Partakers of God's Wisdom
We are continuing with the sermon series on Ephesians. On the PDF you will see a photo of a Japanese pottery bowl that was broken but put back together again. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold, silver, or platinum. Kintsugi is a combination of two Japanese words: “Kin” meaning gold and “Tsugi” meaning joinery or repair. So literally, golden joinery. This art form does not hide the breakage or flaws but draws attention to how they can be put together. Gleaming seams hold together what was once divided.
In this morning’s reading from Ephesians 3 we will hear about the mystery of Christ, how the mystery of Christ was revealed to the church, “so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:10). God has a plan to reconcile and unite creation and the church is the steward of God’s plan. In a divided world, can the church be the world’s “golden joinery”?
Joined together in Christ
Today we are continuing our series on Ephesians. In our scripture lesson, we gentiles “strangers to the covenants of promise,” “aliens to the commonwealth of Israel” “have been brought near by the blood of Christ”. Our reconciliation with God is accompanied by reconciliation with others so that there is now “one humanity in place of two.” With the gift of salvation comes the gift of association with all sorts of people. This morning let’s praise God for graciously including us in this incredibly diverse body of Christ.
God's Work of Art
We are God’s work of art according to the New Jerusalem translation of Ephesians 2:10. Though God created us as incredibly good creatures, designed to do good work, sin marred the relationship as humans chose to follow the ways of this world. The result was we became trapped, ensnared in a web of sin. But God who is rich in mercy and love, freed us from bondage, restored us to life, and fashioned us into a new human. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we are new humans—God’s work of art, created for good works.
