Breaking Open

 

Photo credit here.

I wrote this benediction as the ending to my sermon entitled "Breaking Open." I had used Mary Oliver's poem "Lead" as a call throughout the sermon. The majority is from Ephesians 3:17-21.

BENEDICTION

There are many stories to break your heart

May it break open and never close again to the rest of the world

For Jesus has come to be transfigured in us

That being rooted and established in love, we may have power

together with all God’s people

To grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ

And to experience this love that surpasses mere knowledge in the

fleshiness of our bodies

So we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God

Now to God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or

imagine, according to God’s power at work within us, to God be glory

in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever

and ever, Amen.

March 2025