Ch.2: Greeting (1:1-2)

Ch.2:  Greeting (1:1-2)

Identity

          Too often we breeze through the greetings of the letters in the New Testament assuming that like our letters today there’s not much of importance there.  That would be a mistake, as I hope to show now.       

Before his encounter with Jesus Messiah on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), Saul (later Paul) was a Pharisee, follower of Moses, by his own desire and commitment.  After that encounter he became Paul, was an apostle, follower of Jesus Messiah, due to God’s will for him.  His identity was fundamentally and forever changed, signified by his name change.

Name	Vocation	Leader	Source
Saul	Pharisee	Moses	His own choice
Paul	Apostle	Jesus	The will of God

This is a sort of template for baptismal formation. As we grow into our baptisms we embrace a changed identity, a new vocation, a new Lord, and a new source of direction.  This is worth noting here because there is much baptismal imagery and language in Ephesians[1] and baptism is the moment we receive our new identities, new vocations, and new source of direction for our lives.  While Paul’s own “baptism” happened on the road to Damascus, our take place in the water at the font.

           

          Baptism in the ancient church took place during the Easter Vigil. 

Candidates would strip off their old clothing, symbolizing the old life of sin and shame, descend into the font, were baptized, and upon arising out of the font received a new white robe, symbolizing their new clean life in Christ.  They also received new Christian names to seal the new identity they receive in baptism and were now admitted to participation in the Eucharist during worship.  It will be helpful to keep this picture of the various aspects of baptism in mind as we read this letter. That will lend depth and texture to what Paul writes.

          Life with Christ begins for us in baptism (in a few verses we will see that our life with Christ begins for God much earlier).  This new life occurs in two “places” as the same time.  “in Ephesus”[2] and “in Christ”.  All faith and growth in faith is local.  Its source is “in Christ” and its setting is the local setting where we live.  Both locations are essential.  There is no solely “inner life” in Christian faith.  That’s Plato’s idea, not Christ’s.  No, life is life in all its aspects and dimensions and faith impacts all of that as well.  There is the distinction between source and setting, which is equivalent to the distinction Jesus makes in John’s gospel between being “in” the world but not “of” it (John 17:11,16).  We live in the world just like everyone else but

-our convictions about God and the world,

-the behaviors and actions that flow from them, and

-the ethos, the way of life, generated by these convictions

are distinctively different from that world.  Living out these convictions, behaviors and actions, and way of life is called “incarnational” in theological lingo.  It refers first and foremost to Jesus’ taking on human flesh at Christmas and secondarily to our living out his life in the times and locations we live in.  This is basic, fundamental Christianity.

          Paul addresses his readers as “saints”.  He would so address us as well, reluctant as we may be accept such an epithet.  Our reluctance is tied to a misunderstanding of what “saints” means.  We have been taught to hear in this word a person who has achieved an exacting set of moral standards or has gone beyond the call of duty in serving Christ.  That however is not what the word or the Bible means by “saints.”

          To be sanctified, thus a saint, is to be set apart for special use by God.  Out of all the utensils in ancient Israel, it was only those chosen for use in the temple that were “sanctified”.  That is, though essentially no different than all the others, these few utensils were “set apart” for God’s special use.  They were not necessarily better than the other utensils, just chosen for special use.  To be a “saint,” then, is to be chosen by God for special, particular service.  Thus, even the fractious and frequently immoral Corinthians Paul calls “saints”.  

So sainthood is not a matter of moral achievement, though that would certainly be nice.  It is being “set apart” for particular use by God.  Or we might say it means being “different” for God.  As the great southern Catholic novelist Flannery O’Connor has famously said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.”[3]   Or yet again, in the language we are using, being a saint means being a subversive counter-revolutionary for the kingdom of God.  And that means all of us!

Grace and Peace

Paul blesses these subversive counter-revolutionaries with “grace” and “peace”.   Grace was the typical greeting in Greco-Roman letters of Paul’s day, equivalent to “Greetings” in our day.  Paul, however, radicalizes grace by pairing it with peace.  Grace is God’s way of getting things done through free and unconditional love and acceptance.  Peace is what God is getting done, that condition of interdependent harmonious mutual care of all God’s creatures for each other and all God’s creation.  Grace is the gift of the Father and the Son to empower his counter-revolutionary people; peace is his gift of direction, destination, and destiny.  Such power and vision are prime needs of any counter-revolutionary movement.    

 

         

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[1] Some scholars even think Ephesians is a baptismal homily dressed up to look like a letter for wider circulation.  While this seems to be an overstatement, there is undoubtedly much in the letter that would be appropriate to use on the occasion of baptism.

[2] Remember that “in Ephesus” stands for any of the locations where Paul sent this letter.

[3] Flannery O’Connor, The Habit of Being (New York:  Straus and Giroux, 1979),    .