e-vo for week of February 15

Dearest e-votees-

This coming Sunday is the last Sunday of Epiphany. It is the Sunday when we commemorate the Transfiguration of Our Lord. Each of the synoptic gospel writers show up in our lectionary. Matthew (17:1-9, year A), Mark (9:2-9, year B—this year) and Luke (9:28-36 [37-43], year C). 2 Peter 1:16-21 also mentions the Transfiguration and shows up on year A of the lectionary and is the only direct reference in the writings of Peter to any event of Jesus’ ministry that Peter witnessed. Interesting to ponder that of all the experiences that Peter experienced during the life and ministry of Jesus this is the only one that got such a mention. What was so profoundly meaningful about this experience to outshine all the others? What epiphany did the Transfiguration evoke in Peter?

Peace,
Karl

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2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6 He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7 Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” 8 Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Mark 9:2-9, NRSV

Questions that come to mind as we linger in this text:

• Why was Andrew (the fourth of the fishing partners) left standing on the chain-link fence?

• How did Peter know that it was Elijah and Moses?

• What in the world (or was it beyond this world?) did Jesus, Elijah and Moses talk about?

• Did the disciples make the connection with the Tabernacle of the Old Testament and God eventually coming to tabernacle with God’s people in Revelation 21:3?

• Did the disciples make the connection with the voice speaking from the torn open sky at Jesus’ baptism?

• Why didn’t Jesus want the Transfiguration to be revealed for a while?

• What did Peter, James and John hear when Jesus said “after the Son of Man had risen from the dead”? What did they understand?


This experience was vivid and memorable (see 2 Peter 1:17-18). This experience was beyond the normal experience (and not just for outstanding laundering abilities). This experience was transcendent and formative and unsettling and divine. This experience was terrifying and could evoke the “fear of the Lord” in all its many nuances.

Have you had experiences that were so vivid and real and transcendent and other-worldly and unsettling? If so, do you share them with others or keep them under your hat until an opportune time? Do these experiences make things clear and vivid or do they draw you up into the mysteries of God which can sometimes seem more like looking through a dim reflection in a mirror? What sense do we modern, practical, over-burdened and under-timed folks make of something like the Transfiguration?

A few assertions and thoughts that come to mind as we face the week ahead:

• We may feel like Andrew on the chain-link fence but God never leaves us nor forsakes us and Jesus has a penchant for fringe-dwellers.

• God doesn’t sever ties from the past so much as bring things to completion and fulfillment and moves on to fuller expressions and understandings (maybe that’s why Moses and Elijah were involved in this moment).

• There are all sorts of things we might like to know about God and God’s ways in the world. There are lots of details about Jesus to which we are not privy. They may be interesting but they aren’t necessary. God meets us reliably in water, bread, wine and word. In those places God says all that we truly need to hear.

• God can still speak through extraordinary visions, experiences and revelations. Should we be so blessed we should be grateful. We should never let our powerful personal experiences become some sort of litmus test for the faith of others. What may be crucial and formative for us need not be normative for others.

• What do we hear when Jesus says “after the Son of Man had risen from the dead?” What do we understand? The answers to these questions have a profound and lasting impact on who we are and how we make our way through this world and beyond.

• The Transfiguration is public-domain now. How do we let this experience shape us? How do we participate in this experience shaping the world?


God, draw us up into this deep, powerful, evocative and holy moment of the Transfiguration. Transfigure us so that we reflect your likeness more readily. Teach us to learn what it truly means to fear the Lord in the best sense. Help us hear your voice which calls us “beloved” too. Help us see your image in others and call them “beloved” too. Amen.

e-vo for week of February 8

Dearest e-votees-

We are drawing near the close of Epiphany. Ash Wednesday, February 22 this year, marks the beginning of Lent.

This text of Naaman being cleansed of leprosy shows up only twice in our 3-year lectionary cycle. It shows up on Proper 9 in year C (Sundays between July 3 and July 9 inclusive) as an alternate 1st reading and it shows up on Epiphany 6 in Year B (our current year in the lectionary). That means if your church stays with the lectionary and doesn’t use the alternates you will encounter this story once every 3 years. If your church doesn’t read all the appointed readings you could miss this text for years and years and years. That is truly unfortunate. This is a beautiful and powerful text so we will linger with it for our devotion this week.

I hope and pray that God has been revealed to you and through you in many ways during this season of Epiphany. May your baptism and the cleansing that happened there be ever apparent to you. You are a washed and redeemed and beloved and blessed child of God.

Peace,
Karl

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1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. 2 Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman's wife. 3 She said to her mistress, "If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." 4 So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. 5 And the king of Aram said, "Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel." He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. 6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy." 7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me." 8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel." 9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha's house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean." 11 But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, "I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?" He turned and went away in a rage. 13 But his servants approached and said to him, "Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, "Wash, and be clean'?" 14 So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

2 Kings 5:1-14, NRSV

3 Powerful Threads of this text:


Thread 1. Baptismal connection:

Namaan is afflicted and considered unclean. This is the type of disease that could cause one to be cut off from the broader community. The king of Israel is disturbed to the point of death (tearing clothes was a sign of mourning) when he is approached about Naaman’s leprosy. The king rightly states that only God can truly grant life or death. Elisha, God’s prophet, sends word for Naaman to wash in the Jordan and he will be made clean. There is an invitation made for Naaman to bathe in the Jordan (where Jesus was later baptized). The act is so humbling and so simple and can only be understood through faith and trusting in the one who gives the invitation. Yet in this humble and simple act God takes us from death into life. Namaan almost missed the blessing as he flustered in a rage. How many ways do we rage and fluster about the simple yet deep and profound ways that God comes to us: water, bread, wine & word? Yet, as we enter into those places and are immersed in them we are made clean. Luther calls us to daily return to our baptisms. And so we, like Naaman, can shun our pride and our rage and our entitlement and remember with humility and peace and gratitude all that God has done for us through the life, death and rising from the dead of our Lord Jesus. That is what we are connected to in baptism. We are restored into community with each other and with God.


Thread 2. Promise was spoken from an unexpected place:

Naaman and the king of Aram were expecting healing to come from a position of power. The king of Israel was approached. How did they know to go looking in Israel? A servant girl, a foreigner captured as the spoils of war, was the one who pointed the way towards healing. She told Naaman to consult a prophet. Had Naaman listened more carefully he would have gone right to Elisha. Elisha inserted himself. Naaman now expected this powerful man of God to come and dote on him. Elisha instead sent a messenger and told him to “Go jump in a river!”. The places of healing and promise were the lips of a servant girl and the waters of the humble river Jordan. How many of us struggle with the form and the presentation more than the gift of the promise? Do we worry about who comes to see us more than what the one who does come says? Do we seek the attention of the power-brokers thinking we have merited their doting on us? Do we look for form and hype and show at the expense of the life-giving forms of water, bread, wine and word? God speaks to us often through unexpected places. May we have eyes to see and ears to hear.


Thread 3. Promise came in the form of grace:

Naaman was a successful commander of the Aramean army. He certainly knew about authority and command structures. He knew about engaging a task and earning a deliverance, a victory and a prize. Naaman brings his skill set to the problem of his leprosy. He brings a letter and some extravagant gifts. He exerts the authority and influence available to him. He pursues the king and then the prophet. He is looking for some sort of task to accomplish in order that he might merit cleansing. He is trying to earn his restoration. But the king says no and the prophet says no and his servants say no and the waters of the Jordan say no. Cleansing in Naaman’s case comes as a gracious act that can only be received. Cleansing in Naaman’s case foreshadows cleansing in our case—baptism (and salvation). We are made clean by grace. We are saved by grace. God graces us with the means of grace—water, bread, wine and word. We may wish to earn them or augment them through our own efforts. We will not succeed. If we want to receive the promise we need to receive on God’s terms—by grace.


God draw us deeper into our baptisms. Open our lives to hear your good news from unexpected places. Drown our desires to earn and control salvation in the gracious waters of baptism. Amen.

e-vo for week of February 1

Dearest e-votees,

During this week is the time (counting from Christmas) when Mary would have been expected to bring Jesus to the Temple and present him and an atonement offering (see Leviticus 12:1-8 if you want to see all the ritual expectations). That is why we commemorate “The Presentation of Our Lord” on February 2.

There are assigned texts for this holy day. This week, for our devotional reflection, we will linger with the appointed psalm.

Peace,
Karl

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1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! 2 My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. 3 Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. 4 Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise. 5 Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. 6 As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. 7 They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion. 8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! 9 Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed. 10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; he bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly. 12 O Lord of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.

Psalm 84, NRSV

One of my favorite encounters with this text was when I was about to have my first entrance interview with the folks at Luther Seminary. I had an appointment at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks, CA. I got there early and had some anxieties to tend. As I wandered around I found a chapel. I went inside and these words were beautifully and deeply carved into the dark wood walls. I sat in the midst of these words and my heart was soothed.

I cannot read these words without being transported in my mind back to this defining moment.

There was a place for me by the altar just as there is for the swallow and her young. There was a place for Jesus in the Temple—a place where Mary could come and lay her young. There is a place for all of us in God’s courts.

Of course the reality is that the Temple has been leveled. The place that was thought to house God had the door torn off it from top to bottom at the moment of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice. As Peter Mayer sings so eloquently (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHHDeWtoftw) “God is Loose in the World”. So we don’t really need to seek God in a chapel or a Temple or other concrete particulars—although there is a deep and abiding promise about God being found profoundly in Word and Sacrament. We can go out into the world with our God. We can be a doorkeeper or a footwasher or a faithful servant—a day doing that is better than a 1,000 days chasing after the things of the world.

Our happiness, better yet our joy, start when we trust the Lord. When we lean not on our own understanding (see Proverbs 3:4-5) God will straighten out our paths and help us know how to go. Jesus had remarkable and particular focus towards what God had called him to do. This granted him great freedom to be remarkably interruptible and to dwell in deep ministry moments with all of the wrong sorts of people. Might we know that paradox of incredible focus and gracious distractablity.


God, draw us up into your courts no matter where we find ourselves. Help us to make room for swallows and their young, tax collectors and sinners and all who might come seek asylum and comfort just as you have so graciously made room for us. Help us trust in you so very much that others can’t help but be drawn in. Amen.

e-vo for week of January 25

Dearest e-votees-

January 25th is the day set aside in the church year to commemorate the “Conversion of Paul”.

Someone who was strong and focused and zealous and hard-working had his life turned upside down. His eyes were blinded that he might see. His profound and faithful works came into a better perspective as grace came to the fore. Church tradition holds that he was beheaded (a “privilege” of his Roman citizenship) during the persecutions of the church. May the testimony, life and martyrdom of Paul speak to us this day.

For our devotional text we will use the appointed gospel text for the “Conversion of Paul”.

Peace,
Karl

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[Jesus speaking to some who were speaking about the Temple, context courtesy of verse 5]

10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. 12 "But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13 This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; 15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17 You will be hated by all because of my name. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.”

Luke 21:10-19, NRSV

This is a rich a vivid text. I invite you to read it a few times:

• Read it and see which phrase or word or image comes to the fore. What captures your imagination or your attention?

• Read it again being open to a prayer petition that you might be able to lift up over the next several days. You are invited to write that petition down and post it somewhere you will see it during the course of your daily activities.

• Read it one more time looking for where you find yourself in this story today as you read it. What might God say to you this day in this living and breathing and active word? You are invited to write that down and keep it with your prayer petition.

This text was chosen for the “Conversion of Paul” certainly for the resonances with his life: arrests and persecutions, being handed over to prisons and authorities, facing kings and governors, wisdom that seems insurmountable and a martyr’s death. And in spite of it all endurance through faith unto life beyond death.

But this text wasn’t spoken to Paul when first voiced. Jesus was making remarks to those chatting about the Temple. Perhaps they were looking at this massive structure that testified so profoundly to the magnificence and glory of God. Jesus took the conversation to a much more palpable and incarnate experience of the faith. (see John 2:13-22 for an even more palpable and incarnate conversation about the Temple that Jesus brings to bear). Jesus seems to be saying that struggles and troubles are coming. That you can’t bring a message like Jesus is bringing into the world without profoundly provoking the powers that be. There will be severe and violent pushback. Yet in spite of the attacks and the hatred and the violence life is to be had here more than any other place. I wonder how the hearers of these words straight off the lips of Jesus responded to them. Scripture only indicates that the people listened to Jesus. I want to know so much more.

And this text doesn’t stop speaking once it is attached to the “Conversion of Paul”. God’s word is living and active and has things to say to us to this day. Where do you find yourself in this text? As a preacher I have many opportunities to testify. I have been known on occasion to struggle with what to say and how to say it. This text—as well as Luke 12:11-12—assures me that God will be faithful to give words and speak through me. God will never leave me nor forsake me—even when I’m preaching and teaching. What is your take away from this text? I would love to hear back from you if something strikes you. It would be a blessing to catch a glimpse of what God is saying to you this day through this Luke text.


God, we give you thanks for the life, testimony and martyrdom of Saint Paul. Thank you that he was able to rest deeply in your grace and salvation no matter what came his way. Shape us to be more like him in that regard. Speak to us this day with your living and active word. Knock us away from complacency. Bring your grace and salvation to a more palpable and incarnate place in our lives and through our lives—all to your glory. Amen.

e-vo for week of January 18

Dearest e-votees-

This Sunday’s Old Testament text is from the book of Jonah. The assigned text is below as well as the pericope bits that were left on the cutting room floor (set off with the square brackets).

I hope that you have been blessed and encouraged this week. I pray you will be even more so after our devotional interaction here.

Peace,
Karl

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3 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2 “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

[6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8 Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.” ]

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

Jonah 3:1-5, [6-9], 10, NRSV

It seems to me that something needs to be said about not including vv. 6-9. By excising these verses we lose the reasoning behind the fast and the signs of repentance. When you stop at verse 5 you have the people believing that God will overthrow Nineveh in 40 days. If they were convinced that the calamity was sure to come to pass one might think a different reaction would come from the people—scattering in fear (kind of like Jonah when he fled God’s call) or celebrating the last days (“Eat, drink and be merry for in 40 days we die!”) or something. This repentance in hopes that God might change God’s mind (there’s a linguistic connection between repentance and God’s changing the divine mind) seems less clear with the middle verses removed.

What were those who devised the pericope (literally a “cutting around”—extracting the selected lessons) thinking by striking these verses? Perhaps they thought that a king telling the people to repent was too autocratic or dictatorial for our modern sensibilities. Perhaps they thought that the fast and signs of repentance were diminished if they were mandated. What do you think? Why might have been the reasoning for selecting the lesson as it has been done? I find that when assigned lessons step around excisions I am drawn to the “forbidden” texts.

The leader of the people heard the news (Jonah’s message or about the people fasting and putting on sackcloth—not entirely clear). Was the king codifying what the people had already begun to do?—quite possibly. The king and his nobles decree that all animals shall neither eat nor drink in hopes for a change. And the people and the animals and the king did it. They didn’t scatter in fear. They didn’t squander precious last moments in debauchery. They collected and focused themselves and hoped and trusted and prayed that God would deliver them.

How are things in our lives and in the world around us? Do things seem dire? Is calamity imminent? Is the future uncertain? Perhaps we should do what is required to focus ourselves, our lives and our times on the callings and plans of God. God cares about us who don’t know our right hand from our left (see Jonah 4:11) and about the animals who don’t know their right hooves from their lefts.


God stir us to seek you fervently as if everything that was important depended on it. When we feel put upon help us not flee by foot nor by escapism but rather run to you—our loving Father—who loves to wait at the end of the driveway and run towards us. Amen.

e-vo for week of January 11

Dearest e-votees-

This Sunday we enter into the more ordinary times (green is the liturgical color) of the Sundays after the Epiphany. We continue to experience revelations of who God is—Epiphany comes from the Greek επι + φαινω, epi (which can mean “upon”) + fie-no (which can mean “shine”), which literally can mean “shine upon” and figuratively can mean “to reveal or make known”. Epiphany is the season where we linger around God being made known. Made God be made known in us and through us this day.

Peace,
Pastor Karl

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43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." 46 Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" 48 Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you." 49 Nathanael replied, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 50 Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these." 51 And he said to him, "Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

John 1:43-51, NRSV

Nathanael has some preconceived notions about Nazareth of what good may or may not come from there. It wasn’t until he experienced some encouraging words from Jesus and perhaps evidence of miraculous revelation that he changed his tune.

How about us? Where is Nazareth for us? Where is susceptible to our preconceived notions? Where do we wonder if good news could really come from there? Is it a place? Is it a particular expression of Christianity? Is it someone who doesn’t always practice what he or she preaches? Is it a teen or pre-teen who is claiming to be impregnated by the Holy Spirit? Is it a disciple who promised never to deny Jesus only to do that three times before the morning came? Is it a messy and not-so-very-cool church? ( for the interested reader I would highly commend to you: http://rachelheldevans.com/blessed-are-the-uncool ) Where are the places that draw our skepticism as a source of God’s good news?

Perhaps we need some encouraging words from Jesus.

Perhaps we need some evidence of miraculous revelation.

Jesus says things like:
• “Peace I leave with you.”
• “You did not choose me, I chose you.”
• “They did not choose me, I chose them.”
• “Let the heavy laden and burdened come to me and I will give them rest.”
• “If you ask me I will give you living water.”
• “Don’t call unclean what God has declared clean.”
• “You are my friends.”

Jesus reveals God’s heart and God’s way to us (often miraculously) by:
• Coming as one of us by way of a virgin birth
• Befriending tax-collectors, sinners, lepers, Samaritans, sell-outs, outcasts, hypocrites and us too
• Healing those who were/are sick in mind, body and soul
• Willingly dying a horrific death for the sake of the aforementioned
• Rising from the dead with angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man

Nathanael’s heart was turned to believe and proclaim who Jesus truly was. May our hearts be turned and our words inspired to proclaim who Jesus truly is.


God, stir us to shed our biases against who you would send to reveal yourself to us and the world. Help us learn and live and share your encouraging words. Help us be open to miraculous and more ordinary revelations of who you truly are—in us, in others, through others and through us. Give us courage to speak of you as you provide opportunity. Amen.

e-vo for week of January 4

Dearest e-votees-

This Friday is January 6—The Epiphany of our Lord—which begins the church season of Epiphany. The Sundays of the season are bookended with Baptism of our Lord (January 8) and Transfiguration of our Lord (February 19). The emphasis of the season is God being revealed. May our days and our experiences make God more apparent to us and to all those we encounter.

Peace,
Karl

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1 This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— 2 for surely you have already heard of the commission of God's grace that was given me for you, 3 and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, 4 a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. 5 In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: 6 that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 7 Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God's grace that was given me by the working of his power. 8 Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, 9 and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; 10 so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.

Ephesians 3:1-12, NRSV

Paul’s calling certainly had some challenging aspects—beatings, stoning, confronting and comforting divided and hurting churches, lack of resources, spiritual assaults and the like. Paul spent time in prison, enduring abuse and, as church traditions maintains, being dispatched by beheading at the hands of the Romans. How do you think Paul found the courage and the stamina to face the tedious, brutal and upsetting days that filled up his calendar?

I imagine that Paul had a parchment (or maybe a sheepskin or a scrap left over from his tent-making) that he had carefully inscribed the words above from Ephesians. I can see him reading this to himself when he got up in the morning and the last thing before he extinguished the oil lamp at night. When in prison I could see him hanging this up on the wall next to him. When in front of kings and rulers and tribunals and magistrates I can imagine him reaching into his pocket and feeling the familiar and empowering words that sustained him so often. I can imagine Paul luxuriating in the deep and abiding calling and purpose as articulated in the words above.

These words penned by Paul and the Holy Spirit speak to us too. Maybe we would do well to have them inscribed where we can linger with them. Or, perhaps, we could commit them to memory so they are always accessible. These words speak to us and of us. We are the Gentiles who receive the news of the boundless riches of Christ—thanks be to God. We are called to be part of the church which bears the wisdom of God to the world and its structures of power and authority as well as to the spiritual realms. We are called, with Paul, to be servants of the Gospel. These words of Paul’s are our words too.

We don’t dare enter into such realms of discipleship and service under our own strength and initiation. Jesus grants us access in boldness and confidence to God. God is at work in us and through us being revealed. So as we face our day—whether tedious or brutal or upsetting—God will grant us stamina and courage. As we rub up against powers and authorities and perhaps challenge the status quo God will sustain us and equip us with familiar and empowering words. God calls us and God will equip us to abide in that calling. This is in accordance with the eternal purpose that God has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.


God, reveal yourself to us in this time of Epiphany. Help us experience you in the world and reveal you to the world. Strengthen us with Word and Sacrament. Draw us daily to your mercies and your graces. Help us never lose sight of the high calling you have put upon us even during the most tedious and brutal and upsetting of days. Amen.