Prisoner of Love

Who wrote that song? Don’t know really. Turns out there were a bunch of songs with that title, even a Japanese one I found. But the one I remember is probably the Etta James version of the old jazz classic. Alone from night to night you'll find me / Too weak to break the chains that bind me / I need no shackles to remind me / I'm just a prisoner of love. James Brown made it a hit in 1963, Perry Como about the same time. It was a popular song. Unrequited love, past love that still hangs on. Something beyond your will, captured by a feeling or an emotion. It speaks of the power of love to overwhelm. We are helpless in the face of such a force, according to the songwriters. For one command I stand and wait now / From one who's master of my fate now / I can't escape for it's too late now / I'm just a prisoner of love

An odd sort of theme to bring up for a bible study. And to be honest I’m not sure what the connection is, except that word prisoner. In the song there is a sense of helplessness, there is an air of captured against the will. That is what we normally think of when we hear the word prisoner. Being imprisoned is a terrible fate for most of us, and we would do whatever it takes to avoid it. We have trouble understanding those who find themselves imprisoned repeatedly. That kind of thinking, that kind of lifestyle is as alien to us as any foreign culture would be.

So then why would St Paul with what appears to be a certain amount of pride call himself a prisoner? As though he chose it? As though he embraces it willingly? It just doesn’t make much sense to us. Take a look at the Scripture text for this first Sunday of the new year:

Ephesians 3:1-12 This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-- 2 for surely you have already heard of the commission of God's grace that was given me for you, 3 and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, 4 a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. 5 In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: 6 that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 7 Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God's grace that was given me by the working of his power. 8 Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, 9 and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; 10 so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.

The first thing we have to admit is that most biblical scholars don’t think Paul wrote Ephesians. And there is some evidence that supports this which I won’t take the time to outline (but feel free to ask if you’ve got a spare couple of hours to kill). Still, it makes good narrative sense to hold onto the belief that it was Paul in the end. So, I’m going with that.

If it was Paul, it was one of the later letters, and would have most likely have been written from Rome. Where he was a prisoner. Or as some liked to say, a guest of the Emperor. But Paul never says that he is imprisoned by the powers that be, or even that he is incarcerated against his will. He presents it as a part of his calling - "I am a prisoner for Christ Jesus."

Now, some argue that what he is doing is explaining the reasons for his imprisonment. Because of his ministry, because of his preaching and evangelizing he has been thrown into jail. He is claiming a cause, he is stressing that he is willing to suffer for a higher cause, and that cause is the person of Christ and the mystery of the gospel. But I think there might be more going on here than just that. As big as that is. Paul is saying something very different about the whole concept of imprisonment than we are used to hearing. And that difference is the will. Paul has chosen this imprisonment. He willingly gave up his personal freedom, his ability to do what he wanted when he wanted, to serve the one who renamed him.

This Sunday, like Methodists from the days of Wesley, we will have the opportunity to choose imprisonment. Or maybe that isn’t the word that best describes it. Wesley called it Covenant. We have another opportunity to surrender our lives to Christ, to claim that Jesus Christ is indeed Lord of our lives and that our wills are wrapped up in doing Christ’s will.

Here is one version of that covenant: I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

"I freely and heartily yield all things to [God’s] pleasure and disposal." Wow. Is that a prison sentence or what? Yet, Paul at least is willing. Not only willing, he seems almost eager to surrender to this will that is greater than his own will. In a nation that idolizes freedom, this is not just strange it is dangerous.

Why would anyone in their right mind surrender freedom? Maybe for the sake of something bigger. Paul talks about the mystery of the gospel. Perhaps this is something even greater than personal freedom, at least in his mind. But what is this mystery? In our passage Paul explains that the mystery is the reality that Gentiles are included in the grace of God.
Uh. Is that it? You might expect something more, given what was sacrificed. You might expect something more, given that so many want to talk about the secrets of the bible, or the hidden codes, lost interpretations or whatnot. You would think the secret would be something bigger. Wouldn’t you?

But then what could be bigger? Paul says that God’s vision is always bigger than ours. Paul says that God’s Kingdom, that the Community of faith is bigger than we imagine. But sometimes it takes solitary confinement to figure this out. It was from prison that Paul wrote that Gentiles, those who were foreigners and strangers were also heirs of the promise. It was from prison that another visionary wrote of the community of faith that unites beyond our vision.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly..." These words from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s essay "Letters from a Birmingham Jail" remind us of the same mystery that Paul spoke of in his letter from a Roman jail. This mystery, this ideal of connection and the "inescapable network of mutuality" is something worth surrendering to, something worth being imprisoned by. We are saying that we would choose to commit ourselves to such a vision, to covenant to work toward such an end.

We are saying we will be prisoners of this kind of love.

Shalom,
Derek