Scripture: Ephesians 1:15-23 (NRSV)
DEVOTIONAL:
For me this is one of the most powerful and challenging passages in the entire New Testament. Although it is familiar, beyond being a concise synthesis of Paul’s teachings, it is also a summary of what Christian belief could be.
As a Catholic Christian who has been in religious life for over forty years, and who has most recently taught at a Mennonite college and studied at a Mennonite seminary, I cannot help but wonder how our church might be today if all parties involved in the Reformation had been able to fully embrace these verses. What if they had fully recognized God’s all-encompassing power and strength as the ultimate source of guidance for daily living? How might a different sort of embodiment of this belief united Christians rather than divided them?
Just because this did not happen hundreds of years ago, this does not preclude or excuse each of us today from praying and longing for the humility, wisdom and strength to live our lives “with the eyes of [our hearts] enlightened” so we may live in such a way as to acknowledge that Christ is truly the head of our church and we together comprise the body of the church, in which the fullness of Christ resides.
As both a student of history and a committed Christian, I pray that this season of Advent will be the occasion to recall what we Christians have in common, and how our God has been active in our lives and histories.
Scripture: Ephesians 1:15-23 (NRSV)
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason 16I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 20God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 22And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.