Embracing the body Week 1: Friday Reading Ephesians 4.7-16 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said, ‘When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.’ (When it says, ‘He ascended’, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. Reflection Oneness involves the body! Thanks in part to the legacy of “dualism” in Western thought we looked at yesterday, there has been a long history of seeing the body as less important than the spirit, or the material world as less valuable than the spiritual world. Christian theology has sometimes been charged with perpetuating deep suspicion or dislike for the body, seeing it as the place where sinfulness resides. But humans are embodied beings and true spirituality must include the body. Today’s reading from Ephesians describes the Christian community as “the body of Christ”. Christ became incarnate (literally, “took on flesh”) and became a human being to make God known to us. Christ lived, died and rose again in the body. When we say the Creed, we affirm our belief in “the resurrection of the body”. Bodies matter to God, too! Watch Think about the ways in which you see your body or treat your body. ...and pray for faith lives that are more grounded in our God-given bodies. Copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2024.
Compline for Holy Week with a short reflection at Edenfield Parish Church at 7.00pm Monday: The way of service John 13:1-9 Tuesday: The way of suffering Luke 22:14-20 Wednesday : The way of salvation John 12: 20-33 Please come and join us as we try to walk with our Lord during this Holy Week and prepare ourselves for the Holiest days in the Christian calendar.
Part of one unfolding story Week 1: Thursday Reading Ephesians 4.1-6 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over to this chariot and join it.’ So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: ‘Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.’ The eunuch asked Philip, ‘About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?’ Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?’ He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. Reflection Found on the “wilderness road”, an Ethiopian eunuch – a most unlikely character – learns the good news from Philip. He is devout. He is desiring to know the Hebrew Scriptures. But he is Black. He is a eunuch, which means that he is ritually impure according to ancient traditions. This is someone deemed illegitimate in every way, but nonetheless, one who is strategically part of the one unfolding Christian story begun in Acts. When we consider the history of Christianity, it is easy to forget how it has Black and marginal beginnings, and how Black and African wisdom and insights have formed it through the writings of Tertullian, Abba Moses, Augustine of Hippo and many others. The Christian church had been established in Ethiopia for over a thousand years when the European missionaries we mentioned yesterday arrived – supposedly – to “Christianise” Africa. Watch Take note of your reactions to the importance of Africa to the Early Church. ...and pray for a deepening openness to the Spirit's movements in all people and places. Copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2024.
The dangers of dualism Week 1: Wednesday Access an audio version of this reflection via our free app for Apple and Android devices. Reading Ephesians 4.1-6 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Reflection Ancient Greek and Roman thinking was strongly influenced by the notion that nature and life needed to be separated between the world that we can sense and the perfect world that we can only imagine: between the real world, and the ideal world. The Letter to the Ephesians rejects this kind of “dualism”, insisting on the reality of one God, one faith and one Christ. Yet dualistic thinking has caused problems for the Church from the outset. Accepting non-Jewish believers was the first hurdle of the Early Church. Later, European Christian missionaries to Africa and the Americas from the fifteenth century onwards treated indigenous cultures as idolatrous. Yet, these cultures were fertile grounds for the development of Christianity. Such “dualism” is dangerous because it creates division and conflict unnecessarily, hindering the good news of Jesus Christ. Watch Notice any moments when you begin to see life in black-and-white terms. ...and pray for the humility to accept grey and multi-coloured realities in life. Copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2024.
