Yesterday I preached one of the most difficult sermons of my short tenure as a minister at my congregation here, giving an all-too brief exposition of Ephesians 5:22-33. This is probably the most important passage on marriage in the New Testament epistles. It ended up being a passionate exhortation to both men and women to dramatize the Gospel through their marital relationship: the model for husband and wife is Christ and his Church, and when this drama is passionately reenacted in marriage in some sense the mysteries become one.
The mystery of marriage is found in the "dance" between husband and wife, a dance which reflects the deeper dance between Christ and his Church, a dance which restores and completes the older dance between the Triune God and his Creation, a dance which in turn manifests the deepest and eternal dance between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
That eternal dance, the mutual outpouring, indwelling, and inter-penetration of the Three Persons of the Trinity is given a fancy name by theologians: perichoresis. At its most basic level perichoresis is a dance. The Father gives everything that he is to the Son by breathing out his Spirit to him, and the Son gracefully responds in obedience and love, giving himself completely back to him, by breathing out the same Spirit back to him.
It is in this sense that St. Paul says that God (the Father) is the "head" of Christ (the Son), just as Christ is the "head" of the Christian husband, just as the husband is the "head" of his wife. There is no inequality of being or of substance or of value between the Father and the Son (this is implied by the Son being homoousios with his Father), and yet it is the difference in their activities, actions, works, in other words, in their roles, that allowed for there to be Creation in the first place and which set the stage for Redemption's multifaceted execution. It is because the Father sent the Son (and did not go himself) and because the Son submitted himself wholly to his Father's will, that is, because of the difference in what they have done, that we receive forgiveness of sins, adoption as sons, new life in the Spirit, integration into a people, and hope of resurrection on the last day.
We should not be surprised then to find that the image of God reflected in humanity should require equality of being yet complimentary difference in roles and activities. When God says "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," he creates humanity "male and female," perfect equality without sameness, created to be perfect compliments. In marriage, the masculinity of the husband reflects the initiating and creating character of God, and the femininity of the wife reflects the nurturing and consummating character of God, particularly as he has manifested this character in the Church and given it to the Church.
Indeed, as the Spirit indwells the Church makes her his holy habitation, the Church is brought up into the perichoresis, into the dance-life of the Holy Trinity in a way that anxiously anticipates the final union and consummation of Creation when the Lord Jesus comes again. Jesus asks his Father, "that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them," "I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one," and for that purpose, "the glory that you have given me I have given to them." Jesus prays that the same relationships of outpouring and indwelling be granted to the Church even though the Church is not (nor will ever be) God in the strict sense of the term. But just as when a husband and wife become united together in matrimony they become one flesh, mystically bound together in spiritual and physical union, without being merged together into the same person, so Christ took on our flesh and bone so that his Church might become flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. The Church and all believers together have "in-law" become members of that family we call the Trinity. It is what theologians call theosis, glorification, or even deification.
This is what human marriage, with all of its difficulties, frustrations, fights, and disappointments, represents and communicates to us. In marriage God has instituted and ordained a community to reflect his image, his drama of salvation, and the final union that awaits us at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and like any symbol properly understood, even a common, sinful, human marriage finds its power by participating in this reality to come. Marriage is a mystery and, for the Christian, a window into the glorification that awaits us. It encourages us in our dance lessons and focuses our attention, not only on the steps, but on the bridegroom who has mastered them all and who is calling us to follow him.
An Experiment Begins
It is with interest that I begin blogging again in a new venue. I say "with interest" not because anyone else will find this interesting, but rather than it is a new forum to explore a certain range of my own interests in a way that might pay dividends. Indeed, my genuine hope is to put and post here reflections that will not only be of interest to those who read blogs of a theological nature, but will be of benefit to Christ's church militant here on earth.
I was recently ordained as a presbyter in the Anglican Church in North America and am currently serving at an orthodox parish in San Diego. As I begin this new phase in my life, I find that the questions, ideas, concerns, fears, theories, and methods that concerned me as a student have not gone away; on the contrary, they have become and are still becoming only more tangible, more concrete, and more visceral. The temptation of course is to run back to the comfort of the proverbial ivory tower, or to dismiss the intricacies of the dynamic of pastoral ministry in favor of being "practical". I would have none of either of these options.
The experiment begun here is an experiment not so much in criticism in reflection with the aim of generating dialogue. It is true that in this online forum I run the risk of speaking to 0's and 1's and nothing more, but I hope for better things. In postings, musings, responses to books and articles, sermon notes and the aftermath of sermons, I desire that something like a conversation might emerge, not only in comments etc. but face-to-face as well. But I am monologuing and getting ahead of myself.
You my readers, hold my feet to the fire to write and to reflect, to sort and to sort through, to critically engage the work to which God has called me, and bind me to the Word of God as the instrument of that Life that has been given to us in Christ and of which I am now a servant and ambassador.
