The Son of God became the Son of Man so children of men could become children of God.
The second Sunday in Christmastide captures that consequence for us of the incarnation through choice of Ephesians 1 to parallel John 1
In Jesus Christ, we are told, God has granted us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We are chosen, destined..for adoption as his children…
We have redemption…forgiveness…grace…lavished on us…an inheritance…of glory…the seal of the promised Holy Spirit.
With the whole creation redeemed human beings, both Jews and Gentiles, are to be gathered up (with) all things in Christ
We are God's children - God has seen to that - and we must not forget what God has made us.
The writer to the Ephesians thrills with the dignity he sees Christ granting to a believer. Indeed scholars feel the passage traditionally attributed to St. Paul is actually a baptismal hymn slotted in at the beginning of the letter. The give away is the reference to the seal of the promised Holy Spirit.
This glorious passage celebrates the dignity we bear through our baptism into what Christ has done for us.
It announces the Good News, the whole Gospel of God and defines it for individuals and for the Church and the cosmos as no less than gather(ing) up (of) all things in Christ.
It's wonderful stuff - Ephesians 1:3-14 - and this week it resonated for me as former scientist with a humble reflection made years back by Francis Collins who directed the Human Genome Project and traced the 3000 million elements that determine the makeup of human beings.
Dr. Collins said: I experience a sense of awe at the realisation that humanity now knows something only God knew before. It is a deeply moving sensation that helps me appreciate the spiritual side of life.
To draw an analogy just as 20 years ago what had always been the case for human make up was made known so 2000 years ago we had made known the wonder of redemption through Christ who made known to us the mystery of (God's) will.
What had never been known to other than God himself came out in Jesus - that all things are to be ultimately gathered up in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.
The genetic makeup of human beings known to God for all ages was revealed 20 years ago and has been profitably shared since bringing knowledge of the wonder of our nature.
When Ephesians was written almost 2000 years ago Jesus Christ had just lived, died and been raised.
The Good News of what God has in store for human beings was always in the heart and mind of God. One April morning it burst upon the world.
What God knew already became our knowledge through faith in the Lord's resurrection - redemption… forgiveness… a gathering together of all things… grace… lavished on us… an inheritance… of glory… the seal of the promised Holy Spirit… every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
As science uncovers more and more of the awesome nature of a human being
Christianity rejoices at knowledge revealed at the start of the Christian era which thrills through the New Testament - it concerns truth and grace - what grace !- the grace of a God who stoops down to our level to be heart to heart with us.
Science can write the footnote to the poem C.S. Lewis used to say but Christianity is the poem itself
To note the 3000 million elements in our genetic code is something of a 'footnote' to a greater 'poem' or story of the One who contains all knowledge - and of his love for our rebel race:
You knew my soul and my bones were not hidden from you: when I was formed in secret and woven in the depths of the earth… wrote the Psalmist (139:14-18) How deep are your thoughts to me O God: and how great is the sum of them! Were I to count them they are more in number than the sand..
What must he be like who made us and knows us through and through as the work of his hands?
What must he be like who made all things? The All-knowing, All-powerful Lord? Yet the One who knows us and loves us through and through?
What must he be like? Do you ever think of that? We should think it for we are destined to be with him forever and we need to be prepared.
Scripture says by his word we were made - so we are like his thoughts, his words expressed outwardly.
More poetically, if he is the singer, we are the song. Imagine yourselves as a song created by God - and could you, as a song, imagine the one who sings you?
Such is the difference between God and us - and yet there is an affinity, a sameness in Jesus.
The love I have for you, my Lord, is only a shadow of your love for me wrote Carey Landry.
My own belief in you, my Lord, is only a shadow of your faith in me.
The dream I have today, my Lord, is only a shadow of your dreams for me.
The joy I feel today, my Lord, is only a shadow of your joys for me; when we meet face to face.
We have gathered to celebrate the Eucharist. Our Scripture passage is an early 'eucharistic prayer' in that it gives thanks for our salvation. Into our eucharistic prayer week by week we weave our own personal thanksgiving for our life and health and strength, for our families and communities into the Church's prayer of thanksgiving.
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!
Into that rich tapestry we call the 'Eucharistic Prayer' or prayer of thanksgiving let us weave also thanks for the awesome design we now know we bear with all its 3000 million components!
God knows every one of those components - and he knows more - he knows our hearts and - more than that even - quite without reason or beyond reason or science - he loves what he knows.
God knows us through and through and he loves us through and through - and no scientist will tell me that but Jesus Christ alone - to whom be glory in this Eucharist, with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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