"Wives be submissive to your husbands" is one of the "clobber" passages of Holy Scripture. People have used them historically to clobber each other over the head. But Scripture is not meant for that. Rather we need to look for the deep spiritual teaching about our relationship to God that is found in almost every one of them. The passage read in today's epistle lesson is no different.
http://www.hipcast.com/playweb?audioid=Pe66034e18e96ed7dd73aeae19c4e1efaZ1t7R1REYmd1&buffer=5&fc=FFFFFF&pc=99CCFF&kc=0033CC&bc=FFFFFF&brand=1&player=ap21
MP3 File
(I apologize the distortion in the very beginning of the recording. The choir and organ sounded much better than the recording. The problem gets resolved and isn’t an issue for the actual sermon.)
Good one, Nick! And in the version that I heard, didn’t use the “O” word (obedience) even once. I take this passage much to heart as one of the sources of the Benedictine injunction for us to obey each other.
Laura, Obl.S.B.