“For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”
The Apostle Paul, Ephesians 2:6, New Living Translation
I got out of my seat. Even after spending months meditating on these words of the Apostle Paul and finally getting the chance on Friday to put my poetic thoughts to paper, I left my seat, and all that it means in terms of my peace, rest, and authority, over a simple miscommunication with my wife and a tick bite. Saturday morning began with an argument over my youngest son’s boots before heading out to the apple orchard and ended with the discovery of a tick on my left side (likely a hitchhiker from Friday afternoon’s disc golf round at Memorial Park) after a Fall evening gig just outside of town. I lost it. There was no peace, no joy, no rest; I did not address either situation with any authority or power. I opened the door to anger, shock, and trauma.
Since then, it’s been confession, repentance, and seeking forgiveness. It’s been the blessing of a family of believers, both genetic and spiritual, who love and encourage me in my walk as a father, son, and brother. This miscommunication and tick bite are but microcosms of our world at large, and most people respond no differently than I did in the moment to the greater miscommunications and offenses of our time.
But Jesus didn’t call me (or any disciple) to be like most people.
I’m not perfect, and odds are, I’ll hop off that seat many times over the course of my life, but I’ll never lose that seat. As I say in my poem, it’s “ensured and reserved.” I structured the poem around the six Biblical words that speak to what it means to “be seated with Christ in heavenly places.” Each stanza is a haiku, a form chosen because of the tight focus it puts on what one is trying to say by limiting the writer to seventeen syllables. May this poem be an invitation to join me and the millions of other believers who have found a place at the right hand of our Heavenly Father in Christ Jesus, a true place of deepening.
Seated
Vincent H. Anastasi 2020
δεξιός – HONOR
Unseen, I’m seated,
Robed at right hand resplendent,
Garlan’d with your grace.
ἐξουσία – AUTHORITY
My words carry weight –
“Thus say I,” by Him endowed;
Even mountains move.
שַׁבָּת – REST
Reclined at Your side
In finished work perfection,
I too sleep through storms –
δύναμις – POWER
Potency of rest
Moored to eternal bedrock:
Faith’s great dynamo.
συγκαθίζω – UNITY
Spirit and flesh yoked,
We plow the heavens in prayer,
one voice in one blood:
נָעִים – JOY
Ensured and reserved,
Fullness of joy compacted,
Forever anchored.
the deepening ground 