Objects of Wrath

Passage: Ephesians 2:1-10

The movie Pretty Woman is a Cinderella story of sorts - one in which a call girl is first hired, then wooed, by a rich executive. At a pivotal point in the developing romance, the executive’s spurned best friend finds out about the new girlfriend’s history. He makes a pass at her, then tries to force himself upon her. When she fights him off he says, “How dare you? You’re nothing but a…” He uses what she was to denigrate what she is.

In Ephesians 2 the Apostle Paul makes reference to his beloved church’s past. This reference could be taken as a slight – using what they were to denigrate what they are. In fact, Paul’s purpose is just the opposite – using the shame of what they were to underscore the beauty and power of what they are.

“Before we met Jesus,” he says, “we were dead in our transgressions.” He continues, “We were all by nature objects of wrath.” This doesn’t sound like a very high estimation of the human condition. But it’s not a statement about the inherent value of every person. It’s a statement about the state of every person’s relationship with God. Every person, according to our Scriptures and our statements of faith, is born into the condition of being hopelessly separated from God. None of us has the capacity to make ourselves right with God. However, God has taken the initiative and offered right relationship to us. Through Jesus Christ we have both the privileged status of being children of God, and the newfound capacity to live differently. Paul urges his sisters and brothers to do this very thing – to abandon the compulsions and captivity of their pre-Christ life, and adopt a whole new way of living.

This is what we’re invited to do. Where we once instinctively did only that which hurt us, hurt others, and hurt God, we now have the capacity to choose otherwise. To choose to relate to God, to each other, and to God’s Creation the way we were always meant to.