The Immeasurable Riches of the Church

When writing his letter to the Church at Ephesus, Paul tells the community that they share in the immeasurable riches and glory of God, both in the present, and in the future.  The Ephesians, like other people in the Mediterranean world, had a very distinct idea of what "glory and riches" were: material possessions, important titles, the acquisition of land, etc.  The Ephesians knew that they did not have "glory and riches" now, so they would have been perplexed at Paul's statement.

Paul explains to the Ephesians that the "immeasurable riches and glory" of God are not like Rome multiplied by 1000, but instead, that through becoming holy and taking upon themselves the mind of Christ, the Ephesians would come to understand the meaning of "immeasurable riches and glory" differently than Rome.  They would understand that what Rome considered to be riches and glory didn't mean anything, and that it would all fall away.  The immeasurable riches and glory of God are intangible: simplicity, compassion, honesty, honor, frugality, etc.

As always, we look to Christ as our model.  God, in Christ, could have had the immeasurable riches and glory of Rome times 1000, but chose to live a simply life as an itinerant preacher.  If God is unchangeable and eternal, then it simply doesn't make any sense that God would literally have immeasurable riches and glory according to the world's understandings in the world to come if God did not have them when God was revealed here on earth.  Any images of God and of Jesus demonstrating immeasurable glory and riches in Rome's image must be understood as Paul intended: as ironic metaphor.

By living holy lives we find immeasurable riches and glory beyond anything that Rome could comprehend.  As the Church, we can experience this now, and in the world to come.

Holiness as One Big Party

We are at the end of the Season after Pentecost.  Christ the King Sunday comes next, followed by the start of another liturgical year with Advent on November 30.  It is fitting that we end this season of the year when we explore what it means to live under the Lordship of Christ with the parable of the wedding banquet

Jesus uses a metaphor of a wedding banquet to give us a vision about what it means to live eternally under the Lordship of Christ.  This parable is usually understood to refer only to the end times, but as is the case in most such texts that are generally given a narrow apocalyptic reading, they are meant to convey a broader message about what it means to live as God's people in this world, in the next, and in the final consummation of things.

The choice of a wedding banquet as metaphor is striking.  A wedding banquet, in the ancient near east, was an occasion of crazy boisterous fun.  It was an "Animal House" style party, togas and Louie Louie and all.  It was the opposite of a metaphor that would describe the contemporary church's understanding of sanctification and holiness.  We tend to think of holiness as denying what will truly make us joyful in order to avoid punishment in the future.  I think a visit to the dentist for a root canal would be an appropriate metaphor today, no offense to those in the dental profession.

But here is the twist: what the world thinks will bring us joy and crazy fun (i.e. Animal House), is the exact opposite of what actually does.  In fact, it does nothing more than give us a headache when we wake up in the morning.  The "wisdom" of the world is nothing but foolishness to God.  What truly brings us joy and fulfillment in this world is the exact opposite of what we think it does.  What brings us joy and fulfillment is true holiness.

The greatest news on this Sunday of the liturgical year when we read Matthew's account of Jesus giving us this remarkable metaphor of living under the Lordship of Christ is that it reveals that the God of all eternity, who created and sustains all things, wants our lives now and in the world to come to be filled with absolute crazy fun.  Crazy fun that never ends.