Dear Friends,
As we gather each weekend to hear scriptures and share in the Eucharist, we hear four readings: one from the Old Testament, a psalm, a letter from the New Testament, and the other from one of the Gospels. Each reading has its own context and its own theological claims. The sermon provided can seldom address all the texts read on any given morning without sounding scattered and unfocused.
For this Sunday, if I were to give a second sermon, I would focus on the letter to the Ephesians that we will hear this weekend:
I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
However, I am not going to write a second sermon on this reading. Instead, I invite you to pray with this scripture in a particular way that allows the Spirit to speak to you. Read it slowly and aloud. Then sit quietly for about half a minute. Read it again, slowly, listening for a word or phrase that stands out to you. Read the scripture a third time and ask God what that word or phrase means for you and your life.
I’d love to hear from you about how you experience this prayer process and your reflections on this rich reading from Ephesians.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Jonathan