Ephesians
3:1-12
I admit that every once in a while I
will watch a courtroom-reality show, one of those where a retired judge with
dreams of celebrity faces off with two parties who have been selected for the outrageousness
of their offense, their mental density, and general lack of decorum. The way I justify this waste of time is by
telling myself that at least I’m not watching reruns of the Kardashians or
Jerry Springer. The sad part is that I
have been in real courtrooms sometimes and have seen behavior that is not all
that different.
I found one example online[1] that took place in Grand
Rapids in 2013. A woman in the courtroom
was talking on a cell phone and vaping.
The judge called her on it and had her ejected and she made a loud
comment on the way out that I won’t repeat here, so the judge had her held for
contempt of court. She showed up at the
hearing wearing pajamas. She was found
guilty. Before sentencing she was given
the chance to speak. (In other words,
she had an opportunity to apologize.)
What she said was, “I just thought it was totally [here I’ll change her
word to ‘stupid’] that I can’t smoke my E-cigarette. I can smoke it on the bus. You can smoke them anywhere.” She got five more days in jail and a $250
fine.
I think many people would say that
she got off lightly. There was a basic
disrespect embedded in her behavior that goes far beyond an incident like this
one. If you are willing to behave this
way in a court of law, then what would you do where there is no one watching to
enforce any kind of limits of decency?
Ask yourself: would you want to play Monopoly with someone who says she
can do whatever she wants wherever she wants, whenever she wants? Would you want to do business with her or
live next door to her?
Yes, it does happen that sometimes
someone in authority gets too big for their breeches. People do get pumped up with power and
position and there are times when someone has to take them down a peg. A courtroom is not the place for that. There you’re not dealing simply with a
person. You’re dealing with someone who
represents an idea of law and justice.
Even in a country and under a political system that insists that all
people are equal before the law, or maybe especially in such a place, there is
a need for people to offer that respect and for public officials to carry
themselves in ways that show they also respect the office that they hold. You don’t even address a judge by name in the
courtroom. It’s always, “Your Honor,” or
“If it please the court.”
In
the days of monarchy and empire it was even more so. Address an official or a social superior the
wrong way and you could end up dead.
That is why it would have been scandalous that the letter to the Ephesians
[3:12] claims that because of Jesus
“we have access to
God in boldness and confidence”.
We
are not just talking about a low-level magistrate here, or even a Supreme Court
Justice. We have access to the Judge of
all. We are not talking about a
legislator, but about the One who created the very laws of nature and who can
suspend them at will. We are not
speaking of an Empress like Queen Victoria, or a Sultan or a Shah. This is not a mere king but the King of kings
and Lord of lords. This is the One of
whom the psalmist said,
“He who sits in
the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision.” [Psalm 2:4]
And
you and I can go to him in boldness and confidence.
A lot of languages have two forms of
direct address. There’s the formal and
there’s the familiar. In French I would
address someone I don’t know well as vous. If it’s a close friend I would use tu,
the familiar form. English used to have
this distinction until around the middle of the seventeenth century, when we
began to call everyone by the formal and polite term “you”. However, in one area of life we continued to
use the intimate words “thee” and “thou”.
That was when we prayed. There is
a kind of intimacy that is not disrespect, a boldness and confidence that can
coexist with respect and honor, and that is how we can and should approach the
God whom we meet in Jesus.
Yes, it is bold of us to think that
we could ever speak up in God’s presence.
It’s bold to think we would be in the presence of God at all. Uneasiness, a sense of shame, an awareness of
being totally out of place – those have all been felt by people whom God
specifically chose for some great deeds.
Go back to the prophet Isaiah’s vision one day as he stood in the temple
in Jerusalem, worshiping. He says,
“I saw the Lord sitting
on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the
temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two
they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two
they flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is
the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.’ The
pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house
filled with smoke.
And I said: ‘Woe is me!
I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean
lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’” [Isaiah 6:1-6]
But we can be confident, even when
we know we are being presumptuous, because we know that God actually invites us
into his presence. Isaiah’s vision
continued with one of the heavenly beings, on God’s order, touching his lips
with a burning coal from the altar that symbolically burned away his sins. After that, Isaiah and God speak directly
with one another. When Jesus’ death
cleaned us of our own sins, we, too, became able to enter into conversation
directly with God.
How that conversation plays out is
different for everybody. I believe that
is part of what Ephesians 3:10 calls
“the wisdom of God
in its rich variety”.
Everybody,
after all, has their own voice and their own way of speaking. The same is true of prayer. Some people are far more able to speak
directly and others find it best to think out what they need to say ahead of
time. God, in turn, speaks more directly
to some people than to others, and in many cases says what amounts to, “Let me
get back to you about that.” But that is
part of intimacy, isn’t it? Don’t those
closest to you sometimes say they need time before they are ready to go into
the most important discussions? And
don’t all of us know that there are times to bring some issues up and times to
keep them for later?
Ultimately, what we carry away from
our encounter with God matters more than what we take to it. Richard Foster wrote in his book Celebration
of Discipline:
“Prayer involves transformed passions. In prayer, real
prayer, we begin to think God's thoughts after Him: to desire the things He
desires, to love the things He loves, to will the things He wills.”
It’s
what happens when we pray the way Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane. Facing arrest, torture, and death, he prayed
quite bluntly. He said,
“If it is
possible, let this cup pass from me.”
That
is boldness. Then he went on,
“Nevertheless, not
what I want, but what you want.” [Matthew 26:39]
That
is confidence. Let God be in charge and
all will be well. Jesus did, and it was –
not only for him bur for us also.
Thanks be to God.
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