Ephesians 6:21-24
Introduction
Two weeks ago, I said we were concluding our journey through Ephesians. Except that we hadn’t covered these last few verses, Paul’s concluding greetings.
The funny thing about reading the New Testament Letters is that, because of the way it is written, because of the voice, much of the content feels like it is written to us. We only jolt out of that thinking when we come up against something that feels really different, like the household codes in chapter 5.
Another thing that jolts us out of the personal direct feeling is each letter’s sign-off, where the authors give personal greetings. If you’re like me, it’s easy to skip over concluding verses, because they don’t seem particularly relevant.
After all, Tychicus is not about to walk through the front door.
Initially, I thought of today’s sermon, kind of like a “bonus” episode in a podcast, or an appendix. But as I sat with it, I think that’s a bit unfair.
By faith, we do say this ancient letter, in its entirety, even the seemingly “redundant” bits, still have something to say to us today. We believe the Spirit of Jesus can speak through these words, just as it does through the others.
While the letter may not have been TO us, it is still FOR us.
For us to see the story of this letter, the grandness of God’s plan for the cosmos, made known in each of our lives, is practised together. That we grow and practice our undying, resurrection love for Jesus together.
Who is your Tychicus?
We don’t know much about Tychicus. He first pops up as a companion of Paul’s in Acts 20, which describes Paul’s visit to the city of Ephesus, years before this letter was written. After Paul’s sermons stir up some controversy and things get dangerous, he and others, Tychicus among them, skip town.
Tychicus continues to pop up in Paul’s letters. We learn in his second letter to Timothy that Paul has sent him to Ephesus on an errand, probably not with this letter; the timing appears wrong.
Tychicus is also named as the carrier of the Letter of Colossians.
If we think the cost of sending mail is expensive today, it’s nothing compared with the ancient world, where you had to make your own arrangements for personal letters to get where it was needed. You gave someone trustworthy the letter, perhaps a friend or a slave, and they would travel with it and deliver it personally. Of course, they needed food and lodging for that entire time, and travel wasn’t always safe.
This did have its advantages, though. Paul says that Tychicus would tell them everything.
Tychicus brings all the personal news of Paul, his ministry and his co-workers as well. But not just that.
A letter bearer would also be familiar with the content. There is good evidence that letter carriers were charged with explaining any content, giving more context and responding to questions when they read it out. So, as a side point, when Paul sends the letter to the Romans with Phoebe, she was not only a letter carrier, she was an authority on the letter’s contents and would have taught and explained the letter.
Tychicus reminds us that everything that Paul wrote, this big story of God at work and our part in it that we’ve spent 12+ weeks exploring, was worked out, ruminated on and practised by real people in real communities.
I have two questions I invite you to reflect on this morning, and maybe into the coming week.
The first is:
Who has been like Tychicus to you?
Who has been someone in your life of faith, your Christian walk, who has been influential in growing your faith and nurturing your love of Jesus?
I know we’ve all read and listened to authors, theologians, speakers, and preachers, all of whom we would say have been influential for us. They are important, but I don’t mean them.
Who, face to face, at some point in your life, has been present with you and helped you know Jesus more, through conversations, their actions, or a well-timed question or Godly wisdom?
Who has been Tychicus to you? Let’s remember them and thank God for them and their faithfulness.
Who are you, Tychicus, to?
The second question is a variation of the first:
Who have you been like Tychicus to?
Maybe that’s harder to respond to because we don’t always know how our life of faith impacts others.
But it’s worth spending time remembering and praying for those with whom we’ve encouraged, nurtured, perhaps taught in the faith. Maybe it was more of an exploration alongside. But they are worth remembering and thanking God for those people and those moments.
The Gospel is embodied. As Christ was embodied and lives in a resurrection body, our practice, participating in this resurrection life of Jesus, isn’t primarily intellectual. It’s embodied.
As a community of people who love God, we are a gift to each other to practice, to live out and live into this new way of being human in Jesus.
Who have you been like Tychicus to?
Love Jesus
The last two verses are a blessing. Emphasising peace.
Peace is a theme of the whole letter: peace with God, and peace with each other.
While Paul is writing in Greek, the word he uses here carries the same sense as the Hebrew Shalom.
Not just a lack of conflict or enmity. Not just good feelings, but a wholeness, a completeness. A joining together of things that were broken or had been torn apart.
When we sometimes sing our blessing, Shalom my Friend, God’s peace my friend, that is the same blessing we bestow on each other.
The peace that comes from God is a wholeness coming from a restoration, a redemption of that which was broken and wrought destruction.
That peace, which we taste now in part but hope will come in its fullness when Christ returns and completes his work of making all things new again.
Paul ties the Peace with Love with Faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Like the author of 1 John says, Let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Love is not a mere chemical reaction or rush of endorphins in our brains. It flows from our relationship with God, who first loved us.
Here at the Village, we often use gender neutral terms for God where we can, acknowledging that God is not gendered. We are made in God’s image, not the other way around.
However, using the traditional way of speaking of God the Father, if you prefer, Mother, does reveal that within the Trinity is a relationship, a relationship that is the definition of unity and love
Our love flows from the source of love, the Sacred three-in-one.
Lastly, Paul asks for grace for all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
This is not to say that grace is not extended to those who don’t love Jesus. As we just said, we only love because God, in the extension of grace, first loved us.
After all, each of us can extend love to someone who doesn’t return our love. God is the same. Or should I say, we follow God’s gracious example in doing so.
But the fullness of that grace, that love, is best experienced, enjoyed in its full high definition, technicolour beauty when we respond to God’s love.
When we move toward God, when we embrace growing up, maturing into the person of Christ. Putting on our restored and renewed humanity.
That is what following God is all about. Receiving Jesus’s death abolishing love for us and responding by growing to love Jesus with an undying love.
Closing
So, as we finish Ephesians, completely. As we continue to practice our new way of Jesus, our growing up in Christ. We do so in company with God and in the Church, with others.
Who has been like Tychicus to you?
Who have you been to Tcyhicus to?
And may your love for Jesus continue to deepen.
Amen.