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Rooted and Grounded in Love


“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,[ 15 from whom every family[b] in heaven and
on earth takes its name. 16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you
may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit 17 and that Christ may
dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18 I pray that
you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and
height and depth 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be
filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:14-19


Today, and for the next 3 days please hold in your prayers, our Regional Council’s Annual
General Meeting, which begins today in Prince George, ends on Sunday.
Through worship our gathered church members will explore Paul’s prayer to the church in
Ephesus to help guide us in our call as Christ’s body in this time and place. Those of us not
attending, can give support through prayer and by meditating on Paul’s words.
Rev. Ingrid Brown, Weird Church, Cumberland, chair of Theme and Worship for this year’s
annual meeting invites us all to:


“… to take a deep breath…. send your gratitude down into the ancient lands below you, giving
thanks to the ancestors’ past, present and future. With your attention in the earth, can you
imagine your spiritual roots digging deep into the nourishing soil? Remember these roots are
connected to the Great Family Tree of our faith. We are tapped into the faithfulness of
Abraham and Sarah, the imagination of Jacob, the loyalty of Ruth, the wisdom of Solomon, the
courage of Mary.”


Following Pentecost Sunday, we are reminded that God’s Spirit is identified with the Hebrew
word ruach, which also means breath. Breath evokes the sense of the intimacy and presence of
the Spirit, who is with us always, even when we are unaware of it. Ruach is the breath of life
and the power to live (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Creation emerges out of the energies of God’s own
Spirit, bridging the gulf between Creator and creator, actor and act, and master and work.
Human creativity is intimately bound up in God’s own creativity. Ruach can give life to the
lifeless and bring renewed life to those who have no hope. The Spirit of God is at work in
creation.


May the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s breath and Jesus’s love root and
ground you in love.


And so we pray,


Loving God
As we see plump, juicy tomatoes growing on the vine
(not now, but sure to come),
we recognize that good gardeners know
they need rich, fertile soil
to grow strong, healthy plants.
You’ve designed us the same way,
and the absolutely essential ingredient
for healthy growth as a Christian is
love.
When we are rooted in it, grounded in it,
by your Gardener-Spirit,
we grow strong and healthy.
Because your love is so overpowering
and incomprehensible to us—mere humans,
we need your strength to comprehend it—
no measuring tape or smart phone app can reach
far enough, long enough, deep enough, or wide enough,
to measure your love.
Not even the string theory physicists
can comprehend it,
for it “surpasses knowledge.”
Only by your Spirit working in us
can we know this love.
So Lord, we ask,
please please renew our minds and hearts
so that we can grasp it
and grow in it and be filled with all your fullness,
that we may bear the fruit of love
in your glorious kingdom.
In Jesus’ incomprehensibly loving name. Amen.