There are some biblical texts and stories that naturally implant in the Christmastide memory and roll off the tongue.

The cosmic imagery of John’s prologue.
The poetry of Mary’s Magnificat.
The storybook details of Luke’s birth narratives.

This week’s lectionary epistle reading, Ephesians 1:3-14, is NOT one of those texts. In fact, within the linguistic linguini that makes up this lengthy unit there are some of the most broad-ranging, theologically controversial, eschatologically enigmatic ideas, all rolled into one long Greek sentence. The grammatically convoluted, densely woven text, while filled with beautiful words of praise and glory, has been grousely cited as “the most monstrous sentence conglomeration that I have ever found in the Greek language” (E. Nordeen, Agnostos theos: Unte…