A Revolutionary Prayer

Based on Ephesians 3:14-21

Sometimes, when we say nice things to the people we love, we use phrases that are a bit hyperbolic. We say things like, “I love you to the moon and back,” or, “I would move heaven and earth to get to you if you need help.” I have said with all sincerity, “no one makes mashed potatoes better than my wife.” Is that accurate? Maybe not. But I say it anyway. They are really good! Plus, I love Kim. For those of us who have been blessed to have children, our babies were the cutest babies that were ever born. Hyperbole can be forgiven when we talk about our families or the people we love. 

As we continue our summer road trip through the letter to the Ephesians, we pull over to gaze at the third scenic vista. As we look out over the landscape what we see is a prayer and a blessing that is full of hyperbole. Paul prays for the people that they come to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. He prays that they be filled with the fullness of God, the One who is big enough to hold the entire universe. Paul claims that God has the power to accomplish abundantly exceedingly more than we can even think or imagine. That last statement isn’t hyperbole. God really can accomplish abundantly exceedingly more than we can even think or imagine. But it’s a mind blowing statement nonetheless, pressing the limits of language to name the incredible power that God wields to impact the universe. This prayer and blessing in a few points presses up against the limits of language to express the power of God and the blessings Paul wants God to bestow on the people.

I wonder how this prayer and blessing would resonate with these Christians. They comprised a small community in those days. Not only were they small, they were obscure. It’s likely that there were a lot of people in Ephesus who didn’t really know much about the Christians. They were probably ignored or blown off as some weird sect. The Christians in Ephesus were far from the mainstream. They were on the fringe. They had little to no power or influence in the society, a society that was ruled by a Roman overlord, a city filled with temples and shrines to any number of gods and goddesses who reflected traditions that went back centuries. With those ancient religious traditions and the power of the Roman empire, in which the Caesar himself was understood to be quasi-divine, who were these Christians? Most people really didn’t care. They didn’t give Christians much thought at all.

Of course, the Christians had a completely different view than the society at large. They had come to understand that there is only one God, the Creator and Source of all that exists. They have come to know that God’s Son, Jesus Christ, had made it possible for all people to have a relationship with God, a familial relationship as sons and daughters. They had come to know that the Holy Spirit had revealed this mystery to them and gave them an inner power to live their lives with love as they conformed to the teachings of Jesus. They no longer sought to conform to society at large. They had given themselves to a whole new way of life. They were, as Paul once described Christians, a “peculiar people.”

This didn’t change how the rest of society thought about them, or better, didn’t think about them. Having a place in society where they were pretty much ignored, it must have taken a big leap of faith to receive this blessing from Paul and to live that prayer out in their lives. To claim that Christ lived in their hearts, that the fullness of the Creator God filled them, that with the divine power working through them God could accomplish amazing things, it is over the top when compared with their place in society. For those on the outside of the Christian community, if they heard this kind of talk they would think those Christians were crazy, delusional. It would be like Togo saying and believing that they could take all the gold medals in the Olympics.

Except that in this case, what the Christians claimed for themselves in Paul’s prayer was true, in spite of all visible signs to the contrary. And by claiming the truth of this prayer and living into the truth of this prayer, this becomes a powerful source of inspiration and encouragement. By allowing your identity to be shaped by this prayer instead of the indifferent and sometimes hostile society around you, it really helps you keep the faith. Because the quality of our life is greatly impacted by what we believe about ourselves, about our value and purpose for living. This prayer that Paul gives for the Ephesians is a source of inspiration to claim and live out your life with great confidence, abundant love and even joy.

For example, let’s look at Paul’s prayer that they know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. It is hard, if not impossible for us to comprehend the depth of Christ’s love. It is written elsewhere in the scriptures, someone might dare to die for someone they love, but Jesus proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Jesus actually lived out the near impossible teaching he gave us to love our enemies. Jesus loved his enemies so much he died for their sake so that they too might be counted as God’s children and his brother and sister. The love God has through Jesus cannot be contained. It’s understanding and comprehension truly is beyond us. So, to be able to comprehend the depth of the love of Christ for all people, indeed for all of creation, is revolutionary. Just as one example, how can we disparage or despise or not have compassion for any person who Jesus loves so much. Honestly, to comprehend the love of Christ is to revolutionize how we engage with others, not to mention our own selves. For those Christians in Ephesus to come to understand how much Jesus loves them had to be an incredible boost of their own worth and immeasurable value. And, by extension, for all those people in Ephesus who have not come to understand how much they are loved by God, would that not have stirred up love and compassion for them from the Christians who knew how much those pagans were loved? As these Christians are rooted and grounded in love, they come to relate to every person they interact with, especially their pagan neighbors, as brothers and sisters who Christ loves, even though they don’t know it. By living into this prayer, the potential for the church in Ephesus to overflow with love for their city is incredible.

And then to be filled with the fullness of God. My goodness. Imagine it. The idea that God is some remote divine being outside of our reality is so foreign to this prayer request. It really is hard to comprehend this. God is the creator and source of all that exists. That’s the point Paul is making at the beginning of this prayer when he says he bows his knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth takes its name. It’s a play on words, in which the word for Father is Pater and the word for family is patria. The point is that the root of every family comes from God. In other words, God is the source of all of creation. But this Father is not a distant and aloof father. No, the God of the universe fills each person. God is as close to us as our heartbeat. Far from there being a gap between us and God, wherever we are God is present because God fills our very being. There is nowhere we can be and no situation we find ourselves in where God is not fully present. That is powerful. That is encouraging. That makes life that much more purposeful and amazing. And if you are a part of a small community on the fringe of society, to live your life knowing that you are filled with the God of the universe, the God of all creation, well, that would give a boost to the understanding of your value in a society that does not value you. It is an antidote to low self-esteem or feeling despondent about your community when you claim that God fills you and the community. There is an ancient Eastern Orthodox prayer that includes the phrase about the Spirit who “is everywhere present and fills all things.” Everywhere we look we see a vessel that contains the presence of God. God is not far away but is very close, everywhere and all the time. To claim that and live with that insight is revolutionary.  

And that brings us to vv. 20-21 which really brings it home about God’s power working through the church. As I reflected on this amazing statement about how God can do abundantly exceedingly more than we can ask or imagine with the divine power working through the church it made me think of how we define the church. When Paul has the church in mind, he isn’t just thinking about the community of Jesus followers in Ephesus. Paul defines what he means by church in chapter 1:22-23. “And God has put all things under the feet of Christ and has made Christ the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. That is an inclusive statement. The church is the body of Christ and Christ fills all things. The entire universe is contained in the body of Christ. That means the church, which is the body of Christ, includes more than those who actively believe and follow Jesus. Is that what this means? Is this more hyperbole? It’s something to think about. But if we consider that the entire universe is contained in Christ’s body, then certainly the power of God working through the body of Christ can do abundantly exceedingly more than we can ask or imagine. God’s power has an influence on everything that happens in the universe. Does that not blow your mind? It puts the church in Ephesus into a much greater context. Their society may see them as some small, obscure group. In fact, they are part of the body of Christ through whom the power of God is working. They know the truth that everything belongs in God. They are knit into the fabric of the universe. Wow.

This is one breathtaking vista that we are gazing on. As we reflect on this prayer, we are encouraged to claim this prayer as our own, as those who receive the blessings from this prayer in our lives individually and as a church. You and I are deeply loved by Christ. Christ loves this community deeply. And not just us but the entire Hilltop, the whole city, the whole state, nation, and world. The love of Jesus for all of creation has no limit and that includes you and me. You and I are filled with the fullness of God. We are containers of divinity, living temples of the Spirit. We have God with us wherever we go. The presence of God fills this community. And not just us, but the entire Hilltop, the whole city, the whole state, nation, and world. God is as close to us as our heartbeat. You and I belong to the body of Christ through whom the power of God is at work. We are one small part of a global, even cosmic network of relationships all held together by Christ. We belong to a community immensely more and larger than we can even comprehend. We aren’t just a small church struggling to keep the doors open. We are part of something so much bigger and God is working through us to accomplish through us so much more than we could ever even ask or imagine. Amazing.

Let this prayer, this scenic vista, be a source of encouragement and hope for you and for us as a community of faith as we get back on the road of discipleship and make our way to the next scenic vista coming around the bend.