For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 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, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.
- Ephesians 3:14-23
Every Thursday night this Epistle text from Ephesians is the reading for Compline, late night prayer.
During Covid when I started praying online compline every night, repeating this reading every week, till I have memorized it, it has become a prayer I say for myself and loved ones, for you, each of you and you all, for every parish, for the Diocese.
It is a pastoral prayer purportedly written by Paul, perhaps a disciple of Paul, while in prison, praying for the community at Ephesus. The first three chapters of Ephesians are about what God has done, and today’s passage concludes that section.
The rest of the book will be about how we are to respond to God’s glory, our moral, ethical, just, generous and loving action because of who God is! The closing doxology (a hymn of Praise to God) is well known as it is the closing prayer of the Eucharist service in the BAS. If you have taken a course from me, if you have been in meetings with me, you know it is my favourite closing prayer.
I am always lifted up by seeing the joy on people’s face as they proclaim this:
“Glory to God whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine…..”
Doxology, Praise, lifts us out of ourselves to focus on God. In today’s reading we get to hear this familiar Doxology in its context. Perhaps it's dangerous to dissect a poem or prayer, but I think this prayer is worth musing on. What does the writer of Ephesians pray for them?
As we explore this poetic text, imagine it is a prayer for you, for the Diocese.
Begins “I bow my knee before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name”. There is a recognition here of the universal God and the unity of all humanity under God. The word translated “family” here in Greek is patria, which means clan, ethnic group and nation.
A vision of the end of time when all will be gathered and bow to God, when God’s glory will be shown in all things. (end of eucharistic prayer 4 “Gather your church together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom where peace and justice are revealed, that we with all your people, of every language, race and nation, may share the banquet you have promised”) with the refrain: “Glory to you for ever and ever.” I pray that according to the riches of God’s glory. God’s glory, the Holiness of God.
Remember Irenaus, second Century Bishop in Lyons, said
“the Glory of God is a human being fully alive!”
I pray that according to the riches of God’s glory, God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through the Spirit.
This is a Corporate “you” all the way through this entire passage: “you all”. A prayer for you as a community. That you may be strengthened in your inner being through the power of the Spirit. Interesting to imagine “the Inner Being” of your community, what would it look like that God’s Spirit is strengthening your Inner Being as a parish? Your love and care for each other, your Peace, your joy, your sense of Mission? And then:
I pray that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
Faith here means the faithfulness of Christ. This is not right thinking or an action on our parts, not our faith (whether strong or weak) but the strong faithfulness of Christ that strengthens us, fortifying us with God’s stable love, God’s self-giving love, God’s unconditional love. I pray that Christ may dwell in your hearts.
Ponder this: What does it mean Christ dwells in our hearts? Paul’s understanding is that the Temple, The Body of Christ, the dwelling place of Christ, is within our midst! Pondering this fills us with both awe and humility. Awe–a profound sense of holiness, as well as humilityrecognizing our smallness; flawed and human as we are, God dwells in us. Recognizing this deepens our love and care for each other, affects how we treat each other.
“As you are being rooted and grounded in love”.
I invite you to Breathe in the feeling of this. Rooted: Like a tree whose roots go down, down into the love of Christ, roots embedded in love of Christ. What does it feel like to be a community grounded in love? Feet planted firmly on the ground of this love. The Self-giving, costly, servant love of Christ? How would you imagine that for your parish, for the diocese?
Then the prayer continues and builds:
"I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth."
This is a stretching exercise. If you do the actions to it: breadth, length, height, depth. Not only three dimensions of measurement. But Four dimensions….!!! Spatial references that go beyond what we can comprehend! The text is pushing our imaginations of the fullness of the love of Christ.
Then the writer prays that we may:
“know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”.
Wonderfully ironic:
“to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.”
How can we know something that surpasses knowledge! Not just intellectual knowledge, but intuitive knowing, embodied “in our bodies” knowing, “in our gut” knowing, “in our whole being” knowing the love of Christ.
All of these prayers of being Grounded in love of Christ are so we may be filled with the fullness of God. Close your eyes and breathe this in as I repeat this prayer as a prayer for us today, feel it. I pray “that God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through God’s Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
"I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
And then the prayer concludes with what has become one of our most beloved pieces of scripture because we use it to close our eucharist (particularly a British Columbia thing….Bill Crockett, theology professor at Vancouver School of Theology for several decades, my professor and later a parishioner in a parish I served, was on the committee that created the BAS (Book of Alternative Services). It was his brilliant idea to put this as the closing doxology.
And then Gordon Light (former Bishop of the Territory of the People) set it to music so we can sing it too. (#86 in Common Praise).
"Now to God who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen"
Now to God- this is DOXOLOGY– Praise. Now to God…shifts our focus, offers all we are to God, centers us in God, pulls us out of ourselves and our own agendas– ceding, yielding ourselves to the will of God.
“Now to God” is a crucial line in our prayer lives, our worship lives, our offering of all our actions. God’s power at work in us: can “accomplish abundantly”- “infinitely more “ one translation of the Greek word here is that God can “outdo superabundantly” more than we can ask or imagine. “outdo superabundantly”superfluous, over-the-top wording.
We run out of words to praise God. And finally, part of what causes hope when we say this doxology together is the line “from generation to generation”. We see things in the current church from the perspective of eternity.
I am released to imagine the church when my generation of baby boomers is gone, to listen to and let go into the hands of the Millenials and X and Y and Z and Alpha and those born next year who will begin Generation Beta, who will give Glory to God in their way, from Generation to Generation, who will discover the Gospel, the faithful love of God.
It is an amazing prayer to begin our day today. May it cause expansion of our spirits as we are rooted and grounded in God’s Spirit. Amen.
