Over the next 7 Sundays our second readings will be taken from one of St Paul’s prison letters – the circular letter to the community in Ephesus (in Asia-Minor, or modern-day west-coast of Turkey). It is a beautiful, rich and deep insight into Paul’s meditation and worship.
Our reading today from Ephesians 1:3-14 contains 12 verses, but only one sentence in the original Greek. Blessing – Father, Messiah, Spirit.
- The entire prayer is woven through with the story of what God has done in Jesus the Messiah.
- God has:
- blest us in the king
- has chosen us in him
- foreordained us through him
- poured grace on us in him
- gave us redemption in him
- set out his plan for us in him
- sums up everything in him as head
- We obtain our inheritance in him
- have set our hopes in him
- have been sealed in him with the Spirit as the guarantee of what is to come.
- EVERYTHING that God has done he has done in Jesus the Messiah: for us – ‘in him’
Sunday 15, Year B. Amos 7:12-15; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:7-13