“Simple Spirituality: Submission” 1 Peter 2:18 Phil 2:8

Perhaps there is not biblical concept more greatly exploited and misunderstood than that of submission. It has been used to belittle women. It has been used to justify slavery. It has been used by those in power to abuse others for century. Because of the misuse and baggage around submission for centuaries, it is not surprising that it is hard for modern Christians to see the act of accepting another’s authority or yielding to another as a spiritual discipline - even what that other is God. 

We are now in the final week of our sermon series on simple spirituality. Over the past three weeks we have seen that spirituality is sometimes the hardest area to grow in because it requires us to set ourselves aside and work on areas that are antithetical to who we are - areas such as humility, community, and simplicity. Just as the paths to spiritual growth been hard through these particular disciplines over the past few weeks, so is submission difficult. 

So if its hard to submit, why try it at all? Because our Lord and Savior submitted himself. The apostle Paul writes to the church in Philippi that Christ humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross. Christ modeled for us what it looks like to submit ourselves before God. That doesn’t make it any easier, but that is why we do it.

When I was in college I attended a few weddings where the theology - or talk about God - coming forth from the preacher troubled me. During one wedding in particular the pastor turned to the bride and asked her if she had planned any part of the wedding day -  the ceremony, the dress, the reception. She replied of course she had. To which the pastor told her that she should have planned none of it, because by doing so she wasn’t submitting to the authority of her husband. 

I have to believe that the pastor was trying to make a joke, but it didn’t sit well with me, because it was misinterpreting for those gathered, none believers and believers alike, what biblical submission means, making it that much harder for us to grasp and live into. Perhaps one of the most oft-misquoted scripture about submission is found in Ephesians, where Paul instructs women to humble and submit themselves to their husbands. Friends, I cannot begin to tell you how many ways I have seen this scripture used to damage women - including but not limited to using it as proof to stay in abusive relationships. That is not what Paul meant. For the part of the scripture about submission that most leave out is this: “husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” The best relationships I have ever seen are where both parties love each other with sacrafical, honoring love, not love that demands respect and submission. People naturally submit to one another, when they feel safe, loved, and protected. You cannot have submission with modeling the sacrificial love of Christ.

Another area where submission has been mis-used is around issues of slavery. For year, one of the scriptures used in the United States to justify not only slavery but also the mis-treatment of slaves was from 1 Peter: telling slaves to accept the authority of their masters whether they treated them well or harshly. That is not what the author of 1 Peter meant this verse for, brothers and sisters. He was writing in a time when slavery was a reality, and a reality that was greatly different from slavery in the United States in the 1800s. He was writing to ask Christian slaves to use their position, even their position of submission, to model the love of Christ for their masters so they could come to know Christ. This was not a proof text for abuse.

We’ve identified some of the baggage we carry into any conversation about submission, especially submission as a spiritual discipline. We’ve identified why we still continue to submit to God. But what exactly does submission look like?

Author and missionary Chris Hertz writes, “Submission is a voluntary expression of love”. What that expression may look like will probably be different for each of us, but there are a few things it will always be. Submission always places us in the position of vulnerability - which is probably why we struggle with it so much. We don’t like to be vulnerable so we try to substitute transparency. But brothers and sisters, transparency is not submission and transparency is not vulnerability. Transparency is being honest about an aspect of who we are - what we think or something that happened to us. Vulnerability on the other hand is an act of will. We have to choose to be vulnerable. We have to choose to let someone else have authority over us, even if we don’t know what they are going to do with that power. And vulnerability is an act of trust. When we put ourselves and our needs out there, we give other people a chance to reject them or hurt us. Submission and the vulnerability that comes with it, therefore, is an act of trust. 

But brothers and sisters, I have to ask, is there anyone we trust more in our lives than God? Is there anyone we know loves us more deeply? Is there anyone who it is easier to take our needs to to trust that God will respond in a way that is best for us? Yes, God has authority over us, but it is a trustworthy authority, rooted in grace and mercy. Should that not make it easier for us to submit to a loving God?  Are we vulnerable and available to God?

True submission should never be forced. One of the questions I get asked quite frequently as a pastor is why God gave us free will. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like much of a gift does it? Especially when we make a mistake or have a difficult choice to make. Yet, God wanted us to choose to love Him. God wanted us to choose to submit freely. 

For when we choose freely to engaged in the discipline of submission, blessings abound. It can cleanse and purify us. Teach us surrender. Lets us receive tender care. Lets us experience true loyalty. Above all submission, like simplicity last week, reminds us that our life is not our own, but rather every breath is a gift from God.

Brothers and sisters, when we dive into what the Biblical text truly means and what God desires submission to look like in our lives, we find that submission is not repression, but rather freedom. May we leave this place free to submit to our loving and merciful God. May we leave this place desiring to trust God with all that we are. Amen.