Ephesians 1:15-23
"Ascension" - Years A, B, C
"Reign of Christ" - Year A
On the last Sunday of the Church Year we come to an image of Christ as King reigning over all, filling all in all.
Even as we do so there is a sense of contrivance to all this by those who have developed the tradition of the Church Year.
As we look to "our Lord Jesus Christ" there is a tendency to forget the longer phrase "God of our Lord Jesus Christ."
It is this God who gives us the same spirit of wisdom and revelation as our Lord Jesus Christ. It is this God who opens the eyes of our heart to the same hope as our Lord Jesus Christ. It is this God who opens the eyes of our heart to the same family of saints as our Lord Jesus Christ. It is this God who opens the eyes of our heart to the same power available for us as was available to our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so it has come to pass that we have been taught to point to Jesus and in this pointing to become blinded to where Jesus is pointing (to this God who ...).
After we have done our obeisance to Christ the King to fulfill some letter of the Church Year law, may we be filled with G*D's endless energy and boundless strength and be about the greater things Jesus pushes us to do.
If what this is all about is simply some stolid sittting at Jesus' feet, we will miss the vitality of having the joy of Jesus lived in relation to others.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/november2002.html
"...as you come to know GOD."
What! this is a process?
Wisdom and Revelation are still coming clear?
Hope will be further clarified?
Would that we would take this journey seriously enough to honor the stages of one's own life and the differing stages of the lives of others (including the elements). We are still coming to know, to understand, to live with the presence of a Living G*D and a Living Self and a Living Neighbor.
May we continue to "come to know".
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/november2005.html
The Contemporary English Version has verse 23 read: "The church is Christ's body and is filled with Christ who completely fills everything" and notes an alternative reading, "The church is Christ's body which completely fills Christ and fully completes his work."
Working with English is sometimes so limiting. How do we express a crucial complementarity such as the relationship between Church and Christ? We tend to get caught emphasizing one or the other when, again, both is needed.
You may want to think about your own relationships with others and the way in which the give and take moves beyond those categories. Offering and receiving make no sense without a receiving even while offering and offering even while receiving and none of that is easily held together in language that does not have more ambiguity and poetry in it than our usual conversation holds.
For now, pay attention to every alternative reading you can. It is here that things come alive. It is here we are reminded that life happens between our perception and our expression of it. Take courage from the image of the church completely filling Christ. What, now, will hold you back from being so filled with Christ that you go ahead and bring life to life, no matter the risk.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/november2005.html
Not ceasing in our prayers, we bring blessing upon blessing to person and situation. To be rapturously caught in the act of blessing is a double blessing.
Wisdom, revelation, hope, and calling are good blessings to be strewing willy-nilly into the lives of those in our vicinity. They are needed.
Note that it takes some wisdom, revelation, hope, and calling to focus on these as the needed blessing of this and every generation. Rejoice that someone has blessed you with them that you might, in turn, pass these blessings on.
This might be what it means to live from above.
- - -
far above
all rule and authority
and power and dominion
is the simplicity of blessing
knocking the underpinnings
out from under said
rule and authority
and power and dominion
for they fade in the face of
wisdom and revelation
and hope and calling
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html
With the eyes of your heart enlightened, hope lives in you.
Hope that you will be unscattered and hope that you can help return folks who have been pushed out. Such hope rises to the surface, becoming conscious. From there it is but a matter of applying courage to implement it.
And so, at the end of a long year, we are left with hope. After all the disappointments, we are left with hope. Even in the presence of current and in the anticipation of judgments now and yet, we are left with hope.
- - -
hope revealed
shyly and boldly
pokes its head out
to reveal its heart
in deeds of loving kindness
a bit of feast here
a tun of fun there
a goodwill stop also
a visit when all seemed lost
so hope travels
as we have been done unto
we are thankful
thankful enough
to hope to do well
to do well unto
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html
How is your trust translated into caring for your own? Got a good ratio going?
Good. Now gather around so you can find out what you have won. You have won a glimpse at Jesus’ glory. That ought to be more than enough for anyone.
What you thought was about you turned out to be about Judge Jesus moving from background to foreground. Great reward, right?
A church year has brought us through hopes and fears and ups and downs and ups again to the glorious position of having a larger crowd appreciate how great it is to win - that is, to judge losers. As The Message puts it:
The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world;Rather than acknowledge this is not the best of all possible worlds, we haul out a flag and plunk it down in Jesus’ name. It’s sort of like hoisting a “Mission Accomplished” banner up and thinking it is reality because we said so.
the world is peripheral to the church.
Well, prepare for reentry - next week we recognize how far short this Sunday has fallen from its claim. Let’s try again.
- - - - - - -
A judgment scene is a better starting point for the year (potential Advent 1 lection), not an ending point for the year.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/11/ephesians-115-23.html
Inhale love, exhale thanks.
Again.
This is the fullness that fills all in all.
Since it is all in all, we can also inhale thanks and exhale love.
No matter where one is on this great circle with a still point of thanks or love and every circumference point of love or thanks, we add to its spin and expansion.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/05/ephesians-115-23.html
A corollary to premeditated mercy is prayer without having heard of faith. When criteria needs to be present for prayer to arise, something is bound to be skewed or screwed.
With or without a reason to so pray, might we not still look for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in our midst. Perhaps from that invisible one over there or from my own illustrious self? Such a spirit brings hope deeper than expectation. Such hope engages us in fulfilling all that has brought us to this time and building a sturdier foundation for that which won't arrive until long after we have passed by.
If Christmas was Incarnation and Easter was reIncarnation, we might finally figure out that a creation based on the carnal blesses the carnal. And that the carnal is not the end-all and be-all of life. Lord knows we are not to Lord it over one another. If only we could see this day as part of a feedback loop or an evaluation to be taken seriously, we might know the abundance of a merciful prayer.
At the end of this yearly sequence, may we be wise enough to not simply rinse and repeat. Report one difference made in your life or through your life (and don't forget to show your work). Reveal and add to the fullness of life.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/11/ephesians-115-23.html