It’s a big Greek word

Ephesians 1:10
In the plan of the fullness of time, to bring together all things in Christ, the things in heaven and the things in the earth.

            Today as we come toward the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of the New calendar year, I want to focus on one word; might help with New Year’s resolutions. Anakefalaiosasthai. It’s a big Greek word that I hadn’t seen before. Kefale is in there and that means head, like the medical condition microcephaly or having a small head. But the big word itself means something like, gathering into a head, or union under one thing. So like how those people with five or more dogs, gather the leads into their hand, or the dogs being under their authority, at least sometimes. Another example is really any organisation, our LCA is gathered under our Bishop John Henderson, our country is gathered under our Prime Minister Scott Morrison, or maybe under Queen Elizabeth; either way, we know what it is to be under a head, to listen to someone above us calling the shots, or having people under us listening to our words. One example all of us have seen is parents.

            Now why do I bring this concept up? Well, Paul wrote to the Ephesians that God’s mysterious plan was revealed after Christ’s resurrection and then spread by Christians; and that plan is that at the fullness of time, in the incarnation as we heard last week, all things would be gathered together, everything above and below, spiritual, fleshy, doesn’t matter, all creation would be gathered in Jesus Christ, the head. Now what is the Holy Spirit telling us about God? About Jesus who is human, fully reconciled with divine, creator and creation as one person. What does it mean that Jesus is the head over all things? That Jesus gathers all things into Himself?

            Now we’re gonna talk about that later, but let’s think about how a head works for ourselves. Just your body. You have a head, it does the seeing, the thinking, all that stuff; then you have parts under your head, arms, stomach, nether regions … Now I have control over my arms don’t I? … Yes, I make them move. But sometimes my arms go against my head, against what I want to do; like my stomach when it tells me ‘I need to eat’, or tells me ‘I need more cake’, ‘I should have another beer’. Sometimes I tell my stomach to ‘get back into line’, ‘be quiet I’m in charge’, I bring my stomach under my headship. And other times we let our lower parts take control and things start to get out of hand, maybe even fall apart, which of course is where we get the word ‘dickhead’ from.

            So we see that we have a head, a goal, the one our body listens to, … or doesn’t. And we have those lower parts that might not always want to be who God has told us to be, those desires that seek to take control and take focus off of Christ, our goal. We call Christ our head, the church His body (Ephesians 5:23). So then what does this word, anakefalaiosasthai, mean for you? We are being gathered in Christ and under Him, by God the Father (John 6:44). So as our head, we listen to His Word, He is The Word (John 1:1), as He calls us to a new everlasting life in Him, to forgiveness and separation from your sin, to be children of God as He has called us to be (Mark 9:7). Being conformed, brought in line with, Jesus, God’s Son (Romans 8:29).

            And so hear His Word again: the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, now and to life everlasting. Amen.

Pastor Joseph Graham.