Ephesians 1:15-23
June 8
David A. Davis
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As I mentioned with the children, on the first Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was at work in the act of speaking and hearing. According to the Book of Acts, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak other languages as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem…. the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.” The first work of the Holy Spirit was to allow and enable people from every nation under heaven to hear in their own language. To hear, as we say just before we join the Lord’s Prayer, in the language closest to their hearts. To hear with their heart. To hear with the ears of their heart.
In Ephesians, Paul also describes the work of the Holy Spirit. “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know God, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which God has called you” The eyes of your heart. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit to have the eyes to see with your heart.
Ephesians 1:18 is the only time the expression appears in scripture: the eyes of your heart. For some, the notion of a heart with eyes, that wisdom and revelation and enlightenment would be a matter of the heart rather than the mind, just doesn’t make sense. Some translations push against it. The King James translates it “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened”. Another contemporary translation puts it like this: “May God enlighten the eyes of your mind”. One New Testament scholar offers his own translation in his commentary: “May your spiritual eyesight be enlightened.” In his paraphrase, The Message, Eugene Peterson also offers a swing and a miss. “I ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory, to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear…” You don’t have to know Greek to read opthalmous and cardias in the passage. It is the eyes of your heart. Eyes and heart. Perhaps Professor Clifton Black puts it best: “so that the eyes of your heart may light up.”
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know God, so that, as the eyes of your heart light up, you may know what is the hope to which God has called you, what are the riches of God’s glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of God’s power for us who believe, according to the working of God’s great power. That you may know with the eyes of your heart, God’s hope, God’s glory, God’s power. God put this power to work in Christ when God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 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 age to come.
It is as if Paul is just singing now. Just like Colossians, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Just like Philippians: therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name. In the middle of the Apostle’s prayer for the faithful at Ephesus, in the middle of his pastoral prayer, as he prays for their hearts to have eyes, Paul starts to sing the doxology. Over lunch this week, Professor Nancy Lammers Gross shared with me that Ephesians is the only one of the Apostle’s letters that doesn’t start with the problems of the congregation. Paul starts with worship and praise. “He can’t help himself,” Nancy says, “three full chapters of worship”. It’s a hymn here in Ephesians chapter 1.
God has put all things under Christ’s feet and has made Christ the head over all things for the church, which is Christ’s body, the fullness of Christ, who fills all in all. That last line in the hymn of praise. Christ’s feet, Christ’s head, Christ’s body. As one commentator puts it, Christ, who is over the church, is also in it and fills it. The fullness of God resides in him, and from him the Body of Christ is constantly supplied with and by Christ’s presence. As Professor Black puts it, “Christians [as the body of Christ] are conduits of Christ’s immeasurably redemptive power: the church is the very body of his fullness that fills all things with loving goodness.”
“Conduits of Christ’s immeasurably redemptive power” filling all things with loving goodness. This afternoon, we are gathering to give thanks for Bill Wakefield’s life and offer him forever into the heart of God. As I discussed the service with Bill, he told me that what he cared about most was telling everyone how important Matthew 25 was to him. “Bill, you don’t think I would talk about Matthew 25 when you were part of the group that recommended it for the center panel in the new chancel texts? I know how important it is to you.” Bill chuckled and said, “I figured, but since I won’t be there, I didn’t want to take any chances. Jesus said, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Bearing the fullness of Christ into the world with loving goodness.
The church is Christ’s body bearing the fullness of his love to the world. Even as Paul breaks into song, his prayer for the body of Christ continues. Yes, it’s doxology, but it’s also discipleship. His song, his prayer, is praise and it is praxis. Singing, praying, and promising that the body of Christ would carry his fullness into the world. When the eyes of your heart light up with God’s hope, God’s glory, God’s power, according to Paul, as a follower of Christ so transformed by his fullness, how can you not turn and baptize the world with his grace, mercy, and love?
Baptize the world. When the eyes of your heart light up, how can you sow seeds of hatred, division, and bigotry? When the eyes of your heart light up, how can you demand that only Christians should speak in the highest halls of the land, as the Statue of Liberty still proclaims, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” When the eyes of your heart light up, how can you work to not feed the hungry, work to demonize the stranger, work to make it more difficult for the sick to be cared for? There is a danger of going numb, and understandably, trying one’s best to ignore all the nasty chaos being intentionally spun. But Christ alone is head of the church, and the fullness of him fills all in all. Fills us. With the eyes of your heart enlightened, you can still give a witness to the wonders of his love, you can still pass forward the selflessness of his compassion, you can still bear his light every day in your corner of life. It’s the discipleship in doxology; knowing that when it comes to God’s hope, God’s glory, God’s power, and the very fullness of Christ, you and I actually have a part to play.
One Sunday after worship in one of the congregations, the summer of 2016 in Scotland, a big burly man came up to me. He had a wonderful flow of white hair, a beard, and this weather-worn red face. He had to be either a ferry captain or maybe Santa Claus. He took both my hands in his and as he thanked me for the service, for the sermon, he said, “Now could you please just talk slower and use fewer words. You’re American, you know.” Then he got teary and with his voice breaking, he said, “There’s just so much there, you have to give us time to take it all in.” He wasn’t just talking about the sermon, of course. He was talking about the gospel. He was talking about God’s grace. He was talking about the fullness of Christ. God’s hope. God’s glory. God’s power. And one man’s yearning for the eyes of his heart to light up again and again and again. “There is just so much there.”
“There’s just so much there.” There’s so much more. The river of Christ’s love runs deep. The expanse of the grace of Jesus is vast. The strength of God’s foundation shall not be shaken. Bearing the fullness of Christ into the world with loving goodness. Remembering, clinging to, and claiming that there is always more where that comes from. A threat perhaps to the power, the spirit, the force that works against all that God intends in the here and now. But for you and me, struggling to be faithful both in our doxology and our discipleship, it’s a promise. There’s always more where that comes from.
Yesterday I participated in the installation of the Rev. Maureen Fitzgerald as the 12th pastor and second female pastor of the First Baptist Church of Princeton. One of the historic African American Churches in town is celebrating its 140th year. The service was 3.5 hours. I experienced firsthand the saying that I have always heard when it comes to worship in the Black church. When come to worship to offer your praise and adoration, to hear a Word from the Lord, to offer the prayers of the people, and to get yourself ready to go out into the broken world again, well, an hour just isn’t enough.
I have been listening to a gospel playlist on my daily walks. It feeds my soul and picks up my pace. One song is titled “The presence of the Lord is here. I feel it in the atmosphere. The presence of the Lord is here.” The presence of the Lord is here. Then the spirit of the Lord is here. Then the power of the Lord is here. Pretty simple text. In the live recording, at one point, the musicians keep going up a half-step while they repeat. The presence of the Lord is here. The Spirit of the Lord is here. The power of the Lord is here. Over and over again. It occurs to me that it is a musical way, a choral way of affirming, proclaiming that when it comes to the presence, the spirit, the power of the Lord. Yes, there is always more where that comes from. There is just so much there. Or in the Apostle Paul’s words, “the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
As you turn to face, see, and live in the world today, join me in this prayer…Holy God, give of all mercy, light up the eyes of my heart today so that I can bear even a crumb of the fullness of Christ into the world with loving goodness.