Ephesians 1:15-23
Power, glory, spirit of wisdom and revelation, eyes of the heart… the apostle Paul is throwing all sorts of statements out there in the opening of his letter to the church in Ephesus. Often, especially if we’ve lived with these epistles long enough, it’s perhaps easy to arrive at a point where we no longer actually read these words. Sometimes we’ve read verses so many times we can hardly read them any longer. Sometimes we’ve heard words preached so often we can rarely actually hear them. This small little pericope in the opening of this letter is throwing down some pretty substantial ideas about our life with the resurrected Jesus. If we can receive them.
If we slow down to absorb the sort of language Paul uses here it is might feel somewhat foreign. The terms he uses here we would inevitably call “mystical” today. In many of our Wesleyan congregations, if we were to begin using the same sort of language that Paul uses here, we might be labeled a mystic. (Ultimately mysticism and the contemplative mind may be the great revival we need in the western church today.) Paul says that he is praying for the gift of the spirit of wisdom and revelation to come upon the church, as they are on the journey to know God. This small moment here in Ephesians is yet again a reminder that knowing God occurs over the arc of a lifetime rather than a package delivered to our doorstep in which we possess. The Apostle’s earnest prayer is for wisdom and an opening up, a revelation, a disclosing of more. In God there is always more to be found; there is always more God to know. Paul declares this to be the sight of a heart enlightened. Perhaps this is his way of referring to opening your “third eye.” If you can, see more. If you can receive it, receive more. The gospel of the resurrected Jesus is a continual opening, an enlightening of the eyes of the heart, and a confession of how little we know.
Ultimately this seems to be the path if we are to continue to understand our calling. Specifically, to know, “the hope to which you were called” (v-18). Following this, Paul now gives a list of some very large attributes… “riches of his glorious inheritance” and “immeasurable greatness of his power.” He mentions “power” three times. This can be dangerous word. It can be thought about in so many ways. Yet at the core, the Christian must confess that something in fact does change, become transformed, renewed, lifted up, awakened as we are continually filled with the Spirit of the resurrected Jesus. We confess that God’s power, though often beyond our descriptions, is at work in our lives! Could there be a better way for us to dialogue around our life in Christ other than to say, “We are filled with the power of God”? Yet again, maybe we’ve spent so much time in the mental gymnastics of atonement, of sharing the words of the gospel, that we can sometimes forget the resurrection power in our own lives? That is, as the Spirit of the living Christ dwells in us there, is more going on than a mental assent to a salvific narrative? I am reminded of Peter and John in Acts chapter 3 immediately following Pentecost. They are fresh with the Sprit of God poured out upon the church and now they find themselves healing a lame man on their way to the temple. Our Scripture is full of narratives such as this that may be easier to glaze over rather than wrestle with. Are we sometimes saying things like “Wow, God’s presence use to really show up in the life of God’s people!”? Rather than being stuck on why God seems to be more present here rather than there, or why this person receives healing and this one doesn’t… What if we started with better questions?
How might the Spirit of God be wanting to pour out of us today? Are we even open to it? Can we even see this way?
Could it be that we have made “his glorious inheritance” all about a “heaven… someday,” rather than God’s power present in us today?
This section concludes by giving some clarity. This greatness at work in the resurrected Christ, who has “above all rule and authority and power and dominion,” is the head of the church, “which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” Is Paul stating that we are the physical embodiment of this authority and power on earth? Could the church, this group of Spirit filled believers on earth, represent the fullness of Jesus? I believe this is what Paul is trying to help us to see, hear, and live into. That we might mature, grow, and awaken to the great power of God, as is our calling, to give him our very fingers and feet in His world for His saving purposes. It’s not surprising that a few weeks after Resurrection Sunday we are looking at this text. It’s pretty amazing.