Note: (CL) = Controling Lesson (OT) = Old Testament (OTA) = Old Testament Alternative (NT) = New Testament (NTA) = New Testament Alternative (G) = Gospel (GA) = Gospel Alternative (Ps) = Psalm; one of these will follow all lessons for the week.

Note: Please be sure to look at previous posts because some of the week may have already been posted.


Sunday, September 2, 2012

Sunday of Creation (NTA)

Ephesians 5:22-33
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

There is a great mystery left in God's creation.  How do two people become one?  But here is another interesting lesson, how do more than two become one?  St Paul explains the mystery as connected with Jesus Christ and his church.

Adam and Eve were of the same flesh and blood because Eve was taken from Adam.  If this is connected to Jesus Christ, the church is take out of the flesh of Christ.  But maybe it is that the church is provided with the flesh of Christ.

Similarly, Adam received the breath of life, and Jesus breathd on his disciples son that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit.  Eve has formed from the rib of Adam, the church as formed from the Dead and Resurrected body of Christ.  The church is the body of Christ Jesus.

In a similar way, spouses are joined in body together.  Thus, St Paul tells us the way a husband treats his own body would reflect the way a husband treats and feels toward his wife.  Christ sacrifices his body for his holy bride the church. 

 The two are joined together in one body.  You are a member of the body of Christ through faith.  God has killed this body and brought it back to life.  In Baptism you have died with Christ and rised again to new life.  This again is one of the mysteries of God which has been reveals to you so that you might believe and have eternal life.

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