11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according
to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of
his will, 12 in order that we,
who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his
glory. 13 And you also were
included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised
Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit
guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's
possession--to the praise of his glory.
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord
Jesus and your love for all his people, 16
I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and
revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order
that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his
glorious inheritance in his saints, 19
and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as
the mighty strength 20 he
exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in
the heavenly realms, 21 far
above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that can be
invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his
feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of
him who fills everything in every way.
Like many churches we will transfer
the festival of All Saints from November 1st to this Sunday, Nov 3rd, and call
it "All Saints Sunday." YES, it's a shame that we can't simply have a
special service on Nov 1st and expect people to be able to come and enjoy it.
Yes, it's a shame that the normal propers for the Sunday are displaced.... but
in the oft-repeated existential phrase of our day, it is what it is. A far worse case scenario, in my opinion, would
be to simply let the standard Sunday propers stay in place and not mention anything about the observance of All
Saints. The Sundays & Seasons website gives us a good introduction to the
festival:
The custom of commemorating on a single day all the saints of
the church, especially the many unknown
martyrs, originated in the fourth century. By the eighth century, the festival commemorating all saints had
been moved in England and Ireland to November 1
in order to Christianize the Celtic harvest festival of Samhain which marked
the beginning of winter and
communal attention to the dead. In current Christian use, the day is dedicated to thanksgiving for all
the unnamed who died in the Lord. In many assemblies,
the names of those who have died over the previous twelve months are read aloud, a practice originally associated
with All Souls Day on November 2. The conflation of the two emphases fits with the Protestant beliefs that all the
Christian dead are saints, none needs
release from purgatory, and it is only to God whom we pray.
With that in mind, and given the appointed
readings, I decided to focus in on the Ephesians text. It's a very dense text
that can be used to discuss any number of aspects of the life of faith.
Regarding vs 18 above, I took the liberty of correcting the TNIV rendering.
Originally, the TNIV--normally my preferred translation for public reading of
the Bible--rendered vs 18 as: I pray
that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the
hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his
PEOPLE... The Greek of the text is 'toi hagio.' "Hagios" is an
adjective meaning "holy." In the plural (plural definite article),
toi hagio becomes 'the holies'... or more appropriately, the holy ones... aka
SAINTS. Most other English translations render the word 'saints' in vs 18, so I
can only think that the NIV/TNIV tradition has a slight bias against the word
and what it has come to mean in its narrow Roman Catholic sense. Thus, as I
say, I've taken the liberty to 'correct' the TNIV & render the verse: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be
enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the
riches of his glorious inheritance in his saints.
The
thing is, a healthy PROTESTANT understanding of the saints... and All Saints
day.. will always have two thrusts. Thrust #1 is the understanding that it's
not JUST the super-heroes of the faith that constitute "saints," but
ALL BELIEVERS by virtue of their baptism have a saintly status. This means that
we have our own personal SAINTS. This means that in our lifetime we have rubbed
shoulders with THE SAINTS. Again, I like how the Sundays & Seasons website
fleshes this out:
Who is your saint? Often in surveys, people
are most likely to identify a parent, a grandparent,
a close family friend, a mentor. Hearing each other's stories—of real saints, the ones that really matter to us,
can be incredibly powerful. Did you have a grandmother
who peppered her letters with quotes from scripture, or a grandpa who sang hymns robustly in worship? Did
your own parent give themselves to the cause of justice? Who is your saint? Share your stories, and trust
that it will resonate with others who
have their own.
And then the second important thrust in a
Protestant understanding of the saints is that this status of sainthood applies
to US PERSONALLY, as baptized believers. This is where vs 18 from the above
text really shines. Paul is urging his readers (the Ephesian Christians 2000
yrs ago AND us today) that the eyes of
our hearts would be enlightened and that we would KNOW what we've been
called to. We've been called to this status of SAINTHOOD. We've been called to
be HOLY ONES. **NOT, by the way, "holier-than-thou" ones.... but holy
ones; people set apart for God's purpose on earth; people set apart to proclaim
the good news; people set apart to be agents of grace in this broken world;
people set apart to reflect the love of Christ to those who only know despair;
people set apart to offer the world a different vision, a vision of God's reign
of justice and equity.
Sainthood
isn't just for superstars. All of God's people have a saintly status by virtue
of their baptism, and that means that all of God's people have a saintly
CALLING in which to aspire.
Cheers,
TM
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