7/14/24 Sermon

Today we’re going to start looking at Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. We’re starting this morning in the most logical spot. We’re starting at the beginning and greeting of the letter. But before we try to unpack our reading this morning, really what I think we’re going to spend most of our time doing today, is laying some ground work for the upcoming weeks and looking at a little background into this letter.

Now, when I’m preparing for these sermons where we take a really deep dive into scripture, I think it’s really important to look at a wide variety of resources from what would be considered liberal scholarship to what would be considered conservative scholarship and everything in-between. And this is really a side note and not really all that important but I found it funny that scholars used two distinct metaphors for this letter. they either said that Ephesians is the grand canyon of the new testament or it’s the Mount Everest of the New Testament. Two really different images.

If you’re like me and you want to know the biblical account of how Paul got to Ephesus and his relationship to this city, you can find that account in Acts, Chapter 19. But basically, for 2 year Paul had a really effective outreach in this city that was a cultural hub. Now, if you believe that Paul wrote this letter, he wrote it quite some time after he visited Ephesus while he was imprisoned in Rome. I say “if you believe that Paul wrote this letter” because this is one of what’s called the disputed letters of Paul. There are some letters that almost every scholar believes with almost absolute certainty that Paul wrote: Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1st Thessalonians, and Philemon - almost no one across the board denies Paul wrote these letters.

Then You have Hebrews along with what are called the pastoral Epistles - 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus - they’ve all been called into question and most scholars across the board feel that Paul didn’t write them for variety of reasons. But, Colossians, Ephesians, and 2nd Thessalonians are ones that most scholars really fight about. And I mean Biblical scholars have knock down, drag out, name calling fights about whether or not Paul wrote these. It’s A sharply divided topic. While Each letter has it’s own reasons why people feel Paul did or didn’t write them, Ephesians has compelling arguments on both sides.

For example, on the Paul wrote it side, you have points like Paul’s name is given in the letter as the author, when he talks about his apostolic status he does so in the 1st person singular, Paul talks about the dispatch of Tychicus which lines up with other writings of Paul. But maybe most convincingly, the theology and ideas in this letter line up and are really cohesive with Paul’s thoughts and theology that are found in other places in the New Testament.

Now, on the other side, why people feel he didn’t write it, we find 4 main objections why many - not all by any stretch of the imagination- but many- mainstream scholars feel Paul didn’t write Ephesians. The style and the vocabulary here are way different than how we see Paul writing in the letters we definitely know he wrote. The sentences are way longer, the vocabulary in the Greek is more complex, and someone with way more time than they need counted 116 words that aren’t in any other letter attributed to Paul and are usually words we find in writings coming much later in the 1st and 2nd century than when Paul would be writing.

And while I just said a little bit ago that scholars on the side of thinking Paul did write this find that the theology in Ephesians squares with Paul’s theology, the scholars who are against Paul’s authorship find the theological viewpoint in Ephesians to conflict with Paul’s theology. LIke that in Ephesians special emphasis is given to Christ’s exaltation and his enthronement in the Heavenly place but there’s no mention of Christ’s expected return which was really important to Paul. Paul’s viewpoints on the church and Christ’s relationship to the church are really different than we find it in other writings that Paul’s authorship is not contested.

The third thing people point to is the way Paul is portrayed in this letter. Paul is portrayed as less of a missionary and more of a mystagogue who is given the secret to the mystery of God through the Spirit. He isn’t attempting to convert anyone here like he is in a majority of the undisputed letters. Instead Paul is given more of the role of someone who is enlightening the Gentiles. No one else’s name is mentioned in the salutation thus emphasizing Paul as the apostle. He is without a peer which is unusual and uncharacteristic for Paul and his writing. And Think of Paul’s portrayal of himself in places like 1 Corinthians 15 where he refers to himself as the least of the apostles. That same sense of humility isn’t present here in Ephesians. In fact, Paul is made out to be really important and almost central in Ephesians.

And finally, the fourth reason generally given as to why Paul didn’t write this letter is its dependence on Colossians which these scholars also feel Paul didn’t write for another host of reasons. There are very distinct links between this Epistle and the Epistle of Colossians. Much of the language, terminology and phrasing is the same. These two letters were most likely written by the same author and both are disputed letters for other independent reasons. So if you don’t think Colossians is written by Paul then there’s no way you can think Ephesians is written by Paul…

So there’s a quick crash course in why Biblical Scholars dispute this letter either for or against Paul writing it. I know that may have felt like drinking from a firehose. So, because I’m awesome, I made a handout with an outline of Ephesians, a list of which letters are disputed and which aren’t, and an outline of the points for and against Paul writing Ephesians. And unless someone moved them, they should be back in the basket where you get your bulletins.

If you want to know what I personally think or what I think you should think, my answer is that I don’t really care. I spent half of this sermon already on what I feel is kind of a semantical argument because it doesn’t really affect my faith one way or another who wrote it - the fact is it’s in the Bible for reasons we’ll see in the coming weeks and it’s an absolutely beautiful and powerful letter that should be in the Bible no matter who wrote it.

But I will say that as semantical as I sometimes find these arguments, I think they’re important to know and understand. And I could launch into a whole diatribe about how for many, many years Pastors and preachers have known the academics of the Bible but were too afraid to share it with their congregations. And I think it’s made the church weaker over time partly because I think ministers should have more faith and trust in the intelligence of their congregations. I tell my son Isaac all the time that I don’t necessarily care what he believes as long as he can show me he’s thought it through on good information. I’m simply trying to provide you the same opportunity.

Just please don’t say that the pastor doesn’t believe Paul wrote the letters in the Bible and get mad at me. Because that isn’t fair and that’s not what I’m saying. What I AM saying and what IS fair to say is that I don’t really care if he did or not because it doesn’t change the meaning or truth of Ephesians for me. And I hope it doesn’t change the truth or power of this letter for you either.

Now, if we switch gears and look at the structure of Ephesians, what we find is that this letter divides pretty distinctly into two halves. The first half Paul or whoever wrote it explores the story of the gospel. About how everything leads to Jesus and the importance of this multi-ethnic diverse community that’s now brought together in Christ. Then the letter shifts right after chapter 3 at the beginning of chapter 4 where Paul says “Therefore” and the back half of the letter focuses on how this Gospel story should affect every part of our lives and how we live - from work to family to community to every aspect of our lives. So chapters 1-3 is an exploration of the Gospel story and it’s effect on history and chapters 4-6 on the implications the Gospel should have on being the primary influence on our lives.

So, the letter opens with this beautiful Jewish style poem that we just read this morning praising God for blessing us beyond measure with all that God has done in Christ. That God has created this covenant family - think back to Abraham in Genesis 12. But now God has opened up this family to any and all of us to be adopted through Christ. That not only does the death and resurrection of Jesus allow us to be adopted into this covenant family and not only does the death and resurrection of Christ cover and forgive our sin and not only does the death and resurrection of Christ pour God’s grace into our lives, but maybe most importantly for the letter of Ephesians purpose, the death and resurrection of Christ and the Grace that’s given to us opens up a whole new way to look at, understand, interpret, and live every part of our lives. In fact, if we look at verse 10 here in chapter one, we basically have the thesis of the letter: This is what God planned for the climax of all times: to bring all things together in Christ, the things in heaven along with the things on earth.

Now, it’s important here to understand who the we and the you are that Paul’s referring to throughout this letter and especially in this opening. Paul’s saying WE - The Jewish believers - were born into this covenant family and became a part of this divine plan for a holy community. But YOU - the gentile believer - were gifted with the holy spirit and brought into this community and purpose. And this is God’s design from the very beginning - to create one community, one family of believers, diverse in its nature but unified and brought together through Christ. And all of history is working in God’s plan to bring together all people for one goal: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So when Paul says we here, he’s referring to the Jewish Christians and when Paul says you, he’s referring to the Gentile Christians.

We also notice something else really interesting that the author does with this introductory part of the letter. While there’s no direct spelling out of the doctrine of the trinity anywhere in the Bible, we have a compelling argument for it here. Because Paul starts with God, moves to Christ, and finishes with the work of the Holy Spirit - just in this opening greeting. They seem to be three distinct “people” with three distinct jobs who are working together to accomplish a single goal. And you’ll notice too, that the Spirit’s work here is the same as we find it in places like the book of Acts chapter 2 with the Pentecost story. The Holy Spirit is bringing a diverse range of people in together and forming them into one community. So, you can see why some scholars feel that the theology of Ephesians is really consistent with Paul’s theology that we see echoed throughout other places of the New Testament. And - again - this is all just in the introduction.

It’s so dense with theological implications. We could explore what Paul means here by being holy and that could lead us down the sanctification path that we would need to unpack. Or we could look at what exactly Paul means here by salvation. Or we could focus on the trinitarian theology that seems to be developing here. Or the role of the holy spirit in community. Or grace. There’s so much packed into just a few short verses right here at the beginning, you can begin to see why people were saying it’s either the Grand Canyon or Everest. It’s either the world’s largest rabbit hole to dive into or it’s an almost impossible mountain of ideas. That’s why I’m giving out handouts. And why I’m going to offer that if there’s enough question and interest about any of this, that we’ll start at Sunday evening deeper dive study. My e-mail is in the bulletin I think and if you’re interested in doing that deeper dive study, just shoot me a message and let me know.

But regardless if you’re interested in that or not, I hope you come back next week as we look at Chapter 2 of Ephesians, specifically verses 11-22 where we’re going to try to unpack a little more about God’s grace and that grace’s role in forming this mutli-ethnic, diverse family. And how God’s love and grace gives us purpose and forms us into a new humanity. But for now, let us stand together if we’re able and say what it is we hope and believe by reciting the affirmation of faith printed in our bulletin this morning…