This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—for surely you have already heard of the commission of God's grace that was given me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ.
In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God's grace that was given me by the working of his power. Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.
I don’t know how aware you were in the late 1970s and early 1980s about events in Latin America. If you were you would have been aware of the fact that many countries were caught in the grips of military dictatorships, and that the oppression of those who dissented was brutal. This was especially true in countries such as Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Chile, and Argentina. All of those countries were caught up in constant battles between right-wing militaries and left-wing revolutionaries. Both sides were violent, but the oppression by the right-wing governments was especially brutal as they rounded up, tortured, and/or executed countless people suspected of leftist activities and sympathies. One of the persistent target of harassment, imprisonment, and torture were dissenting Roman Catholic priests. Many of the priests sided with the poor in taking a stand against these right-wing governments.
In 1980, Father Rodriquez was arrested by the Argentinean military and placed in an overcrowded prison, not knowing whether he would live to see the New Year. He had been rounded up with hundreds of others suspected of anti-government leanings. The conditions of the prison were terrible, and people were in despair. How could God have forgotten them, they who had been so faithful in serving God on behalf of the poor? Father Rodriquez was losing hope, too.
Suddenly Father Rodriguez stood up, and speaking in a loud voice that could be heard down the corridor in the other cells, he began speaking the words of the Catholic Mass: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...” He recited scripture that he had memorized, and spoke words of hope in his homily. Then he began the Eucharist. He had no elements—no bread or wine. But that didn’t dissuade him. Holding his hands out in the hallway through the bars, he gestured as though he was holding up the host, and then pretended to break a wafer in half. Then he handed imaginary bread to the people in his cell, and through the bars to each cell, as hands reached out to receive it. He then did the same thing with an imaginary cup. An amazing transformation took place in that prison. People who had felt abandoned by God felt God’s presence in a way that they had never felt before. They shared in a communion of nothing, and it helped them to experience everything.
Imagine yourself in that prison: would you have been able to keep your faith enough to share in communion? Where does your faith go when you are struggling with things that seem unfair, when life goes in a terrible direction? Do you react like Father Rodriguez, seeking communion with God and others? Or do you shut off.
The apostle Paul understood the despair those people felt in the Argentinean prison. And he understood the need to stay hopeful and open to God, even in the face of false or unfair imprisonment. You see, Paul wrote our passage this morning as a falsely accused prisoner. He wrote to the Ephesians from Rome, where he was a prisoner awaiting a hearing before the emperor for a charge that could lead to, and eventually did lead to, his execution.
Why was Paul facing execution? It all started with his mission to spread Christianity throughout the empire. Paul had become very well known to the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem because of his evangelism, and to them he was no hero. He was the zealot Jew and Pharisee who had become a traitor to the cause of destroying this new sect of followers of Jesus. They considered Paul to be a traitor because he had become a follower of Christ, and had started new congregations of people faithful to “the Way,” which is what they called Christianity at first. Even worse, he integrated Jews and Gentiles in these congregations.
In Paul’s time, even though they all lived in the Roman Empire, the people lived in a divided state. The different people of the empire did not see each other as equals. The Romans looked down on all the people that they conquered in one way or another. They conquered other territories for two main reasons: to make Rome more secure and to make Rome richer. And so they looked down on everyone they conquered, seeing them as weak. They especially looked down on the Jews, who they considered superstitious and backward. The Greeks looked down on the Romans and the Jews, thinking that both were stupid. The Jews looked down on the Greeks and the Romans, thinking that they were immoral and defiled by their habits, beliefs, and lifestyles. It may have been one empire, but they were divided.
As a result, the Jews in Jerusalem were incensed with Paul. Paul was teaching that the Gentiles and Jews were equal, and that the Gentiles (any non-Jews) did not have to be circumcised or follow the dietary restrictions of the Jewish faith to be part of this new “Way.” Traveling to Jerusalem to bring an offering for poor widows, Paul went to the Temple to worship. He spent seven days there, following the Jewish rituals. A conspiracy developed among the leaders (Acts tells us that 40 people were involved in it) to have Paul arrested. They conspired to accuse him falsely of bringing a Gentile into the inner courtyards of the Temple, which is an infraction punishable by death.
To understand what this means you need to understand that the Temple in Jerusalem had four concentric rings of square courtyards. The outer one was a space that all people, Jew or Gentile, could enter. The next one was a place that Jewish men and women could enter, but not Gentiles. The next one was reserved only for Jewish men. The center was a space that only priests could enter. Paul was falsely accused of taking a Gentile into the interior rings. He was taken before the Jewish council of priests, who found him guilty. He was then sent to the Roman governor, Felix, who was willing to sentence Paul to death because he sought the favor of the Jews. Paul, being a Roman citizen, proclaimed his innocence, and after being sentenced to death by Felix, invoked his right to an appeal before the emperor.
From there he languished in prison for two years until a new governor, Festus, heard his case and released him to go to Rome for an appeal. It was a long journey across the Mediterranean, which included a shipwreck on the island of Cyprus. When he finally made it to Rome, he was a prisoner there. Yet through all of this Paul never lost his spirit, and he never lost his faith. Eventually he lost his appeal before the emperor Nero (who was already persecuting Christians in Rome) and was executed. While a prisoner, Paul wrote our passage for this morning, and if you read the whole letter to the Ephesians, you hear in it a letter of hope and faith. Paul went through the worst that life could offer, yet he never lost faith.
How was Paul able to keep his faith? Both Paul and Father Rodriguez knew the central secret of the Christian faith. It’s a secret that even many Christians today don’t get. Paul revealed the secret in our passage, but I’ll bet that missed it when you read the passage above. Did you even know that in this passage Paul revealed a deep secret? He did, and here it is: the secret, according to Paul, is that we are all called into communion and community. Ta Dah! Not much of a secret, huh? Kind of underwhelming as secrets go, but it was profound in Paul’s day.
Here’s what Paul said: “In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Sometimes it’s hard to really understand what he is saying because of the way he writes, but pay close attention to that passage. Paul is saying that the Gentiles are equal to Jews. He is saying that they are just as chosen as the Jewish people. To Jews, and even to Gentiles, this is a radical statement. And it extends beyond this. In his letter to the Colossians he says, “there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!” For his times, this is radical beyond radical because it lifts the Christians beyond Jewish, Greek, or Roman belief by making all equal under God.
Paul had a vision, and he says that it came to him from Christ. It was that all people would be bound in Christ’s body through love of God and for each other. This isn’t just Paul’s vision. It’s Christianity’s vision. It’s the Epiphany vision. Think about the story that is central to this day of Epiphany. Three magi from Persia came because they recognized the greatness of Jesus’ birth. If there was one thing that the Jews, Greeks, and Romans could agree on, it was that the Persians were worst than even the worst race of the Roman empire because they were enemies of Romans, Greeks, and Jews. And here are three of priest of Persia joining with shepherds to bow before a Jewish child. That’s a radical story.
The problem facing us today is that we live in a culture of division, including we Christians. We live in similar times to those of the Bible. We share a common economic and political system, as did those in the Roman Empire, but we all have our own beliefs, customs, backgrounds, practices, and the like. What are some of the divisions you see in our culture? I see divisions among Republicans and Democrats, between male and female, between those of different sexual orientation, between the rich and the poor, between northerners and southerners, between those of different races, different denominations, different religions, and different ethnicities. Paul’s vision was of a community of faith that could put division aside to be one in communion. I’m not talking about the sacrament of communion, although that is part of the communion. I’m talking about what he talks about in his letter to the Ephesians: “I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” And Paul lived his beliefs. Even while imprisoned in Rome, he created a community of Christians—Jewish, Greek, and Roman—around him.
Paul has an answer to all our division. The answer is to root our lives in communion. Paul is getting to the heart of why church matters. He sees the church as a place of communion where people of different beliefs, races, customs, and more can come together in love. Certainly Calvin Church is not a church that has overcome racial divisions. We live in an area that is 99% white, but we have overcome many other kinds of division. As I look at our church, I see people of many, many different ethnic heritages. I see Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. I see people worshiping as one who come from many, many different denominational and religious backgrounds (in the show of hands we did on Sunday morning, only about 20% actually grew up Presbyterian). We are a community, united in communion, of people who have overcome the divisions of ages past.
To Paul, this communion of people with God is the secret of Christianity. Paul cared much more about people being in community together than he did about people having the right beliefs. To him, we form our beliefs by being in the community, but the key is being in communion with each other and God. This is the reason I always have to bite my tongue whenever I hear someone say, “I’m spiritual but not religious, or Christian but not attending.” To Paul, both statements would have been nonsensical. For him you cannot claim to be spiritual without being part of a faith community because the faith community forces you to work on your faith and to overcome division. Think about it. In operating a church, you have to work with and love people you might otherwise never associate with. It pushes you to be in relationships with people who you might otherwise look down on. And all the while church teaches people how to overcome their divisions (despite those churches that seem to relish division). Still, Paul is a realist. He knows that being in a church is hard
In summary, as imperfect as this body, this church, is, we are called to reveal this secret of communion to everyone—to invite people into this communion, but not just so that they can be part of our church, but so they can grow spiritually to live life more in the spiritual realm. We are called to be one with God, to be one with everyone. We can always find what seem to be legitimate reasons to divide, but the real challenge is whether you can find ways to unit and become as one.
