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Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Anakephalaiossathai and Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians with Pastor Ryan Braley
Can a letter written nearly 2,000 years ago offer solutions to the divisions we face today? Discover how Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians provides timeless wisdom on unity and living as a community of believers. We'll transport you to ancient Ephesus, a city bustling with wealth and culture, to set the stage for Paul's teachings. The vibrant scene of the Temple of Artemis serves as a backdrop for understanding the profound context of this unique letter, which unlike Paul's other epistles, addresses no specific crisis but instead offers rich insights into being the church.
Uncover the divine blueprint for unity as we explore Ephesians 1 through 3, where Paul reveals God's pleasure in uniting all things in Christ. We'll discuss the diverse and multi-generational makeup of the early Christian community and how Paul's intricate writing style in Ephesians 1:8-10 captures the profound mystery of God's will. The second half of the episode transitions into practical advice for living as followers of Jesus, emphasizing the importance of unity and reconciliation in our daily lives, just as it was vital for the early Christians.
From the chaos of a family's Advent devotional gone hilariously wrong to the profound idea of God redeeming our past, we share personal stories that echo the themes of renewal and restoration. Hear how even the most embarrassing and painful moments can be transformed into encounters with the divine, offering hope and unity in our communities. Join us as we reflect on these powerful concepts and encourage Central Lutheran Church to embrace the unity and restoration that God finds pleasure in, turning our stories into testimonies of His grace and power.
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Yeah, keep them up high. Thank you, deb. I appreciate it, and otherwise so. Ephesians is a book about how to be the church, and we're calling it Unity in a Divided World. I'll say this one more thing while she's passing those out. Thank you, deb. I have an invite card. I had one. There are invite cards all over the place.
Speaker 1:If you think you know somebody who could use a bit of a dose of talking about unity in a divided world, invite them to this series. You know, sometimes we get sick and tired of inviting people to come to church Like you want to come to church again? No, okay, the next week you want to come to church again? No, but you can invite them to a series. It's like a new, fresh way to invite someone. Hey, how about you come to this brand new series we're having, and Pastor Ryan has said some wonderfully amazing things that changed my life about unity in a divided world. You got to come and hear him. It's great. So grab one of those and just pray about who you can invite. And no pressure. I'm not a pressure guy. I don't care if this church grows to 50,000 or stays how we are. I just we want to invite folks to be a part of what we're doing here, because we believe in it, find it meaningful, so would you consider inviting somebody to church one morning, to this series and talking about unity in a divided world? Thank you Deb. Thank you Joe. Anybody else? Okay, lindsay's, getting one Wonderful Think about all the housekeeping out of the way. Okay, you ready to rock and roll? Okay, if you're with me, say I'm with you.
Speaker 1:Paul writes this letter to this church in Ephesus and it is not his most profound letter, by the way. My sermon title is this Anakephalai Osothai and Paul's letter to the Ephesians. That's a mouthful of a word. You thought you had a hard time, marcy. Anakephalai Osothai. Everyone repeat after me Anakephalai Osothai. It's not bad. It's not bad brian's lashing, but paul writes this letter to this church in ephesus and it wasn't his most profound or meaningful letter. It's not his most deeply moving. You know it's not his magnum opus. It isn't even his longest letter. In fact, most of paul's letters are written to a church that is experiencing a crisis or an issue, and paul doesn't write this to address a concern or a crisis or an issue, like he mostly does Again, all of his other letters, in fact. I've got Paul's letter to the American church right here. I'll read it to you. Just kidding, there should be one though, right, but he's not writing to address a specific concern or issue, he's just writing this letter, and it's a beautiful letter that Paul writes.
Speaker 1:And Ephesus was a huge city, a massive city. It was the hub, the epicenter of pagan worship for Greek and Roman gods. Here's where it's located. It's on the western side of Turkey and it was the crown jewel of Asia Minor. And it was this very thriving metropolitan city, minor. And it was this very thriving metropolitan city and it had about 250,000 people that lived in Ephesus and it had over 20 or more pagan worship temples.
Speaker 1:So lots of pagan worship of the Greeks and the Roman gods, lots of people, about a quarter of a million people In that day and age. It was a huge, thriving city. The culture was off the charts. It had arts and beauty. There was learning centers all around. There was, uh, there was actually erotic pagan worship going on, so that that's your thing, you can go to ephesus and check that out. But erotic pagan worship, uh, there was all kinds of other things. There was like there was, uh, there was education, there was all kinds of wonderful ways to be involved in trade and commerce. There was lots of crime also, as you imagine, in this city there was sorcery and there was lots and lots of wealth.
Speaker 1:Many of the folks that live in Ephesus were very, very wealthy and lucrative people and they experienced, because of their wealth, a lot of luxury. So they had running water where most of the world didn't have running water. They had indoor toilets. Can I get an amen for indoor toilets? Are you with me? They also had fountains and gardens. They had all kinds of wonderful luxuries and paved streets. They had huge gymnasiums and baths and they had this one theater that boasted of 25,000 seats. Ephesus was this thriving metropolis, a lot like modern day New York City. Here's a picture in case you forgot what New York City looked like.
Speaker 1:By the way, there's still these pagan worship temples in New York City. You can go to and worship at them. Here they are you give them coins and they give you a meat tube in exchange. It's just bizarre pagan worship, but it's actually. They're very delicious, you can eat them and they're wonderful, these pagan worship temples. I love it. Thank you, sam.
Speaker 1:But also one of the greatest ancient seven wonders of the world was in Ephesus. Anybody know what it was, any historians in the house? The Temple of Artemis. I don't know if someone said that. Yeah, the Temple of Artemis, beautiful temple. She was the pagan fertility goddess, 450 feet long. This temple was 250 feet wide. It had over 120 of those columns that were 60 feet high and she was, again, the fertility goddess in the ancient world and people longed to go there to worship the goddess Artemis. In fact, artemis worship was at the heart and the center of Ephesus, or Ephesian culture and how they lived their life and their economy. People would come to this temple, they'd put coins down on the floor of this temple and the Ephesians would take these coins and they would take them and they would loan out that money to other citizens in Ephesus and they'd make lots of money off of doing this. So it became a very lucrative business to worship Artemis and the whole city then becomes this again very lucrative, wealthy place. So the people of Ephesus, the Ephesians, they protected the worship of this goddess because she brought wealth and life and energy and commerce and economy to the city of Ephesus. So they're very, very protective over this goddess and this goddess worship and all the other pagans that were worshiped there.
Speaker 1:Well, paul in Acts goes to this city and imagine Paul in this place, in the shadow of this giant temple to Artemis and all these other pagan gods being worshipped and lots of arts and culture and people who have very little need. And he goes there and he goes on this missionary journey and he makes many converts. And so in the shadow of this huge, thriving pagan metropolis is birthed this tiny little Christian community, this brand new. Most of them are Gentiles. They don't have a long history of worship or religion, even just this kind of religion, and they are birthed out of this missionary journey of Paul's. Imagine the passionate commitment it would have taken for them. Imagine the passionate commitment it would have taken for them, the courage for them to stand up in the face of this kind of a culture and pronounce the name of Jesus Again.
Speaker 1:People were very protective of their gods, and Artemis especially so. To come in and announce, no, artemis isn't God, but Jesus is God was extremely dangerous. And so these Christians faced all kinds of persecution, danger and hostility and also, in every single way, they were swimming upstream. I mean imagine, imagine being a brand new, gentile Christian, raised in this place and announcing the name of Jesus instead of these other gods around you, these swimming upstream. That that would have been like.
Speaker 1:Here's some questions you probably would have asked yourself. I mean, what might it mean to live out a life of faith in a place like this? I mean, I don't know, use your imagination Living in a culture that's going one way, worshiping other gods very wealthy, affluent place, with lots of resources and arts and culture If you can imagine that kind of place and you, being a Christian, going the other direction, what would that be like? How about this one? What struggles might you encounter? And trust me when I say their biggest form of persecution was not whether or not their local coffee joint served Christmas cups. Okay, it was much more serious than that. How about this one? What might it mean to live in a culture but not be influenced by the culture? That's a wonderful question. Look, you and I live in this culture, fair enough, and we love it here. I think most of us would choose to live here. We are choosing to live here. Great. But what does it mean to be a person of the cross in a place going the other direction? Does that make sense? How about this one, this last one here. How might you remain faithful to Jesus when, day in and day out, other gods are begging for you to worship them? So Paul writes this letter to this church to encourage them. And actually it becomes this circular letter because many of the ancient churches were experiencing the same kind of cultural pressure and persecution in the face of worshiping Jesus.
Speaker 1:Now, if you can open your Bibles, we're on page 948, 949. The letter is broken up into two parts, two main parts Ephesians 1 through 3. So, if you can show me here, hold up 1 through 3. Yeah, it's only a couple pages long. So, by the way, read this book when you have a chance, ephesians. It shouldn't take you that long. You can put it on the Bible app and just have it read to you while you're driving in traffic. I do that all the time and read it a couple of times. Maybe read it a few times each week, why not? We? We're going to be in this book for a couple of months.
Speaker 1:So Ephesians 1 through 3 is the first half of the letter, and that whole first half is Paul telling the story of the gospel. Hey, here's the gospel In which all of humanity reaches its climax in the person of Jesus who launches this multi-ethnic community of believers, jews and Gentiles, males and females, old and young, rich and poor. This brand new, thriving Christian community is being birthed and it's all around the person of Jesus and it's multi-ethnic, it's multi-age, it's multi-generational. It's incredible, this diversity of this new community. And it starts with the person of Jesus and then he spends the second half. So actually, look at verse four, or chapter four, verse one. What does it say? Verse four, I'm sorry, chapter four, verse one. It says I, therefore. So he spends three chapters laying out the story of the gospel and then he says okay, now, therefore, because of that story of the gospel, which culminates in jesus, I'm going to teach you how to live as people who are followers of jesus. The entire second half of ephesians is him laying out what does it mean to be people of faith in your communities, in your country, in your world, in your families. He tries to. He takes the gospel and puts it over the whole of someone's life. It says, therefore, because of what Jesus has done, this is how we're to live our lives.
Speaker 1:And the opening line that you heard Marcy read this morning. It opens with this beautiful Jewish-style poem Paul is this master. Of course, when he lays this out it's sort of this Jewish style. He's not speaking Hebrew here, but it's this Jewish style poem and he starts with the story of Abraham. He says hey, abraham was chosen and elected. There's this people who've been predestined or elected, chosen. And it goes back to the story of Abraham. But the story of Abraham was never just to be about Abraham. It always was to open up to the entire world. So Paul goes on to say that, through Jesus, anybody who wants in the family of God can be adopted into the family of God. Through the work of Jesus, does that make sense? That means us Gentiles. So Paul's already staging hey, this is now a multi-ethnic community that involves Jews and also Gentiles. Anyone is welcome. If you want to be adopted in because of the work of Jesus, you can now be in.
Speaker 1:And of course, verses 3 through 14 are this one long run-on sentence. There you go, there's proof. I can imagine Paul sitting down with his scribe and Paul's like hey, write this down for me. And he begins with this one sentence. And then the scribe is like okay, a period, no comma. Oh, okay, keeps going. Like for a minute. Okay, a period, no semi-colon. Dude, this is getting keeps going. Paul, maybe a period, no colon. Okay, paul, this is long. I mean, you thought you had bad grammar growing up. This is one sentence. Now for anybody who's a Captain Correcto in the audience, there is one period in here. In the English Did anybody find it? It's the afterword beloved, but in the Greek it's all one giant long run-on sentence, and Paul does this a lot. He has these long streams of consciousness or streams of thought, but it's beautiful and here's what he says in this whole thing.
Speaker 1:I think this whole verse that we just heard, mark 3, culminates or climaxes in this verse in Ephesians 1, 8 through 10. I think I've got it, sam right. Yeah, by the way, I'll just show you my hand here. This is probably one of my, if not my favorite verse in the entire Bible, because I think it perfectly encapsulates the mission, the will and the heart of God. Here's what Paul says, with all wisdom and insight he has made known to us.
Speaker 1:This is Jesus. Jesus has shown us the mystery of his will, of God's will according to his good pleasure, that he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time. Here's the plan, here's the mystery of God's will, according to his pleasure, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. So, okay, pause here, leave it out there, sam. What's happening here? Leave it up, sam. For me, yeah, something there's this. God has a will, a plan, and it's according to his good pleasure. Notice that it brings God pleasure that he set this forth. It's in Christ. This thing he's going to do is done in Christ. Jesus does it, and the plan is to gather up all things, things in heaven and things on the earth.
Speaker 1:But that yellow line there, it's the word anakephilosothai. It's that long Greek word and I'm going to tell you what that means in just one minute. But oh, there it is. There you go. So everybody repeat after me Anakephalosothai. We're all close enough. That's pretty good.
Speaker 1:But it brings God pleasure, this will that he has. It brings him pleasure. When you think of God, do you ever think of God as experiencing pleasure? Look, I know we all have an easy time thinking of God as like mad or angry, or seeing you do that thing you shouldn't have done, or like lurking around the corners making sure you don't smoke or chew or date girls who do Right and drink. But do you ever think about God experiencing pleasure. Whatever this plan, this purpose, this will of God that he has, that Paul's writing about, it brings God pleasure. God smiles at this plan coming to fruition. It brings him joy in this moment. What is this plan? Whatever this mission of God is this plan of God, it brings God pleasure and it brings him joy. So what is it?
Speaker 1:What does this word anakephaolosothai mean? Well, it means a couple things. In the English it could mean this Go ahead for me, sam. It could mean to bring you oh, by the way, it says to all things. So in the English he wants to bring unity, or sum up all things. And in the Greek it's the word pas. Everyone say pas. Pas, which is rendered as English, is all things. It literally means in the Greek it means all things. So not that tricky. So which things does God want to anakephalosothai? Which things? Okay, half of you are paying attention. Great, oh, boy, this is so encouraging already.
Speaker 1:Here's what this word means. It means to bring unity to. It could also mean to sum up, to gather up, to recapitulate or to bring to a head. Sam, can you find that word again? So the word Anna everyone say Anna. It means again Maybe. Well, there we go. So that first part means again, and then kephale. Everyone say kephale. It means head, so this word means like to bring together under one head. It means to bring together, to sum up, to recapitulate, to bring unity to, in fact, in the ancient world mathematicians any math geeks in the room today All right, pay attention. Lindsay said no, this is how they would talk when they would talk about summing up a large number of numbers. They would use this word to talk about the summation of all these numbers in the ancient world of math. But my favorite rendering because it can also mean this it can also mean to recapitulate, which means, of course, to retell. Thanks, sam, you can go to the black To retell.
Speaker 1:It's as though there's a story that's been told a certain way in the world and Paul is talking about Jesus retelling this story. I mean when you tell a story in a certain way, it's told from a certain perspective or through a certain lens. This is how stories work. Whenever you tell a story, you're going to tell it with a certain background or lens or perspective. But sometimes, when you retell a story, when you recapitulate it, you tell it in a brand new light. You tell it differently. When you retell a story you often don't ignore the bad parts. You sort of include the bad parts, you tell the whole story. But when you tell a story in a new way after a long period of time, when you retell it, you tell again, you include all the parts, even the bad parts, but those bad parts sort of take on a new light down the road. Does that make sense? So later on in life, when you retell a story, those bad parts appear a new light down the road. Does that make sense? So later on in life when you retell a story, those bad parts appear a new light, doesn't change the events of a story, but it sort of told in a new and different way and those bad parts and the good parts, they take on new weight, new meaning, new perspective. The events themselves don't change, but somehow your relationship with those events it changes and you see them differently when you recapitulate or retell the story.
Speaker 1:So years ago I got super into Advent. Advent, of course, is this time that leads up to Christmastime and I got really into it and I'm like, okay, my kids when they were little, we're going to make this a meaningful, wonderful time for them For warning that's them when they were little. Okay, we're going to buy an Advent wreath and Advent candles. I'm going to have a great time. I'm going to sit them down, I'm going to do a devotional with them. We're going to have this incredibly meaningful, moving spiritual time with my kiddos. And just to also give you a heads up, devotional I got it wasn't exactly kid friendly, in fact, it was barely adult friendly. Here's how it opens and I so I sit them down. Guys, we're gonna have this meaningful time. It was meaningful for me, like pastor ryan is gonna do this thing with his kids. Hopefully their eyes will open and they'll see the light of christ.
Speaker 1:Come into the room and and I began to read and it goes like this Come, lord Jesus. The Advent mantra means all that Christian history has to live out of a kind of deliberate emptiness, a kind of chosen non-fulfillment. Perfect for children. Perfect fullness is always to come. We do not need to demand it Now. This keeps the field of life wide, open and especially open to grace, to a future created by God rather than ourselves. Advent is, above all else, a call to full consciousness. Can I get an amen and the forewarning about the high price of consciousness, beautiful, moving. And my kids just stared at me and actually they started to squirm a little bit, as kids often do, and I was like, okay, this is deeply meaningful. Guys, stop squirming. I'm trying to be cool Because I can't yell at them because I'm a Christian.
Speaker 1:We're doing an Advent devotional and I'm reading this deeply moving book and I keep going and they keep getting squirmier and squirmier. I'm like guys, I'm trying to be chill about it, trying to be cool. And Katie in the meanwhile is like what are you doing? I'm like, just everyone you know. I'm like, and finally I had had enough, because they wouldn't stop. They're goofing around, they're throwing things. Put that picture up again. Would you for me, sam, would you Of my family? Yeah, that's them, I them. I'm like guys. So finally I go, that's it. That's it, I've had it. I'm trying to teach you guys about Jesus and Advent and the coming of Christ and the reconciliation of the world and consciousness and human depravity and all the things.
Speaker 1:And you guys are just sitting there being idiots and my wife was like, oh man, and Logan on the right goes, yeah, but this is just so boring and in my infinite wisdom, I go. You know what You're boring. And I took the candle and I lit the candle. Christ is coming. I threw the match and I walked out of the room. Merry Christmas everybody. Merry Christmas everybody.
Speaker 1:And in the moment I was so upset and I was so disappointed. Like I can't lie, I was deeply upset with my kids and when I retell this story now it's like one of my kids' favorite stories. They love it. And when we retell it, like all the bad parts become the best parts. Right, like I wasn't just being crabby, I'm yelling, my face is turning red. I blew fire out of my ears, logan had a huge eye roll oh, so boring. I slammed the matches down. I don't know if it happened exactly like that. Those bad parts get accentuated and I see you in a brand new light. And it's hilarious as I retell, as I recapitulate, as I anacaphalosify this story, and the worst parts become the best parts. When I retell the story, are you with me?
Speaker 1:In Ephesians, god is retelling the story of everything, everything, all the broken bits of the world and history and human interactions that have laid out in pieces and tatters amongst us. And Paul writes that God is going to retell the story of all of human history brought together under unity, under Christ. Yeah, and doing so brings God pleasure. The heart of God is to bring unity, to retell the story of our lives, of all of history, and to bring together under Christ, that one day we can look back on this and just laugh, even at all the nasty, broken bits of our lives. Acts chapter 3 says it this way. I love this.
Speaker 1:When Peter's given the sermon, peter says hey, jesus will remain unseen until the time comes for God to restore which things? How about this? In Colossians 1? Colossians 1 says this Paul writes and through him, god was reconciled. This is Jesus. Through Jesus, god was pleased there's that word again. He's pleased, just so you know To reconcile, to heal, to renew, to restore in himself all things. Which things? Whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through his blood on the cross. How about this last one? Jesus in Matthew 19 says this Jesus says he says to them hey, truly, I tell you at the renewal of all things. And he goes on to kind of describe it for them reconciling, renewing, restoring, bringing unity, summing up, bringing it under one head. Anakepalaosifying. Paul means business when he uses this word. This is what God is doing and it brings God pleasure to do this.
Speaker 1:Can God retell your story? Can God retell your story? Can God retell your story? All of it, even the bad bits, even that part of your story? Does that include your past? I don't know all things. Does it include your broken heart? All things, thank you, lindsay. Does it include your broken heart? All things, thank you, lindsay. Does it include the brokenness in the world, things like racism and poverty and war and just the utter disarray of things as they are right now, divisions and broken human relationships? Does it include those things? I don't know. It says all things, says all things, and all things means all things.
Speaker 1:I think God wants to retell your story in a way that it doesn't change the events. Some of those events were horrible and awful, but as time goes on and as God brings healing and restoration and redemption, and as you look back further with the lens of eternity, you know, and step back, those bits become the most poignant and powerful and moving parts of your life In which, I would argue, we can encounter God in deeply, profound ways, and those bits become the best bits, and it brings God pleasure to retell those parts of our stories. Here's how one commentator says it and then I'll get out of here. One commentator says this Go ahead for me, sam. He. Here's how. One commentator says it and then I'll get out of here. One commentator says this Go ahead for me, sam.
Speaker 1:He says can all of the various things that have happened to you and the things that you've done that you'd prefer to never think about again, and the embarrassing parts and the painful parts?
Speaker 1:Can all of it be retold in such a way that the worst parts become the powerful and most poignant parts?
Speaker 1:Is it possible for God to do that in your life and in my life and in the lives of Central and Elk River and Minnesota and the world, especially heading into this tumultuous time as a country, can we experience this anakepalaosathine that God brings him pleasure to do?
Speaker 1:How about this one Last quote?
Speaker 1:He says this and if it's possible for your story, is it possible for the history of the world?
Speaker 1:Can everything eventually be retold in such a way that the worst parts wars and disease and oppression and all the rest are included and somehow brought to a unity under Christ? Is it possible? And if so, what does it mean for you and me and the church of central, but also the church. What if we begin to live this way right here and right now? What would it do to our communities if we lived as over? True that god can retell our stories. What would it mean? Central lutheran church, may you know that it brings God deep pleasure to bring unity to all things, to restore and reconcile and renew and to retell the parts of our stories that are the most embarrassing and shameful, and maybe we think God forsaken parts of our story but actually probably aren't, and in a way those become the best, most poignant, moving parts of our stories because we encounter God in a deeply profound way. And Central Lutheran Church, may you live as though this were true, amen.
