Romans 1:1,7, 1 Corinthians 1:1-3, Philippians 1:1,2,Galatians 1:1,2, Colossians 1:1,2, Ephesians 1:1,2

Introduction to the Scriptures:

Much of the New Testament is made up of what we call the "epistles;" A more contemporary word for it would be letters . . . "Letters:" you remember when we wrote "letters" to people? Back before email we used to write - by hand! - sometimes our deepest thoughts on pieces of paper, put them in things we called "envelopes", put "stamps" on the envelope (some of you remember when you had to lick those stamps), take our letters to a metal box on the corner, and somehow they got to wherever they were supposed to go?

But back in the time of the New Testament, of course, there was no email, and not even a postal system. But there were letters, some of them preserved in the New Testament. As the early church began to grow, communication among them became more and more crucial. There was a good deal of traveling around by church leaders - Paul, we know, made three major journeys visiting churches, many of whom he had started. And there was a lot of letter-writing and reading - epistles from church leaders sometimes to a single church - the epistle of Romans was written for the Christians living in Rome - or letters intended to circulate among several churches. ` Either way, these living letters provide for us a wonderful window into the life of those first followers of Jesus, long, long ago.

Today we begin a series of sermons on one of the epistles of our New Testament - the letter we know today as Ephesians. And we begin, of course, at the very beginning of Ephesians. The reading Carol will share with us though, is not just from Ephesians. She will be reading the opening sentences of several of the epistles, to show how each conforms to a certain epistle format. Just as we generally begin our letters - email or snail-mail - with a "greeting" ("dear so-and-so") so too did the writers of letters in the first century. As you hear these various greetings, it will soon become clear that Paul had a certain distinct phrase - a blessing that he always used to start his letters. Listen for it: you really can't miss it!
 
"To the saints in Ephesus." When you think of the city of Ephesus, put out of your mind any images you might have of those small, dry, dusty, quaint but primitive Bible-times towns, with donkeys meandering through tiny streets, and people in bathrobes tending flocks just over the hill. Don't think of villages at all. Or shepherds. Don't think of anything small when you think of Ephesus. Above all, don't think of poor, unsophisticated, uneducated folk. The Ephesus that was thriving in the first century was anything but unsophisticated.

For Ephesus was one of the richest and most civilized cities of the entire world. To help us understand what it was like, when you hear of Ephesus, don't think Peoria. Think New York City. Located on the western coast of modern-day Turkey, Ephesus had a wonderful harbor on the blue Aegean Sea, and through that deep harbor flowed the wealth of both the east and the west: Persia, Greece, and Rome, and beyond. By the time the Christian faith arrived in Ephesus the city had been prospering for several centuries (twice as long as New York has been in existence!), its population exceeding a quarter of a million people - a huge city for that time. A commercial trading center, it was also the financial center for all of Asia Minor, and a great center of learning too. There was the magnificent Celsus Library, housing 12,000 manuscripts, with great carved stone statues across the towering facade symbolizing Wisdom, Excellence, Goodwill, and Knowledge.

The Great Theater amphitheater seated 25,000 people to hear concerts and enjoy the plays of Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus, and listen to lectures by scholars, philosophers, and visiting preachers, not the least of which was Paul the apostle. Luxurious Roman Baths, theaters, stadiums for sporting events, fountains and streets literally paved with marble . . . a seat of learning for science, the arts, and culture - this was the Ephesus that the first readers of our Epistle to the Ephesians would have known. Affluent, learned, powerful - and religious.

For at the center of this thriving metropolis, this multi cultural meeting place of east and west, was one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Temple of Artemis, the goddess Diana. It was the largest building in that part of the world, perhaps the whole world, built entirely of marble. Longer and wider than a football field, its 127 columns each rose sixty feet in height, adorned with gold and silver and bronze statuary. This was the center of religious life, and was a center of economic activity too, attracting worshipers, and tourists - and their money.

Ephesus had everything the world then or now could offer: wealth and power, learning and the arts, sports and entertainment, philosophy and religion. As I say, this was no sleepy, primitive village.

The Christian faith in Ephesus can be traced to the day of Pentecost. You'll remember that there were Jews from all over the known world visiting Jerusalem the day the Spirit fell upon the church, and Peter gave his stirring sermon that brought 3000 people to faith. Some of those first converts were from Ephesus, and they went home to tell other Jews of this strange experience, and of the resurrected Messiah, Jesus the Christ. When Paul first visited Ephesus - we think about twenty years after Pentecost - he found a little group of Christians there, although only "about twelve." [Acts 19:7] In twenty years the church had grown, well, really not at all!

Paul, however, changed that. He lived in Ephesus for no less than two years, lecturing about Jesus at first in the Jewish synagogue, and then at a public lecture hall - the Hall of Tyrannus - every day from 11:00 in the morning to 4:00 in the afternoon! A powerful and persuasive preacher, Paul grew the church quickly; so much so that when the Christians dropped out of the worship of the goddess Artemis, taking their offerings with them, no doubt, and discouraging others from patronizing the temple, the town's economy was threatened. At least that's what the silversmiths thought - they were the ones selling the statues of Artemis to the tourists and citizens of Ephesus.

In Acts 19 we read that a man named Demetrius one day got the silversmiths together, and told them that not only was their income down, because of the growing Christian movement, but the very worship of Artemis was threatened. (He may have been exaggerating there!)

When they heard this, they were enraged and shouted, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" The city was filled with the confusion; and people rushed together to the [great] theater, dragging with them [two of Paul's travel companions.] . . . Some were shouting one thing, some another; for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. . . . . For about two hours all of them shouted in unison, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

I hope that gives you some feeling for this great 1st century city of Ephesus. I tell you all this so that in these coming weeks as we explore this letter of Ephesians you have an idea first of all that these words were written to real people, in a real city, and at a certain time in history. Sometimes we can imagine that the Bible is some sort of magical book that fell out of the heavens apart from any time or circumstances, having nothing to do with real people, real life questions. And that is simply not the case. Scripture - especially these letters of the New Testament, rooted as they are in the real world - is always to be understood in its context.

But also I tell you this historical background because I want us to know that these real people living in the real city of Ephesus were people not all that different from us. Educated, exposed to the larger world, relatively affluent, lovers of the arts and science, religious too -- but living with the pressures that affluence, power, and knowledge bring. Let us not imagine that we here in the 21st century are entirely removed from people who lived before us, even that long ago. People are people, after all, no matter where in the world or when in time they lived. We have much in common with the people of Ephesus, struggling as they did to understand what Christian faith is all about.

There is one major difference between us and the people living in Ephesus and the other cities of Asia minor among which this letter circulated. The original readers of Ephesians were a members of a brand new religion; they were a persecuted minority. They had known hardship bourn simply of being believers in Jesus. They must have been terrified that day by that near-riot at the Great Theater, where thousands gathered to oppose the new and growing faith.

The 1st century was a time when Christian faith was at best tolerated, and at worst actively persecuted. So in addition to all the usual worries and concerns, hopes and disappointments that go with living, these folks had the added challenge of being Christians in a distinctly non-Christian world.

Given, then who these people were, and the circumstances in which they were living out their lives, what does the author of this letter say, first and foremost?
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace to you, and peace!

Grace . . . not power, control, status; not even "knowledge to you," not even "may you have wisdom." nor "good health to you," still less "wealth to you." No. It's "grace to you."

Grace, as in the story of the prodigal son. He squandered away his entire inheritance, giving away all he had and all he was until finding himself literally eating with pigs he decides to come home, to be a slave to his father. And what does he find there? Grace. Grace in the forgiving, waiting father who instead of laying down the law, lays out a party and rejoices in a lost son found.

Grace. Like another parable Jesus told of the workers in the vineyard. Some worked all day; some worked half a day; some worked only an hour. Those who worked all day got a full day's wage, just as they expected. But it was the good pleasure of the owner of the vineyard to pay those who worked only one hour the full day's wage. And it wasn't fair. It was grace.

Grace. As in the second chapter of Ephesians where the writer says this: By grace you are made whole . . . reconciled to God, forgiven, set free, "saved" from getting only what you've earned -- through faith; and even that faith isn't up to you - it is the gift of God.

Grace . . . a gift, free, yours and mine and everyone's. It's all grace.
What we need, and what the world needs is grace. And more gracious people. More gracious societies. More gracious nations, led by more gracious leaders who find more joy in mercy than in the letter of the law, more satisfaction in healing than in retribution, more meaning in caring for the poor of the earth than in the applause and approval and donations of the rich. What the world needs is more grace.

Grace to you, and peace.

Peace; as in Jesus' saying, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you . . . Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." "Come unto me and I will give you rest."

Peace. As when Jesus out on the lake with his disciples in the midst of a raging storm, stands and commands the wind and the waves, saying, "Peace! Be still!" And it was so.

Peace. As in the psalmist's wise and calming words, "Be still, and know that I am God." [Ps 46:10]

What we need, and what the world needs, is peace. Peace of heart, mind, soul. Peace in our families, our city, our nation. Surely we need peace among nations.

Perhaps you heard a heart-wrenching story on NPR yesterday, reporting on the state of the central morgue in Baghdad. Now, over three years after the invasion and liberation of Iraq, each and every week, not dozens, not scores, but hundreds of bodies turn up at that morgue, victims of a society under siege, with no law, no order. Over 40,000 non-combatant deaths in Iraq since the war began; these are only the documented killings. Add to that the 2500+ deaths of American, hundreds of other coalition forces, and tens of thousands of Iraqi combatants.

And this war is but one of several on-going armed conflicts in the world. We need, the world needs to learn peace. The leaders of our nations need to learn how to lead to peace, instead of war. North Korea this week was shooting missiles into the sea of Japan, the ones that got off the launch pad; India shot one off today; and as we solemnly warned North Korea, shaking our national finger at them, we announce our own plans to replace our aging nuclear arsenal with a new generation of warheads dubbed "Reliable Replacement Warheads," just as powerful as the old ones, but built to last longer.

To all who prepare for war while professing to want peace, to them all we say, "Grace to you, and peace! Lead us into peace! For God's sake!"

From the 1st century the writer of this letter says to us across twenty centuries, Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know what he meant then, for we know what it means now. May God's grace - God's amazing grace - grip us anew, that we might learn to live in the peace God gives, the peace God commands, the peace that comes from a gracious God. Amen.