I’m no republican, but I’m always a bit troubled by the royalist imagery which is so prominent throughout the Bible; it’s easy to be beguiled by the splendid poetry of David’s Last Words or Psalm 47, and any number of other passages which see God as an enlightened and absolute monarch, shining (with a hint of pagan sun worship) like the morning sun on a wet lawn or as a king carved in stone whom one might see in any number of magnificent and depressing reliefs in the British Museum, reliefs in which subjects kneel at the conquering king’s feet- only in Israelite version he is sitting on a cloud not fixed in stone.
hcorrupts absolutely. The march past of Roman emperors is mostly unedifying. The experience of monarchy in the first century AD was only slightly more ambivalent; Judea and neighbouring states were subject to Roman Imperial rule which governed, albeit at a distance, and through client kings, every aspect of political life. Elsewhere, there were vestiges of democracy in town councils which were in practice oligarchies. Altogether it was not an obvious pattern for the rule of the Christian God.
Perhaps I should not be troubled about monarchies as the record of democracy from its origins in ancient Athens to our own day is scarcely an example of the Gospel in practice. In fact, right now I would suggest that greatest threats to justice and peace in the world come from demagogues and populist dictators most of them more or less democratically elected.
St Paul would not have been troubled by these thoughts. He is not generally keen to rock the establishment boat. Here, he is apparently addressing the church in Ephesus, and probably other churches in Asia Minor. The reason we heard it is, of course, because what he says is seen to be relevant even in 21st century Hampstead. But Paul’s language is hardly parochial God, as Christ is placed in heaven “far above all government and authority, all power and dominion…”. It is universal language influenced by those passages from the Old Testament which we heard and many others.
This wide language is better understood if we look at the context. Most of Paul’s letters address problems in the churches to which he is writing but as the passage following our reading this evening makes clear the challenges for the church in Ephesus are more general:-
“Time was when you were dead in your sins and wickedness, when you followed the evil ways of this present age, when you obeyed the commander of the spiritual powers of the air,..”
I do not think that Paul was saying that the Ephesians were especially wicked (they were not notorious for dissipation like the Corinthians) They were particularly devoted to their patron goddess Diana of the Ephesians but the cult of that chaste goddess was not especially immoral by Christian standards. Nevertheless, the pagan world around the Early Church was one which had little respect for what we now call human rights and social and economic power was in the hands of a few who saw nothing wrong in savage exploitation. For most of its inhabitants, the poor, the enslaved, and women it was a harsh world and Christianity uniquely brought hope to classes who had none. Paul is hardly exaggerating in likening life before Christianity as death; society generally was
indeed morally moribund. Generally, because the Jews as Paul himself boasts, lived life according to a strict moral code. But even that was code which Jesus pointed out, was not morally or spiritually enlivening.
For Paul, what Christianity brought was grace; the immense outpouring of love and hope personified in Jesus and realised in the resurrection. His rather imperialist language- of Christ subjecting everything beneath his- feet may now seem a somewhat unfortunate metaphor but Paul wants to stress the all-embracing force of the Gospel message. It’s natural he should see earthly ideas of enthronement and empire as a template for the extent of God’s grace. There is no suggestion that this subjection of creation resembled imperial Roman rule in its motivation; on the contrary; he ends the passage I quoted saying
“…We are God’s handiwork created in Jesus Christ to devote ourselves to the good deeds which God has designed for us.”
While not exactly promoting democracy, about which I suspect Paul was at best ambivalent, the idea of the church as the body of Christ and each of us a member in both senses, and each with a responsibility, approaches democratic principles. As do the love we are to bear for God’s people and the good works prepared for us to walk in.
This opportunity to do good works, then as now is the expression of post resurrection life for the Ephesians as it is for us. It is indeed a “wealth and glory” and “the vast resources of his power which he shares with us”. It is the power not only to live our own lives as fully as God intends, but it also the means by which we may improve the lives of others and gradually perhaps by small and apparently insignificant steps of kindness and charity, bring about a world in which all are respected as children of God made in His image. Children with responsibilities and rights as both citizens and subjects. That respect for our fellow creatures is as urgently needed in our world as it was in 1st century AD Asia Minor. Amen