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By Marni McGee
Today, Ephesus, or what’s left of that once-great city, lies on the western edge of modern Turkey, about five miles inland from the Aegean coast – across the sea from Greece. It’s no longer important geographically or politically, but in the early Christian era, Ephesus was a powerful city – one of the many cities where St. Paul traveled to preach the gospel. He established many communities of faith and later wrote to the Christians in those places. The book of Ephesians is one such letter. I’d like for us to consider some of the concepts in the opening chapter. The first verse is not so different from the style of a modern letter. We learn who it’s from and to whom it was written: “Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul’s greeting is interesting: He says, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” The word “Grace” was a typical Greek greeting, and “Peace” was a typical Hebrew greeting. Paul combined the two in this letter. In the Christian context, “grace” as a greeting was more than “hello.” It expresses something far deeper. It speaks of the ineffable joy flowing outward from the fountain of God’s abundant love, forgiveness and mercy, knowing that these gifts come to us without the slightest merit of our own. Similarly, “God’s peace” is, yes, the quietness and tranquillity of a soul in harmony with the Creator. But that phrase too goes deeper, symbolizing one of the great values of Christianity – the belief that peace in all its forms is far better than war – in all its forms.
Following Paul’s greetings to the Ephesians comes an exuberant song of praise: “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.”
What an extraordinary statement! God destined each one of us for adoption through Christ – even before the foundation of the world. Adoption is a choice – a dramatic, powerful act of love. Paul’s message is not just for the Ephesians. It’s for us as well. We have been chosen. We have been adopted by God.
I recently saw a short but powerful video filmed in Africa showing an astonishing act of kindness within the animal kingdom. One of the animals was a lion. Lions, don’t forget, are carnivores – they eat meat. Lions will catch and eat anything from mice to elephants, but on this spectacular day, an elephant rescued a baby lion and carried him to safety in the curve of her trunk. It was a gesture that was eerily like a human mother – or father – cradling an infant in curve of her arm. The elephant had come across an exhausted lioness and her weakened cub as they desperately searched for water. The two were in great danger, and the elephant sensed their need for water. She understood: the cub couldn’t walk any further, and lioness wouldn’t abandon her young one. So that huge creature scooped up the little cub in her trunk and carried him to a watering hole while the lioness trotted along beside them. The lioness knew instinctively that all three of them were safe. The image was beautiful, and to me, the message was clear. It was about the grace of adoption that crosses borders, the grace that erases differences, the grace that erases danger.
I’m sure we all know of adoptions within our own families, neighbors and friends. It’s a beautiful thing – where it is formal and legal or not. A few weeks ago, Nancy Jessee told us that Le Bron James was adopted. He was not formally adopted but taken in by a wonderful man and his family. I was fascinated by Nancy’s story about Le Bron – because I really like and respect him. I looked up the story online to read more. There, I learned that Le Bron loves to tell kids about how being adopted in fifth grade completely changed his life. He doesn’t talk about how much money he makes or how fantastically he plays. He tells them about the people who took him in. He tells them about the man who loved this shy, awkward, huge boy and taught him to play basketball. That man made the choice to love.
God has chosen us to be his through adoption. There is freedom, love and grace in that relationship. Mark Nepo writes in The Book of Awakening, that “the dearest things in life cannot be owned, but only shared. In truth,” he writes, “we share this mystery called life the way sea creatures share the ocean. While each . . . has its nest . . . none can live without the deep that flows through them all.”
I’ll close with Paul’s words in verses 13 and 14: “In him, when you had heard the . . . gospel of your salvation and had believed in him, you also 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.” These verses include, according to some biblical scholars, some of the grandest and most perplexing words in the Christian vocabulary: adoption, redemption and heritage.
