The Silk Industry

The slide display in the Macclesfield Silk Museum gave me a feel for the way industry changes over time. At first it was silk buttons for which Macclesfield was famous. Then the town moved on to 'throwing' silk (twisting it together to make it stronger) and weaving it (making it into cloth). Factories opened. Weavers prospered. Workers learned and passed on their skills. Business was booming.

Then disaster struck. Peace with France meant that cheaper silk cloth could be obtained from across the channel. In Macclesfield wages plummeted, unemployment soared, poverty ruined family life. This is something of an over-simplification, and I was pleased to note that even today the town still has a small but profitable silk business. But it made me realise that a way of life can be happy and prosperous for a generation or two, then due to external circumstances it cannot continue. All it takes is for silk buttons to go out of fashion, or for synthetic materials to become cheaper and better, and a whole industry, with its workforce, expertise, tools and premises ceases to be needed.

A decade or so back I was surprised at the number of mobile phone shops springing up. I assumed that once everyone had bought a mobile there would be no further need for them. As it happens, the mobile phone industry is continuing to boom. But for how long? Sooner or later it will cease to be fashionable to carry a mobile, or perhaps some better technology will replace it.

And what about the church? There was a time when we were flourishing. The premises were designed to cope with eager congregations. The leaders were training in preaching and pastoral visiting. We became a prosperous industry. Now circumstances have changed in so many ways. The world of 21st century Britain is very different from the past. Yet all our expertise and the tools of our trade are designed to cope with the way things used to be. No wonder we are struggling.

And on a personal note, I am realising that all my own training and experience has not equipped me to deal with the life of the church today. It's not wasted. I've learned things over the last few decades of ministry which will stand me in good stead for the future. But I need to develop new skills, new ways of leading, new ways of serving. A daunting prospect. So I'll fall back on a very useful prayer I learned as a student: "help!"

ABR#10 Ephesians

I have begun to read the Bible alphabetically (see here for my rationale), reading each book at least three times (in this case six) and trying to get into the mind of the original author and readers as well as listen to God’s message for today. Here’s what I’ve discovered from reading Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians.

For a start, it’s not a letter to the Ephesians. (And some scholars say it’s not by Paul either.) That is to say the letter was not addressing a particular church situation. The only facts you can pick up about the context is that Paul was writing from prison and that his readers were Gentile converts. There is no co-author and the only other name mentioned is Tychicus, whose character and mission are described in almost identical terms to his appearance in Colossians. The early manuscripts don’t even name Ephesus, they simply say, “To the saints, the faithful in Christ Jesus.”

So there is no need to investigate Paul’s previous dealings with the church in Ephesus or the nature of the town itself. Such knowledge will provide no deep insights into the content of this letter. Today’s equivalent may be the founder and pastor of a group of independent churches producing a short booklet (more of a tract really) setting out the basic teaching on Christ and the Christian life. Paul seems to be addressing Gentile Christians as a whole, though he clearly knows his readership and there is a personal touch to some of his comments. He uses the inclusive pronoun ‘we’ a great deal, especially in the early part of the letter, so that the sense of togetherness is emphasised. But he also uses ‘you’ in the manner of a teacher instructing his followers.

Key Theme:

One word – Unity. And four things about it –

• 1) Unity is the coming together not just of all people, especially Gentiles and Jews, but all creation. Paul is talking about the unity of everything that exists, in heaven above and earth below.
• 2) Such unity is only possible “in Christ”. He is the uniting factor, the corner-stone of the building, the head of the body.
• 3) This unity has been God’s purpose since the dawn of time. Only recently have we realised what his long-term plans have been. With the coming of Christ we finally know what he has been up to all along.
• 4) There is not only room for diversity within this unity, but diversity is essential to its nature. Each person has a role to play. God has planned it. Christ is the unifying force. But we contribute by choosing to fall in with God’s plans and work for unity in as many ways as we can.

The First Half:

My honest first impression of the opening passages is that they are full of grand sounding Christian jargon which just washes over you without leaving you any the wiser. I can imagine a particular kind of preacher stirring up a congregation by getting carried away with all the buzz-words to which the congregation eagerly respond, “Yes! Amen! Preach it, brother!” This is probably not a fair accusation to level at Paul. It would be a bit like saying Hamlet is full of clichés. The words here are original, it is later use (or abuse) which has made them sound like jargon. This realisation gave me the impetus to look a little more closely at the content, which describes God’s plan (see above).

Some translations speak of ‘predestination’. Paul is not writing about a fixed unchangeable future, but about God having a destiny in mind for all things and having had such a destiny in mind from the beginning of time. We still have choices to make as to whether we help or hinder the move towards this destiny and those whose response is exactly what God wants could be said to be ‘pre-destined’.

The Second Half:

After what sounds like a conclusion (...”to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever! Amen.”) Paul moves on to his ‘so what now’ section, giving lots of practical, sometimes specific, advice on how to live.

God’s plan is to bring all heaven and earth together in unity, but there is a clear separation between Christian behaviour and wicked pagan behaviour. There is an ongoing battle between good and evil. Does this contradict God’s desire for unity of all things? No, because the planned unity is “in Christ”. So yes, God is interested in drawing every person, every aspect of life and the whole created order into one unity – but only if it becomes united in Christ. Evil cannot be part of this unity, though people who turn from evil can.

My purpose is not to compare one book with another, but to treat each book on its own merits. However, I can’t help noticing that the section on God’s different gifts to the church and the illustration of the different parts of the body making one whole is very similar (though shorter) to a passage in 1 Corinthians. And the section on the appropriate attitudes of wives and husbands, children and parents, slaves and masters is a longer version of the advice in Colossians.

Readers today can get very worked up about “wives, submit to your husbands.” Paul precedes that with “submit to one another”. He follows it with “husbands, love your wives.” He goes on to speak of the unity of husband and wife as effectively one body. I never hear people complaining about these comments. As a man of his time Paul naturally saw the man as having a leadership role within marriage, but in no way is he encouraging men to lord it over their wives or women meekly to be subservient. If anything he had a healthier view of marriage relationships than many of his contemporaries would have had. He wants marriage to be a successful caring relationship, based on love and respect. He wants men to cherish their wives. At the same time he regards marriage as similar to the relationship between Christ and his church, where despite the mutual love and respect it is clear who is the head. It is because Christ loves us so much and accepts us as we are that we can freely submit to him. This doesn’t diminish or demean us. It liberates us. It gives us a proper sense of our worth as beloved by Christ. In this context, asking wives to be ‘courteously reverent’ towards their husbands doesn't sound nearly so horrendous.

Post Script: It has just occurred to me that people object to "wives, submit to your husbands" because they imagine Paul is telling nice normal self-confident ladies to become meek little mice. But what if he were telling bossy overbearing manipulative women who are constantly belittling their husbands in public to pipe down and show a bit of respect?

Post Post Script: What about Strictly Come Dancing as a model for marriage? It is important for the couple to understand each other, work together, trust each other (especially in some of the more dangerous manoeuvres), nurture their relationship and synchronise as if 'one flesh'. The judges are always going on about the vital chemistry between the couple. And yet what is the expectation for those gorgeous skilful athletic vibrantly-alive professional ladies? That when it comes to dancing they will submit to their male partners - and let the men lead!

Post Post Post Script: I am not going to all this effort to propound my own view of marriage, but to defend Paul's position. I think he is too easily misunderstood which is a shame because it stops people noticing the positive side of his teaching.

Conclusion:

Unity is achieved through the exercise of different gifts. Paul has his role to play – a very important one in bringing outsiders (by which he means non-Jews) into the Christian faith. But everyone contributes, even if it’s only by living the kind of life that promotes harmony and understanding. Christ’s job is not to make everyone the same, but to be a focal point for all the activity (or a corner stone if you like) so that what we end up with is a proper building and not a random jumble of components.