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Morning Devotion for the Season of Easter
May 10, 2024
Invitatory
On this day the Lord has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
Reading: Ephesians 2:1-5
You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved —
Meditation - Peter Vanderveen
Any reading from one of the letters of Paul should be preceded by a trigger warning. I don’t mean this in the typical sense, that the text might “contain writing, images, or concepts that may be distressing to the reader.” Paul is more convoluted than graphic. Many would claim that he is more dull than provocative. I think, rather, that the warning applies to the reader and not the text. For, for many, the mere mention of Paul tends to trigger a set of deeply rooted assumptions that rob the text of its intrigue and power. Paul is often presumptively dismissed as puritanical (is there any more condemning judgment than this?). It’s a judgment that can lead to one’s eyes glazing over; and Paul’s many long and arcane lists of misbehaviors congeal, then, sliding into the single conviction that he simply wants us to believe that just about everything in life is shameful. Worst of all, the world is condemned as worldly. And it’s difficult to build momentum from such a definite hard stop.
But is such a reading fair to Paul? I don’t think so. Look, for example, at the many ambiguities in the text above. For what does it mean to be “dead” while one is very much alive and absorbed in the issues of the day. What, exactly, has gone missing to warrant this description? And what are the consequences? Paul invites us in one line to pause and consider what is at stake. But we blithely move on.
And who is “the ruler of the power of the air?” Or, more importantly, why did Paul use this phrase? What did he intend by it? Footnotes in many Bibles don’t help; they simply state that Paul meant Satan. But why, then, didn’t he just say this? Or would the substitution of this name foreclose the very mysteriousness of evil that, like the wind, blows through unseen except for its aftereffects.
Paul is often accused of being prudish and embarrassed by the body. But notably here, he refers to the passions of the flesh as inclusive of both body and mind. Whatever is at issue, the passions Paul warns against are far more complex than a simplistic listing of social dos and don’ts. They involve, at a much deeper level, our desire to think our way past our mortality, to achieve our own everlastingness – which is rampant today, often by means of fame, or celebrity, or, more dependably, by excessive notoriety.
There’s so much here to mull over. There’s so much to investigate and explore about the many aspects of life that we simply choose not to notice or examine. We don’t have patience for the most important things. Paul, however, urges us to see life in its fullness and in its bewildering, dynamic intricacy. For only when we see life in these dimensions can we begin to apprehend in the slightest what the glory of God is.
Prayer
Risen Christ, in the midst of grief and despair, at the very point when all seemed lost, you stood in the midst of your friends in the fullness of your resurrection reality and proclaimed your peace; a peace that reorders and renews all things.
May the same peace find a home in us and, at the urging of your Spirit, may we be today and every day bearers of hope and enablers of peace in the power of your name.
The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold
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