Hope, inheritance, and power
Text: Ephesians 1:15–23
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. As we conclude the church year, we are reminded just what kind of king we are about to prepare for again this Advent.
“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened…”
Ephesians 1:15–18a
Paul spent nearly three years with the Christians at Ephesus, which is more than any other congregation he served. Because he has developed such a close relationship with them, he can go into some deeper theology when he writes to them.
Ephesus was a trade centre with a mix of Greeks and Jews living together. The biggest struggle the church in Ephesus had was maintaining church unity with a mix of Jewish and Gentile Christians. The main emphasis of Paul’s letter to them, then, is on unity: how we have it in baptism and how it is sustained with the Sacrament and with prayer.
Every Christian congregation on the planet could use Paul’s advice on maintaining unity. Our own congregation has its history of divisions and disagreements, shown in the pastors we’ve gelled with or not and the different worship services we’re offered over the decades, just to name a couple of examples.
The LCA as a whole is facing a real struggle to work out how to remain as one church even while we disagree on how things should be done. Some even believe that kind of unity is impossible.
Christian churches around the world have splintered into all kinds of different branches, seen in the variety of Christian churches even in our own town. It’s safe to say that unity is extremely difficult for us to maintain.
I guess it is an encouragement of sorts to know that our struggle to stay together as like-minded Christians is nothing new. In fact, Christians have never not struggled to keep themselves unified in the right way.
Is unity worth fighting for? Is it worth the struggle? Is it worth the pain? The answer depends on what it is that actually unites us.
If it’s our heritage, cultural background, age group, taste in music, or worship style preferences, the answer is no. Those things will always fail eventually because they will inevitably differ. Our differences are a part of the beauty of humanity, but they can only unite some people at best. If you fit the criteria, you’ll fit in perfectly. If you don’t, there is no place for you. That’s not what the church is meant to be.
What could possibly have united the mix of Gentile and Jewish Christians in Ephesus? It’s the same thing that unites the people sitting here today.
It might so happen that we are united by some of those things I mentioned—Lutherans often have German heritage somewhere along the line (but not always), we might have similar tastes in music and worship style (but not always), and we might even have some similar opinions (but not always).
What truly unites us, though, is our baptism into Christ. It’s this baptism that unites us not only with one another, but with Christians worldwide, and even with Christ himself. That’s what it really means to be a unified church. Unity does not depend on us uniting ourselves, but Christ uniting us in himself.
Paul says that when they eyes of our hearts are enlightened by the Spirit, who comes to us in baptism, we come to know three things: hope, inheritance, and power.
We have hope in a hopeless world
If you take the time to observe the world around you and the way people tend to live, you’ll notice that there is not a lot of hope. In fact, for those who have no faith in Christ, the world is pretty hopeless.
We all know that the divorce rate is getting higher and higher. People chop and change careers far more than they used to, and move around more as a result. The increasing cost of living has forced lifestyle changes for people as well. People don’t trust the government like they used to. Health care is not as consistent and reliable as it used to be because of the intense pressure it finds itself under.
There is not a lot in this world that is truly dependable or stable. All of this means that there are few sources of true hope for people. The quintessential “She’ll be right, mate,” attitude that Australians are known for is starting to fail us—we’re not as confident that it will really “be right”. Our trust in the people and the world around us is shaken—so is our hope.
As people who are called to be members of the body of Christ in baptism, we know the hope we’ve been called to. Hope that things will in fact be OK because our God is in control, hope that our lives have a purpose, hope that our day-to-day work has significance.
Our hope hinges on God’s promises which always hold true, the greatest of which is the promise of sins forgiven and eternal life given through Christ in baptism.
The saints have an inheritance
Paul says in his letter to the Galatians:
“For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 3:26–28
In those days, only the sons were entitled to the inheritance. To be made sons of God is not about our gender, but it refers to the inheritance that we are now entitled to through faith. Since we were baptised into Christ, we share in his status as God’s son and, therefore, his inheritance.
So, what do we inherit? Whatever Christ possesses, namely: access to the Father, to eternal life, and to the kingdom of God. All of this comes to us through the forgiveness of sins.
Our faith itself is also a part of that inheritance. We like to talk about our faith as our own personal, individual faith that we continually work on and maintain like we do our own bodies. We feed it what it needs and we exercise those muscles to keep them strong.
This is all true, but we forget that our faith did not come from yourself: it was initially gifted to you and passed on from someone before, whether that was your parents or someone else in your life. That’s what it means to inherit something: there is nothing you can do to earn it or deserve it—it’s simply because you were born with that right. As people who have been reborn by water and the word, we now have the birthright of faith in Christ.
God works his power through Christ’s body
So, having had the eyes of your hearts enlightened, you now know:
the hope God calls you to,
the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and
the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.
This immeasurably great power is the same power he worked when he raised Christ from the dead and when he seated him at his right hand, which is, Paul says, “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” (Ep. 1:21)
In Judaism, rule, authority, power, and dominion are the four ranks of angels. Even they are below Christ and have less power. In this life, our battle is not against other people—persecutors of our faith, or even those within the church who we disagree with—but against spiritual forces which we are powerless to defend ourselves against without Christ’s strength (Ep. 6:12). Absolutely nothing, not even spiritual powers—can separate us from the love of God in Christ (Ro. 8:38–39).
So, Christ now has a position of great authority. God “put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” (Ep. 1:23)
As the second Adam, Christ rules over all creation. The intent of his rule, though, is to benefit the church—not just one congregation or denomination, but all Christians everywhere. As God, Christ fills the whole universe. Yet, he chooses to let the church make him complete, as he likewise fills the church (Ep. 4:13).
Through baptism and the gift of faith, the eyes of your heart have been enlightened. You now know the hope God has called you to, the inheritance you are now entitled to, and the power he works in you as a part of Christ’s body.
In baptism and as we partake of Christ’s own body and blood in the Sacrament, we have an organic connection to one another as members of this body and to Christ himself. May we always remember that this is what unites us more than anything else. We thank God for the unity that his Spirit gives.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds safe and unified in Christ Jesus. Amen.
