Ephesians 4:1–16
Ephesians 4:1-16, a reading from this week’s lectionary, is full of abolition-adjacent imagery. Paul calls himself “the prisoner in the Lord,” he quotes scriptures declaring “he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” And he alludes to the ascension and descension of Christ.
But it’s the imagery of the body, Christ’s body, that is perhaps most compelling to me in this moment. “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
It is the declaration that Christ is above all, through all, and in all, that ought to compel us as Christians and abolitionists. Where others see outcasts, we are to see Christ, and ourselves. Where others drive to division and dissension, we see that we are connected. And we understand that this connection is not a false harmony built on centrism, but instead a declaration of our mutual benefit when we live together under the Lord.
“In a real sense all life is inter-related. All [people] are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny,” Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said. “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
“Abolition is about presence, not absence. It’s about building life-affirming institutions,” abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore declared.
It is my hope that we will take this lesson and seek to better love and care for those imprisoned, as we are intimately connected and dependent on them, through Christ, and through our commitments to God.
Mitchell Atencio (he/him/his) is a discalced writer and photographer in Washington, D.C.