The Epistle
Ephesians 1:15-23
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 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 him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he 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. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
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Paul commends the Ephesian Christians for their faith and the impact of the observation of that living faith on those who are touched in love by these Christians. When I read these words, I cannot help but think of my grandmother. In the letters to St. Timothy, we hear of the impacts of two God-fearing and God-loving women on the boy who would grow to become St. Timothy, Bishop in the Church of God. These two women were his mother and his grandmother.
I can relate to my patron saint only too well. Faye Alleman was a woman of faith who loved her God and loved people. More than anyone else, I attribute my faith to the testimony of this great woman who often reminded me that my first sermons were preached as I stood on a stool in her living room as a little boy.
Her faith marked her. It was a defining characteristic of this woman. This was confirmed most powerfully in her death. This servant of God reposed in Christ on Sunday 20 April 2003, less than a month before I would receive my Master of Divinity degree and slightly more than 2 months before I would be ordained into the Sacred Order of Priests in Christ's Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. The day of her repose was the Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. In the days that followed her death, countless persons who knew my Grandmother, a good many who were not Christians, shared how fitting it was that she died on Easter Sunday. They knew this woman to be a woman of faith, and were convinced that she herself would have been delighted to die on the day the Church celebrated the resurrection!
Paul shares joyfully in this reading the type of observation of faithful living that I and many others saw in my Grandmother. What a beautiful thing this is. But the true point of the inclusion of this Thanksgiving in Scripture is not merely that we would admire the beauty. As Christians, it ought to be our hope that others would see our living out of the faith, and rejoice in that holy living. It should not be that we wish to be praised. I know my Grandmother would not have wanted that. Rather it should be our desire that in these joys, Christ is praised, even by those who are unaware of the fact that they are praising Christ in acknowledging the faithfulness of the Christian!
Father Tim+
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