Note: I'm on vacation until September 3, but I pre-scheduled this week's letter. Next week, there won't be a letter from me. See you in two weeks!
Dear Incarnation,
We've been preaching the lectionary all summer (the lectionary is a schedule of assigned scripture readings followed by many church traditions, including ours). One of the great things about the lectionary is that it doesn't allow us to play favorites with scripture. We can't preach our favorite, go-to passages over and over, and we can't skip the challenging passages we'd rather avoid.
One of those challenging passages will come up this Sunday: Ephesians 5:15-6:9, all about wives submitting and slaves obeying. There's an old church joke about rectors giving curates the most difficult preaching assignments. We seem to be perpetuating the trope, because Russell is on deck to preach on Sunday with this text from Ephesians. (His last sermon was on Abraham's binding of Isaac, and last summer he preached Psalm 88, so we've certainly kept him on his toes!)
Wisely, Russell has opted not to preach the Ephesians passage on a week that I'm out of town! The other lectionary passages lend themselves better to our series on "neighboring," and it's usually best not to risk courting controversy while the boss is away! However, Russell and I also realized that the Ephesians text isn't the kind of passage that can be read aloud and then left unaddressed. So I'm using this week's letter to offer a bit of context on the passage and some resources for further exploration.
Ephesians 5:15-6:9 is a type of writing called a "household code" (think: code of conduct) — a set of guidelines governing the life of the home. There are a few other household codes in the New Testament in Colossians 3:18-4:1; Titus 2:1-10; and 1 Peter 2:18-3:7.
In the Roman Empire during the time of the New Testament, household codes were a common form of moral and philosophical writing. Aristotle wrote the most famous household code, but there were many. These codes were encouraged by the emperor as a way of extending his rule even into the private life of the home. The emperor was the pater familias ("father of the family") of the entire empire, and the pater familias in each household (i.e., the father/master/husband) was like his delegate, ordering the home in such a way as to make obedient subjects of the emperor. The authority of the pater familias was absolute, subject only to the emperor himself. Therefore the Greco-Roman household codes only include instructions for children, wives, and slaves.
Paul takes this societal norm and subverts it, writing a distinctly Christian household code in Ephesians and elsewhere. While these passages sound traditional to our ears, they would have been radical to Paul's hearers. While Paul does include instructions to wives, children, and slaves, his emphasis is on the responsibility of the pater familias to treat those in his household with love. And the head of the household is Christ, not the emperor, who expressed this "headship" through self-giving love rather than control. The picture of household life in Ephesians is one of mutual love and service, set in the context of Roman society.
But elsewhere in Paul's letters, we also know that his vision for Christian society goes even further. Christ did not come simply to make kinder, gentler Roman households; he came to break down walls of hostility and make us one: "So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:27-28).
If you'd like to read more, we have a few resources available for you. First, I wrote an article for Mutuality magazine on the similar household code in Colossians 2, which you can read here. The article came out of my sermon on the same text, which you can listen to here.
In addition, when we preached through 1 Timothy several years ago, I wrote a letter with some resources on women in the church, and David preached an excellent sermon on the topic. That sermon and those resources are all linked in this letter. Although they are focused more on gender roles within the church, there is much that applies to the question of gender roles within the home, and to the broader vision of scripture for how men and women relate to one another in light of Christ's resurrection.
Still have questions, stories, hurts or encouragements related to the Ephesians text? We'd love to listen and pray with you; please reach out to Russell or Katie.
Thanks so much for the gift of time away!
With love,
Amy
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