Here’s what I suspect will be a new word for you: anacoluthon. I think I can correctly conclude you do not use that word on a daily basis. It is, however, what our reading from Ephesians starts off with. An anacoluthon is an abrupt mid-sentence shift to a different subject without any regard for sentence structure. For example, “Do you realize how late, I haven’t mowed the lawn!” Or they may not connect, “I agree that children should - wait! Did you see that car run the red light?”
A more literal translation of the first line of Ephesians 3 is, “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles – surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given me for you…” It’s jarring. It goes together, but not in any flowing logical sense. While the author created this anacoluthon for effect, the whole rest of the passage may feel the same way for us. It jumps and links though: former generations, mysteries, prophets, gospel, Paul’s apostleship, church, God’s wisdom, heavenly places, confidence, and not losing heart. It may well leave you mentally dizzy trying to follow it. And if you do manage to follow it all your mind is exhausted.
Let’s learn a bit more about the world of that day, and with that I think we can understand what is happening.
There were a number of religions in the first century that we call mystery religions. These were not the main civic religions, which were public and open. They were closed and secretive. Admission usually came by invitation only. There would be a secret initiation right where the new member was united to the deity. Upon joining, and only upon joining, would a new member learn of the mysteries or secrets of the religion. These secrets would usually be about how to attain eternal life. Not surprisingly, eternal life was only attainable by those who were members. Few, if any, outsiders would be thus saved.
Christianity was not a mystery religion. It was open to all and it did not claim specific mysteries that one had to use to reach eternal life. However, there were certainly many beliefs that would puzzle an outsider. For example, how could Jesus be fully human and fully divine at the same time? How can you have two natures but only one person? That’s like saying two equals one. Or the Trinity. Though the doctrine wasn’t developed for quite a while, the idea that there is one and only one God, yet three persons or expressions within that one God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, makes very little sense. That’s saying one plus one plus one equals one. Bad math. Good theology. How it works is a mystery.
Yet these Christian mysteries were not the same as the pagan mystery religions. It was commonly believed at the time that there were several layers to the heavens. Each of the several planets existed in a different layer of the heavens. In order to attain eternal life one had to pass through all the layers of the heavens. In each of the layers there were angels, spirits, forces and powers. To get through them might require the use of secret knowledge. Or they might require the passing of tests. Or, during your life you might have to perform certain rituals, offer prayers, or make sacrifices to please the rulers of the layers. By doing so you could pass through them when you die.
None of this is clear. We do not have definite knowledge of the mystery religions or their mysteries. Many of them died with them. But it seems to fit what the author of Ephesians is saying when we read, “…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.” (3:2-10)
He goes on, “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.”
So, for the author of Ephesians it is not mysteries and tests and challenges to get to eternal life. Getting to God is not through numerous layers of heavens. It is direct access to God -in boldness and confidence- through faith.
Remember back to what we read a few weeks ago in chapter 1. There we read in Vs. 20-21, “God put… power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.”
Those words aren’t just rhetorical flourish. If the Ephesians believed the heavens were multiple layers with various angels and rulers and powers, then Christ was above them all; and for all time.
So, the mysteries of Christianity, such as they are, are very simple. You don’t need secret knowledge. You don’t need knowledge at all. And you don’t need to say secret prayers or perform rituals or sacrifices or anything like that. You do not need to worry about having to undergo grueling struggles and challenges to get to eternal life after you die. All of that, whatever it might be, was taken care of once and for all for you by Jesus.
I think we often do not appreciate the sheer simplicity of our faith. It is simply a relationship with God. It is a relationship where the all-consuming ways of this world are proven to be dead ends, and instead fullness of life comes by recognizing God’s goodness for you.
Oh, the problems and messes we make of our lives by thinking we need to fit in. Oh, the way we exhaust ourselves in the need to keep up appearances. Oh, how much we worry about things that are not important at all.
It is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. We read that from Ephesians two weeks ago. And remember, the faith that is talked about there is not your own intellectual belief. It is not your mental capacity to believe doctrines or facts about Jesus. Or about living in a particular way. Perhaps it is better to say we are saved by God’s grace through Jesus’ faithfulness. It is probably not referring to our own faith. Even in verse 12 which I quoted a couple minutes ago, “…we have access to God in boldness through faith in him.” It is equally valid, and perhaps better, to translate it as, “we have access to God in boldness through the faith of Jesus.”
In other words, it is not your faithfulness that saves you. It was Jesus’ faithfulness that already saved you. So, what do you have to do to get to eternal life? There’s good news for that. You know this already. You can’t get to eternal life. It’s impossible for you. It is impossible for me. No one has that power. It is the power of Jesus that has done it for us.
Let’s let that rest for a while because those thoughts can make us spin round and round for hours. There’s another important thing to note in all of this. That’s the church.
We read today in Ephesians 3:10, “…through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known…” That is not the church as some supernatural holy institution. You’ll remember that the word church is a very simple word that means the assembly. The church is not intended to be a holy organization with secret rites and rituals that somehow has a mysterious supernatural connection to God. The church is, simply put, the assembly of the believers. The church’s power on earth lies completely within itself. It is the community it creates for its members. Throughout the New Testament we realize the church is not to see itself as a group that collectively calls on God for miraculous problem solving. The church is the practical collection of believers who do things together for their common good and for the good of the world around them.
Faith is not intended to be a private individual affair. Although that is what it has effectively become in many people today. Faith is a community endeavor.
The church is the assembly of believers that lives with the knowledge of what God has done. In so doing it makes known in real ways what God is like. Spreading the gospel is not supposed to be an individual thing. Spreading the gospel is not supposed to be individuals annoying their neighbors to attend a worship service, and that God will then somehow save them. Spreading the gospel is the witness of the assembly of the faithful, as it makes God’s ways known in a world that does not believe in them. The church is the community where God’s truths are alive and functional here and now. That is good news to a world that has lost sight of the real meaning of God’s goodness.
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