Christ Memorial Lutheran Church - Houston TX
CMLC 2024-08-25 Sermon (Contemporary)
Howdy. You know it's always fun whenever we have some of these passages to preach from. Now back whenever I was an associate and I had a senior pastor it always seemed funny that the senior pastor would conveniently schedule me to preach on the days whenever we had passages like Ephesians from today. In fact earlier we had the first service and the and the lady that was reading it she looks at it and she looks at me and says are you really gonna make me read this and I'm like I didn't write it so you know to say it but you know it is always fun whenever you get to come to passages that are a bit difficult to wrestle with and one of the things that we look at is this classic debate all right this question of do wives submit to their husbands. Now I have to admit is that I've spent a little bit of time looking at all these you know different viewpoints and discussions about it and you end up having those who would make commentaries that spend anywhere from yes because you know men are clearly you know you'll better at this role than women are all the way to no there's no such thing as submit it wasn't even in the original book and being the head doesn't actually mean leadership and everything in between even though I would say that the best commentary I came across was my big fat Greek wedding the man is the head but the woman is the neck and she can make the head face whatever she wants which I think is theologically very true and with it is to realize that there's a lot of discussions that come up when looking at this is why does Paul end up focusing in this regard but we have to remember that historically this wasn't even a thing of a debate back then but rather it was discussing things that were just an accepted part of their society so in seeing something that people just generally accepted they were able to use it as an illustration and so in seeing it is that when we're looking at this question of is it or is it not the only way that things have to be is that that wasn't even really the question back then you see at that time having the husband be the head of the household it was just a stated reality that was there it was very different from our world today where we find people raising children into single-parent home or times whenever they have to get away from something that may be abusive or times whenever the world doesn't work the way that we might have thought it would but we also have to realize the difference between describing and prescribing because Paul describing what he sees around him that's very different from saying I have to prescribe this that this is always the way it has to always be that distinction is something that we sometimes just glaze over but to realize that honestly the argument one way or the other doesn't even find its place in here but rather is seeing why it is that Paul wants to use this as an illustration in the first place you see with it is what we're going to end up seeing is a lot of love and respect whatever role you find yourself in and that's what we're going to end up seeing back and forth because the main idea here is to live the life that God has given you in whatever context you find yourself so it's more of the describing rather than the prescribing telling you what situation is there versus this is the way it always has to be now with that is we also have to realize yeah it starts off with this one particular verse but it also goes into several other relationships as well there are several relationships that are listed in the letter to the Ephesians it's not just a question of wives and husbands and how you relate to one another but it's also talking about children and parents it's also talking about bond servants and their masters but what we have to do is realize that not only this is not an exhaustive list this is not something that covers every single relationship you may come across but also to realize that Paul is actually groundbreaking in that he doesn't just leave it at wives submit to your husbands at a time when people would have generally said yes absolutely but what does he go and do after husbands love your wives that was not something that people automatically knew or assumed or the idea that parents were supposed to actually care about their children at a time whenever it was just you're the child you have to do whatever your parents says to tell the parents that they're not supposed to end up driving their children to a fence that was new or to be able to get to the idea of you have a bond servant that has to listen to their master but now telling the master not to abuse their bond servant this was groundbreaking the idea that everybody is responsible for whatever role they find themselves in see that's the thing about this is that it even goes even further you see oftentimes we may even find ourselves as the employee with the boss and we're trying to figure out what am I supposed to do there the times whenever we may have some job that we don't really care that much about but we're still supposed to live it out to the best of our ability but that boss is not supposed to harm us or treat us poorly or you might have a teacher dealing with the students there and I still remember that back whenever I was teaching sixth graders and how many times that I'd be over there just saying their fractions it is not like hot lava it will not burn you if you try to do these fractions and yet the children would be over there restless and everything so could I have just said you have to do it because I'm the teacher yeah absolutely and let's see how well that works or instead is to take the first two minutes and say okay you have two minutes teach me something and they decide they're going to try to teach me how to whip and nay nay at the beginning of class which I'm still not very good at okay I mean I can do a couple different dance moves but there are a few that I just leave to the imagination or even things like church members and pastors is to be able to to see the opportunity of how we need to be able to work together but the pastor still has to realize that he's responsible for the people there and that this isn't just I'm going to boss you around and tell you what to do but rather is that the job is to care for and love each and everyone times whenever I've heard of a of a pastor saying I want a sign that's as tall as the nearby billboard and then when he doesn't get it ending up accusing people in the city of being demonic in some way and instead stepping back and saying how is it to be humble and to take leadership as a responsibility not just a privilege and with that is to see this idea of how do we see that wherever we're at we're meant to live it out as on to God see wherever we find ourselves whatever the situation there's almost always going to be somebody that we have to listen to there's almost always somebody that we're supposed to somehow submit to in some way it changes all the time constantly fluctuating and sometimes we're the ones who have to let somebody else lead and sometimes we're the ones who are supposed to lead ourselves but when we focus we're supposed to focus on respecting our relationships under God in other words the goal is not the role itself but rather what we're doing with that role what was the purpose in the first place so if a person is a part of a family then to say how do we live and breathe and work well together within that family and if that you are the head of that family is also say yes but it's not just for me to tell everyone what to do but rather that my decisions have to be to love and to care for them or when you end up seeing a child and parents how often is it that the child may decide hey I would like to get my way today and so they will go up to the parent and say I would really like to go hang out with my friends and one parent may say no you are supposed to stay home and clean your room and then what do they do go to the other parents you know it sounds like a great idea oh yeah absolutely that would be wonderful and then they let the parents end up dealing with that part but rather is to pause and say no we're meant to work together and that sometimes looking at the child and being able to say are you respecting what we've decided although truth be told many of our frustrations and struggles even happen into adulthood and being able to say I don't do every single thing my parents say but do I honor them do I care about what they say do I listen and learn from their wisdom but also the same thing with parents of even adult children are you helping them and encouraging them or are you just saying how in the world did my child ever get like this and it's important to note that there have been times whenever the bondservant and master versus reviews terribly to be able to support things like slavery and the like but you got to remember is that this bondservant role was something that people went into voluntarily it was saying I need a job I need a place to live I need some safe space to be a part of society or I need to save up before I can own my own property and this was somebody saying okay but you've got to work for me for seven years whatever the amount may be and then you can have your freedom and to be able to say that even then it was supposed to be with love and compassion and safety see all these different roles are meant to have a purpose but oftentimes what do we end up doing we end up getting frustrated at the other person you're not living up to your part you're not doing your part in this like there have been times whatever I've been the employee and I've had the boss and I'm over there so frustrated because there was trying to apply for a new position only to find out that the boss had blacklisted me with all the other managers and told them that I was no good at my job because he didn't want me to leave his team and then when finally finding a way to escape and then finding out what is it that I can do now is my task now just to try to make a point of it to that old boss or is my job to do the best that I can do right here right now and when the opportunity comes to do my best in that new role as well I'm not gonna lie there are times whenever I've just wanted to be frustrated and gripe and complain I am so upset at my boss and yet then there are times whenever I've had to beat the boss and we've been in those positions where now we just want them to just stop making everything difficult just fall in line just do what you're supposed to do instead of slowing down and say maybe there's reasons why they're struggling in this regard now we could have focused like spread out all of the time on all these different relationships the children and the servants but we left it at the focus on the husband and wives because while it may feel like the most difficult one to try to tackle it's also the one that in our world we're struggling with so much we are struggling as a society with the concept of what marriage is even meant to be and the times whenever we are frustrated with that spouse and it is so easy to try to find ways of kind of undercutting what they said or did going behind their back complaining constantly or even just walking away or even more than that how many times do we hear the other person doing that and then we're just angry at them instead of pausing to say was there something I did that brought this out because in reality we are all flawed we are all sinful we are all in positions where we have not done things to the best of our ability we have not been the best student we have not been the best teacher we have not been the best employee we have not been the best boss we have not been the best child we have not been the best parent we have not been the best husband we have not been the best wife and in reality is that when we spend so much time trying to figure out what the other person did then we end up missing out on the lesson that God wants us to see for ourselves because can we determine anything that anybody else does absolutely not the only person we can change is ourselves and that's hard because as Paul points out it is so easy to offend and to hurt one another but do we start with ourselves because then in our passage what does it bring us back to in Ephesians it finally brings it back together and brings everyone into the same place submit to one another because whatever role you may be in are you asking yourself the question is what I'm doing loving that person the way God wants me to because that's ultimately where Paul goes with all of these relationships every relationship testifies to Christ and the church now we could look and we can say well Christ is the head so that's just focusing on the idea that we're always supposed to follow what Christ says so whatever somebody else says I'm just supposed to follow it remember Christ as the head is also the example when Christ is here as the head how does he lead does he lead with dominating people and making his presence known and making sure that everybody just shut up and let him do his thing or did he wash feet did he feed the hungry did he listen to children that everybody else wanted to push away did he care for the elderly that nobody else cared for did he put everything on the line and give his own life for you and that's the hard part about this because did everybody appreciate him no and you will not always be appreciated you may not always be given respect for doing the job that you do or you may not always be given the authority when you're supposed to have it you may be trying so hard to make sure that you care for people and they completely ignore it or you may end up doing everything you were told and they completely ignore you but ultimately who is the one who truly sees you in what you do and that's where we find ourselves are we listening to the true head Jesus not just when we think of the church and everything that we teach here but in everything in our lives are we slowing down with whatever we see and instead of saying how do I jump ship how do I run away or how do I just avoid looking at myself and instead saying no let me go to that mirror and let me pause and say God what do you need me to see about myself today and how do you want me to live it out because the only way that we can make a difference in anything in this world is by living out whatever task and role we have to the best of our ability because if we can't respect those who are over us then who's going to listen to us share with them that Christ is the head of the church if we don't care for the people that we're supposed to be over then how are we gonna believe that God loves his church if we don't take the time to submit to each other with service and love and sacrifice then how is anybody going to believe that Christ was willing to sacrifice of himself for us it's a big ask and whether it's tomorrow or the next week or whenever and you're gonna go back to that and you're gonna say this is hard yes yes it is but it's also this is a chance to show God's love in how I respond to you to them and to everybody and it will hurt and it will be hard but it is also the way of God so ultimately if we truly want to change this world to see God to know him we have to start with us and wherever we find ourselves and whatever that may mean but fortunately we don't have to do it alone and we can be there for each other and support each other and love one another even as we submit to loving and sacrificing whatever that may mean so thank you for tackling a difficult passage with me this morning but also thanks be to God because he's the one who gave up everything for us first before we do anything ourselves thanks be to God