag team in history, but Jesus Christ Himself, as He works through the Holy Spirit who indwells His Body, the Church.

But sacred history doesn’t end with Paul in prison on page 1875 (in my Bible): it continues through our lives.  The same Jesus Christ who changed water into wine, healed the blind, deaf, and dumb, and raised Lazarus from the dead is the same Jesus Christ who had Peter and John heal a lame man and had Paul stand preaching on Mars Hill is the same Jesus Christ who helps me to write Give Us This Day every day and helps you to raise your kids.  In fact, now that the Body of Jesus Christ has been broken and blessed and is distributed throughout the world and even populates Paradise again, the truth of Jesus words become clear: “he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father” (John 14:12).

The Ascension of Jesus Christ is the turning point in the life of Christ and His Church.  The Ascension marks the changing of the guard from Jesus Christ of Nazareth in a local body to Jesus Christ ruling the earth through His mystical Body.  In reality, the work of Christ can’t be separated: the Incarnation, His life, His Passion, His Crucifixion, His Resurrection, His Ascension, and His Session are all part of the same centrifugal love that has come down to redeem those He loves.

Sometimes Catholics may over-emphasize the Incarnation, Evangelicals may over-emphasize the Cross, and Charismatics may over-emphasize Pentecost.  But they all hang together.

But the Ascension is a very visible and dramatic change in how God works on the earth.  At the Ascension, Jesus Christ is glorified and seen for who He is.  At the Ascension, man enters heaven for the first time, in the person of Christ, and He is the firstfruit of many more to come.  What in heaven’s name is Jesus doing in heaven?  He is preparing a place for us (John 14).  He is acting as our High Priest and from heaven makes intercession for us.  One of the things I’ll bet He’s most fervently praying is that we may do His will on earth as He does it in heaven!

It is with the Ascension, which is but the transition to Christ’s Session or sitting at the right hand of the Father, that Jesus takes his rightful place on the throne and begins to rule.  This is why, since we are united to Him, we also are kings and rule with Him.  Primarily, we are the kingdom which is ours to rule, and when we rule ourselves and own households well, then we get promoted and can begin to rule other parts of the creation.  It is, therefore, through us that Christ now reigns on the earth.  This is the significance of the Incarnation and Ascension and all other parts of Christ’s ministry among us and with us.

Christ’s ascension to heaven is also the ultimate reminder that heaven is most truly our home, and His being there is the sure promise that it is our eternal home as well.

It’s because Christ ascended to heaven that He sent the Holy Spirit, and all of the events of Acts 2 and Pentecost and our lives proceed from His life and work.  As He sends His Holy Spirit to us, He is with us, as He promised.  As His Holy Spirit dwells in us, we become His Temple and Body that do His heavenly will and participate in the establishment and manifestation of His heavenly kingdom here on earth.

The unity and power and glory that comes from Christ’s presence in us by the Spirit is manifested in the dynamic, creative, inspired relationship between the Church and the Gospel.  It’s not entirely accurate to say that the Bible came first, is it?  If you remember your church history, you’ll remember that Peter, Paul, and others speak of the resurrected Christ and begin acting as the Church before the New Testament was written down.  In order for there to even be a Word of God for us to receive, there must have been a Church, a body of God’s people who heard God speak, were gathered together, and who eventually wrote down what God inspired them to write.  It was in the life of the Church, and never apart from it, that the Scriptures were written, shaped, and received.

But the Word of God, originally oral but now written down, is not only birthed by the Church but also births the Church.  For from hearing the Word of God, as delivered by the Church and her ministers, others receive the gift of faith and believe and bring new life to the Church.

Look for this godly dynamic between Church and Gospel throughout the book of Acts and in your lives.

The Gospels, then, are about what Jesus Christ began to do and teach, while Acts and our lives are about what He is continuing to do through us, by the Spirit.  If only we could recognize and remember how close the Lord actually is to us and how united we are to Him, the reputation and power and glory of the Church, and especially of Jesus Christ, might be something more than we see it in our day.

What a wonder: that Jesus Christ, who is my Lord and my God, not only lives in me but has also chosen to work and to teach through me!  Such a wonder deserves, demands, a wonderful response of faith and faithfulness, of love and humility.

Prayer:  Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord, Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

Points for Meditation:

1.  What was the response of the apostles to Jesus’ Ascension?  What should your response be to the Ascension? 

2.  In what ways has Jesus Christ worked and taught in your life?

3.  In what ways does Jesus Christ desire to work and teach in your life?

Resolution:  I resolve to remember to praise Jesus Christ for His Ascension and His work in my life all throughout the day today. 

© 2012 Fr. Charles Erlandson

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

We should all remember the vision of Jesus Christ that St. John records in Revelation 1 (you might want to read it today).  I want that image of the bright-as-the-sun Christ to be seared into your memory forever.  Maybe we should all go out and stare at the sun for a few seconds to remind us of who Jesus really is.  He is not the baby-faced, Bearded Girly Man Christ of Victorian pictures: He is the visible glory of God the Father.  He is the retina-dissolving sun!

“And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13).  He is the Judge of all creation, under whose feet God has put the earth like a sapphire floor.  He is the One who is seated at the right hand of the Father, sitting on His throne, the Judgment Seat.  He is the Holy, Living, Fire that will purge all sin and unholiness with His refining fire.

And He’s comin’ to git you!

But in one of the greatest instances of theological whiplash recorded in the Bible, immediately after verse 13, we hear verse 14 (duh!): “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”

This Jesus, who is infinitely more glorious than the angels or the sun, is sitting on His Judgment Seat at the right hand of the Father.  But it turns out that this Judgment Seat is also a Mercy Seat, the one which was enthroned between the cherubim and pictured in the tabernacle and temple.  Though we tremble and quake and fall down as if dead before Him, and His hand is heavy upon us, He also offers us that hand and says, “Come on up here with Me.”  After making sure that you find your way to the lowest seat in the House, He invites you to the best seat in the House, beside Him.

Though we come whimpering and wailing in weakness before Him to whom we must give an account of every thing we’ve ever said and done on earth (let that settle in a minute, and see how you feel!), He tells us to approach Him with boldness and confidence, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (verses 16).  Martin Luther explains the theological whiplash of verses 13 and 14 like this: “After terrifying us, the Apostle now comforts us.  After pouring wine into our wound, he now pours oil.”

But we come boldly, not on our own, but only through our great High Priest.  If you come before God boldly and confidently in your own self, you will be prostrated before God, never to rise again.  God will smack you down!  If you waltz into the presence of God and say “Here I AM, now bless Me like you said you would!”  Duck!  God will not let such unbelief and pride go unpunished.  How arrogantly we come before God, though!  How much we cheapen the price that Christ paid for us, whenever we let His goodness go to our heads and we think that we have made ourselves acceptable to God.

But if you come, laying hold of the Judgment Seat which is Christ Himself, and clinging to the Mercy of God which is Christ, then God will indeed bless you.  Jesus Christ, your High Priest, God Almighty, humbled Himself that you might be exalted.  But not without going through Him.  This Jesus Christ humbled Himself by becoming a man for you.  He learned obedience because of your disobedience.  He suffered for your sins, and He who was perfect became sin for you.

He is your sacrifice, and it was a costly one. This High Priest Himself offered up petitions and prayers to the Father, for you.  Consider the night on which He was betrayed.  Jesus, the Lamb of God, knowing your sin and disobedience because you, like Judas, are His betrayer, set His face to endure the Cross.  But because He was a man, He came before the Cross with unspeakable anguish.

Sometimes, we imagine that what Christ suffered was only what a man would suffer.  And yet some men have faced death and even died on the Cross and have not resisted it as fiercely or with as much anguish as did Jesus.  Is He somehow less than we suppose Him to be?  No, but His anguish and what He endured is much greater.  He knew that He was not merely facing physical death for Himself but that on the Cross He would take upon Himself every sin you’ve committed today, and not just the 1 or 2 that you just barely managed to remember but the other 1000 that you can’t even remember or acknowledge.  He took upon Himself all of your yesterdays’ sins and all of your tomorrows’ sins, and all of mine and all of every humans.  And not just the sin but also the penalty for them, which is death.  He who knew no sin became your sin and guilt and judgment, all in one, and this is what he feared and dreaded.

And so He prayed so that He dropped drops of sweat like blood and offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death (verse 7).

Now if Jesus, being God and being perfect, knew how to pray (and in fact prayed more than we do), don’t you think that it would be a good idea for you to learn to pray?  If Jesus turned to the Father as He took your sins and guilt and death upon Himself, don’t you think that you can manage to pray for those same sins and guilt and death?  He actually paid the terrible price for those things, but all you have to do is to come with vehement cries and tears and come boldly before your High Priest.

How did Jesus come before the Father?  With godly fear (verse 7)!  He who was God came before God with godly fear, knowing the Holy One to whom He had come, and knowing what it would feel like to come before the All-Holy One carrying the sins of the world.

And yet we come with our sins as if they are nothing.  Worst of all – we don’t come at all, as if we don’t still need to, as if God’s grace is automatic, even if we don’t cry out with anguish and vehement tears and cries.  But I believe that the root of all sin and evil is prayerlessness.  The ultimate sin, the one unforgivable sin, is unbelief.  It is refusing to come before God and throw ourselves on His mercy.  It is to take His good gifts without returning to His Temple, which is Himself, and return thanks.  It is to believe that we don’t need His help and can manage in life without Him.

But the Son of Man, God Incarnate, needed to pray.  And He was heard because of His godly fear. God, give me godly fear!  Because of Jesus’ godly fear, the Father delivered Him from death.

Wait a minute!  Not so fast!  I just said that Jesus prayed with a godly fear and that because of that godly fear He was heard.  But I’m forgetting something.  Jesus died.

Here’s the pattern:

Jesus saw what taking on Himself the sin and guilt and death of the world would mean.

He cried out to the Father with vehement cries and tears and in godly fear that the Father would take this cup from Him.

Because He came in humble prayer and with godly fear, the Father heard His prayer.

Then the Father says “No, I won’t take this cup of suffering from You.”

Then, in a few hours, the Father sends Him to die on the Cross.

When this happens to us (and it does all the time), do we believe that God has heard us?  The Father heard the anguished, godly, fearful prayers of the Son.  He heard, and said “No.”

And yet He did deliver His Son from death: He raised Him from the dead.  But not before He suffered and learned obedience through what He suffered.  Now if the Father so treats the Son whom He has loved for eternity past and with the love that only God can have for God, then how do you suppose He will treat you?  Being united to the Son, I hope He treats me exactly the same way.

What if God had heard the anguished prayers of the Son and said “Yes” to them (in the way that we, and not God, mean “Yes” – that is, my will be done)?  You and I would still be in our sins.  You and I would have no right to come boldly before the throne of grace and appear before our High Priest.  You and I would still be on the Highway to Hell (“and I’m going down!)

Maybe we’d better re-think how we approach God in our prayers.   Maybe we’d better re-think how we want Him to respond.  God’s “Yes” is not our “yes.”  His ways our higher than our ways.

If even, especially, the Son had to suffer and learn obedience through His suffering, then I’ll gladly have the same.  I want to eat all of Jesus, not just the icing.  If the Son can suffer all things for me, then I’ll gladly suffer a miniscule amount for Him.  If He had to suffer to learn obedience for me, then I’ll gladly enroll in His School of Suffering that I can learn to be like Him.

I’m ready to graduate from the School of Milk to the School of Solid Food.  In Hot Springs, Arkansas, there’s a homeschooling group called Solid Rock Academy.  But I want to enroll in the Solid Food Academy.  I’m ready to sink my teeth into the banquet that Christ has spread before me, which is nothing less than Himself.  But when I eat Him, I’ll be eating all of Him, and that means I’ll have to eat His suffering before I can feast on His glory.

Bon appetit! 

Prayer:  Almighty God, Lord Jesus Christ, my great High Priest, who sits enthroned in glory in heaven: hear my prayers and supplications today.  I ask that You would give me a godly fear such as You had; be with me in my temptations and overcome them as You overcame the Tempter; teach me obedience in Your school of suffering, as You yourself learned obedience; and grant me grace in my time of need, which is always now and in all things.  Amen.

Points for Meditation:

1.  Examine the way that you’ve been approaching God in prayer.  Have you been praying as you should?  Have you come with humility and confession?  Have you come with boldness and faith?

2.  Consider the vision of the Christ to whom you come for prayer.  Meditate on both His power and glory, but also His humanity and mercy.

3.  In what ways is God calling you to maturity, perhaps in prayer, obedience, or suffering? 

Resolution:  I resolve to boldly come before the throne of grace in prayer today. 

© 2012 Fr. Charles Erlandson

David Miles – One Like the Son of Man

Luke 24:44-53

The last verses of the Gospel of St. Luke are the final measures of the greatest symphony ever written.  The final movement of St. Luke’s Symphony includes the last several chapters of Luke, and here in verses 36-53 we have the final resolution and bringing together of all the themes and actions Luke has introduced earlier in his masterpiece.

In these several verses, St. Luke actually reaches all the way back to the Old Testament, to Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, to have all things be brought to Christ and come to serve Him.  Everything in the Old Testament is talking about and points the way forward to Jesus Christ.  Your old Sunday school teacher was right: the answer to the question is “Jesus Christ.”

Jesus, who has been connecting Old Testament prophecy with Himself all along, also reminds the disciples that everything He had been teaching them for the last three years and especially the last several weeks were the very things that were coming to pass in their midst.  The Christ had to suffer and rise the third day, and now He had done it.  Repentance and remission of sins had to be preached in all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, and that was now about to begin.  Of course, you have to listen to St. Luke’s other great Symphony, The Acts of the Apostles, to hear about this part of Jesus’ ministry.  But St. Luke makes it clear in Acts that the Church, the Body of Christ, is to continue and complete all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, and so on the day of Pentecost, St. Peter preaches that men should repent and should be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38).

Jesus connects His earthly ministry with His heavenly ministry, by promising the Holy Spirit, who will inhabit the Body of Christ so they can become His ministers and perform His ministry.

And then, after connecting the past of the Old Testament with the present Resurrection and the future coming of the Spirit and the spreading of the Gospel, Jesus ascends to the right hand of the Father where He now sits and reigns over the new heavens and new earth.

St. Luke’s Symphony has come to a magnificent and glorious conclusion!

But there is one small finale, and it occurs in verses 52 and 53.

So many emotions and thoughts must have passed through the disciples’ souls; it’s hard to imagine what they must have been feeling.  Sorrow had been turned to joy, and this joy was so enormous that even faith, for a time, was crowded out.  They marveled and saw and listened, and I can imagine a crescendoing harmony of voices and emotions and thoughts all being coordinated, all coming together, each playing its part, until the climax comes and Jesus is lifted up into glory at the right hand of the Father.

What more could there possibly be?

Only this: their faithful response.  “And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God.  Amen.”

The great crescendo cannot simply end but gives way to great joy and worship.  In my head I imagine the end of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” which ends with a terrible, mad, skyrocketing crescendo of instruments that gives way in the end to one sustained piano chord that connects that frenzied crescendo with all of life that must follow the end of the music.

Our response today should be the same as theirs: amazement and joy and worship.  While we have not experienced the intensity of the presence of Jesus as they had, this same Jesus who has ascended into heaven has shed forth His Spirit upon us.

Our response, then, should be to behold Him once again.  It should be joy – and exceedingly great joy that cannot be contained and that trumps the sorrow of this life and the fog of the ordinary.  Our response should be exuberant, praise and worship both night and day for our Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done. 

Prayer:  Father, I thank for loving me enough to send Your Son.  Jesus, I praise You because You perfectly obeyed the will of the Father and died and rose and ascended for my sake.  Spirit, I rejoice in Your ministry in the life of Your Church that continues the ministry of the Son.  Fill my heart this day with joy, and make my mouth to overflow with Your praise.  Accept my worship of You today, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 

Points for Further Meditations:

1.  Meditate on the ascended Jesus Christ, and especially how He blessed His disciples. 

2.  How can I make room and make time for joy today?

3.  Conduct an extended meditation throughout the course of the day on the entire earthly ministry of Jesus from His birth to His Ascension. 

Resolution:  I resolve today to take some time to meditate on Jesus’ ministry, both in His earthly ministry and in His heavenly ministry in my life.  I resolve to rejoice and to worship Him today.

© 2012 Fr. Charles Erlandson

Adoration of the Lamb from Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece – from Wikipedia entry on Ghent Altarpiece

James 4:8-17

In the beginning of Chapter 4, James unveils the lowest layer, the very foundation, of our spiritual warfare: it is the battle within each of us between pride and humility.  All throughout the Bible, the two paths a man may walk are presented in terms of a binary choice.  In Genesis 3, it is the choice between obedience and disobedience.  In the Psalms and Proverbs, it is the choice between the way of the wise (righteous) and the way of the fool.  And here in James, it is the choice between pride and humility.

While James only deals briefly in Chapter 3 with the real cause of the earthly and demonic wisdom of an evil tongue, here in Chapter 4, he lays bare the foundation of sin that we might better destroy it.  “Why is it,” James asks, “that you have wars and fights and that your tongues have become restless evils?”

James’ answer is: “Because you are proud.”  Out of your lusts you want what you want, and when you don’t get it, you sin even more.  You lust and do not have, and therefore you covet or become angry.  You are angry and you start feuds and fights because you don’t have what you want, and you don’t have because you don’t ask.  You don’t ask because that would mean falling humbly on your knees before God, and even when you do ask God you ask for things only so that you can spend them on yourselves.

At the root of all of this is the master sin of Pride, which is the desire to put myself first.  And here is what God has to say about pride: “I resist the proud, but give grace to the humble” (verse 6).

If you think back to all the times you or others have been unhappy or angry or ready to start a fight – what’s the reason?  Isn’t it because you didn’t get your way?  Isn’t this, this insult to our pride, to our always being first and getting our way, the root of our discontent, anger, and fighting?  It grieves me how many times throughout the day, usually in small ways, that I am temporarily upset or angry simply because things don’t “go my way.”

We find ourselves muttering to ourselves such wonderful affirmations as: “I’d like to catch just one break today!”  “Why does it always have to be about you?”  “Everyone’s against me.”  “I can’t believe she would do that to me!”

The way of pride is the way of the fool, and if we persist in putting ourselves first then we will become very frustrated, bitter, and angry people.

But the way of wisdom is to submit to God (verse 7).  It’s not just that we fight against other humans.  No, the real person we contend with is God, who has given us our daily and life circumstances.  It is God and His holy will that we refuse to submit to every time we exalt ourselves.

If you want to be wise, if you want to live in peace, and if you want to honor God, then submit to God.  Exalt Him by obeying Him, and humble yourself before Him.  James mentions a lot of ways in which our humility (which is closely related to love) should manifest itself.  First, we should humble ourselves by praying.  To pray is to acknowledge who God is and who you are and that only God can give you what you need.  To come in prayer, therefore, with a list of selfish wants or desires, is therefore to be proud again, and it negates the very reason for prayer: which is to humble yourself before God.

We are to resist the devil (verse 7), and he will flee from us.  This is another form of humility: to resist the desires and temptations of the devil and to flee to God.  When you flee to God, since Satan can’t stand Him, Satan will flee.  Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you (verse 8).  Only someone who is truly humble can draw near to God – either that or a fool who is not afraid of catching on fire.  If you truly draw near to God, it will be in humility.  It will be with the humility of Isaiah who cried out “Woe is me!  For I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips!”  If you truly draw near to God, you will realize that you are not worthy to be called His son or daughter, and you will prostrate yourself before Him.

When you have drawn near to God in this way, then the devil will flee.  When you draw near to God in this way, then you drop all your pretenses to being King or Queen of your world, and the pride and its children of lust, anger, and fighting will vanish.  But you must come with an intention to be purified.  “Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Lament and mourn and weep!” (verses 8-9).  Why?  Because of the holiness and glory of God and your own sinfulness and humiliation before God.

But when you come humbly before God, freely confessing your own unworthiness, then God can work with you again.  Then God says to you: “Humble yourself in My sight, and I will lift you up.”

This kind of humble and fearful drawing near to God is at the heart of James’ wisdom.  Do you want to be a doer of the word and not only a hearer?  Then humbly draw near to God and exalt Him.  Do you want to be impartial in your judgments?  Do you want to avoid being a hypocrite, and do you want to be loving and faithful and peaceful?  Then humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

It’s risky business, this humble giving up of self to God.  We have known too many people to whom we have given ourselves, and sometimes they have shattered us.  But not God.  God is utterly trustworthy and faithful to you, if you draw near to Him.  If you truly come before Him out of your own sin and weakness and humility, then God will lift you up into His presence.  He will exalt You into His bosom and receive You as His own beloved child.

Draw near to God in your humility and weakness, and God will draw near to You in all His glory, strength, and love. 

Prayer:  Father, I draw near to You today.  Please accept my broken heart and humility before you, for it is all I have to offer.  Allow me to draw near to You that You might draw near to me.  When You come near, expose to me my pride and selfishness and cleanse me of my sins.  Through the humility and exaltation of Your Son, lift me up into Your presence today that I may be your faithful child, full of joy in Your presence again.  Amen. 

Point for Meditation:

Examine the pride in your life – any way in which you seek yourself first before God or others.  In what ways does this pride manifest itself?  In laziness, anger, lust, fighting, discontent, greed, covetousness, lying, etc.  Seek to understand that your pride is behind all of these.  Confess all of your sins connected to pride.  After you have confessed, spend some time in your humbled state, receiving the grace and consolation of God, trusting that if you have humbled yourself before Him, He will lift you up.   

Resolution:  I resolve to freely confess all of my sins before God, especially the sin of pride.  I resolve to humbly come before God with all of my sins and weakness, and I resolve to fully trust in His promise to draw near to me. 

© 2012 Fr. Charles Erlandson

James 1:1-17

Et tu, James?  You, too, along with St. Paul and others are commanding me to rejoice in my trials?

To which St. James replies simply: “Exactly.”

Do you think maybe God is trying to tell me (and you) something?

Like St. Paul, St. James begins his letter not with a whimper but a BANG!  “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.”  From the beginning of his letter, James makes it clear that trials, testing, tribulations, and suffering are going to be a major focus of his.  With all of the attention paid to this theme by the apostles, it must be something God is extremely desirous that we understand.

It’s a great encouragement that James helps us out by explaining what always appears as a mystery and usually as an oxymoron to us: that we should be joyful in trials.  In fact, what James is doing is explaining how life in God’s kingdom works, and his point is not just one about joy in trials but also about the humility that is necessary to live in God’s kingdom and presence.

James tells us that when our faith is tested, then it produces patience, which if it is allowed to work in us will perfect us and make us complete.  This is such an incredible benefit from godly patience and joy in trials that I, for one, want to know what it takes to get this patience that will make me complete in Christ.

Unfortunately, James doesn’t tell us directly, but I believe it gets back to the idea of humility and submission before God, without which it is not possible to see God.  The connection between our humility, God’s blessing, and our ability to have joy in trials is seen in James 1:1-12 in three ways: in relation to patience, poverty, and prayer.

First, James tells us that when we face trials, our faith is tested.  This is not a punishment from God but an instrument of His divine shepherding, and therefore it is neither to be feared nor resisted.  But patience is required if we are to receive life’s trials in such a way that we also God’s blessing and joy through them.   Patience is required because God is under no obligation to take away our trials or suffering immediately.  Just as our physical muscles need to be exercised by physical resistance in order to grow larger and stronger, or even to maintain a constant state of health, it’s also true that our spiritual muscles need this resistance of trials in order to be healthy and strong.

Surely, this is a mystery, but in some way God has ordained that through trials, and not apart from them, we will grow in holiness and perfection.  Patience is required, though, because God wants us to trust Him and His method of leading us, rather than trusting in ourselves or even in His gifts instead of Him.

James shows us that humility and submission before God are necessary as well by his teaching on those who are rich.  It might be that James just happens to insert 3 verses about the rich because it just happened to strike him as important at the time.  Or it might be that it is related in some way to his teaching on trials in verses 2-8 and also in verses 12-18.  One way of seeing this connection is that the lowly brother, who has a trial known as poverty, will be exalted if he receives it as a means God is using to increase his faith, patience, and joy.  On the other hand, the rich man who does not use his good gift (and it is a gift) of earthly riches for God’s purposes, is actually humiliated, even if he doesn’t know it.  The rich man, his riches, and his pursuits (verse 11) will pass away very soon.  The riches that he thinks of as his pride and joy are actually his humiliation and ruin, if he does not humble himself before God.

The third way James teaches the importance of humility in receiving our trials with joy and as a means of blessing is in its relation to prayer.  How can we have joys in trails?  Often we don’t know.  How can we be delivered from our trials or profit from them?  In both cases, the answer is to humble ourselves before and pray to Him.  When we pray, we are acknowledging that God is greater than we are and that we cannot do anything without Him – and that is the beginning of wisdom.  Even when we don’t ask for wisdom, by faithfully turning to God in prayer, we are acting in a wise manner.  When we pray, God comes to the aid of His people.  It may not be immediately (because He is teaching us patience and to wait on Him), and it may not be the way we want (because He is in charge and not us), but when we pray with faith, God will give His people the gift of patience to endure our trials, the patience and humility that God is really after.  Finally, when we pray our faith is strengthened, even if that isn’t what we specifically asked for.  In the act of prayer, we are acting humbly, wisely, and patiently, and all of these things have their effect in strengthening our faith.

So now you know how and why James can command you to count it all joy when you fall into various trials: it is because God is using those trials to produce in you patience, faith, joy, and humility.  In other words, we have joy in our trials because God Himself is with us, blessing us through them.  One way to sum this all up (and you’ve probably heard me say it before) is that the reason we can have joy in our suffering is because Jesus is with us in them.  And where Jesus is, there is joy. 

Prayer:  Almighty God, I humble myself before Your holy face this morning, knowing that you desire my humility.  I come, knowing that I am not worthy to come before You nor strong enough to face my own trials.  Increase in me, Lord, my patience that I may see Your hand in my trials, and, having seen You in and through them, receive Your joy again.

Point for Meditation:

Reflect on how you have been receiving your trials lately.  Examine whether or not you have received them with joy, patience, faith, and humility.  Choose one particular trial you now find difficult and practice responding to it with one of the virtues listed above.  Remember to make prayer a part of your response. 

Resolution:  I resolve to practice patience, faith, prayer, and humility today when a trial comes to my attention.

© 2012 Fr. Charles Erlandson

Joy – CC Image courtesy of Librarian by apgroner on Flickr

Ephesians 6:10-24

Have you ever gotten involved in something that suddenly revealed itself as being a lot more serious than you thought?  For some, this happens in marriage, and they are like Jacob who thought he had married Rachel.  But Behold! it was Leah!

For Diedre Cobb, it was joining the Army Reserves and facing the difficult task of trying to explain why it took her 2 years to ask herself whether or not she believed in fighting wars.  She wrote in her application for the discharge, “At the time, I believed that the Army was an organization focused on furthering world peace. . . . .  I knew the military killed people,” she admitted when asked to explain. “I didn’t understand it was a cycle – that there was no end to it. There is no peaceful outcome of war.”

When asked to sum up how she thought this mess got started, Cobb declared, “Hasty decisions make great mistakes. That’s how I got into this trouble.”

Now it’s easy enough to laugh at poor Diedre, but I’m willing to bet that there are a lot of you out there who have made the same mistake she made.  There are a lot of us who have joined the army and didn’t think we’d be expected to fight.

And yet in Ephesians Chapter 6, St. Paul makes it all too clear that every Christian has in fact signed on in God’s army, and every Christian – whether he recognizes it or not – is in the middle of a very real spiritual war.

In all of our work in God’s kingdom, of which St. Paul speaks throughout Ephesians, we are always fighting a spiritual war.  All of life is spiritual, and there are no demilitarized or neutral zones.  The battleground of the war that we signed up for when we became Christians is our family relationships, our work relationships, and the Church.

In other words, your daily life is the place where the cosmic battle between good and evil is staged.  You’re not invited as a spectator: you’ve been recruited as a warrior.

There are 4 things you need to know about this war:

1.  we are in a real spiritual war

2.  we have a real enemy

3.  we have an invincible leader

4.  we have been given invincible weapons

All around are signs that we are in a spiritual war: our national sins of greed, abortion, divorce, addictions, violence, etc.; disunity in church; churches obeying the words of men rather than the Word of God; and the sin in each of our lives.

Do not be fooled: these things are not “normal” but are signs of sin and death – and a spiritual war.  And you are smack dab in the middle of that war – like it or not, believe it or not.

In this war, we have a very real enemy, and this enemy consists of Satan (verse 11) and principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this age, and spiritual hosts in the heavenly places (12).  But the enemy is also in the people around us.  He has even infiltrated each of us and has established a presence there.

It is good to know something about our enemy.  The Devil, the general of the Enemy forces is our adversary and God’s Adversary.  He is wily and seductive.  He is a roaring lion seeking to devour us, if we are not alert.  He is a deceiver and the Father of Lies.  He is powerful (verse 12), cunning (verse 11), and evil (verse 16).

Unfortunately, Satan has many helpers.  The truth is you are not able to defeat our enemy by yourself, and if you try, you will be defeated.  Satan is much weaker than we often think he is, but he is also much more clever.  In military conflicts, a wise military leader who is weak must learn to use his resources wisely: this was true for great generals like Hannibal and Rommel.

I don’t see Satan or a demon under every rock or in every temptation of ours.  Frankly, I believe that if Satan and all the demons tried to cause all the sin in the world, they would find they could only control a small part of the earth.  So instead, being crafty, Satan lets us do his dirty work for him.  Our strongest enemies are really the flesh and the world, and Satan allows them to do most of his work.  I believe he generally chooses to get involved personally only at key moments, such as when someone is in the process of changing sides in the Great War, when they are baptized or re-dedicate their lives to God, or often when we pray.

It is the sin within us – how we follow ourselves and not God, how we do not love others, how we lead ourselves into temptation – that are our strongest enemies, and Satan makes great use of them.

As strong as Satan may seem, we are the ones who have an invincible leader.  I think it is a sign of Satan’s weakness that he puffs himself up and makes us think he is great.  In reality, the battle between God and Satan is like a cartoon I saw: maybe some of you have seen it.  It’s called Bambi Meets Godzilla.  In this 1 minute and 29 second cartoon, Bambi is gently grazing in a field for nearly a minute, and then . . .  well, I wouldn’t want to spoil the ending (but if you want to see it for yourself, it’s at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXCUBVS4kfQ )

My point is that, power wise, God is like Godzilla, and Satan is like Bambi.  It’s nowhere near an even fight, so let’s not do Satan any favors by flattering him for a second.

Though Paul doesn’t directly mention Jesus Christ here as our leader or our general, there can be no doubt that He is.  We must remember Him in all spiritual warfare and that He is infinitely more powerful than Satan, the world, or our flesh.

About 2500 years ago a Chinese writer named Sun Tzu wrote a famous book on war called The Art of War.  Its ideas are such an excellent distillation of military wisdom that it is still read by military strategists.  There are 5 constant factors in any war, 3 of which I find apply directly to spiritual warfare.  Sun Tzu’s first constant was that, “The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.”  This is the way we must follow Jesus Christ, our Ruler, into spiritual war.

The second constant factor is that “The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage and strictness.”  Our Commander has every virtue, every thing necessary to lead us to victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil.  He has been tempted in every way, yet without sin.  He has already conquered the Enemy and knows how to help us do the same.

We have an invincible leader who has already conquered His enemy, and He has given us invincible weapons.

Sun Tzu’s first 2 points focused on the Ruler or Commander; his 3^rd point focuses on the way that warfare is waged:  “By method and discipline are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.”

In Ephesians 6, St. Paul asks us to focus especially on this third point – method and discipline – this is why he discusses in some detail our spiritual weaponry.  We must remember that the Lord not only fights for us but also fights through us.  Whatever God asks us to do for Him and through Him, He equips us to do.  And so He equips us militarily for the battles He expects us to fight.  He has given us every weapon we need: go back and read verses 14-18 (I include verse 18 because we must never leave out prayer, which I liken to the food of God’s army, which marches on its belly).

Rather than explaining each in detail, I want to make one important point.  These 6 weapons are not to be understood apart from Jesus Christ.  These are not things we simply add to our own natural powers: instead, they are nothing less than aspects of Jesus Christ Himself.  Just as He is the New Man we are supposed to put on, He is also the Armor of God that we must put on each day.

In summarizing the art of war, Sun Tzu said:  “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.  If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

To which we as Christians must add:  “If you know Jesus Christ, your King and General, and faithfully serve Him by using the divine weapons He with which He has equipped you, He will always be victorious through you.”         

Prayer:  Father grant that I be strengthened by the Holy Spirit in my inner man, that Christ may dwell in my heart by faith, and that I might have the power to comprehend the surpassing love of God.

            Now unto Him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.  Amen. 

Points for Meditation:

1.  Slowly meditate on each part of the armor of God, asking God to show you one in particular that He wants you to use more faithfully.

2.  Consider whether or not you have fully recognized the nature of the spiritual warfare in your life.  What battlegrounds in your life are there, and how have you been fighting the battles God has given you? 

3.  How well do you know yourself, your King, and the Enemy?  Is your ignorance in any of these 3 leading to spiritual defeat in your life? 

Resolution:  I resolve to meditate today on the spiritual war that God has made me a part of.  I especially resolve to meditate on the victory that Jesus will gain through me, if I faithfully put Him on every day. 

© 2012 Fr. Charles Erlandson

Ephesians 6:1-9

            There is a person who is above you, and you must obey him, even when you don’t want to.

Be honest: what’s your first response to such a statement?  As a good modern or American, you might be offended.  You might get red in the face and arm yourself to defend your right to autonomy.

If you think I’m talking about God – you’re right.  But I’m also talking about those who God has placed in authority over you.  We cannot easily separate the 1^st and 2^nd greatest commandments: a primary way of knowing how much we love God is by seeing how much we love those He puts in our lives.  And a primary test of this love for God by loving neighbor comes when we are in some kind of a subordinate position.  These relationships are, ultimately, tests of our submission not to our earthly masters but to God Himself.

How are you doing?

In verse 1, St. Paul teaches that children should obey their parents.  We spend the most formative years of our lives as children.  What happens to us before our 19^th birthday, perhaps even before our 5^th birthday, has profound consequences for the rest of our lives.  Our early lives set the habits of our hands and hearts.  Isn’t it amazing that each of us starts life helpless, dependent, and in submission?

Obedience is the very foundation of God’s order, and that’s why from the beginning God has required our obedience.  It was precisely this obedience that Adam and Eve withheld from God.  But there is an order that God has ordained, a Creation order, which we must accept, contrary to our first parents.

We must be content and obedient in our relationships, even if unequal ones, and please God in them.  God has lovingly provided all we need through His Son.  He’s taken care of the big problems of life: sin, death, and separation from Him.  And all that He asks is that we love and obey Him, just as His own Son did.

Proper obedience, submission, respect, and love in all of our relationships is the primary way we show our love for God in this life.  Because God is the one who has ordained such relationships, obedience to those God has put in authority over us equals obedience to the God who has put them there.

What s the first commandment with a promise?  “Children obey your parents,” because it’s how we live in our God-ordained relationships that God will bless us.  Obedience is the foundation of godly family: it’s how children show obedience to God.  It’s easy to say that we love God in the abstract, but the proof is in our human relationships.

It may surprise you that even Jesus Christ was subject to His parents (Luke 2:51) and even Jesus Christ learned obedience by what He suffered (Hebrews 5:8).  And He is the pattern for all of our human relationships.

As is so often true, the commandments of God imply more than we imagine.  Is it only parents that children must obey?  Every adult knows (and kids soon figure out) that their obedience extends to grandparents, aunts and uncles, teachers, policemen, pastors, etc.

Likewise, in verse 5, we are taught that slaves are to obey their masters.  Is this commandment irrelevant to us anymore?  I don’t think so.  For if even slaves, who sometimes might be in abusive relationships, were to obey, how much more should we be able to show the proper respect (and obedience where necessary) to those in authority over us?

Just as obedience to parents means more than just parents, obedience to masters means more than just obedience to masters of slaves (thank God there are few of those left).  God, through the mouth of Paul, is speaking to all of us, by application.  Elsewhere, Paul applies the principle to husbands and wives, as well as to citizens and rulers.

What may be even more amazing than that God actually requires us – us – to be submissive to other humans is that he expects us to submit with fear and trembling (verses 5-8) – not for master but for God.  We are to please those God has placed in authority over us, not as eye-pleasers, that is, not as Uriah Heeps, but as those who joyfully serve God.

I’m sure that some of you may have had bosses in the past who you didn’t feel like obeying or respecting.  Maybe you knew more or were more competent; maybe your boss was arrogant or demeaning; some bosses treat their employees like just another piece of equipment to be used for their own ends; and some people are just plain jerks.  Or maybe you just can’t stand that someone else has the power to tell you what to do.

But slaves: obey your masters.  Employees and those in subordinate positions: respect those God has placed above you and submit to them if they are not acting contrary to God’s will.

I believe that this principle of submission and obedience extends ever further – to the very circumstances of our lives.  The events of every day are God-ordained.  But sometimes I don’t like what happens, and sometimes I rebel against what God has offered.  Sometimes I get tired of eating manna and demand quail.  (“You want some quail,” God says, “I’ll give you some quail!”)

But God isn’t just concerned about the proper submission and obedience of children, slaves, and those who are subordinate: He is just as concerned how those in positions of power and authority use the position they have – for it has been given by God.

The God who commands obedience in human relationships also commands those in authority to rule wisely and in love.  And so fathers, you must not provoke your children to anger.  Just because parents have authority over their children – and have a right to demand obedience – does not mean that their will is without limit.  It is very much limited by God’s commandment to love.

Remember the reason why God has given you the care of His children.  Woe to the one who makes one of these little ones stumble.  Sometimes we provoke our children by not listening to them.  Yes, parents usually do know better than their children, and yes we are usually more capable.  But we’d better listen, lest we provoke them.

Sometimes parents provoke in slow motion, by not paying adequate attention or spending adequate time with their children, and years later they wonder why their children are remote from them or go looking for love in the wrong places.  I’ve been reading a ton of books on today’s youth and on youth ministry, and many of them have reached the same startling conclusion: that if you had to choose one word to represent youth today it would be “lonely” or “abandoned” or “hurt”.  Why?  Because the adults in their lives have retreated (often because they’ve asked them to go, and we obediently go).

If we as parents somehow managed to avoid provoking our children, would we then necessarily be good, “successful” parents?  No, we have a positive commandment to bring them up in the discipline of Lord.  This means we must actively teach them, and not abdicate and leave this to the schools or their peers.  It’s our job to set limits, to train them in right from wrong.

As parents, we can never overestimate the influence we will have on our children.  And not just in our verbal teachings, but in what we teach with our lives, for that’s what they see, and that’s how they learn.  All of the teachers and youth ministers a kid may ever have all put together and multiplied by themselves will never have the influence or potential to influence their own children.  Parents, especially fathers image God for their children.

There’s a scary thought.  But true.

So we’d better have our lives right with God first.  But even that’s not enough: we must share this life with our children.  If we don’t do it, they are unlikely to become Christians.  It’s our obligation to have our children baptized and to make sure they grow up knowing the Bible.  We are the shepherds who must lead them to graze in the Church.

There are very sobering statistics about children and church, but they can be reduced to this: parents who love God, disciple, train, and guard their children daily, and go to church tend to have kids who love God, become disciples of Jesus Christ, and go to church.

We should pay more attention and spend more time with our kids – and with all of our neighbors that God puts into our lives.  Maybe it’s not an accident that these are both words having to do with money: kids (and other humans in your life) are your most important investment, after God Himself.

Years ago, my oldest brother was discouraged, after adopting his son, that he didn’t have as much uninterrupted time to paint.  I remember telling him: “Your children are you masterpieces.”

If being a godly master or parent sounds like hard work, you’re right – it is!  The King of Glory came to serve.  In obeying as a Son, and in ruling in love as a servant, Jesus Christ is the pattern for all of our human relationships.  Too often, we want to play God and tell Him how He should have tailored our lives.  But God has put you where you are for a reason.

If you are a child or an employee or in some other subordinate position – as we all are to some degree – then obey and respect.  If you are a parent or employer or one in authority – then remember that you have been placed there by God to do His holy will – and not your own.

Too often, we seek contentment by seeking to change what God has ordained for our good instead of being content and being faithful with what He has given us each day.

The Orthodox Metropolitan of the Russian Church in England once said: “You will find stability at the moment when you discover that God is everywhere, that you do not need to seek Him elsewhere, and if you do not find Him here it is useless to go and search for Him elsewhere because it is not Him that is absent from us, it we who are absent from Him.”

Prayer: 

Lamb of God, I look to Thee;
Thou shalt my Example be;
Thou art gentle, meek, and mild;
Thou wast once a little child.

Lord, I would be as Thou art;
Give me Thine obedient heart;
Thou art pitiful and kind,
Let me have Thy loving mind.

Let me, above all, fulfill
God my heav’nly Father’s will;
Never His good Spirit grieve;
Only to His glory live.

Loving Jesus, gentle Lamb,
In Thy gracious hands I am;
Make me, Savior, what Thou art,
Live Thyself within my heart.

I shall then show forth thy praise,
Serve thee all my happy days;
Then the world shall always see
Christ the holy Child in me.

Point for Meditation:

Am I faithfully seeking God in the present circumstances in my life, instead of searching for Him in vain in the future or some other imaginary place?  How might I submit to the Lord by seeking Him in what He has ordained? 

Resolution:  I resolve to look intently for God in one particular circumstance in my life where I may not have seen Him recently.   

© 2012 Fr. Charles Erlandson

Ephesians 5:15-33

We’ve come this morning to a difficult passage of Scripture – not difficult because it’s hard to understand, but difficult because it’s hard for us to accept what God wants to teach us.  The passage is Ephesians 5:21-33, and in itSt. Paulgives us clear commands about the relationship between husbands and wives.

Our passage this morning is part of a larger passage all about submission – and this will help us to see clearly what Paul teaches.  Though many of us may choke on the command of wives to submit to their husbands, Paul clearly has real submission in mind.  He tells us to be subject to one another (verse 21), wives to be subject to husbands (22), children to obey parents (6:1), and slaves to obey their masters (6:5).

This morning’s passage, then, and the beginning of Chapter 6, is about submission alright.  But primarily it is about submission to God and His will, for we all, husbands and wives alike, are to be submitted primarily to the Lord, as we walk in His ways and in His commandments.

Think of Paul’s teachings, then, as a challenge, a test.  How willing am I to submit to God, by obeying His commandments?  How willing am I to do His will, and not my own?

Paul’s teaching on the submission of a wife and on the headship of the husband is very clear.  Wives are to submit to their husbands, as to the Lord.  The Greek verb means to submit or make subordinate.  It is a word used in Bible of following relationships: angels to Christ, the Church to Christ, Christians to God’s law, women to men, wives to husbands, children to parents, young to old, slaves and servants to masters.  No wiggle room there.

“As to the Lord.”  No wiggle room there either.

In 1 Corinthians 11 and 1 Timothy 2 Paul argues from creation – from before the Fall – that man is the head of woman and that the woman’s submission to her husband was part of God’s plan from the beginning, because He chose to create Adam, man, first, and to make Eve, woman, the man’s helper.

In Ephesians 5, Paul makes the headship of the man clear, arguing not from creation but from redemption.  As Christ is the head of he Church, so is the husband the head of the wife.  Again, no wiggle room.

Modern women find submission to their husbands increasingly difficult to accept because most of us have bought into the cultural assumptions about radical egalitarianism.  Other times women may have difficulty because the person in authority is often wrong.  This raises an issue for all of us who are under authority: What do you do if you think the person in authority is wrong?  It would be tempting to fly to some sort of theory of civil disobedience: when I know my husband is wrong, I don’t have to submit.  But is this really what God teaches?

Suppose we look at the authority of parents over children.  Do we expect them to obey

only when they feel like it, only when they think we are right?  If so, then it is really the children who are in charge, because they are calling the shots.  They are the ones determining the rules and when to obey and when not to obey.  In a similar way, the wife is not to simply decide she disagrees with her husband and then go her own way

Another problem is that somehow people assume that if you really believe in the submission of the wife to her husband that you must mean a “caveman”, unthinking, submission and a wife who totally submerges and sublimates her unique talents and wisdom.  But good grief!  Who wants a wife like that?!  In fact, I’d feel insulted and cheated if Jackie were nothing but a Yes-Woman, mindlessly rubber-stamping everything I said.  How would that cause me to see more and to grow more wise?  How would that manifest our one-fleshedness?

But there is a problem with the recent decades of feminism.  Women insist on exercising the headship God has given to men, and this has caused many problems.  There is a Great Pendulum of History that swings back and forth.  For decades – no centuries – husbands mistakenly took these verses, and others like them, as a license to be petty tyrants.  In the 60s and 70s the pendulum swung quickly past the middle to an extreme on the other side where these verses mean nothing.  God didn’t say them or mean them, and we don’t have to obey them.  Women are like men in every way: there is no divine difference.

I find that women are often more competent, and in a wider variety of contexts, than men.  But should we then argue based on human abilities?  Precisely because women are capable and fully human and yet are called to submit (as are all of us in various relationships), they have a special opportunity to display the humility of Christ by submitting themselves to their husbands.

Watch out, men – you knew this moment was coming!  St. Paul has even more to say to the husbands!  The husband is to be the head, the authority.  This is assumed and taught all throughout the Bible.  Though there are different models of leadership he may legitimately use, he must take the authority God has given him and lead.  In the house, husbands, especially, are to govern the household, to rule it.  They should provide vision and leadership and should shape and protect the family.

In addition to women trying to usurp the authority of men, husbands’ abuse of their headship is a chief reason wives don’t submit to them.  In the past, Jews considered a woman not a person, but property: in their morning prayer service, Jewish men gave thanks that God had not made them a Gentile or a woman.  The Greeks were just as bad.  The “enlightened” philosopher Demosthenes once said, “we have courtesans for the sake of pleasure; we have concubines for daily cohabitation; and we have wives to bear children and manage the household.”

Even Christian husbands have not always remembered that God’s commandment to them is not only to be the head but to do so by loving, which means serving.

But today, probably even more often than men have abused their authority over their wives, men have abdicated their headship.  We see the consequences in young men adrift, who were not fathered except in a biological way and who have no good model of husbandly leadership.

Men commonly make three mistakes in avoiding God’s command to be heads.  They confuse real courage and masculinity with machismo.  Others become milquetoasts and in a cowardly way just give in to the world and people around them.

But the most common kind of abdication of godly headship that I see in men is being childish and cowardly.  How many guys care more about their latest toys than anything else, whether it’s tech gadgets or cars?  It bothers me when I witness a wife working hard all day (and the husband may have too), yet when the husband comes home he assumes that somehow he’s “Off Duty” regarding the household and the kids, while the wife is “On Duty” 24-7.

To me, the real courage in being a godly man is in serving my wife and others.  That cuts against the grain of my own selfishness, as well as against the grain of our culture.  It takes no guts whatsoever to sit in the easy chair and let the wife serve you and the kids incessantly.  What takes courage is to drag your butt off the chair and go help for a change and “command” your submissive wife to take a break!

Instead of being tyrants, instead of abdicating their headship, husbands are to love their wives, as Christ loved the Church.  You guys thought you got off easy?  Hah!  You’ve got the harder task!

Husbands, yes God commands you to be the head of your wife, but you will search in vain to hear Him command you to by tyrannical or domineering or cruel.  Your specific commandment from God is to love.  You lead by your love, and if you want to lead as a Christian man, then you cannot lead without love.  Love is doing what is best for another person.  It requires sacrifice.  You have been given headship for a reason – so that you can love and sanctify your wife – not so that you can satisfy your ego or become a little Napoleon or Stalin.

The real problem is that often we think of husbands and wives as 2 separate things, and therefore they are in competition and conflict.  The solution is to think of marriage as a sacrament, an outward sign of an inward grace.  Marriage is to be a means of grace, and a husband and wife are one flesh, even if they refuse to acknowledge this.  There is a mystical union, just as there is between Christ and His Church.  Paul’s point here is that marriage mirrors an even deeper mystery: how we live as husbands and wives teaches about and reflects the marriage of Jesus Christ and His Bride, the Church.

Sometimes people talk about a 50-50 marriage, meaning each gives and gets 50%.  But that’s not good enough for me.  Jackie and I strive (but never reach) to have a 100-100 relationship where we each share all that we have and are and where giving and receiving are virtually indistinguishable.  I believe that if husbands and wives walked with each other in love, then the lines between headship and submission and service and love and head and body would become almost seamless in the unity created by love.

Wives and husbands, if you want a simple guideline to keep in front of you all the days of your life, you can do no better than the example of Jesus Christ and His Bride, the Church.

Wives, how does the Church submit to her Master?  Use that as your example.

Husbands, how does Jesus Christ love and serve His Bride?

Prayer:  O God, who has so consecrated marriage that it represents the spiritual marriage between Christ and Church, bless all Christians who are in marriage that they may so love, honor, and cherish each other and live together in godly love and unity that their homes and lives may be a haven and blessing of peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Amen. 

Point for Meditation:

Wives: Examine your attitude toward your marriage in light of Paul’s teachings.  In what ways are you rejecting the Lord’s Word to you and do you need to learn submission?  Meditate on the relationship of the Church to Christ. 

Husbands: Examine your attitude toward your marriage in light of Paul’s teachings.  In what ways are you rejecting the Lord’s Word to you and do you need to learn love?  Meditate on the relationship of Christ to the Church. 

Single People: Consider Ephesians 5:21-33 in light of either your call to be a godly leader or to serve in love. 

Resolution:  I resolve to meditate on how I can be a husband or wife as the Lord has commanded me to be.  I resolve to find one practical way I can show my submission (wife) or love (husband) to my spouse today.

© 2012 Fr. Charles Erlandson

Couple at marriage kissing in front of stained glass – photo by D’Arcy Norman

Ephesians 5:1-14

Have you ever been on a walk that was more than just a walk?

Perhaps it was a romantic walk; or maybe an important business matter was discussed during a walk; or a life-changing decision was made during a walk.

I remember going on many walks with Jackie during which we discussed my many attempts to understand God’s call on our lives together.  We have walked and talked about having children and what we will name them; we have walked and talked about my becoming a deacon and about my becoming a priest, and (during a month of uncertainty and confusion) we talked about the possibility of my studying to become a rare book librarian.

Sometimes a walk is more than mere walking.

The Bible is filled with admonitions for Christians to “walk” in a certain way.  In Ephesians, the word “walk” occurs in 7 separate places.

For example in Ephesians 2:10 Paul informs us that God has ordained that we should walk in good works.  In 4:1 we hear that we are to walk worthy of our calling, and in 4:17 Paul teaches that we should not walk as the Gentiles walk.

But what does it mean to “walk,” in biblical terms?  It means “to live” or the manner of conducting one’s self.

Any time you walk, you have to have a destination and know where you’re going, and you have to know how to get there, the direction.  But when you walk with someone, you also have to have a desire to walk with that person.

Our life with God, our walk with God, is the same way.  Walking with God, involves 3 things:

1.  a desire to walk with God – to Walk in Love (verses 1-7)

2.  a direction as to how to walk with God – Walk in Light (verses 8-14)

3.  a destination for where we are walking with God – Walk in Wisdom and Obedience (verses 15-21, even though they are technically outside of today’s lesson)

To walk with God, we must first have a desire to walk with God; we must walk in love as He first loved us (verses 1-2).  When walking with someone, and not just by yourself, or not just happening to be going the same direction, you have to have a desire to walk – to be – with that person.  This was certainly true of Jackie and I when we were courting.  Yes, we had places we were walking to, but the most important part of the walk was the being with Jackie.  There was a great desire to walk with her.  Just recently, on a Monday when I was not doing church work and the kids were in school, I had the best time just running (or should I say walking) errands with Jackie because I got to be with her.  For me, being with Jackie, is something like being in heaven.

In the same way, we must walk with God – we must walk in love, desiring to be in the presence of God.  Though Paul is primarily speaking of walking in love toward one another, this love begins by loving God.  To walk with God, to live with Him and experience Him, we must be willing to imitate Him (verse 1).

Children are born imitators. Whenever I do something silly at the dinner table, you can bet that child by child, wildly mutating as each takes a turn, my children will imitate what I have just done (and Jackie just shakes her head.)  We even have a saying at my house: “Children See, Children Do.”

To imitate God means to walk in love, as He is love.  Jesus Christ loved us and gave Himself as an offering for us (verse 2), and if we want to walk with God we must offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God by giving up ourselves for others.  In verses 3-6 Paul shows us that lust is opposed to love.  Unfortunately, our culture confuses the two, especially when it comes to sex.  Lust is about pleasing oneself, but love is about doing what is best for others.

In every walk, you must not only have a desire but you must have a direction: you must know the way.  Therefore, in walking with God, we are to walk in light, His light (verse 8).  Light gives us the direction to see where we should walk

Once you were darkness, but now you are light (verse 8).  The fact is that as a child of God, you are light – not simply will be.  Since you are light, walk as children of light.

One of the mistakes that Christians make, especially young Christians, is in walking with those who are in darkness.  Paul says, however, that we are to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.  This doesn’t mean we have no contact with those who are still in

darkness, but it does mean that we do not do what they do and that we don’t put ourselves in a position where those in darkness are determining the shape and behavior of our life.

Darkness is often seductive.  The world tries hard to make it look sexy and glamorous.  It’s cool to get drunk; it sophisticated to commit adultery; and everybody sleeps around.  I’ve know too many Christian young people who keep making poor choices in friends and poor choice in entertainments, and in their lives the darkness overcomes the light.

Walking in the light means that we must expose their works of darkness.  For those who are more mature Christians, we must stand beside those flirting with darkness and expose the darkness.  An interesting thing happens when light meets dark, even when the dark is menacing and intimidating: the light drives away the darkness.

Too often we find ourselves drifting into the darkness, and the reason we do is because we have stopped walking with God and are walking with someone else.  I remember one time when I was young we were in New York City walking together as a family.  I followed my Mom so I wouldn’t get lost, and since she was wearing a beige skirt I kept my eyes focused on the beige skirt.  When I finally looked up, my real family was 100 yards away, and I had been following the wrong beige skirt!

To walk with God we need one more thing: we need a destination.  Where are we going on this walk with God?  In verses 15-21, Paul reminds us to walk in wisdom.

I think a lot of us are like someone who was put in the middle of a desert and told to start walking, and so we walk because we’re supposed to.  But we haven’t sought and found the map, the direction, for where we are to go.  Even if someone gave us a map, we still wouldn’t know where to go because we wouldn’t know what our destination was supposed to be.

Our destination, our map, is to walk in wisdom, which means doing the will of God, for this is the destination, the goal of our walk.  St. Paul gives us 3 ways to walk in wisdom: we should redeem the time (verse 16), discern the will of God (verse 17), and be filled not with spirits but with the Holy Spirit (verse 18).  There is so much that could be said about each one of these, but it’s up to you to learn, in wisdom, how to apply each.

In the early chapters of Genesis, it appears as if it were the custom for God to walk in the cool of the day with Adam, before he fell.  In Genesis Chapter 5, we read of righteous Enoch, who “walked with God” and walked so faithfully that he was translated into heaven and did not even see death!

This is the way I want to walk in my life: to walk so closely with God in His love, in His light, and in His wisdom, that I am translated into heaven because heaven is being in His presence.  

 Prayer:  Father, teach me to walk with You by walking with You in love.  Give me a desire to be with You and to love as You have loved me.  Keep me in Your light and fill me with Your wisdom that in all things I may dwell in Your presence all the days of my life.  Amen.  

Point for Meditation:

Meditate on and apply Paul’s command to walk in wisdom in one of the 3 ways which Paul discusses.

1.  How can you “redeem the time” in your life?  What are the time-wasters in your life?  Are there opportunities to walk with God by serving Him that You have not been taking?

2.  Have you spent adequate time discerning the will of the Lord?  In what area or areas of your life should you be seeking God’s will more actively?

3.  How can you be more filled with the Spirit by engaging in speaking to others with spiritual songs, by making a melody in your heart to the Lord, or by giving thanks? 

Resolution: I resolve to seek to walk with God today.  In particular, I resolve to find one way to practice walking in love, light, or wisdom.  You might want to relate this resolution to the specific things God has been asking You to do lately. 

© 2012 Fr. Charles Erlandson

Couple Walking – CC Image courtesy of Librarian by janinekeat on Flickr