The Mystery and the Good Pleasure (Eighth Sunday after Pentecost)

Bruce Gordon and Felicity Harley-McGowan discuss color, invitation, and the embodiment of language in Ephesians 1:3-14. The text is appointed for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, in Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary.

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Bruce Gordon is Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School. Felicity Harley-McGowan is Lecturer in the History of Art at Yale Divinity School.

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Transcript

Voiceover Voice:

There’s a great sense of momentum, and in some way, the text speaks of light and color.

Helena Martin:

This is Chapter, Verse, and Season: a lectionary podcast from Yale Bible Study. Join us each week as two Yale Divinity School professors look at an upcoming text from the Revised Common Lectionary.

If I sound a little sick this week, it’s because I am. I have that summer cold that’s been going around. And if you’ve always wondered if I record these intros each week or all at once—well, here’s your answer!

This episode, we have Felicity Harley-McGowan, Lecturer in the History of Art, and Bruce Gordon, Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History. They’re discussing Ephesians 1:3-14, which is appointed for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 10, in Year B. Here’s the text.

[Ephesians 1:3-14]

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. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Bruce Gordon:

Well, this is a kind of joyous beginning to a letter. A greeting to this community that seems to be sort of bursting with a sense of the purpose of God and the purpose of humans and the purpose of creation. And it all seems to be here in this opening of what's this all about? And why is it so wondrous and exciting and enthralling? And, you know, he speaks about the revealing, the mystery of his will. It's like Paul can't wait to tell us the whole story.

Felicity Harley-McGowan:

It certainly is, and I think quite striking when we consider the conditions under which it was written. If he is a prisoner at this time, there's a sense of, well, that knowledge augments our appreciation, I guess, of the extent of the joy and sense of fulfillment and grace that is captured here. That when we juxtapose that, it's quite shocking to think of what his conditions as a Roman prisoner would have been and the ways in which he can so magnificently transcend that context to give us this wonderful vision of love and of fulfillment and of unity. To hear this sense of diverse community being brought together, being called by God. There's a great sense of momentum and, in some way, the text speaks of light and color to me. If we can think of words creating color imagery in the imagination. And then I set that alongside the knowledge of the physical reality of Roman prisons, which are dark and without light. The contrast there which we create that if we have knowledge of the conditions under which Paul's writing, but it does set the text on fire in some respects.  

Bruce Gordon:

It does. The verbs are very dynamic in it. He lavishes his grace on us. There's, it's almost like a banquet with an extraordinarily generous host who can't wait to give you all the good things, including the greatest thing of all, the son, Jesus, who from the beginning of time was given to us. And the whole tone of it is just set by the beginning where Paul says, “praise.”

Felicity Harley-McGowan:

Yeah.

Bruce Gordon:

You know, the whole thing is like a song of praise here. And, you know, coming out of my Reformed background, of course it's hard not to spot the word predestined in here. But I think, you know, he frames it here is that God has chosen us. God has reached out to us, and God has a plan for us. And it's not about sort of who's chosen and who's not, it's this invitation. God has really done this for all of us here. And in his wisdom and the riches of God's grace and the mystery and good pleasure, it's all framed not in terms of punishment or judgment, but that it's precisely as you say, from this condition of prison. He’s clapping his hands, he's singing, he's, he's telling these people what a joy this is. And doesn't draw attention to himself suffering but rather his intention is to tell them that right from the beginning, this is what God wanted for us and it's being fulfilled. It's happening. And we are the beneficiaries of this. 

Felicity Harley-McGowan:

Yes, it's interesting you use that term judgment too, which is part of his imprisonment he must have experienced as part of the Roman legal process. And yet that's not containing or driving the mode of delivery. And I also wonder in reading this, trying to imagine his own gesture or mode of delivery. There's so much energy, I think, in the text that it's worth thinking about just the ways in which Paul would have inhabited the words. You know, we're so used to reading, I think, or even looking at our priest in the pulpit talking about the words that it's often easy to render these figures, isn't it, as historical two-dimensional characters but they're three dimensional. And this extraordinary persuasive letter to the Ephesians, I mean, I hope a lot of them converted if weren't already. [laughter]

Bruce Gordon: 

Yes, yes. And it's so embodied. As you say, it's not sort of a two-dimensional image or just a kind of person who is, represents this idea or that idea. All of this is embracing the whole of the human.

Felicity Harley-McGowan: 

It is. It is.

Bruce Gordon:

Every emotion. It's a deeply emotional text and it’s a deeply pastoral text, I find. He's telling us this, as he says in, in verse 11, that everything is in conformity with God's will.  So, there is a purpose for all of this. There is. God has a plan.

Felicity Harley-McGowan:

That's right. And I think this phrase “in the heavenly places,” which, as I understand is only found in this letter, that expression at the same time as he's embodying these words and creating this dynamic picture in its earthly context, he's pointing to the broader reality and the ways in which the heavenly, the unseen spiritual world is behind and above this earthly world that we're experiencing. So, there's also a firm rootedness, if you like, of this hope now, which is also connected to something else.

Bruce Gordon:

Yes. It’s like time and the cosmos have all come together.

Felicity Harley-McGowan:

Exactly.

Bruce Gordon:

And it's not just about this community in this particular place. They're part of this whole glory of creation. And before the beginning of time, you know, he speaks, this was God's plan. And now we live in time, but it's like time is both there but it vanishes.

Felicity Harley-McGowan:

That's right, and it's because God chose us, there's a personal dimension here. He's not speaking in the abstract, but this is available for us.

Bruce Gordon:

Yes. I think the last thing that draws my attention is this pastoral, joyous, almost song-like passage ends with a promise. That it is the seal of the promise of the Holy Spirit. So it's, you know, you've got this forever.

Helena Martin:

Thanks for listening. You can visit our website for more Bible study resources: YaleBibleStudy.org.

Chapter, Verse, and Season is a production of the Center for Continuing Education at Yale Divinity School. It’s produced by: Creator and Managing Editor, Joel Baden; Production Manager, Kelly Morrissey; Associate Producer, Aidan Stoddart; and I’m your Host and Executive Producer, Helena Martin. And our theme music is by Calvin Linderman.

We’ll be back with another conversation from Chapter, Verse, and Season.