Narrative Lectionary Year Four (John)
July 11, 2021: Ephesians 1:1-14
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Furthering the Power of God’s Story – Narrative Lectionary Commentary
by Daniel D. Maurer
Although the Apostle Paul almost certainly did not write the letter to the Ephesians, the epistle nonetheless imagines the church in the spirit of Paul’s main goal within his ministry—namely, to bring disparate groups together in the name of Christ and build the church within its diversity.
“Diversity” as a catchword today perhaps is all too overused in business and political circles. However, the idea of diversity within the church and God’s family was a given in late first- and early second-century churches.
The opening verses in Ephesians serve not only as an invocation of the theme throughout this letter, but make plain the need for the epistle in the first place. Why? Because the early church was fighting; there was both in-fighting and fighting amongst rival churches. Added to the mix were the various persecutions of Christians on and off throughout the years.
The one theme that comes through, loudly and clearly, is that of adoption.
In the ancient world, adoption was actually fairly common. What’s more, in Graeco-Roman cultures, a person need not official be adopted to be part of another family, especially when a client-patron relationship was at stake.
Within the church, this same spirit of adoption as a theme we hear strongly, both in the gospels as well as the epistles.
In Ephesians, this adoption theme is doubly so stressed.
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Great Quotes
“Without Pentecost the Christ-event - the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus - remains imprisoned in history as something to remember, think about and reflect on. The Spirit of Jesus comes to dwell within us, so that we can become living Christs here and now.”
“Christians have no business thinking that the good life consists mainly in not doing bad things. We have no business thinking that to do evil in this world you have to be a Bengal tiger, when, in fact, it is enough to be a tame tabby—a nice person but not a good one. In short, Pentecost makes it clear that nothing is so fatal to Christianity as indifference.”
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The Spirit of Hope
by Jürgen Moltmann
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Free Dramatic Reading For This Text (NRSV)
Ephesians
Readers: Reader 1, Reader 2
Reader 1: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Reader 2: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.
Reader 1: He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
Reader 2: In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Reader 1: In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.
Reader 2: In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.