A sermon by Dagmar Heller on Ephesians 3:14-19

Homily preached by Rev Dagmar Heller
at the closing worship of the Bossey Ecumenical Institute Graduate School 2009/2010

Biblical text: Ephesians 3:14-19
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Dear sisters and brothers,
This text was originally chosen by our six religious sisters for today’s evening prayer. And when I read it, I thought: It seems that they must have something like a prophetic skill. Because, isn’t this a perfect text for the end of a Graduate School? What could be more appropriate for such an occasion than a prayer to God the Father for the people who have been our students and who are now about either to leave to go home to their countries or to continue with further studies?
“I pray that … he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being … and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith … I pray that you may have the power to comprehend …and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filed with all the fullness of God.”
This is a whole series of wishes, but there are mainly three things Paul is praying for.
There is a prayer that your “inner being” be strengthened. And this strengthening has three components. It is “with power through his spirit”, and “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith”, “as you are rooted and grounded in love”. In other words, this strength is a power which is given by the spirit; It means that Christ should be in the centre of your life – this is meant by the idea of him dwelling in our hearts; And this is shown in mutual love, in the life of the community. The inner being thus is not just limited to the individual person and her inner feelings and thoughts, but it is part of the life of community. – So far the first wish.

The second concern Paul has is not just an additional wish, but it is a further step, which builds on the strength of the inner being: “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ…” – It is about comprehension and knowledge. If you have the inner strength in the power of the spirit and in the love of Christ in the community, then you can reach understanding, comprehension of what we are, where we are coming from, where we are going to … And there is an interesting remark: this comprehension is “with all the saints”. Maybe this sounds a bit strange, but this says nothing other than: you cannot reach comprehension just by remaining by yourself, in your study room – comprehension happens in community, together with your brothers and sisters in faith.

And this is what we hope can happen here in Bossey. This is what we hope happened to you – at least to a certain extent. We, the teachers and the staff, we cannot MAKE this happen, we can only pray that you experienced something of this.
But this experience here in Bossey is not and should not be something which is limited to this place. You are now going home, going to your families, serving your churches. And we hope and pray that you will convey something of this experience to the people you meet there.
But – those of you, who did their research papers with me, have probably noticed that one of my favorite questions is “why?” Why do we pray that you are strengthened in your inner being? Why do we pray that you comprehend and know the love of God?
Paul gives the answer in his third concern: "so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”. This is the last aim of our journey as Christians, to reach the fullness of God, to no longer be separated from him, to see him as he is.
I cannot say it better than Paul did. The prayer of Paul is my wish for you, and I would like just to summarize it: It is my wish for you and for us all: that you may return to your homes, strengthened in your inner being, through the power of the Spirit and through Christ in your hearts and through your communion with your friends, your brothers and sisters from other churches as you found them here in Bossey, so that you may comprehend and know the love of Christ in order to reach God in his fullness.
Amen.

Copyright (c) Dagmar Heller