Is perhaps even more fascinating than what we do. Today's reading was Ephesians 4:1-6. The homily dwelt on the "is"ness of the gifts. Which is right on and solid. The one Church is every bit as much gift as the one Baptism (and yet we SEE many Baptisms). But what captured my mind in the reading was its ending: "one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."
And I thought: "Weedon, you have NEVER in your whole life preached on that." And right behind that was the thought: "And I don't remember ever hearing anyone else preach on it either." By now I was rather naughty and my mind drifted from the sermon to the text. What does it mean that it all flowed toward this one God and Father of all. He had just prayed: "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named...." Every family, all. There isn't a human being you meet who doesn't have this Father as his or her father, whether they know it or not. He is the Source from which all that IS has it's ISNESS, without Him being confined by that ISNESS. And He is over all.
Look at all the uproar in the world and your heart begins to melt and you tremble at the thought of what's coming. And then you stop and remember: Behind it all, there is Father. And the Father is over all, He's working through it all, and in it all. There's not a bit of it that He's lost track of, that's gotten out of hand. Not. A. Bit.
Peace, people loved by God. Peace that flows from the Father who is over all, in all and through all. Whenever you meet a human being, you meet one He created and called to be His child. That's the reason the Son was given into the flesh and why He gave us the one Baptism and the one hope of our calling. That's why there IS a church in this world.
One Father. Christ's Father made your Father. And He is over all. And He arranges all things, even to enlightening your eyes to see. See what can never be seen in this fallen age but by faith. "Be still and know that I am God." Words from your Father.
a number of years back I asked a parishioner to take all my sermon text citations (which I had in a book) and use a pink marker to indicate them in an old Bible. I have been largely a pericopal preacher I have to admit but it was surprising to see the vast chunks of Bible that one had never preached on even if one discounts chronologies and OT accounts that somewhat resist being solo texts. Oh, I have preached on a NT chronology or two.
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