Morning Devotion for Eastertide
May 25, 2022
The Invitatory
Alleluia. The Lord is risen indeed: Come Let us adore him.
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.
Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Reading: Ephesians 1:1-10
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.
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. 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. 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.
Meditation: Jo Ann B. Jones
A number of the passages read this Eastertide were taken from the Farewell Discourse in John’s Gospel These were parting words that Jesus spoke with and to his disciples before his crucifixion. He spoke of what confronted him, what it would mean for the world and what he promised his disciples - that he would return. In reading them in Eastertide we are placed in a moment in the past and now led to consider the significance for the future. Our ability to do so is largely dependent upon our understanding and grasp of Jesus’ message to his disciples and our developing understanding of the gospel message of salvation and redemption.
This leads one to wonder about Paul’s approach in his letters to the Ephesians. It is not known how familiar Paul is with the people to whom he is writing. One also wonders who has taught the Ephesians anything about Jesus Christ, let alone about his crucifixion and resurrection. Nonetheless, Paul seems to charge ahead, full force, with great enthusiasm and conviction about his message.
One could say that Paul has a soft opening. The letter begins with a blessing for God rather than a thanksgiving for the Ephesians themselves. Again, we are left in the dark as to Paul’s insights into this community. This blessing of God is more specifically a blessing of the “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” and we begin to see that this passage is essentially that Christ is the focus. His emphasis on the centeredness of Christ will continue throughout, yet it does not take much imagination to see the implications of God’s work for those to whom the letter is addressed. They have been adopted as children of God. Everything has changed with the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“But wait,” as the infomercials always say, “There’s more!” Readers are now rendered insiders to a much bigger plan than even the lavish grace that forgives our sins and buys us back from all that would seek to own us. God intends to gather all things up into Christ, so that the love, healing, wisdom, and welcome that we associate with Jesus will be the way the whole creation works. This is our destiny and that of the whole creation: to “live for the praise of his glory.”
The emphasis is on God’s purpose for the world - God’s gift of salvation to the world. There is an emphasis on present salvation, later with believers depicted as being seated with Christ. The universal church exists on account of what God has accomplished in Christ and, as God’s creation, it has the power to make God’s wisdom known to the spiritual powers in the heavenly places. Paul points beyond the past to eternity and then speaks to the change for us all now and in the time to come. This is truly the message of Easter and the resurrection. Perhaps for us we need only to have the message reinforced periodically, if only to secure our understanding. To experience it as the Ephesians must have, now having the knowledge that we have, is to be rendered amazed and wondering at the power of God in Jesus Christ.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
