Showers of Blessing - At the core, the God is described by the writer is beneficent, One who consistently intends to confer salvation and blessing. This passage too insists that praise is the only appropriate response we can offer to such a God.

Every Spiritual Blessing (v.3) = highlights the completeness of God’s salvation.

Heavenly Places (v.3) = In Ephesian cosmology, refers to God’s dwelling but can also be the abode of hostile powers (3:10, 6:12).

In Love (v. 4, 6) = stylistic marker; may refer to the motive for divine action

NIB on the Ephesian cosmology-

There is no reason for today’s believers to keep their faith locked up in the smaller universe of the first century. Add to that vision the mathematical speculations of physicists who imagine that there are other universes. Ephesians suggest that we stretch our imaginations. Before any of this even existed, God’s plan encompassed the human story of faith. Various astronomical theories, equations, and observations speculate about the probable fate of the material universe, but Ephesians assures us that God’s plan of salvation does not depend on these calculations and that somehow the universe is ordered so that all things return to God in Christ. [1]

Recall the images / photos that you’ve viewed of our blue and white marbled ball hanging in space, or of the Milky Way, or of the planets within our own private constellations as a way to imagine God’s scheme referred to in Ephesians 1.

Reflect on the implications of the Creator of all matter and material, who deigns to particularize blessing to humanity in general and Christians in particular. What response/s does such thinking evoke for you?

Please see the sermon archive for examples of several fine homilies on this passage.

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[1] The New Interpreter’s Bible XI (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000), page 378.