One Body to Hope (Ephesians 1:15-23)

"The Body of Christ: We All Belong" ©️Gary Thomas

This sermon was first preached at Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Hopkins, MN, on November 17, 2025 as part of our August sermon series, "The Body of Christ." The full livestream of the service may be viewed here.  The scripture text & sermon alone are below. Scripture text:  Ephesians 1:15-23

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Good morning, beloved of God. Today as we dive into the meat of Ephesians 1 and the culmination of this Pauline author’s greeting to another Beloved Community, it behooves us to do so with eyes as wide open as he prays their hearts will be. For this is more than a salutation from a writer to his readers; it is, in all its flourish, a bold proclamation of one thing and one thing only, which is that in Christ, our kin, sits the fullness of Creator’s majesty, glory, and power. Which is why this passage is typically reserved for the final Sunday of the liturgical year, when the whole Story of God, from the garden to Christ to his already-but-not-yet eternal reign is celebrated at the Feast of Christ’s Reign. And I’m glad for the gift it is to us today, because we live in a moment in time when the reminder of Whose we are and, in turn, Who we are and are made to be, cannot be rendered too often. It is no secret that across world theaters, self-made kings and despots are rising like the heads of hydra to besiege all that lives, compel submission, and destroy anything that stands to resist their rule. The weight of it all can feel unbearable, and a great many of us feel more helpless and hopeless than ever.

But, take heart, Beloved, because it is neither a new moment, nor even a particularly surprising one.

In fact, the reign of Christ has long been a central tenet of Christian doctrine dating back to Cyril, the 5th century Archbishop of Alexandria who served at a moment when Socrates wrote that, “The Alexandrians are more delighted with tumult than any other people: and if they can find a pretext, they will break forth into the most intolerable excesses; nor is it scarcely possible to check their impetuosity until there has been much bloodshed.” To that socio-political context Cyril declared that Christ’s “dominion over all creatures is not seized by violence nor usurped, but [is] his by essence and by nature. His kingship is founded upon the hypostatic union -- [that is, the total and impenetrable union of full Divinity and full Humanity extant in Christ alone.] From this it follows that only “Christ is to be adored by angels and men [as He alone] has power over all creatures.”

And of course, Cyril’s proclamation was just a more-defined affirmation of the Nicene Creed we still affirm today, which was an elucidation of what the author of Ephesians wrote in today’s text, which was, going back even further, a summation of what the Apostle Paul wrote earlier, in his epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, and the Philippians in particular.

Which is to say, when the Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ’s Reign in his 1925 Quas Primas encyclical, it was not new but merely the newest affirmation of Christ’s eternal reign in and through and over any and all who would exert their own rule over humanity and all creation. Neither was his inauguration of the Feast at that moment in time incidental. Written in the aftermath of World War I, which saw the fall of no fewer than four empires, it was a direct -- and, if I may say so, scathing -- response to growing secularism and ultra-nationalism. His affirmative declaration of this ancient and essential truth was, much like the letter to the Ephesians, a summation and explication of wisdom passed down through the ages, including from Pope Leo XIII (13th) -- the most immediate namesake of the current Pope, Leo the 14th -- who consecrated the whole of humanity to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, proclaiming that the promise and hope of Christ’s eternal reign belongs not just to “Christians” but to everything and everyone whom God created and imbued with Their divine image. 

Indeed, as Qohelet wrote in Ecclesiastes, long before any of the preceding, "there is nothing new under the sun." For this I give thanks, because it means we are never without hope.

But to understand that reality, we need to acknowledge another reality both Christ and his apostles addressed at length, and which infuses the whole of today’s text. 

But first let me just note that when you hear me refer to “The author of Ephesians” in contrast to “The apostle Paul” it is because scholars are divided on whether or not Paul actually wrote Ephesians and a few other epistles, for very good but very impossible to get into right now reasons. They all do, however, follow Pauline patterns and show us, at very least, how Paul’s teachings were passed on, received, and interpreted throughout his life and beyond. 

Like many of Paul’s letters, Ephesians begins with the author’s exultation over his readers for their specific and local faith which he has heard much about. But, as Dr Kristofer Phan Coffman writes, he expands quickly from the specific out to the cosmic, “like Alice eating cake and then growing enormous.” He will continue this pattern of drawing the eyes and ears of his particular readers out from their unique context to the cosmic realms of the Eternal Christ, and then back again to their personal, familial, and communal relationships, throughout the letter. 

But for today, we’re out in the expanse where, Dr Coffman continues, “In describing Jesus’ exaltation," the author “touches upon one of the themes that his modern interpreters often under-emphasize, namely Jesus’ conflict with demonic powers…” We’re talking about something we Lutherans like to leave to the evangelicals and Pentecostals: spiritual warfare.

Stay close, though, because this cosmic conflict is one the “[Pauline epistles] consistently refer to, [albeit] with abstract terminology.” Here in Ephesians 1, Christ’s conflict is with “rule and authority and power and dominion.” In Ephesians 6, which you’ve heard me refer to at least a dozen times, it is “the rulers and authorities, the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” against which we do battle.

While it is, I think, reasonable to be skeptical and even agnostic about what the powers of evil look like or how they’re named; about whether they operate as individual entities like Satan and Demons, or simply as a pervasive force at work against us, it’s crucial to remember there are powers beyond this world, beyond humanity. And that even though there will always be human actors colluding with the cosmic powers for personal profit, wreaking havoc on our world and in our communities, and compelling us into fear, hatred, and war with one another, they are not our true enemy. 

Our battle is never against each other, or any other flesh and blood. 

We must root down into the essential truth that the whole of creation is consecrated to the sacred heart of Jesus Christ who created and holds all things together by his Word. Root down and stand firm, because if we lose it, we will make monsters and animals of our neighbors, and become like those who, having lost their own humanity, cheer the destruction of siblings they can only see as snakes. And this they do not to the glory of God, but to the glory of the powers that have forever defied God. 

So where, then, does that leave us? In the words of Théoden: “What can man do against such reckless hate?” What, precisely, is the Hope to which we are called? 

It’s right here in the text, Beloved:
Christ’s reign is not imperial, it’s eternal. 

It is not the kind of rule won by war, bloodshed, or the conquest of land forcibly separated from its people -- Despite that, since the time of Constantine, there has been no shortage of Christians who’ve sought to transform Jesus into what Deryn Guest** calls, “a model emperor presiding over a shadow government in heaven,” appointing popes and kings on earth to enact his holy will. Indeed, countless denominations across time -- including plenty in our own -- very much prefer the Constantinian Super-Emperor to the Christ we actually meet and know in Scripture. 

But Christ’s reign is not that. The “exceedingly great” Power of God is His by nature. And by this same Power that raised Christ from the grave, Death itself died -- and with it every measure and manner of authority and dominion that lesser lords exert over we who are sealed by One Spirit through One Faith in One Lord by One Baptism into One God, the Mother and Maker of all, who is over all and through all and IN all of us. 

This is the power that comes to us -- not as a better king, but as our brother and Kin; Not as the head honcho atop a dehumanizing corporate or political hierarchy, but as the Head on our shoulders from which all life and living stems.

And if this Christ is our kin and we are His body, even His fullness, as Ephesians so boldly proclaims in today’s reading, then as Dr C. Clifton Black and Dr Coffman both preach along with so many others, we are not and cannot ever be “helpless victims in or to a world whose powers have colluded with The Powers. [Instead,] “we are conduits of Christ’s immeasurably redemptive power.”

So the Hope to which we are called -- that is: the cosmic certainty and expectation to which we are called --  is that "our local acts of solidarity and love have transformative power." And through them, all are filled with the full, death-defeating goodness and love of God which fills us and is us, Christ’s One Body. We are the resurrected Christ. We are his second coming.

So, Beloved: Take heart, Love hard, and Act boldly against all power but God’s, because you are -- we are -- Christ in this world, through the power of God, to Their praise and glory Alone. Amen.

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EPHESIANS 1:15-23
15 Because of this -- that I have heard of your faith in Jesus the Messiah, and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you all as I make mention of you in my prayers. 17 [I do so] in order that the God of our Redeemer Jesus the Messiah, the Origin of Glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know God. 18 [This] so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you all may know what is the hope to which God has called you, what is the glory of God’s inheritance among the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing magnificence of God’s power for we who believe, according to the working of the power of God’s strength. 20 [Power that] God worked in the Messiah when God raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at the right hand of God in the heavenly places, 21 far above all governance and authority and power and dominion and above every name that has been named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22And 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.*

*Verses 15-21 translated by Wilda C. Gafney in A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year C (©2024, Church Publishing, New York, NY). Verses 22-23 from NRSV.

**Quote misattributed to Deryn Guest was written by commentator Karl Hand in The Queer Bible Commentary: Ephesians .

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