This week our worship will be rooted in Ephesians 2.1-7.
Here is a paraphrase of this passage written by the Rev. Steve Garness Holmes written in 2012.
Once you were drowning in a chaos of fear and desire
that sucked all the life out of you,
tyrannized by voices outside of you,
enslaved by the prince of power,
indebted to The Corporation,
obediently oblivious.
All of us have been there,
children of anxiety, shards of ourselves,
desperate for our own lives.
But the Loving One, who is pure tenderness,
loving us infinitely,
rises to life in us,
pushes us out of those mass graves,
and makes us alive, reclaiming us
as part of God’s great, holy presence on earth.
By pure gift—no reason but love!—you have been rescued.
God raises us up from death with the risen Christ,
and restores our belonging at the heart of life.
God’s gentle kindness—you get a taste of it in Jesus—
blossoms within us with blessings beyond our knowing,
blessings that outlast everything you see.
God has saved your life—trust it.
And be grateful, not smug:
this is not your doing, but God’s.
It’s pure gift, unconditional and absolute;
nothing you do can even influence it.
God created you good, and nothing can undo that.
You are part of God’s love made real in this life:
that’s your true self.
Who you are, and the reason you exist,
is beautiful love.
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