Henry Clay was one of the greatest of American
statesman. He is often know as the great compromiser, the
man
who, more than any other, worked to reconcile the opposing
factions in
America prior to the civil war. Yet compromiser though he
was,
Clay was also a man of principle. When warned that his stand
on a
particular issue would cost him his chance at the presidency, he
said,
"I would rather be right than president." At first, we might
think this a rather odd sentiment. The average politician
today
seems to prefer prestige and power to being right. And yet
for
many people, maybe even most people, the need to be right is every
bit
as deep and even deeper than the need for prestige and
power. By
this I don't mean simply the need to have correct opinions.
We need to have
approval of our own conscience, to be confident that the way we
are
living our lives truly is the right way to live.
And yet it's not so easy. Whenever we try
to be
right, try to live our lives as we should, we end up blowing
it.
Ovid, one of the greatest Roman poets said, "I see the right, and
approve it
too--I condemn the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue."
One of
the ironies of the Roman world is that, although morality had in
many
ways collapsed and society had become completely decadent, many
Romans were still seeking for something that would
make them feel right, something that would overcome the sense of
guilt and shame over the fact that they
were not living their lives as they ought.
This is one of the reasons that Christianity
had a
chance to succeed in the Roman world. The Romans were
looking--not necessarily for Christianity--but looking for
something,
looking especially for something that could help them be right and
feel
right about themselves.
This led to the rise (or rather the increasing
popularity) of what are called the mystery cults.
Understanding these cults is difficult: to reveal the secrets of
one of the mystery religions could mean death. I was taught that
this penalty was rigidly enforced. A quick Google AI search,
though, couldn't give me examples. Aeschylus and Alcibiades
apparently did get in trouble, but both escaped with their
lives. Google AI also tells me that the Mormons made
revealing temple secrets a death penalty offense.
Because revealing secrets was (at least potentially) a
death penalty crime, the
secrets of the mysteries were, for the most part, kept secret,
and, even today, scholars
are unable to speak with confidence about the specific practices
and
beliefs of even the most important of these mystery cults. Still,
what
little we do know is helpful in understanding the Roman world at
the
time of Christ, and often surprisingly helpful in explaining some
of
the difficult passages of the New Testament. Particularly
this is
true in the case of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.
The mystery cults centered on a dying and
rising god
or goddess. The Eleusinian mysteries celebrated the goddess
Demeter. The Dionysian mysteries celebrated Dionysius, as
did the
Orphic mysteries. The mysteries drew on the basic stories of these
figures and on pagan mythology in general.
Pagan belief and teaching was very different
from
most of our contemporary religions. Pagan belief was not the
clear/consistent/coherent set of doctrines and practices we
associate
with religion today, and no one really expected it to be.
There
was no authority like the Bible. There were various versions
of the
myths--and actually this was a good thing for something that is
meant
to be mysterious and hard to fathom. Nevertheless, the
versions of the myths you heard in your high school classes are
close enough, though the high school
retellings often leave out key elements.
The pagan idea was that all things began with
some
sort of primordial Chaos. Emerging from this Chaos, Gaia, the
mother
goddess and Ouranos, the father god. Or, perhaps, it’s
Chronos that’s the father god. Or maybe Chronos is the son
of Ouranos and Gaia: the myths are simply not consistent.
But
they have in common the idea of intense rivalry and conflict among
the
pre-Olympian gods. The Cyclopes, Hundred-handers,
andTitans
battle it out with each other, with their father and mother, and,
eventually, with the Olympians. Zeus eventually emerges as
the
chief of gods, but the rivalries and jealousies continue,
aggravated in
part by Zeus' promiscuity. Zeus fathers Dionysius on
Persephone.
The Titans kill Dionysius and feast on his body. Zeus
destroys
the Titans with his thunderbolt, saves the heart of Dionysius,
which he
later uses to impregnate Semele. The pregnant Semele is
destroyed
when she is tricked into asking to see Zeus in his glory, but Zeus
once
again saves Dionysius, by taking the foetus, slicing open his
thigh and
putting Dionysius inside to incubate until he can be born
again—Dionysius, then, is twice born. From the ashes of the
Titans and the parts of Dionysius body burned with them, Zeus
creates
Man. We are created from a mixture of the Titans and Dionysius:
body and soul, good and evil.
The great goal of the mystery cults was to free
the soul
from the body. Death alone was not enough to do this: one’s
soul was constantly reborn in a new body. The trick, then, was to
find
a final escape from our bondage to the material world. Just
as
Gnosticism promised its followers escape from the prison of the
body,
so did each of the various mystery cults.
The Mysteries are very hard to pin down.
Only
initiates could learn the secrets. But the essence of the
mysteries
was a kind of conversion experience that took place in several
stages.
1. Initial purification
2. Mystic communion/communication that involved
learning a sacred story (the story of Dionysius, Demeter, or
Orpheus perhaps)
3. The sight of holy objects
4. Participation in certain rituals--everything
from
castration to temple prostitution to tearing animals apart with
one's bare hands.
5. Crowning with garlands and a welcome
to an exclusive community
6. An experience of happiness and enlightenment
as a
result of communion with a god
7. An assurance of an after-life of bliss
reserved only
for initiates.
Keeping these general things in mind is very
helpful
in understanding certain aspects of what Paul is doing in the book
of
Ephesians.
Ephesus was one of the great cities of
Mediterranean
world, a prosperous trading center in what is today Turkey.
Ephesus was prosperous also because it was a center of religious
pilgrimage, visits to an image that fell from heaven. This
image was that of a goddess equivalent to
Greek Artemis or the Roman Diana. Following Bible, we call
her "Diana of the
Ephesians." Notice that Ephesus was an intently religious city,
and maybe that's why
Christianity did so well there.
But there were some problems for the church in
Ephesus as well. Demetrius the silversmith stirred up an
anti-Christian
mob who, in their enthusiasm, spent hours calling out "great is
Diana
of Ephesians."
But more of a problem was the tendency of pagan
religion to eclecticism. To be an initiate in the
Eleusinian mysteries was good. To have an additional
initiation
into the Dionysian mysteries better. And to be initiated in
to
the Orphic mysteries also, better still. Many in
Ephesus
probably liked Christianity--but wanted to add it to everything
else as an extra insurance policy.
What Paul does in Ephesians is present
Christianity
as the mystery religion par excellence--the greatest of all
mystery
religions. But he is doing this sort of tongue in cheek.
Want secrets? You’ve got the mystery of
God’s will,
the mystery of the gentiles included in the kingdom of God, etc.,
the
mystery of the unsearchable riches of God (Ephesians 1:9).
Want a sacred story? You’ve got the
Gospel (Ephesians 1:13).
Want to become part of an elect group? Well,
there’s the church (Ephesians
2:4-6, 2:19-22).
Want a purifying ritual? You've got the
purification of the blood of
Christ (Ephesians 2:13-16).
Want happiness and enlightenment? You’ve
got the Holy Spirit
(Ephesians 1:13-19).
Want victory over death and assurance of
eternal life? You’ve got that too (Ephesians 2:1-6).
But, as I say, Paul is doing this all tongue in
cheek: Christianity is no mystery religion. There’s no
secretiveness about it. And Paul and those writing with him
almost certainly were amused no end as they pointed to the
advantages of
Christianity over the mystery religions even in those things the
mystery religions most emphasized. Paul’s message: this is
the only mystery you need understand (see Chapter 3).
Now notice that what is said in these chapters
goes
a long way toward making one feel right, and they are some of most
encouraging chapters in Bible in this regard. But the next
step
is to *be* right, i.e. to do those things that are right and
pleasing to
God. This is what second half of Ephesians is all
about. Ephesians 4:1 says, "I
therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk
worthy of
the vocation wherewith ye are called."
There's lots of advice here about relationships with other
people. I single out in class particularly Paul's advice
on
marriage in Ephesians 5.Paul
tells women to be “subject” to their husbands, and he
tells husbands to
love their wives as much as Christ loved the church.
The word
“subject” is (in Greek) ”upotasso.” It is, in some
ways, best
understood as a military term. “Tasso” is the word
we get tactics
from. Women are being told to treat their husbands
like Roman
soldiers treated their commanders. What does this
mean?
Well, Roman soldiers loved their commanders, each unit
bragging that
its commander was the best. And this is the kind of
thing that
men want out of marriage: a wife who is proud of her
husband, who
praises him and supports him. And as to women, what
they want out
of marriage is the reassurance that they are loved.
If a man
assures his wife that she is loved, and a woman supports
her husband as
a really great guy—well, 90% of the time, that marriage is
going
exactly in the right direction.
Paul's
advice is
helpful because, so often, he goes to the root
causes of problems rather than just focusing on
externals.
Note the commands
to parents, children, husbands, wives, servants, lords, etc.
Also
key, I think, is the overall attitude.
One key passage, the command to take on the
"whole
armor' of God. The Greek world here is "panoply" from "pan"
(all)
and "hopla" (weapons). This armor includes the helmet of
salvation, breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, and
the
sword of the spirit. Here, I think, is a great psychology
for
feeling one is on the right track--and, just maybe, if you do
these
things, you are on the right track.
I PETER
"All the world's a stage," says Shakeapeare, and
all
of us play many parts. But what kind of part do you want to
play? Richard III says, because he can't play the lover,
he'd
just as soon be the villain. But most of us would prefer to
be
the hero, or at least on the right side. We want to think of
ourselves as good people...and playing a positive role in the
lives of
others.
But, deapite our good intentions, we tend to feel like we've come
up
short. And that's a terrible feeling: to feel one has failed
at
school, or failed on the job, failed in marriage, or failed to
raise
our children in the right way.
But, especially, we don't like the feeling that we've failed at
the big
one, at life itself: the feeling you've flunked the whole course.
And we do fail. We come up short. And we try again.
But
then we fail again.
How does one break such a cycle? That's, to a certain
extent,
what I Peter is about.
Peter himself could identify with the cycle of failure and
success. He's the man who affirmed his faith in Christ and
was
told he was a rock on which the church would be built. But
then,
all of a sudden, he's told he's speaking with the voice of
Satan!
He says he'll go with Jesus to death--and then denies three times
that
he even knows who Jesus is.
But somehow Peter broke through that cycle--and he's sort of the
SI
leader for anyone else who wants to do well on that big
exam. For Peter, and for the church, that big exam is
on
the way. Peter is in Rome just as Nero's attack on the
Christians
is about to begin. He's writing to churches in Asia minor
that
are going to go through the same test.
So, what's his study advice?
1. Keep your eyes on the prize.
2. Be obedient children
3. Realize that this world passes away
4. Focus on God's word
5. Stay on the foundation
6. Don't give those who oppose gospel legitimate reason to
complain of you
Notice the strategy has for servants who might find themselves
mistreated by masters. Also, note his advice to wives..and
to
husbands. To the latter, he gives especially good advice:
treat your wife
like a fragile, but precious "vessel."
Perhaps most important, be ready to suffer "in the flesh"--God
resists
the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
JAMES
James is another great SI leader. James was the half
brother/step
brother of Jesus. His life growing up must have been
tough. Having a
high-achieving sibling isn't easy--and, for James, the standard he
has
to live up to is Jesus! But James, although not initially
even a
follower of Jesus, ended up doing pretty well. He was
acknowledged as the head of the church in Jerusalem--and he earned
the
nickname "James the Just."
So, what advice does James have for us?
1. View life as a test.
2. Seek wisdom from God, but make sure you are willing to
obey
3. Desire to do the right thing (every good gift comes from
God!)
4. Control the tongue.
5. Have the right attitude toward wealth
6. Seek for the right kind of things