Ephesians 1:15-23 (NRSV)
Read Ephesians 1:15-23 on biblegateway.com
Verse 15I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason Verse 16I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. Verse 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, Verse 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, Verse 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. Verse 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, Verse 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. Verse 22And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, Verse 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Devotion
Alas, more metaphors! The proclamation and prayer in Ephesians 1 leads us decidedly to the resurrected and ascended Christ seated in power next to God in the heavenly places. From here, the author of Ephesians leans into the body metaphor the Apostle Paul brilliantly appropriated to the church. In doing so, a bodily-ness is also ascribed to God. For Christ is seated at God's "right hand," and God has put all things under God’s "feet" making Christ the "head" over all things for the church. What holds the metaphor together—a bodied God and an embodied church—is Christ! It is the word incarnate in Jesus that gifts us with a spirit of seeing and knowing the divine promise enfleshed in our lives and the world. We are a bodied church then, imitators of Christ's own body, seeking to reveal the hope to which we have been called, the fullness of Christ who fills all in all. What a metaphor! What a truth!
Prayer
We pray: "That the God of our savior, Jesus Christ, may give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation as we come to know God more fully in our lives."
To which God declares, "I have called you in hope, to the glorious inheritance among all the saints and to the immeasurable greatness of my embodied love." Amen.