ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

EPIPHANY 3, 2006

EVENSONG &BENEDECTION
ALL SAINTS, MARGARET STREET

Fr Alan Moses

“For the grace of God has appeared , bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to love lives that are self-controlled, upright and godly…”

Those words are read as part of the Epistle at Midnight Mass every Christmas, and I suspect that they are rarely ever preached on then; overshadowed by St. Luke’s story of the birth of Jesus. Our English translations obscure the fact the Greek word for “appeared” is Epiphainein - Epiphany which is we have the passage again tonight in the Epiphany season.

God’s grace makes its appearance in Jesus Christ. The Epiphany, the appearance of grace has its purpose in “the salvation of all”. There are no qualifications which limit those who are the object of God’s salvation. God’s saving grace knows no bounds: the sinner and penitent, the persecutor and the persecuted, insiders and outsiders of every type.

That appearance of grace is not just so that individuals can have a once-and-for-all sense of liberation; of being saved. Grace has an impact on the way people live their lives. The grace of God trains or disciplines humans in three distinct but related ways.

1. The first discipline of grace is stated in negative terms. Believers are to “renounce impiety and worldly passions”. Pagans who became Christians were said to have turned away from the worship of idols - things that are not God.

2. It is not enough merely to renounce things that are bad. So the second discipline of grace consists of living “lives that are self-controlled, upright and godly”. To be “self-controlled” is to show moderation – to be reasonable and sensible.

3. “Upright” translates living justly or rightly. To live a “godly” life refers to the devotion and awe we address to God.

So the first word pertains to the way we deal with ourselves - with self-control

the second with the way we deal with others – justly

the third with the way deal with God - with reverence.

The first two are confined to life in ‘this world’ - the present.
the third results in expectation. Grace teaches us to wait for “the blessed hope and the manifestation –the Epiphany - of the glory of our great God and Saviour , Jesus Christ.” In the time between those two advents which are also epiphanies, manifestations, Jesus works through grace to “redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good works.”

The first section of our reading tonight contains ethical instructions to various groups in the congregation in Crete for which Titus is responsible. Although the liberating force of God’s grace - the central thrust of Paul’s gospel - should not be forgotten - neither should its capacity to shape character be overlooked.

The text reminds is that experiencing the grace of God is not simply an existential experience in which the individual achieves freedom from the bondage of the will; it also results in the practical acts of Christian charity and good deeds.

The Pastoral Epistles 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus - are concerned with the life of the Christian community. The majority of scholars now think that are probably not from the pen of St. Paul but were written by a disciple and reflect a rather later stage of development in the life of the church. The great Anglican moral theologian of the last century, Bishop Kenneth Kirk, in his great work “The Vision of God”, speaks of them as part of the process of “formalisation” which took place as the church grew, as in many places it moved from evangelisation to pastoral care. Formalisation is not necessarily a bad thing but it carries with it the danger of legalism and conformity.

The Pastoral Epistles see the Church as the “household of God”. The household was a primary social institution in the ancient world - far more important to people than any other - the one on which they could rely. We know from classical writings that households were often governed by codes of conduct and behaviour. Scholars call these “House Tables”. We find the content of these reflected in some of the Epistles.

One of the motives for producing such codes of conduct for Christian communities was that the Church might have a positive image in the society in which it was set. Christianity was not a licit religion - other than as a branch of Judaism. We know that Christians were often considered to be atheists. If it appeared to Roman Society that they were undermining family life, and some of the things said by both Jesus and Paul could be seen that way, then Christianity could be seen as not only a political threat to the authority of the divine emperor – but to the very fabric of society.

Now there is an important missionary point here. It can also be stated positively. There is more to it than avoiding scandal. We know that one of the driving forces in the expansion of the Christian Church then, and indeed ever since, has been the quality of its common life; the mutual care which Christians have demonstrated to each other.

In this week of Prayer for Christian Unity we ought to be conscious of the negative impact which our disunity - both on the grand scale and even within communities – has on the image of the Gospel.

The question we have to ask ourselves today is whether the specific prescriptions we find in such codes of conduct in the New Testament - the efforts to work out the moral implications of the gospel – are to be replicated just as they are or do they need further adaptation to new circumstances; just as the Church adapted to life in Roman society.

If you look at the reference on the service sheet, you will see that the lectionary in fact omits some verses. This is the section which deals with the duties of slaves. Many extended households would include slaves. Some Christians would be slaves and some would be slave owners. Slavery was a universal institution at the time and the behaviour of slaves was a major concern in society. While it is true that not all slavery in the ancient world was an onerous as the forced labour we tend to associate with it - many teachers were in fact slaves and slaves often held positions of great responsibility - it remained true that they were slaves. The fear of a slave rebellion was never far away and the punishment for this was crucifixion - as anyone who ahs ever seen the movie Spartacus knows.

These passages would of course be recycled later by Christian slave-traders and owners in British colonies and the United States to justify the cruel enslavement of millions. It was much later in the history of the church that the import of the gospel for our treatment of others made in the image of God finally persuaded people of the profound wrongness of slavery.

The verses we are left with are not without problems - quite obviously so for women who now enjoy educational and career opportunities unimaginable in the ancient world.

But also for men in a congregation like ours where so many are unmarried - and in the ancient world would have been regarded as not fulfilling their social and religious duties. To be unmarried would be regarded as selfish and irresponsible. In a society in which the extended family or household has to a large extent disappeared, not least under economic pressure, the church may be the primary household to which many of us belong - the place we find that support for which we could once rely on family but no longer can.

Nor can we say that slander and alcohol abuse are the prerogative, much less the monopoly, of older women. In a church which has a licensed bar we need to be conscious of the responsibility to help those who wrestle with the demons of alcoholism. We need to have a care that our conversation speaks of the good rather than evil if we are to be an example and encouragement to others.

We must also recognise that there has been and is an abuse of this strand of scripture, One of the first pastoral tasks I had to carry out as a young curate was to take a mother and her child to a safe house where they would be protected from the violence of her husband. That tragic family come to mind whenever I hear people using scripture to defend the right of husbands to beat their wives. One of the major institutions in this parish is the Family Court in Wells Street. It is a sad reality that many of the cases the court has to deal with involve violence by men against women and children. The word of God is far more likely to be discredited in our society by being used in this way. It does not commend Scripture but rather condemns it.

In this, as in many other areas, to take Scripture seriously is not simply to use it as a fundamentalist blueprint but to ask how its intent can be applied in different circumstances. Changed circumstances do not abolish the need for such mutual care. How can we develop mutual support, encouragement and teaching of the inexperienced in the Christian life? How can we support family life and parents in their responsibilities? How can we support young people so that they grow to maturity and responsibility? How do we play our part in helping people to “renounce impiety and worldly passions and….to live lives that are self-controlled, upright and godly”?