Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity – 11 July 2021: Ephesians 1, 3-14; Mark 6, 14-29
Fr Leonard Doolan, St Paul’s Athens
Last Sunday we read from St. Paul’s letter to the Christians in nearby Corinth. This morning we have travelled North East, to the capitol of the Roman Province of Asia, Ephesus. The two cities are connected, as it is known that Paul wrote to the Corinthians from Ephesus.
Ephesus was not only the centre of Roman Administration of the province, it was also home to one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient world the Temple of the Goddess Artemis who was worshipped by a cult of wealthy noble women who were her priestesses and acolytes.
While in Ephesus St. Paul caused a great stir among the silversmith workers, headed up by one Demetrios. He gathered his fellow craftsmen together, and the artisans and sellers of the little silver replicas of the temple, and, no doubt, silver images of the goddess, maybe earrings, brooches, bracelets and fascinators.
The accusation is that St. Paul has been preaching against the main source of their trade and livelihood, maintaining that gods made with hands are not gods at all. (Acts 19 26). Demetrios was concerned that their temple and its cult would be discredited across Asia – but I guess his main concern was loss of income.
So, to a man, they shout out ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians’ and rush off to the city’s great theatre. Like a great wall of football supporters crying out for team, the crowds are screaming out ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians’. Paul is advised not venture there. It is up to one Alexander to calm the crowd and point out that if Demetrios has a complaint to make, the courts are open – but if they continue as they are they are all in danger of being accused of rioting – something the Roman authorities there will not countenance. Paul leaves the city.
Probably when he has been imprisoned in Rome Paul corresponds with the Ephesian Christians, though it is thought this might have been a general letter for all the churches of in this part of Asia.
After the initial greeting, we are presented with the most extraordinary piece of majestic theology. It is the passage you heard this morning, and can read again at home through the week. Few passages in scripture can match the royal progress of Paul’s thinking. If ever we needed to be encouraged, perhaps it is now after these long months of COVID lockdown, restrictions, face coverings, loss of liberty, sickness, depressing statistics, fear of the virus, fear of the vaccine, fear of other people, of going outside, frustration about church life and liturgy cut back and trimmed to conform to weekly Government Gazette’s.
By antithesis, here are just a few of the expressions and words that we find in these 11 verses of this letter to the Ephesians:
- Blessed be the God
- Who has blessed us in Christ
- Spiritual blessing in the heavenly places
- Chose us in Christ
- Adoption as his children
- Good pleasure of his will
- Glorious grace freely bestowed on us in the Beloved
- Redemption, forgiveness, riches of grace lavished on us
- Good pleasure, inheritance, hope
How much more of this could St. Paul have crammed into this purple passage of praise – and how much more could we take? It is a feast – a feast of the sheer joy of our faith in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and a celebration of all that God does for us – it is sheer abandonment of the shackles that imprison us so easily as human beings; profligacy in showering us with every blessing imaginable; God is prodigal in his love shown towards us in Christ, sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
As Paul writes these glorious words that reveal his understanding of God in Christ, he would still have had in his mind’s eye how life and the city were dominated by the Artemesia, the cultic worship of the Goddess Artemis, and no doubt the silversmith, Demetrios and his little factory that produced souvenirs for pilgrims and tourists and neophytes. He contrasts the living God with the gods of the temples, and no doubt in his mind would be the words from Psalm 115, 4-8
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands
They have mouths but cannot speak; eyes have they but cannot see
They have ears, but cannot hear; noses have they but they cannot smell
They have hands, but cannot feel; feet have they but they cannot walk; not a whisper do they make from their throats.
Those who make them shall become like them and so will all who put their trust in them.
To which gods made with hands do we bow down to in our own lives – what have we set up as our idols – what dictates and motivates us – what are our priorities for life, and who or what dictates this – what divinities made with human hands do we worship. Whatever it may be, it is ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians’ and it will fail us, and not fulfil us. In writing to the Ephesians, Paul is sharing the gospel that God in Christ is life, and that life in all its exuberance, and abundance is to be found in him.
Today, July 11th, is the Feast of St. Benedict in the western calendar. Today I am praying for friends, the Abbot and Community of St. Andries in Brugge, Belgium, one of the many hundreds of monastic houses who follow the Rule of St. Benedict.
In the Prologue of his Rule, Holy Benedict says this (Prologue 15-18)
‘Which is the one who wants life and desires to see good days? If on hearing this you reply “It is I” God says to you if you want to have true and eternal life”keep your tongue from evil and let your lips speak no deceit. Turn from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it” (Ps 33, 15). And when you have done these things, my eyes will be on you and my ears open to your prayers and even before you call on me I will say to you, “Here I am”.
We find today Good News; Good News gloriously delivered to us by the message of St. Paul; Good News as understood by St. Benedict; Good news from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. To him be all might, majesty, dominion, praise and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
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