Ephesians 1:3-11 (NIV) 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
Paul seems to begin this letter by taking a deep breath and singing out his hope and dream for the future. It is a grand dream. It is a glorious dream. All differences and divisions, hostilities and warring forces, all brought together in harmony around the central Son of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine? Can you see the vision? If we cannot see all things united in Christ, maybe it is all because we have seen the repeated failure of our world to bring this vision to pass.
We have seen the failure of the world, and we have seen the failure of the church. Do we really believe that Jesus can unite all things? We can when our life has been touched by the same spirit that touched Paul. Within the big vision of all things united in Christ are sprinkled small visions of God’s gift to us to unite all things in our life. We are chosen by God and sense the sovereignty of God in all things. We are aware that God takes the dark, somber threads of life and weaves them together with brightly colored ones to make the pattern for our life, and it is beautiful. Being chosen gives a confident peace to our life. We are chosen that we might be holy and blameless. We are given a kind of inspired goodness that gives peace. We are destined to be children of God. We are family. We belong. We have the secure peace that belonging gives. And we have redemption in Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of our sins and a recovery program for the life God wants us to have.
We can have the confident peace of being chosen. We can have the inspired peace of being holy and blameless. We can have the secure peace of belonging. We can have the peace of recovery, of being redeemed and forgiven. And we can have the certain peace of knowing with all wisdom and understanding the nature of God’s will. These gifts are ours. When we receive them we receive the seeds of vision that can awaken our soul to unite all things in Christ.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope June 18, 2000
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
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