Ephesians x4

These past three weeks, with one more to go, I've been preaching from the Letter to the Ephesians, which you can read or listen to here. The idea for this series came not from a great brainstorming session, or even a brief moment of quiet prayer, but from the 29 June 2012 edition of The San Francisco Chronicle in which the death of a retired United Methodist bishop, Leontine T.C. Kelly was reported. You can read her obituary here.

Reading the obituary was an immediate flashback to a "report card" from my last semester in seminary, in which Bishop Kelly, from whom I'd taken a preaching class at a neighboring seminary, wrote "the student would do well to read St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians. Being happy and having a purpose are not the same as being fulfilled!" The comment sprung from a long and difficult conference with her following a sermon I had preached in which she basically said, "you need to work on your understanding of what Christianity is, and whether Jesus is the Lord of your life."

A perfect image for this Sunday's reading, taken from Google Images.

Then I remembered that Ephesians is the New Testament letter for this year's lectionary (Year B in the Season after Pentecost)...what a perfect time to unpack some of the riches of this letter. So I looked at the passages appointed for 22 July, 29 July, 5 August, and 12 August, and came up with some nit-witty titles: Be In, Be Fulfilled, Be Mature, and Be Kind. 

The thing I most love about the Letter to the Ephesians is the bright hope it conveyed to Christians then, and that message's timelessness. The writer's dual focus on doctrine and worship as well as practical ways to be a Christian inspired the four week series, which concludes this Sunday with "Be Kind."



May God bless the gifts stirring up within you, and throughout the church.
Faithfully,
Thomas