A Prayer for the Church

Ephesians 3:14-21

This has been a full week.  I have spent this week thinking about and planning for the future mission and ministry of the Gospel with several congregations and groups in the Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod.  I find mission visioning and planning to be among the most rewarding and meaningful work that I do as a Bishop.  Challenging work, yes.  But, I am confident that the Spirit is leading us into God’s future even if we cannot always discern that clearly.  Instead of my usual pattern of writing on the Gospel lesson for the upcoming Sunday, this week I want to share my reflections on a passage from Ephesians that has been speaking to me powerfully as I have thought about mission and ministry during my various meetings and conversations.

Ephesians 3:14-21 is a prayer for the Church that is as pertinent today as it was when it was first written two thousand years ago.  It is a prayer for the Church of Jesus Christ to be rooted and grounded in love, which is the very nature of our God.  The Hebrew scriptures confess God’s steadfast love for the whole world and God’s faithfulness to all God’s people.  God created the world in love and humankind was created both to be in relationship with God and to be stewards of God’s love in the world.  When God’s people have forgotten that, disaster has always resulted.  But, even then, God does not abandon us.  Instead, God sends prophets and poets, judges and leaders to call us back to our roots.  In the New Testament, Jesus teaches that the greatest commandment is the love of God and love of neighbor.  Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God shows us the breadth, length, height and depth of that love.  Jesus’ death was not about appeasing an angry God.  It was about demonstrating the truth that God’s love for the world is more powerful than our human proclivity not to love. It proves that God’s love is more powerful than death itself, even a horrible, unjust and violent death like Jesus suffered. 

Ephesians 3:14-21 is a prayer that the Church not turn inward on itself, but that it turn outward in love.  It is a prayer that the Church not give in to the self-centered and self-serving ways of the world, but be strengthened by the Spirit to walk the self-giving and servant way of Jesus Christ trusting that Christ goes with us on that way.  I love the promise at the end of the prayer.  In praise and thanksgiving, the prayer reminds us that whatever we can ask or imagine our loving God is always one step ahead of us; always working to accomplish more in us than we could ever dream possible.   That’s why people of faith should always be leaning forward, not backward;  outward, not inward;  hopeful and not despairing. 

This is a prayer for all generations.  It is a prayer for us today and for tomorrow.  It is a prayer for a Church that is always growing and changing, yet always rooted and grounded in the love that is ours in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Peace,

Bishop Mike