Ephesians 3:14-21

Bible Text

The New Revised Standard Version Prayer for the Readers

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16 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, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 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, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Introduction

This last week I watched two music documentaries. Both of them served as counter examples to Woodstock 1969 and the summer of love.

The first was called Summer of Soul. It’s subtitle was “The revolution would not be televised.”

During the summer of 1969 in Harlem New York there was a series of concerts that took place over 5 weekends. Over 300,000 people attended these concerts.

The concerts were filmed but never aired until this documentary.

The 60’s were a turbulent time for the black community. While making some progress in Civil Rights they met huge opposition at every turn.

In the 60’s, JFK was murdered, Malcom X was murdered, Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered. Robert Kennedy was murdered.

And yet these concerts were a joyous celebration.

Black men and women of all ages were together. There was dancing, smiling, and celebration. There were shots of six year olds standing and dancing next to 70 years olds. People brought food and umbrellas.

There was soul, gospel, R&B. It was a celebration of joy.

One of my favorite moments was watching Fifth Elememnt perform Aquarius/Let the Sunshine in.

The next day I watched a documentary about Woodstock 1999.

In 1994, promoters celebrated the 25th anniversary of the original Woodstock. It went well. It went so well they wanted to make it an ever-five-years sort of things.

So they had another one in 1999.

It went poorly. Really poorly. By the third night the event descended into a scene from Lord of the Flies. There was chaos and anarchy. There was sexual violence. There was massive acts of arson and destroying of property. people were tearing apart ATMs with their bare hands.

The documentary examined “what went wrong?” There were some easy things to point out.

It was insanely hot. Having it at an old airforce base where everything was blacktop which only increased the heat didn’t help.

There wasn’t enough water. The infrastructure to support hundreds of thousands of people wasn’t there. There wasn’t security.

It didn’t help things by booking only three female artists and filling out the rest of the headlining spots with hyper-agressive angry young men.

And it was this part of the film that was the most fascinating. The crowd was largely white, college-aged males.

It tried to wrestle with this question: “why are they so angry? What could possible drive them with such rage that they devolved into evil?”

The 90’s were a time of relative prosperity and economic growth. These were the priviledged. They were on the top of the power structure. Why so angry?

And this is a question that will continue to haunt us? Why drives us? What motivates us? What powers us to do the things we do? What leads to live a life of joy, service, and celebration? What leads us into a life of anger and rage?

And it’s for this reason that Paul prays that we might be filled and strengthened in our hearts by the love of Christ that me might turn our rage and anger into something good and beautiful and true.

Prayer.

Exegesis

Our text today comes from the Letter to the Ephesians.

If you were to open your Bible to the book of Ephesians you would discover that Ephesians is divided into six chapters.

Ephesians is a letter. Traditionally people think of the letter as having two halves. The first three chapters are an extended bit of theology in the language of prayer and praise. It’s an extended meditation of thankfulness on what God has done for us in Christ Jesus.

God has brought together both Jews and non-Jews together into the church and formed a new humanity.

The Olympics just started. In sports terms it would be like two countries merging and forming super teams.

The second half of the letter, chapters four through six, is traditionally though of as the ethical half of the book. It follows a pattern of “because of what God has done for you in Christ Jesus, because God has formed a new humanity, this is how you should live your life.”

But before the ethical half of the letter begins Paul ends with a final prayer. It’s a prayer for the Church. It’s a prayer for those who received the message that Jesus Christ has brought us near to God and unified us in Jesus Christ.

Superficially, this unity and peace sounds pretty wonderful doesn’t it? Here’s what he says about it in Ephesians 2:13-16:

The New Revised Standard Version One in Christ

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15 He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16 and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.

Sounds great right? People were scattered. Divided. At odds with one another. But God is breaking down that hostility and bringing together all different strands of people into one new humanity.

Going back to Woodstock ‘69, isn’t that the traditional story? Bringing people together for a little peace, love, and harmony.

But as I sit with this idea a little longer, it gets harder to understand and feels less like good news for some people.

What does it mean to be one people, a new humanity?

In my hypothetical Olympics example, what would it mean for two countries to merge? What are their colors? What’s their national anthem? Do you go all new? Does one country win and one country lose?

But back in the real world, what does this new humanity mean?

What does it mean for racial minorities? Does this mean abandoning cultures and traditions and being absorbed into the majority culture.

What does it mean women? In many faith traditions there is a hierarchy of the sexes. Men are the leaders and the teachers. Women are not. What do you do if you reject that division? Are you being forced into some lesser status.

What about the LGBTQ community that has been harmed and is being harmed by the church?

What about those who have experienced abuse? What about those who have spoken out against abuses of power but were only silenced?

The more I think about it, the harder it is to understand and to justify.

When I’m honest with myself there are those I don’t want to be in fellowship with. There are people whose views of the Christian faith I find unloving and downright dangerous. And they probably think I’m a heretic.

So what gives? I don’t have a full answer and I may never will. But I’m able to fall back on a few things.

Throughout Scripture there is this tension between the one and the many.

Yes, there is a unity and oneness found in Jesus Christ but its not a oneness that absolves any and all differences.

This isn’t a matter of taking sugar and water and mixing it until the sugar dissolves.

That which makes you, you and that which makes us, us remains.

In Revelation there’s a vision of the nations bringing the glory of the nations into the heavenly Jerusalem. There’s an idea that that which makes every people group unique and good has a place in God’s kingdom.

Throughout his letters Paul walks this line where Jews are encouraged to approach their faith in a uniquely Jewish fashion and Gentiles are the same. Jews aren’t asked to become Gentiles and Gentiles aren’t asked to become Jews.

We get another hint of this in verses 14 and 15.

The New Revised Standard Version Prayer for the Readers

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.

When Paul is making this prayer. He is making a prayer for “every family”. There is a uniqueness in this.

He’s not praying for us to become sugar water where all differences are dissolved.

He’s praying for you and your family. This may be your biological family. It may be your church family. Or as I like to think of it. He’s praying for “your people”.

I love the idea of each of us having “our people”. It could be biological family or it could be the family you’ve chosen. This is your tribe. It’s the people who accept you and love you for who you are and challenge you to be the best version of yourself that says “whatever you are, be a good one.”

From there Paul prays for three specific but interlocking things.

Prayer #1: Strengthened in your inner being and Christ dwells in our heart

First Paul prays for two parallel things:

That

you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit

Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith as you are being rooted and grounded in LOVE

When we think of the things that matter most to us we use terms of inner feelings.

“That touched my soul.”

“I’ll always treasure you in my heart.”

“That touched me to the core.”

These are all ways of saying something matters to us, internally. These are the things that are exclusive to you. They’re hidden from everyone else. They’re your feelings and they belong to only you.

Paul is praying that that part of you is strengthened and that Christ may dwell in that part.

Paul is praying that Christ may live in that place of all that is most important to you.

Prayer #2: The power to comprehend the extent of Christ’s love and to know that love

Paul’s second prayer is that we might

have the power to comprehend what is the breadth, length, and height and depth

to know the LOVE of Christ that surpasses knowledge

The first part is curious: that we might "to comprehend what is the breadth, length, and height and depth”

We keep waiting for that object to come: the breadth, length, and height and depth … of what?”

But it never comes but we can probably infer for the next part when he meant. He prays that we know the the LOVE of Christ that surpasses knowledge

Not only does Christ dwell in your innermost being, this love is all consuming. It fills the universe. It’s so extravagant and large that it surpasses knowledge. We can never fully know the great, great love of Christ.

Prayer #3: Filled with all the fullness of God

And this brings us to Paul’s final prayer and final reason for his prayers:

“that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”

And this ties it all together.

He circles back to his first prayer. Not only will Christ strengthen and dwell in your inner being you will be filled with the fullness of God.

And what is this fullness of God? It is nothing more and nothing less than the love of God that surpasses all knowledge and roots you and grounds you in love.

What Does it Mean to Love?

When I was in college I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the book “Four Loves” by CS Lewis.

While he wasn’t the first one to notice that there are four Greek words that get translated into English as “love”. Each of these four words have a different nuance.

I’m very thankful for this book because it helps me understand some of the nuance of the word “love”.

I can say “I love bacon” and it has different meaning and significance than saying “I love my wife”.

In Greek the four terms are storgay, phileo, eros, and agape.

Storgay is a friendly love. It’s the love that is shared between two friends or a group of friends. It’s the chosen bond to be there for each other.

When push comes to shove my favorite television shows, the ones that I go back to over and over again are shows rooted in storgay love. The first of these was Friends and it extended into shows like How I Met Your Mother and New Girl. It also extends into workplace shows like Parks and Rec and Brooklyn-99.

These are shows of chosen families and how they continue to choose one another and to be there for each other when really there is no obligation to do so.

Phileo is the familial love. It’s the love between family members. I can never not love my my children. Even though I’m not particularly close to my sisters there is a bond that never can be broken. I will be there for them and them for me because we are family.

It’s this love that makes family disfunction so hard to navigate and work through. No matter how toxic, difficult or dangerous your family may be, they’re still family. There is a bond there that is difficult to shake.

Eros is erotic love. This is the love of pop songs of big feelings of romance and sexual attraction. It’s wrapped up in big feelings of giving and receiving big feelings with another.

And then there is Agape. This is what Lewis would call “God love”. It’s the type of love God has given and shown to us.

It’s the type of love that Paul prays might fill us and consume us and propel us.

The Bible is one big book about God’s agape love. It wrestles with and answers the question, what is God like?

A few years ago, a guy by the name of Bob Goff wrote a book called “Love Does.” Bob Goff is a lawyer by trade but he’s someone who heard this prayer and it propelled him into a live of action.

Agape love is other-centric. It’s action. It does.

When we think of this agape love of Christ that feeds us we recall the Jesus who described the Kingdom of God in terms of action. The Kingdom of God is like the enemy of the Jews who sees a fellow person hurt and nearly dead and feeds, lodges, and cares for this person until they are well.

We see Jesus feeding the hungry, we see Jesus healing the sick. We see Jesus noticing the powerless, the forgotten, those on the margins of society and welcoming them in.

It’s this type of love that fills and compels us.

Conclusion

In all that we are in all that we do, this is what fills us, strengthens us, and lives in us.

It propels us to a life that errs on the side of love.

This is why it matters to me that on our website and in our building we specifically say “Black Lives Matter” and show demonstration of Gay Pride.

We’re not saying we’re getting it right or we have it figured out. But I think it says “we’re trying.” It’s trying to take seriously the notion of “Every Family.”

But this isn’t something we can do on our end. We fall back on that agape love that fills us and propels us:

The New Revised Standard Version Prayer for the Readers

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, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.