St. Aidan's Anglican Church, Kansas City - weekly talks

Ephesians 3:1-13 - Let us display the many-colored wisdom of God to the principalities and powers in the heavenly place - One New Humanity in Christ.

This morning we are exploring Ephesians 2:19-22. Paul is describing the implications of the Gospel of Christ, the intended outcomes of the mission of God in Christ.

The unintended outcomes of the Gospel have been reduced to mere personal salvation, whereby I am autonomous and independent from a wider earthly and cosmic communion. Jesus spoke of the Gospel as the Gospel of the Kingdom: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

On August 9th, 2020, we baptized Jude De Stigter, just after his father, Chris, shared the sermon on water baptism. Chris presents the sacrament of water baptism as the most apocalyptic of sacraments, a radical shift from death to life by participating in the death and resurrection of Christ. Thus, water baptism is a decisive break from old creation into new creation, into Christ himself! If anyone is in Christ, new creation, the old is gone, all things become new.

Icon by Ivanka Demchuk

Romans 6:1-14

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self[a] was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free[b] from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Ephesians 2:11-18 - Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

In Ephesians 2, Paul gives us a picture of before Christ and after Christ, that is, prior to hearing the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation, and believed in him (1:13). Paul wants us to see not only the condition of humanity apart from Christ but the forces behind that condition. He plumbs the depths of humanity's disordered nature and then rises to the heights of praise and glory about God.

We are working our way through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, observing how he interweaves his experiential theological vision with prayer. Through a unique, revelatory encounter with the risen Lord, Paul’s understanding of the New Covenant, prophesied throughout the Prophetic writings, was radically transformed.

Paul’s inexhaustible theological vision, provoked by an encounter with the risen Lord, has become doxology, an overflowing river of prayer. It is in this light, he exhorts us to pray. This first chapter of Ephesians is multi-dimensional and gives us the foundation of Apostolic Prayer. What do I mean?

Paul was not unconcerned about praying for the personal needs of others. That being said, every personal petition is rooted in his experiential understanding of the mission of Christ, the Father sending the Son to displace the reign of sin and death, along with spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Adam’s sin unleashed the disease of mortality into the cosmos. Christ, the second Adam, the ONE NEW MAN, Human Being, is the cure, so to speak. The total mission of Christ, from incarnation to his final return, is the eternal plan of restoring God’s good creation to breathe again, to be regenerated and brought back into UNION with Christ who mediates unbroken communion with God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Through Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God the Father, every enemy of God’s eternal plan are being placed "under his feet", to bring forth a new society of men and women, a new humanity in Christ, living to the praise of his glory. Christ, the second Adam, the representative of a New Humanity, has been given all authority, in heaven and earth, to birth a new Creation, through water and the Holy Spirit. He is building his Church, his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all, v. 23.

And the heart and foundation of Paul’s inexhaustible theological vision are interwoven with prayer. Since his theology was formed from an encounter with the risen Lord, the only appropriate response is to worship, to be found as one who worships the Father in Spirit and Truth.

I hope that we all catch Paul’s vision of Christ and his Church throughout the earth. The Father is seeking seekers, those who seek him with all their hearts. He wants to be found and to unfold the spiritual riches with which he’s blessed us in the heavenly places, in Christ. It is out of this space, this encounter, that we see a greater fulfillment of the Lord’s prayer, THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

In summary, Christ's Kingdom (politics) is not of/from this world but is for this world. Thy Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven. We see the historic divisions in the Church and in the world. This longing for wholeness, unity, integrity is found in the person of Christ, the fully integrated human being. Paul, under house arrest is enthralled with the grandeur of God. He, thus, illustrates how to transcend one's circumstances in the practices of prayer and contemplation. His theology has become doxology.

Ephesians has a lot to say about the current racial concerns we face. Amid the many critical race theories, the apostolic Gospel sets forth the reality of a new creation in Jesus Christ. In the risen Lord Jesus, all things have become new. Out of one human race, the nations are to show forth the beauty of holiness, under one Sovereign, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Humanity has been chosen and restored in Christ to become God's new people, the Church, the body of Christ.

We have been given the ministry of reconciliation. In our brokenness, we have too often witnessed and ministered a so-called gospel that does not transform, reconcile, and heal. The book of Ephesians brings us back to the deep implications of Christ and the world. Christ as the new humanity, in the fullness of time, bring all things, things in heaven and on earth, into full alignment to the Father's plan and purpose.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:10f., that through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

This means the mystery is making the two, Jew and Gentile, ONE. We must contend for such a powerful Gospel, to transform our divisions not by the love of power but by the power of love in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Finally, this is not a comprehensive exposition of Ephesians but highlights that speak to the current global racial divisions in our world. We've been given the ministry of reconciliation, so let's appropriate and live it out.

Ivanka Demchuk, Icon

The Cruciform & Eucharistic Shape Of Love - Deacon Aaron Williams 06.29.20 by St. Aidan's Anglican Church, KC

One Human Race of Reconciled Nations - Eph. 2.11f Fr. Michael Flowers 06.21.20 by St. Aidan's Anglican Church, KC