Back to normal?

The Covid pandemic is not “over”, but we are thinking of a return to “normal”. Our reading from Ephesians (Ephesians 1:3-14) may take us by a different route, and to a version of normal we would do well to study. The letter begins by reminding us of our blessings – but not to follow it with some stern admonition to get back to work. Jesus was chosen, and we are chosen also to be adopted as children. This is part of God’s grace (for it doesn’t arise from anything else), something to be sung about (as soon as we are allowed!) and celebrated.

Then we hit verse 7 with surprise: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us”. Somehow we don’t expect to be talking about the sacrifice of Jesus, his death as the price of our forgiveness, at this point. It almost seems in bad taste, but let’s be careful. Whose agenda are we following here? Doesn’t the story of the last year lead on?

Why not tell this story now? Because it doesn’t fit with a secularised history. But our purpose is to tell the story of what God has done, not a story re-written for children (what we think they would like) or our own amusement (leaving out the difficult bits). God’s story has a harder edge – life and love in bad times as well as good. Sacrifice – voluntary self-sacrifice – is always part of it, as is conflict, and disinterest, and struggle.

Our becoming God’s children is to be seen in this way, too. Yes, there is a genuinely and importantly emotional aspect of it. We are accepted, we belong, we find our true identity. And we are to grow up, to understand “the mystery of his will”; to know God and his plan, and to make it known. Our aim is not the easy life, but life “for the praise of his glory”.

Yes, we are leaving lockdown and going back to routine. But while the world is tempted to write another history, we take with us the strength gained from the story written here. We know that there is more to understand and celebrate. We know that, just as the gospel story will make demands on Jesus life, so we are asked to do more than stand and watch. We are to be drawn in, to growing commitment, to service, and to life as God’s children in reality, not in fiction.

11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.” A rather different, and much better, understanding of normal life, for those who will live it.

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