Preaching to slaves (Eph. 6)

During the 19th century, the Methodists perfected the art of "camp meetings." Thousands of people would gather to sing, pray, and listen to preaching. Mass hysteria occasionally gripped the crowd, and some susceptible souls would even go into convulsions. Some ladies would "jerk" so  intensely that the ends of their long braids would crack like whips. 

Yet people would also testify to a sense of release from their sins, from degrading habits and addictions. 

Now, what do you preach when some of the slaveowners bring their slaves along? This was not at all unusual. Many churches built during that era had seperate seating accomodations for the slaves, in balconies in the rear of the meeting room. Well, one noteworthy evangelist used the following text, to explain, first of all, the duties of slaves:

Eph 6:5 Ey köleler, dünyadaki efendilerinizin sözünü Mesih'in sözünü dinler gibi saygı ve korkuyla, saf yürekle dinleyin. 
Eph 6:6 Bunu, yalnız insanları hoşnut etmek isteyenler gibi göze hoş görünmek için yapmayın. Mesih'in kulları olarak Tanrı'nın isteğini candan yerine getirin. 
Eph 6:7 İnsanlara değil, Rab'be hizmet eder gibi gönülden hizmet edin. 
Eph 6:8 Çünkü ister köle ister özgür olsun, herkesin yaptığı her iyiliğin karşılığını Rab'den alacağını biliyorsunuz. 

Then, once he had the crowd nodding in agreement, he'd preach even more forcefully on the duties of slave owners:

Eph 6:9 Ey efendiler, siz de kölelerinize aynı biçimde davranın. Artık onları tehdit etmeyin. Onların da sizin de Efendiniz'in göklerde olduğunu ve insanlar arasında ayrım yapmadığını biliyorsunuz. 

Ultimately, our work has significance because it is a means of worshipping God by serving our neighbor. Communist societies, founded on a denial of God, found it impossible to motivate the workers to do more than the bare minimum. A Russian saying went, "They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work." Without the excellencies of a transcendent God as a standard of comparison, folks "worked to the contract," made a show of doing their duties, but in a slip-shod, half-hearted way. During a two-week visit to Ukraine, I saw a nation full of mediocrity. Charming people, and I hope I can work among them some day, maybe teach for a summer now and then. But, if you have no ethic of what Soltzenitsn referred to as "quality, the soul of technology," you end up with Chernobyl. 

Reality tends to assert itself over ideology.

Gotta be bright ! (Eph. 5)

One of the things I admire about my Muslim friends is their conviction that every moment of their lives is lived under the all-seeing gaze of heaven. A man who takes that insight to heart lives far more soberly than the careless idler. Paul plays with the concepts of light, time, and accountability in this chapter of Ephesians:

Eph 5:14 Çünkü görünen her şey ışıktır. Bunun için şöyle deniyor: "Uyan, ey uyuyan! Ölümden diril! Mesih sana ışık saçacak."
Eph 5:15 Öyleyse nasıl yaşadığınıza çok dikkat edin. Bilgelikten yoksun olanlar gibi değil, bilgeler gibi yaşayın.
Eph 5:16 Fırsatı değerlendirin. Çünkü yaşadığımız günler kötüdür.
Eph 5:17 Bunun için akılsız olmayın, Rab'bin isteğinin ne olduğunu anlayın.
Eph 5:18 Şarapla sarhoş olmayın, bu sizi sefahate götürür. Bunun yerine Ruh'la dolun:
Eph 5:19 Birbirinize mezmurlar, ilahiler, ruhsal ezgiler söyleyin; yürekten Rab'be ezgiler, mezmurlar okuyun;

And, a few words:

• Çünkü -- because, therefore
  
• görünen her şey ışıktır -- that which makes visible / every thing / is light
  
• Uyan, ey uyuyan! Ölümden diril! Mesih sana ışık saçacak -- Wake up / O / you sleeper! / From the dead / arise! / Christ (Messiah) / to you / light / will sow. (uymak -- to sleep. uyumak -- to wake up.)
  
• Öyleyse nasıl yaşadığınıza çok dikkat edin. -- For this reason / how / you are living / very / careful / be.
  
• Fırsatı değerlendirin. -- Opportunity / buy up.
  

Some religions view time as something to passively endure, while you wait for something better to come along. Different Christian groups also have different perspectives on time. Latin American cultures are famed for having institutionalized procrastination with the defining word Manana. (Literally, "tomorrow." In practice, "not today.") Then, there are some middle-eastern cultures that use Insh'allah the same way. The American Calvinists, however, lived by the clock and calendar. They viewed every moment as an irreplaceable asset, that had to be used or forever lost. These Yankees had trouble dealing with the more laid-back culture of the Cajuns, a Catholic, French-speaking society absorbed by the Louisiana Purchase.

Sin and anger ( Eph. 4 )

Sometimes, a chapter just has too much content. Too much insight. Too much going on. So, maybe the best thing to do is pick one sentence, and give it some thought.

Eph 4:26 Öfkelenin, ama günah işlemeyin. Öfkenizin üzerine güneş batmasın.

And, a few words:

• Öfkelenin -- Be angry
  
• ama -- but
  
• günah -- evil
  
• işlemeyin -- do not do.
  
• Öfkenizin -- Your anger
  
• üzerine -- upon
  
• güneş -- the sun
  
• batmasın -- do not permit to set.

Anger is a legitimate human emotion. Jesus saw the Gentiles who'd come to worship the God of Israel being crowded out of their permitted place of prayer by mercenary mercantile establishments. He went ballistic, kicked over the tables of the moneychangers, made, and applied a whip. Yet, angry people can also be irrational, if they let their anger master them.

This verse contains advice that will make a marriage happier. Make sure that conflicts are resolved before you call it a night.

Unthinkable! ( Eph. 3 )

On the basis of their shared experiences of both adversity and glory, Paul could pray with exuberant enthusiasm for the Ephesians:

Eph 3:14-15 Bunun için, yerde ve gökte her ailenin adını kendisinden aldığı Baba'nın önünde diz çökerim.
Eph 3:16-19 Baba'nın kendi yüceliğinin zenginliği uyarınca Ruhu'yla sizi iç varlığınızda kudretle güçlendirmesini ve Mesih'in iman yoluyla yüreklerinizde yaşamasını dilerim. Öyle ki, Tanrı'nın bütün doluluğuyla dolmanız için, sevgide köklenmiş ve temellenmiş olarak bütün kutsallarla birlikte Mesih'in sevgisinin ne denli geniş ve uzun, yüksek ve derin olduğunu anlamaya, bilgiyi çok aşan bu sevgiyi kavramaya gücünüz yetsin.
Eph 3:20 Tanrı, bizde etkin olan kudretiyle, dilediğimiz ya da düşündüğümüz her şeyden çok daha fazlasını yapabilecek güçtedir.
Eph 3:21 Kilisede ve Mesih İsa'da bütün kuşaklar boyunca sonsuzlara dek O'na yücelik olsun! Amin.

Let's look at a few words:

• Bunun için -- for this reason, therefore
• yerde ve gökte -- on earth and in heaven
• her ailenin adını kendisinden aldığı Baba'nın -- every / family / name / its own / receives / of the Father
• dilediğimiz ya da düşündüğümüz -- what we can know, even in fact what we can imagine
• her şeyden -- everything than
• çok daha fazlasını -- much more, to excess
• yapabilecek -- He is able to do (in the future, the time to come). 
• güçtedir -- by His power

An old story comes to mind. A man packed his suitcase with cheese and crackers, then booked passage on a cruise liner. Day after day, he passed the other folks relishing fancy dining in the fancy dining room, went to his little stateroom, and washed down dry crackers and rancid cheese with water from the sink. Finally, on the last day, he decided to treat himself to one meal in that dining room. He asked the steward how much it would cost him -- and discovered that the price of all the meals was included in the price of the ticket he'd purchased.

The structure of the universe is patriarchical, in the Christian view. We see ourselves as heirs of heaven's wealth, rich in all that matters most, surrounded with resources (relationships, time, energy, ability, vision) lavished upon us by a generous heavenly Father. Oh, that we would simply take the time to rejoice in, and make use of, what God has already given us!

When we approach our Creator in prayer, we can expect His answers to exceed our wildest hopes -- but in ways we could not imagine. After all, He is God, and we are not.

God of their fathers ( Eph. 2 )

Max I. Dimont was such a good writer that you could almost overlook his unbelief in God. His book The Jews, God, and History describes the successful inroads that Judaism made in the Roman Empire. Preserving and deepening their cultural identity through the Babylonian Captivity and the following diaspora [1] equipped them with traditions and organizations that allowed them to remain themselves wherever they roamed. Get ten Jewish men together, a minyan, and you could have formal synagogue worship services. Else, you could have an informal "place of prayer." 

The Jewish religion looked pretty good to sophisticated Greeks and Romans who'd grown weary of overlooking, explaining away, or burlesequing the lewd, obscene, antics of their deities. At least the God of the Jews didn't rape betrothed virgins, or demand that worshipers sacrifice their children.[2] By the time the first century AD rolled around, Dimont wrote, approximately one out of every seven subjects of the Roman Empire were attending synagogue services. Some were proselytes. Others, who were squeamish about elective surgery, were "God-fearers." If you were not a full-scale Jew, your prayers began "O God of their faithers."[3] When you went to Jerusalem to worship the God of Israel, you did so from the Court of the Gentiles -- if you could find a place to pray in the midst of a livestock auction, commercial emporium, and banking establishment. 

SO we had this dispersion of smug insiders, surrounded by wanna-bees. Then we had Paul showing up to upset the status quo, by asserting that the old distinctions were now obsolete:

Eph 2:11 Bunun için, öteki uluslardan doğan sizler bir zamanlar ne olduğunuzu anımsayın: Bedende elle yapılmış sünnete sahip olup "sünnetli" diye anılanların "sünnetsiz" dedikleri sizler,
Eph 2:12 o zaman Mesihsiz, İsrail'de vatandaşlıktan yoksun, vaade dayanan antlaşmalara yabancı, dünyada umutsuz ve tanrısızdınız.
Eph 2:13 Ama bir zamanlar uzak olan sizler, şimdi Mesih İsa'da Mesih'in kanı sayesinde yakın kılındınız.
Eph 2:14-16 Çünkü Mesih'in kendisi barışımızdır. Kutsal Yasa'yı, buyrukları ve kurallarıyla birlikte etkisiz kılarak iki topluluğu birleştirdi, aradaki engel duvarını, yani düşmanlığı kendi bedeninde yıktı. Amacı bu iki topluluktan kendisinde yeni bir insan yaratarak esenliği sağlamak, düşmanlığı çarmıhta öldürmek ve çarmıh aracılığıyla bir bedende iki topluluğu Tanrı'yla barıştırmaktı.
Eph 2:17 O gelip hem uzakta olan sizlere hem de yakındakilere esenliği müjdeledi.
Eph 2:18 O'nun aracılığıyla hepimiz tek Ruh'ta Baba'nın huzuruna çıkabiliriz.
Eph 2:19 Böylece artık yabancı ve garip değil, kutsallarla birlikte yurttaş ve Tanrı'nın ev halkısınız.

OK, time for a few words:

• o zaman -- at that time 
• Mesihsiz -- without the Messiah
• İsrail'de vatandaşlıktan yoksun -- of Israel / a citizen / you were not
• artık -- now
• yabancı -- foreigner. Alien. 
• garip -- stranger
• kutsallarla --  with the saints (kutsal - holy. -lar- plural. The saints. -la with)
• birlikte -- united, at one with (bir - one. -lik- pertaining of the characteristics of. -te with, on, at)
• yurttaş -- household. A yurt, you'll recall, is a round tent.
• Tanrı'nın ev -- God's house
• halkısınız -- you are people 

In Jesus, and through His ongoing work, God makes us one. It's sad that there exists a strain of belief in many American Christians that we should distinguish between those whom God has made one, and imagine that unbelieving Jews have a special status of some kind with God.

_____________

[1] A scattering, as in when you broadcast seed. Spore = seed. This term refers to ethnic groups that preserve their identities without benefit of homeland. The first, primary, reference is to the wandering Jews who drifted around the world as cultural aliens for nearly 2,000 years. To refer to other groups with a similar experience, you need to add an adjective: the overseas Chinese disaspora, for example.

[2] This is a G-rated blog, so decency precludes discussion of how the earth mother Cybele was worshipped!

[3] "Oh" is a generic exclamation. "O" is "vocative." You use O to invoke one of higher status, such as God, or the king. 

Those were the good old days ! (Eph. 1)

Ephesians is one of the most exuberant of Paul's epistles. Penned from a Roman prison, this letter celebrates the overwhelming goodness of God that the people at Ephesus had come to know through Paul's ministry. It was a Ephesus that Paul spent two years, settled in one place, teaching routinely in the same place day after day. His lessons were avidly attended, and students fanned out throughout Anatolia to share the good news of this Kingdom Paul described, and demonstrated. His laundry wasn't safe -- folks swiped his "tidy whities" as aids to prayer. The impact of his message threatened the town's major industry, the temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. At least, some of the peripheral industries around this temple felt threatened, and provoked a riot. At this point, we learn that several of the regional governors, the asiarchs, considered Paul a personal friend.

Well, that was all a while ago. Yet, people who experienced extraordinary events together have a bond that transcends decades. There are reasons why older soldiers seek out each others' company. Why school reunions commemorate and try to recreate the incandescent few years some of the people enjoyed. Some of this gratitude for shared grace shines through Paul's initial statements:

Eph 1:3 Bizi Mesih'te her ruhsal kutsamayla göksel yerlerde kutsamış olan Rabbimiz İsa Mesih'in Babası Tanrı'ya övgüler olsun.
Eph 1:4 O kendi önünde sevgide kutsal ve kusursuz olmamız için dünyanın kuruluşundan önce bizi Mesih'te seçti.
Eph 1:5 Kendi isteği ve iyi amacı uyarınca İsa Mesih aracılığıyla kendisine oğullar olalım diye bizi önceden belirledi.
Eph 1:6 Öyle ki, sevgili Oğlu'nda bize bağışladığı yüce lütfu övülsün.

I've highlighted the first person plural (we, us, our) references.

Who's laughing, now? (Gal. 6)

Athanasius, one of my favorite church fathers, wrote a lively devotional and theological work On the Incarnation. In a memorable metaphor, he explained that Jesus had, by His death, burial, and resurrection, deprived death of its power to terrify. Instead, death was like a captive enemy, shackled on a public street, to be mocked by all who pass by.

Some things are properly mocked. Satan, for example, has no sense of humor. Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer, who brings the lunacies of the left to light, in a humorous and cheerful way.

Then, there is Paul's agricultural admonition, concerning things that are not to be mocked:

Gal 6:7 Aldanmayın, Tanrı alaya alınmaz. İnsan ne ekerse onu biçer.
Gal 6:8 Kendi benliğine eken, benlikten ölüm biçecektir. Ruh'a eken, Ruh'tan sonsuz yaşam biçecektir.

Imagine a farmer who sows a field of turnips, then expects to harvest corn. He can fertilize that field, irrigate it, talk to his neighbors about how much he's looking forward to cooking corn on the cob -- but the seed germinating in the ground is turning into turnips. What the farmer wishes for doesn't count -- it's what he's sown!

We reap what we sow.
We reap after we sow.
We reap more than we sow.

Jesus said that, unless we understand the parable of the sower, seed, and ground, we'll remain ignorant of His Kingdom.