Sermon: 10 Pentecost (9 August 2009)
(2 Sam 18:5-9, 15, 31-33/Psalm 130/Eph 4:25-5:2/John 6:35, 41-51)
Theology, Transformation, Praxis
Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And blessed be his kingdom, now and for ever. Amen.
At the risk of dredging up unpleasant memories – recent for some and long suppressed for others – let’s speak of high school mathematics, particularly of high school mathematics books. As you can imagine, in the past twenty years I have read, reviewed, and used many of these – some good, some not so good. Almost universally these books present the content in a common format. A section begins with the development of a mathematical concept – a rather formal and abstract presentation. The writing is densely packaged, filled with strange symbols and unfamiliar terms whose meanings must be coaxed out with not a little effort. We might call this subsection Theory. Following that come the example problems, which show how to put the abstract theory into use. This subsection we might call Application. It answers the question, So what is this stuff good for?
You can tell a lot about students just by watching them read a math book. The true math geeks – and true math geeks don’t mind being called that – plunge right into the Theory. They delight in its inescapable logic and pristine beauty. The strange symbols are for them hieroglyphic mysteries begging to be solved, the unfamiliar terms a new language opening new modes of thought. They explore connections to previously encountered themes and extend those connections forward into uncharted mathematical territory. Often these math geeks care nothing about application; the theory is for them the true mathematics and they are the true mathematicians.
Then there are the math consumers, the ones who know that math is just a tool to solve problems – sometimes a hammer, sometimes a scalpel, but always just a tool. These students skip the theory entirely or just skim over it as quickly as possible and then head directly to the example problems. These are the future engineers, scientists, accountants, movers and shakers of industry. Often these consumers care nothing about theory; the answers are for them the true goal of mathematics and they are the true mathematicians.
Of course, all this is caricature and generalization, but it’s not without some validity. I’ve seen math geeks who are expert at theory but who can’t calculate their way through the simplest problem, and I’ve seen math consumers who frequently get right answers but who have no idea why, no concept of how the mathematics works.
What is needed is a bridge linking the two approaches to mathematics. Those who find and walk such a bridge – and I’ve seen several in two decades – are true mathemagicians. They both create and consume mathematics and embody, in themselves, mathematics as art and industry.
Paul’s letters are much like mathematics books. The first several chapters of a typical Pauline text develop the major theological emphases of the letter, e.g., Christology, ecclesiolgy, soteriology. This writing is densely packaged, filled with Old Testament allusions – references and cross-references – with Greek verbs that must carefully be parsed, with multiple metaphors and layers of imagery. This must be read and studied in conversation with the church, with the consensus fidelium – the consensus of the faithful – over two millennia. Frankly, it is hard going. We might call this writing Theology. But Paul generally moves on from there in the latter chapters to provide practical instruction, to put the theology to use. Husbands, love your wives. Masters, treat your slaves with dignity and respect. Thieves, stop stealing and go to work. All of you, control your lust and greed and anger. This writing, which we might call Praxis, answers the question, So what’s all this theology good for?
You can tell a lot about people by watching them read Paul. There are the academic theologians who delight in forming syntheses of Pauline texts and themes. They study literary criticism, master ancient languages, delve into Old and New Testament cultures. They tease out meanings from the lines and from between the lines – some meanings that are there and some that never were. Theology is their playground and they delight in the mental exercise of it all. God is an object to be studied, but perhaps not a Person to be engaged. The faith is a construct to be analyzed, but perhaps not a way to be lived.
Then, there are those who skip all the theology and head straight for the practical advice, straight for the Praxis. Some are looking for yet another self-help manual to bring them health, wealth, and prosperity. Some are looking for a rule book with which to satisfy God, merit heaven, and avoid hell. Some are seeking honestly to follow Jesus and are looking for how to do so.
Of course, all this is caricature and generalization, but it’s not without some validity. I’ve seen academic theologians who are experts at Pauline literature but who somewhere along the way lost Pauline faith, who no longer believe in the God whom Paul worshipped. And I’ve seen good Christian folk who live as scrupulously as the Pharisees, careful to obey every rule and commandment but who have no idea why. I’ve seen them bludgeon their brothers and sisters and neighbors with the Bible-As-Rule-Book, betraying their own insecurity and constant fear of sin and damnation.
What is needed is a bridge linking theology and praxis: theology as engagement with God – Creator, Redeemer, and Advocate – and praxis as the fruit of a transformed life, obedience born of overwhelming love and gratitude, empowered by the Spirit. Those who find and walk such a bridge – and I’ve seen a few in my years among the faithful – are the pneumatikoi, the spiritually mature. These know Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
For several weeks we have explored Pauline theology in Ephesians, Paul’s understanding of the church as the one true people of God – Jews and Gentiles alike united into one Body in and through Jesus Christ the Head: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:4-6, NRSV). This theology was hard going in Paul’s day; many simply did not want to hear it and Paul suffered much for proclaiming it. This theology is hard going in our day – difficult to understand, difficult, sometimes, to see as relevant. So, we might breathe a sigh of relief as we transition to Pauline praxis today, to the practical application of all this theology. There is always a danger, though, that we will divorce the behavioral instructions from the underlying theology and turn Paul into a self-help guru or else a burdensome taskmaster. What we need is a bridge linking his theology of Gentile inclusion – his theology of the unity of the Body of Christ – to the praxis of life in the Church and in the world. And this is precisely where the Revised Common Lectionary lets us down with a Bump! today. The bridging text, Ephesians 4:17-24 – certainly one of the most pivotal sections of the letter – is ignored in the rush to praxis. But we cannot ignore it; it lies at the heart of Paul’s theology.
Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:17-24, NRSV).
Paul is the Christ-ordained apostle to the Gentiles. He has spent the major portion of his ministry among them proclaiming the good news of their inclusion in Christ and defending them from every effort by the sect of the Circumcision to impose elements of the Jewish Law on them. Fully half his letter to the Ephesians he devotes to this revelation: “The Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph 3:6, NRSV). And now, having told the Gentiles that God accepts them as Gentiles just as God accepts Jews as Jews, Paul writes to his beloved Gentiles, “you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds” (Eph 4:17a, NRSV).
Is this a contradiction? Is Paul weakening the theology of Gentile inclusion? Not at all. Paul is not for a moment reneging on his proclamation of the gospel to the Gentiles, nor is he asking them to begin living like Jews. Having fully developed the theology of Gentile Inclusion, Paul now develops the theology of Gentile Transformation. This is the essential bridge between theology and praxis: inclusion in the body of Christ must be a transforming experience that plays out on the stage of human behavior. Simply stated: Christ welcomes you as you are but has no intent of leaving you that way. Gentiles, you must no longer live as the Gentiles live; you must be transformed into the likeness of Christ, “dying to self and sin and…rising to new life with Christ, specifically characterized by a holiness and renewed humanity in which certain habits and styles of life are left behind.”[1]
Paul merely uses the Gentiles as exemplars of the fallen human condition; what Paul says of them is true of all people struggling under the burden of ancestral sin – the sin, the illness, inherited from our first parents. The Gentile mind is futile, completely ineffective for its intended purpose, having been darkened by sin: the mind, not the rational, reasoning capability of man, but the capacity to know and to relate to God directly, unmediated by thought or emotion. In Greek, this mind is the spiritual mind, the nous. It is the highest capacity of man, the eye of the soul through which we apprehend God. When functioning properly it knows, it experiences God directly and then rightly orders human reason, imagination, will, and desire. But sin – ancestral and personal – has blinded that eye of the soul. For this reason Paul says the Gentiles “are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart” (Eph 4:18, NRSV). With a futile mind, with a darkened nous, it is no longer possible to know God. And so the Gentiles – exemplars of all humanity – turned away from God and toward the satisfaction of human desire. With reason, imagination, will, and desire no longer governed and ordered by the spiritual mind (nous) set on God, the passions enslaved the Gentiles so they “lost all sensitivity and…abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity” (Eph 4:19, NRSV).
So Paul writes to the Gentile Christians, “Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds.” Why? Because,
That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:20-24, NRSV).
The Gentile Christians cannot learn Christ, cannot be renewed in the spiritual mind (nous), cannot be recreated in the likeness of God – in true righteousness and holiness – while living in their former sin; nor can anyone. Jesus said as much in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Mt 5:8, NRSV).
So Paul transitions from the theology of inclusion to the theology of transformation: all are welcome, all must change. The praxis Paul insists upon is not a salvation by works, but a salvation by renewal. This praxis is both medicine for the healing of the soul – a therapy for subduing the passions – and evidence that the healing has begun. And, in keeping with Paul’s ecclesiology – one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all – it is a communal praxis, focused on the transformation, welfare, and unity of the whole Body of Christ (cf Eph 4:25-32).
All of us must speak the truth, for we are members of one another.
Thieves must give up stealing and labor honestly so as to have something to share with the needy.
Everyone must guard the tongue and speak no evil, but only gracious words to build up the body.
All must be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgives us.
All God’s beloved children must imitate God and live in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.
If we do these things, we will not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with which we were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. If we do these things, if we are renewed in the spiritual mind, then the eyes of our hearts will “be enlightened to know the hope to which God has called us, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Eph 1:18-19, NRSV). This theology of transformation is the bridge between the theology of inclusion and the praxis of faith. This the church affirms and insists upon in the Lord: that we put away the former way of life with its futility and alienation, with its ignorance and hardness of heart, with its greed and impurity; that we clothe ourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness; that we practice a theology of transformation to the glory of God the Father, through Christ the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] N. T. Wright. Rowan’s Reflections: Unpacking the Archbishop’s Statement. http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/page.cfm?ID=453, accessed through http://www.ntwrightpage.com/ on 8/5/2009.
(2 Sam 18:5-9, 15, 31-33/Psalm 130/Eph 4:25-5:2/John 6:35, 41-51)
Theology, Transformation, Praxis
Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And blessed be his kingdom, now and for ever. Amen.
At the risk of dredging up unpleasant memories – recent for some and long suppressed for others – let’s speak of high school mathematics, particularly of high school mathematics books. As you can imagine, in the past twenty years I have read, reviewed, and used many of these – some good, some not so good. Almost universally these books present the content in a common format. A section begins with the development of a mathematical concept – a rather formal and abstract presentation. The writing is densely packaged, filled with strange symbols and unfamiliar terms whose meanings must be coaxed out with not a little effort. We might call this subsection Theory. Following that come the example problems, which show how to put the abstract theory into use. This subsection we might call Application. It answers the question, So what is this stuff good for?
You can tell a lot about students just by watching them read a math book. The true math geeks – and true math geeks don’t mind being called that – plunge right into the Theory. They delight in its inescapable logic and pristine beauty. The strange symbols are for them hieroglyphic mysteries begging to be solved, the unfamiliar terms a new language opening new modes of thought. They explore connections to previously encountered themes and extend those connections forward into uncharted mathematical territory. Often these math geeks care nothing about application; the theory is for them the true mathematics and they are the true mathematicians.
Then there are the math consumers, the ones who know that math is just a tool to solve problems – sometimes a hammer, sometimes a scalpel, but always just a tool. These students skip the theory entirely or just skim over it as quickly as possible and then head directly to the example problems. These are the future engineers, scientists, accountants, movers and shakers of industry. Often these consumers care nothing about theory; the answers are for them the true goal of mathematics and they are the true mathematicians.
Of course, all this is caricature and generalization, but it’s not without some validity. I’ve seen math geeks who are expert at theory but who can’t calculate their way through the simplest problem, and I’ve seen math consumers who frequently get right answers but who have no idea why, no concept of how the mathematics works.
What is needed is a bridge linking the two approaches to mathematics. Those who find and walk such a bridge – and I’ve seen several in two decades – are true mathemagicians. They both create and consume mathematics and embody, in themselves, mathematics as art and industry.
Paul’s letters are much like mathematics books. The first several chapters of a typical Pauline text develop the major theological emphases of the letter, e.g., Christology, ecclesiolgy, soteriology. This writing is densely packaged, filled with Old Testament allusions – references and cross-references – with Greek verbs that must carefully be parsed, with multiple metaphors and layers of imagery. This must be read and studied in conversation with the church, with the consensus fidelium – the consensus of the faithful – over two millennia. Frankly, it is hard going. We might call this writing Theology. But Paul generally moves on from there in the latter chapters to provide practical instruction, to put the theology to use. Husbands, love your wives. Masters, treat your slaves with dignity and respect. Thieves, stop stealing and go to work. All of you, control your lust and greed and anger. This writing, which we might call Praxis, answers the question, So what’s all this theology good for?
You can tell a lot about people by watching them read Paul. There are the academic theologians who delight in forming syntheses of Pauline texts and themes. They study literary criticism, master ancient languages, delve into Old and New Testament cultures. They tease out meanings from the lines and from between the lines – some meanings that are there and some that never were. Theology is their playground and they delight in the mental exercise of it all. God is an object to be studied, but perhaps not a Person to be engaged. The faith is a construct to be analyzed, but perhaps not a way to be lived.
Then, there are those who skip all the theology and head straight for the practical advice, straight for the Praxis. Some are looking for yet another self-help manual to bring them health, wealth, and prosperity. Some are looking for a rule book with which to satisfy God, merit heaven, and avoid hell. Some are seeking honestly to follow Jesus and are looking for how to do so.
Of course, all this is caricature and generalization, but it’s not without some validity. I’ve seen academic theologians who are experts at Pauline literature but who somewhere along the way lost Pauline faith, who no longer believe in the God whom Paul worshipped. And I’ve seen good Christian folk who live as scrupulously as the Pharisees, careful to obey every rule and commandment but who have no idea why. I’ve seen them bludgeon their brothers and sisters and neighbors with the Bible-As-Rule-Book, betraying their own insecurity and constant fear of sin and damnation.
What is needed is a bridge linking theology and praxis: theology as engagement with God – Creator, Redeemer, and Advocate – and praxis as the fruit of a transformed life, obedience born of overwhelming love and gratitude, empowered by the Spirit. Those who find and walk such a bridge – and I’ve seen a few in my years among the faithful – are the pneumatikoi, the spiritually mature. These know Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
For several weeks we have explored Pauline theology in Ephesians, Paul’s understanding of the church as the one true people of God – Jews and Gentiles alike united into one Body in and through Jesus Christ the Head: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:4-6, NRSV). This theology was hard going in Paul’s day; many simply did not want to hear it and Paul suffered much for proclaiming it. This theology is hard going in our day – difficult to understand, difficult, sometimes, to see as relevant. So, we might breathe a sigh of relief as we transition to Pauline praxis today, to the practical application of all this theology. There is always a danger, though, that we will divorce the behavioral instructions from the underlying theology and turn Paul into a self-help guru or else a burdensome taskmaster. What we need is a bridge linking his theology of Gentile inclusion – his theology of the unity of the Body of Christ – to the praxis of life in the Church and in the world. And this is precisely where the Revised Common Lectionary lets us down with a Bump! today. The bridging text, Ephesians 4:17-24 – certainly one of the most pivotal sections of the letter – is ignored in the rush to praxis. But we cannot ignore it; it lies at the heart of Paul’s theology.
Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:17-24, NRSV).
Paul is the Christ-ordained apostle to the Gentiles. He has spent the major portion of his ministry among them proclaiming the good news of their inclusion in Christ and defending them from every effort by the sect of the Circumcision to impose elements of the Jewish Law on them. Fully half his letter to the Ephesians he devotes to this revelation: “The Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph 3:6, NRSV). And now, having told the Gentiles that God accepts them as Gentiles just as God accepts Jews as Jews, Paul writes to his beloved Gentiles, “you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds” (Eph 4:17a, NRSV).
Is this a contradiction? Is Paul weakening the theology of Gentile inclusion? Not at all. Paul is not for a moment reneging on his proclamation of the gospel to the Gentiles, nor is he asking them to begin living like Jews. Having fully developed the theology of Gentile Inclusion, Paul now develops the theology of Gentile Transformation. This is the essential bridge between theology and praxis: inclusion in the body of Christ must be a transforming experience that plays out on the stage of human behavior. Simply stated: Christ welcomes you as you are but has no intent of leaving you that way. Gentiles, you must no longer live as the Gentiles live; you must be transformed into the likeness of Christ, “dying to self and sin and…rising to new life with Christ, specifically characterized by a holiness and renewed humanity in which certain habits and styles of life are left behind.”[1]
Paul merely uses the Gentiles as exemplars of the fallen human condition; what Paul says of them is true of all people struggling under the burden of ancestral sin – the sin, the illness, inherited from our first parents. The Gentile mind is futile, completely ineffective for its intended purpose, having been darkened by sin: the mind, not the rational, reasoning capability of man, but the capacity to know and to relate to God directly, unmediated by thought or emotion. In Greek, this mind is the spiritual mind, the nous. It is the highest capacity of man, the eye of the soul through which we apprehend God. When functioning properly it knows, it experiences God directly and then rightly orders human reason, imagination, will, and desire. But sin – ancestral and personal – has blinded that eye of the soul. For this reason Paul says the Gentiles “are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart” (Eph 4:18, NRSV). With a futile mind, with a darkened nous, it is no longer possible to know God. And so the Gentiles – exemplars of all humanity – turned away from God and toward the satisfaction of human desire. With reason, imagination, will, and desire no longer governed and ordered by the spiritual mind (nous) set on God, the passions enslaved the Gentiles so they “lost all sensitivity and…abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity” (Eph 4:19, NRSV).
So Paul writes to the Gentile Christians, “Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds.” Why? Because,
That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:20-24, NRSV).
The Gentile Christians cannot learn Christ, cannot be renewed in the spiritual mind (nous), cannot be recreated in the likeness of God – in true righteousness and holiness – while living in their former sin; nor can anyone. Jesus said as much in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Mt 5:8, NRSV).
So Paul transitions from the theology of inclusion to the theology of transformation: all are welcome, all must change. The praxis Paul insists upon is not a salvation by works, but a salvation by renewal. This praxis is both medicine for the healing of the soul – a therapy for subduing the passions – and evidence that the healing has begun. And, in keeping with Paul’s ecclesiology – one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all – it is a communal praxis, focused on the transformation, welfare, and unity of the whole Body of Christ (cf Eph 4:25-32).
All of us must speak the truth, for we are members of one another.
Thieves must give up stealing and labor honestly so as to have something to share with the needy.
Everyone must guard the tongue and speak no evil, but only gracious words to build up the body.
All must be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgives us.
All God’s beloved children must imitate God and live in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.
If we do these things, we will not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with which we were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. If we do these things, if we are renewed in the spiritual mind, then the eyes of our hearts will “be enlightened to know the hope to which God has called us, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Eph 1:18-19, NRSV). This theology of transformation is the bridge between the theology of inclusion and the praxis of faith. This the church affirms and insists upon in the Lord: that we put away the former way of life with its futility and alienation, with its ignorance and hardness of heart, with its greed and impurity; that we clothe ourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness; that we practice a theology of transformation to the glory of God the Father, through Christ the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] N. T. Wright. Rowan’s Reflections: Unpacking the Archbishop’s Statement. http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/page.cfm?ID=453, accessed through http://www.ntwrightpage.com/ on 8/5/2009.
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