New Life in the Home
May 24th, 2009We had pretty good attendance for a holiday – maybe it was the rain. The lesson scripture for this week was drawn from the 5th and 6th chapters of Ephesians. Here it is:
21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior.
24 Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
26 in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word,
27 so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish.
28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29 For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church,
30 because we are members of his body.
31 ”For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
32 This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church.
33 Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband. Eph 5:21-33 (NRSV)
and
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
2 ”Honor your father and mother”—this is the first commandment with a promise:
3 ”so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
4 And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Eph 6:1-4 (NRSV)
The key verb here is upotasseoqai (hypotassesthai) in verse 21 – which refers to taking a subordinate role to another. The verse that seems to cause the most trouble in today’s society – verse 22 – actually doesn’t contain a verb, it is implied from verse 21. So, was today’s lesson about the subordinate role of women? No.
This is just one iteration of the “Household Code”. Other examples include Colossians 3:18-4:1 (which was included in one of the daily readings earlier this week), as well as Titus 2:1-10 and 1 Peter 2:13-18; 3:1-7. Interestingly the Revised Common Lectionary doesn’t include any of these passages – maybe because of the controversy that can be generated by what many today would consider language that is “politically incorrect”. But we can’t avoid them. They are part of the canon and whether they are misused by people who would try to place women in second class status, or by people who claim that the Christian canon is misogynistic, we have to be prepared to rationally discuss our belief in and exegesis of scripture. Two points: (1) these passages were clearly written in a strongly patriarchal society; but (2) the primary focus of these passages, today’s in particular, was not to advance a patriarchal agenda – it was rather to draw an analogy using that system to one of the central themes of the New Testament: unity within the church and mutual submission and self-denial as a part of that culture of unity.
So, what do you think? About today’s lesson – or about blogging?
I’m going to stick with my simplicity plan and summarize “Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband” with the idea of being a servant. Jesus, while leading many, took a mindset of being a servant…even to the washing of his disciple’s feet. If we all treat others like we are their servants and keep the simple mindset that we were put on earth to help each other, then loving our spouse as our self and respecting others comes naturally.