Tilling the Soil of the Soul July 30, 2006
The Spiritual Discipline of Submission
Ephesians 5:15-21
Almost all of the spiritual disciplines that we have been looking at are counter cultural. We have looked at fasting and simple living when our culture calls us to consume, we have looked at meditation and silence when our culture tries to fill our ears and minds with distractions… Out of all the spiritual disciplines, I think that submission is the most counter cultural. If we explain to workmates why we fast, or pray or meditate, or live simply, they might think we are just weird. If we explain to them why we live a life of submission, they are likely to say that we are wrong!
Verse 21: Submit to one another
Submission is a bad word in our society
we make heroes of people who won’t submit to anyone’s authority, You never hear Mel Gibson, or Sigourney Weaver talking about submission, unless it is beating the bad guys into submission.
The motto for our age it outplay, outwit, outlast, not “submit”
It is not too surprising that God’s values look upside down from the world’s perspective.
Lets look at God’s perspective, and his call on our lives.
What Submission is not
Christian Submission is not about being a Doormat
Paul, who writes this passage, deals harshly with both secular authorities and with Christian brothers and sisters when they overstep their bounds and treat him as less than he is.
The Submission that Paul is calling us to is a mutual submission – not one where there is one person in submission, and another in authority, but that we would submit to each other.
We do not submit to others because “that is what I deserve, the worm that I am”
Foster writes:
“Jesus called us to self-denial without self-hatred. Self-denial is simply a way of coming to understand that we do not have to have it our own way. Our happiness is not dependant upon getting what we want.
Self-denial does not mean the loss of our identity as some suppose. Without our identity we could not even be subject to each other. Did Jesus lose his identity when he set his face toward Golgotha? Did Peter lose his identity when he responded to Jesus’ cross-bearing command, “Follow me.” (John 21:19)? Did Paul lose his identity when he committed himself to the one who had said, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:16)? Of course not. We know the opposite was true. They found their identity in the act of self denial.” – p 99
Christian Submission is not about over-the-top politeness like those two chipmunks in the cartoons who say, “no, no, no, after you,” “no, I insist after you,”
It is not the abdication of responsibility or authority so we get no where and no decisions get made because we are so worried about stepping on each others toes.
Christian Submission is not about the lowest common denominator.
Canadian & American worms joke
To guys are out fishing, one of them has to keep the lid on his can of worms shut tight, each time he gets a worm, he has to be fast or the others will escape. The other fellow doesn’t even have a lid on his can of worms and seems to have no worries of escape. Finally the one with the lid asks the other man, “Why don’t you worry about your worms escaping?” The fellow responds, “Oh, that’s easy, you have American worms, I’ve got Canadian worms, if one of mine gets a little bit higher than the rest, they pull him back down.”
Christian Submission is not about keeping each other from getting ahead.
Christian submission doesn’t say, “I’m not going to use my God given gifts, because I might make someone else look bad”
There is a sense in the term of submission of coming under the other person, not to be held down by them, but to lift them up!
What Submission is
Definition - a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden".
"put others first" - Contemporary English Version
Instead of looking out for ourselves, we are to be looking out for everyone else, and they are to look out for us.
“Every discipline has its corresponding freedom. What freedom corresponds to submission? It is the ability to lay down the terrible burden of always needing to get our own way. The obsession to demand that things go the way we want them to go is one of the greatest bondages in human society today. People will spend weeks, months, even years in a perpetual stew because some little thing did not go as they wished, they will fuss and fume. They will get mad about it. They will act as if their very life hangs on the issue. They may even get an ulcer over it.
In the Discipline of submission we are released to drop the matter, to forget it. Frankly, most things in life are not nearly so important as we think they are. Our lives will not come to an end if this or that will not happen.” – Richard Foster p. 97
Christian Submission Flows Out of Strength, Not Weakness.
Jesus is our example in this. John 13:3-5
“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”
If I suddenly had the divine revelation that Jesus did – all things under my feet, I think I would like to try it out! Not take up the lowliest servant’s job! But because of Jesus’ place of strength, he is able to serve – to subject himself to his own disciples; not as a weak person beaten into submission, but as the strongest person in the universe, choosing to submit.
Philippians 2:6-7
“(Jesus)Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
We too come from a place of strength – Ephesians 1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
We respond to that strength, not by taking up any highhanded authority, but by submitting to each other.
The most amazing picture I have of submitting from a place of strength is that of Jesus standing before Pilate. Pilate asks Jesus a question and Jesus stays silent, Pilate responds “You refuse to speak to me? Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or crucify you?
Jesus answered “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.” - John 19:10-11
Pilate, this little governor of a backwater province in the Roman Empire has the creator of the universe standing before him in human form, and Jesus submits himself.
Christian submission is not about placating a bully – but it is about serving them in love & strength.
Christian Submission must come in Relationship
Without knowing each other, knowing the heart’s desire, talking things through with each other, there can be no mutual submission – one will always just be giving in to the will of the other. That is why we need face-to-face relationships with other Christians – in small groups and close friendships, so that we can obey God’s commands!
Christian Submission is about Sacrifice
Just because submission is not about all these bad things doesn’t mean that it is easy – if it is working it should hurt.
John 15:12-13
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down their life for their friends.”
Laying down one’s life is not just about dying it is about giving up what we hold dear because our friend is even more dear to us.
- giving up preferences, honor, possessions, the TV remote… laying down our living lives for each other!
Christian Submission is about Honor
Romans 12:10 “love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.” - NRSV
We are to be a people who lift each other up, not knock each other down.
Christian Submission flows from the filling of the Spirit
Grammar Lesson. – verse 21 is deeply connected to the command in verse 18 “do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with the Spirit” The rest of the verbs are participles – “ing” verbs
– Be filled with the Spirit, speaking in psalms, hymns, & spiritual songs, singing and making music, giving thanks, submitting to each other…
Our Submission to each other is an outworking of the Spirit’s filling of our lives. If someone likes to call themselves a “Spirit-filled” Christian but cannot submit to others because of pride or rebellion, I want to question their adjective!
As this is connected to the filling of the Spirit, we cannot do it without the grace of God flowing through our whole being. If you are having trouble with the discipline of Submission, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you more!
Key words - "out of reverence for Christ"
Just as you have submitted to Christ, submit to each other.
How to Practice Submission as a Discipline.
We can build a life of submission by working on it as a discipline.
Ask God, “Who do you want me to submit to today?”
“Who do you want me to voluntarily ‘give in’ to today?”
“Who do you want me to come under today?”
“Who do you want me to put ahead of myself today?”
I have a friend who is a pastor up in the Jane Finch area. He is a white guy. When the issue of Black violence came to the front door of the church last year, the church stepped up to do something about it in a faith-based way. My friend has many gifts that would help the church in Downsview and Rexdale get organized around these issues, but he knows that he needs to use his gifts behind the scenes and come under the black faith leaders to support them, so they get the limelight. He is submitting himself, his gifts and his strength to them in Christ.
Ask God where he wants you to submit today. I believe that he will answer you in ways that are un-expected, and I believe that he will give you someone every day.
Acts of Submission
Submit to God
A thick and shapeless tree-trunk would never believe
that it could become a statue, admired as a miracle of sculpture,
and would never submit itself to the chisel of the sculptor,
who sees by her genius what she can make of it. (St Ignatius)
I ask for the grace to let myself be shaped by my loving Creator.
As thou wilt; what thou wilt; when thou wilt. – Thomas à Kempis
Submit to God’s Word
This doesn’t mean that we will not struggle with Scripture, nor does it mean that we turn our brains off, but when we come to pieces of scripture that are difficult, we should give the Word the benefit of the doubt and allow it to shape us
Submit to our Families
I believe that God gives us families to practice love on, because if we can love them, we can love anybody, and if we can submit to them, we can submit to anybody.
“The dictum for the household should be “let each of you look not only to his own intrest, bur also the interest of others.” (Phil. 2:4) – p. 107
The passage in Ephesians goes on from verse 21 to describe how each of us in a family is to submit to the others. Read it. Men – there are 9 verses that describe how we are to submit to our wives and children while paul only gives them 2 each on how to submit to us!
Submit to your neighbours, coworkers, friends…
Here submission looks a lot like service. Don’t complain about your neighbour’s new fence, help him build it! Help a co-worker get a promotion, let someone get the glory for a job you do together. Serve your boss like she is Jesus, even if she thinks she is God!
Submit to the Christian Community
If you look around you, these are all the “one-anothers” that God calls you top love and serve, to lift up and honour above yourself.
Submit to the Broken & Despised
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. – James 1:27
Limits of Submission
Submission is an act of love – it is not loving to allow another to continue to abuse you, another, or themselves.
We are called to submit to one another, not to one another’s sin.
There are times when we need to submit to God rather than human authorities who are asking us to go against him.
When Peter and John are commanded by the Sanhedrin to stop talking about Jesus, they respond, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” - Acts 4:19-20
Mind you, there have been many arrogant people who have said, “We must obey God rather than men” just to excuse their desire not to submit to authority. Any time that we think that god is calling us to not submit to the authorities, we should tread slowly in humility and in the counsel of trusted Christian friends.
The Spiritual Disciple of Submission is as about as counter-cultural as you can get – you may feel it within you as you bristle at the very word “submission” This is why we must practice it, to till the soil of the soul. If we practice it with humility, it will allow the Holy Spirit to reach down in to the earth of our soul and pull up any bitter root of seething anger or envy or selfishness that might be there.
Ask the Father today, who would you have me submit myself to today? Whom shall I come under and lift up in your name?
