Dear Friend,
At our Pizza and Catechism gathering tonight, I will teach children and youth at Willowdale to hallow the name of our Father in heaven. I will teach them to know God truly.
Lord, help me.
At the height of his inspiration by the Holy Spirit—when composing 1st Corinthians 13, the greatest love song ever written—the Apostle Paul confesses, “we know only in part.” (1st Cor. 13:9) Since knowing-in-part describes the inventor of Christian theology, what does it imply about you and me?
It implies that we need one another, and all the saints, even to begin to know our Lord. I call on the Pauline prayer that goes: “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.” (Ephesians 3:18-19)
I am told that in the African American tradition, if a congregation sees a preacher struggling, some will call out: “Jesus, help that man.” I would welcome a version of that prayer today. And because I love this benediction so much, I pass it on to you:
“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)
Love,
Joel