I have some friends, a couple, who told me about moving to a new town several years ago and visiting the Episcopal Church there, a church they intended to make their home. They were welcomed at the service and at coffee—and were invited out to lunch with the priest and his wife, and another person, a lay-leader in the church. They settled in at the restaurant and the first thing the priest asked them was whether they were liberal or orthodox. Needless to say, this couple was pretty taken aback by this question; so often our denomination has been characterized by being open to a wide range of thinking, a denomination that has encouraged us to think about our faith and the consequences of our faith for our lives without dictating exactly what that should be, what it should look like. My friends certainly didn’t expect to hear this kind of question. And I would hope that if they showed up here, we wouldn’t ask them this question!
We tend too often to label ourselves and others, don’t we? Liberal or conservative, progressive or orthodox. Reasserters or reappraisers. And those are just some labels being tossed around in church circles these days. Add in our political leanings: again liberal or conservative, democrat or republican. CNN or Fox News.
Even further: introvert or extrovert, male or female, rich or poor, black or white.
And I don’t think any of these are right or wrong.
But we start getting in trouble when we identify ourselves with certain labels, and demonize those who may be on the opposite end of the spectrum. When we think we have all the answers, and those who disagree are discounted, shut out and alienated.
In the 1st century, there were few people further apart than Jews and Gentiles. The circumcised versus the uncircumcised. God’s chosen people against the nations, never mind that the Jews were chosen to be God’s people in order to be a light to all the nations, all the gentiles. In his commentary, William Barclay further explains the alienation and hostility between the two, and especially on the part of the Jews. He wrote:
The Jew had an immense contempt for the Gentile. The Gentiles, said the Jews, were created by God to be fuel for the fires of hell. God, they said, loved only Israel of all the nations that he had made . . . It was not even lawful to render help to a Gentile mother in her hour of sorest need, for that would simply be to bring another Gentile into the world. Until Christ came, the Gentiles were an object of contempt to the Jews. The barrier between them was absolute. If a Jewish boy married a Gentile girl, or if a Jewish girl married a Gentile boy, the funeral of that Jewish boy or girl was carried out. Such contact with a Gentile was the equivalent of death (qtd. Stott, John. The Message of Ephesians. IVP p. 91).
And this is the situation that Paul is speaking into in our Epistle. He first reminds his Gentile audience that before Jesus Christ, the people of Ephesus and Asia Minor, called the uncircumcision, were without Christ—and now they were in Christ. Before they were alienated from Israel, and now they too were God’s people. Before they were strangers to the covenants of promise—and they were now no longer strangers but friends of the promise, included in the covenants. Before they were without hope, no anticipation of relief, and in Christ they have hope. Before they were without God, and now they had been brought into relationship with God. Paul explains that even though they—who are now in Christ—they had been far off, and now they were brought near to God by the blood of Christ. This is sacrificial language—Christ died in order to bring them—and us—into a relationship with God. He died in our place, for our gain. The work of Christ brings us close to God.
How does this happen? Paul explains that Jesus himself is our peace. Christ equals peace, and peace equals Christ. He is peace, makes peace, proclaims peace. We have peace with God and each other, and the peace of Christ breaks down barriers, walls of hostility that divide. “The law as a set of regulations that excludes Gentiles” (Snodgrass, Kyle. The NIV Application Commentary: Ephesians. Zondervan p.133) is abolished. Gentiles are now included and accepted by God in Christ in the same manner as Jews. This destruction of hostility is accomplished by the Incarnation and especially by the death of Jesus—he took the sins and hostilities of Jews and Gentiles and all of us with him when he died, and in himself, in his body Christ creates a new humanity, a new people incorporated into his body. This brings peace and reconciliation. Through Christ’s death and resurrection we are brought into a relationship with God, and we are connected with each other in Christ. “Divided humanity is reconciled in Christ and joined into a unified, worshipping community” (ibid 134-5), a new man, a new race. No more name calling, no more labels, no more walls.
Through Jesus’ death on the cross, we have been reconciled with God and with each other. We are made one body to the end that hostility must cease. But it is God who by his grace always does the reconciling—he takes the initiative at restoring relations.
Jesus came to preach peace to those who were far off and to those who were near—to the Gentiles and to the Jews—and through him we have access to God by the Holy Spirit. It is by the work of the Holy Spirit that we are incorporated into Christ, united with each other, and have access to the very presence of God.
And now the Gentiles are citizens, part of God’s own household, fellow citizens, joined together, being built together as God’s people, the holy ones. Those who were excluded and alienated are now included and incorporated, sharing in the privileges that Israel has enjoyed as God’s chosen people.
The household of God is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and Jesus Christ himself is the cornerstone. He makes the whole structure possible. He is strength and security. He is the one on whom AND IN WHOM the whole building exists. In him the building is bound together—he is the cement. In him the building becomes a temple. In him the Gentiles and the Jews are built together to be God’s dwelling. All union with God and with each other is in Christ. The ones who were excluded from the temple now become the temple—God’s temple. Christ and his followers are the new temple, replacing the physical building in Jerusalem. In Christ we are a holy temple because God dwells in us. We are in Christ—he is our home. And together with Christ we are God’s dwelling place—we are his home.
When we consider the walls and labels that divide us, that become barriers to our peace and unity with each other, we must also consider what Paul has said about the wall of separation between the Jew and the Gentile—the wall that has been destroyed by Christ.
In his letter to the Galatians St. Paul explains that in Christ there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, but all are one—in Christ Jesus. And that’s the key. We are one in Christ Jesus. We are one, united with him, part of his one body, when we are in Christ Jesus. When he is the center, when he is the vine. When we confess that Jesus Christ and his life, death and resurrection are the focus of our life together. When we hold fast to the uniqueness of Jesus as the way to salvation. When we hold forth the Creeds of our church—because they emphasize Christ. Jesus is the main subject and the center point of our creeds. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. With Jesus as our center, as our foundation, as our cornerstone we are called to live in peace and unity. God in the flesh walked among us, died for us, was raised for us, intercedes for us, in order for us to be reconciled with God and with each other—in Christ. He is our peace. He is our unity. He is our reconciliation.
But when we forget Christ, when we fail to affirm the uniqueness and primacy of Christ, when he is marginalized and discounted, there is no hope of unity and peace.
Jesus is Lord.
Amen.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
July 12 Proper 10
Good morning!! Today I’m going to talk about geography, kind of a strange subject for a sermon. And, no, there’s not going to be a test. And it’s not about mountains and rivers, topography. It’s not about states and capitals. It’s a bit more personal than all that—our personal geography.
When someone asks where you are from, what do you say? For many that’s pretty simple, you state where you grew up perhaps. Or if you are traveling you might give the name of your home city or state. When people ask me where I’m from, it’s a little more difficult. It depends on the conversation, who I’m talking to, and discerning whether they want the long answer or the short answer. The somewhat long answer is that I lived in 8 states before I was 10 years old—my dad was a civil engineer in heavy construction and we went where the jobs were: dams, bridges, pipelines and such. Then we moved to Littleton, Colorado, and I spent the remainder of my childhood there. My young adult years were also spent in Colorado, and in 1993 Larry and I moved to Illinois—his home.
The short answer to the question as to where I’m from would be that I grew up in Colorado and moved to Illinois in ’93.
When someone asks you where you live, present tense, it’s easy to get pretty specific isn’t it? Larry and I live at 12806 Mallard Dr., Whittington, Franklin County IL, USA.
When we think about these questions, we do think in terms of geography, don’t we. Physical locations. But I’d like to challenge you to think differently.
Our Epistle today is the opening sentences of St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians—one of my favorite books. It’s in the standard style and form of a 1st century letter. When we write formal letters—probably almost a lost art with the advent of email and text messages, we start by greeting the recipient: Dear so and so, And we end with a salutation and our name, right? They did it a bit differently, starting by naming the author of the letter, in this case Paul who further identifies himself as an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. And then he notes the recipients: To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Did you hear that? To the saints who are in Ephesus, a geographical location are also in Christ Jesus. In Ephesus and in Jesus.
The phrase “in Christ” is dominant throughout the 6 chapters that make up the letter to the Ephesians. “In Christ” or “in Him” or “in whom” appear over 30 times in this letter, and a third of the occurrences are in the first 14 verses, today’s lessons. We are to live both in a specific place, and in Christ. The Christian faith is to be such a union with the Lord that we actually live in him—he is our home. It is in him that we live and move and have our being. “To live in Christ is to be determined by him. He shapes who we are” (Snodgrass, Klyne. The NIV Application Commentary: Ephesians. Zondervan p. 42). This idea will have implications for our salvation and for our lives in our churches and in our world.
Paul’s letter continues with a doxology, blessing and praising God for all he has done for Jews, for Gentiles, for us. The language is effusive and majestic, building and developing, setting the tone for the rest of the letter. There are so many riches and so much deepness in these 14 verses—just 2 sentences in the original Greek, that it’s impossible to mine the depths in a brief sermon. But since I started with geography, with the idea of being in Christ, we’ll look at a few of the benefits that come with being in Christ.
First of all, God blessed us in Christ to be holy. We are incorporated into the mystical body of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are in Christ, in his body and that’s where we reside. If we live in Christ, that defines us and our lives become more and more determined by the character of Christ. He is our environment. When we sin, we forget where we live. We forget our home—we forget who we are and whose we are. When we live in Christ we are empowered by his spirit, and we live progressively more holy and blameless lives. We tend to focus on Christ being in us, inviting God into our hearts, but the idea of living in Christ is much greater. “If we emphasize only that Christ is in us, we define reality, and Christ is about one inch tall. If we realize we are in Christ, he determines reality and encompasses all that we are” (ibid p.63).
We were chosen in Christ, destined and elected. God chose us first. The initiative is God’s, based on grace. We were destined by God for relationship with him, to be his children. This doesn’t remove individual responsibility, but our actions and decision for Christ are a response to his action towards us. The focus is on God and his grace. And our election is always in and through Christ. The question is not whether one is elect, but whether one is in Christ.
In Christ we are redeemed—we are set free from the bondage of sin through the payment of a price—the blood if Christ. Through Jesus’ sacrificial death he paid for our sins once and for all. In Christ we receive forgiveness. We no longer live under the bondage and tyranny of sin, but because we have been forgiven we live under the Lordship of Christ—we live in Christ. And all this is because of the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. In Christ we are inundated with God’s grace, God’s unbelievable and undeserved acceptance of us. The initiative is God’s and it is in and through Christ Jesus. It is grace upon grace, to the praise of his glorious and amazing and abundant grace.
In Christ we have the revelation of God’s will. In Christ, through the gospel, God’s purpose and work are revealed. The hidden is revealed. The mystery is made known. And God will complete his plan of salvation. The whole universe will be reconciled in Christ as Lord of all. The fulfillment of God’s purposes began with Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and in the fullness of time all things will be united and reconciled in Christ.
In Christ we are marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit. When we become Christians we receive the Spirit as a deposit or guarantee of our life with God—marked as God’s own forever. The Holy Spirit is the payment of a deposit on our lives, a guarantee that our inheritance of life with God will be delivered.
To summarize, “God blessed us, chose us from eternity, graced us, planned for us, sent Christ for us, revealed to us, will sum up all things in Christ in whom we have a part, gave us the Spirit as a guarantee, and will redeem us as his own people” (ibid 66-7). And all of this is in and through Christ.
For Paul, salvation is not about asking Jesus into your heart so you can go to heaven. It’s about faith in Jesus, but a faith that results in being united with Christ, living in Christ. It’s not about believing facts, about reciting formula for salvation, but about being joined to Christ. Once again, it is in him that we live and move and have our being. He is our home.
When we live in Christ, wrong allegiances and tyrannies lose their power. Jesus is our Lord, establishing our very being. It’s been said that being a Christians is about Being, not Doing. It’s about being determined by our life in Christ. Our geography is that we live in Christ, and are part of Christ. We are not simply individuals, but incorporated into Christ Jesus and will more and more act in accord with who he is. All that we do, good and bad, involves Christ and we are transformed into his likeness. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul says that “he who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion” (1:6).
Where do you live? What is your geography? What does it means for you to live in ______________ and in Christ. What’s the significance for ________ that you live in Christ? What’s the significance for Jesus Christ that you live in _________? We need to reconcile the place that we live and the Christ in whom we live. How are you called to live in Christ and in ___________? Where do you live?
When someone asks where you are from, what do you say? For many that’s pretty simple, you state where you grew up perhaps. Or if you are traveling you might give the name of your home city or state. When people ask me where I’m from, it’s a little more difficult. It depends on the conversation, who I’m talking to, and discerning whether they want the long answer or the short answer. The somewhat long answer is that I lived in 8 states before I was 10 years old—my dad was a civil engineer in heavy construction and we went where the jobs were: dams, bridges, pipelines and such. Then we moved to Littleton, Colorado, and I spent the remainder of my childhood there. My young adult years were also spent in Colorado, and in 1993 Larry and I moved to Illinois—his home.
The short answer to the question as to where I’m from would be that I grew up in Colorado and moved to Illinois in ’93.
When someone asks you where you live, present tense, it’s easy to get pretty specific isn’t it? Larry and I live at 12806 Mallard Dr., Whittington, Franklin County IL, USA.
When we think about these questions, we do think in terms of geography, don’t we. Physical locations. But I’d like to challenge you to think differently.
Our Epistle today is the opening sentences of St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians—one of my favorite books. It’s in the standard style and form of a 1st century letter. When we write formal letters—probably almost a lost art with the advent of email and text messages, we start by greeting the recipient: Dear so and so, And we end with a salutation and our name, right? They did it a bit differently, starting by naming the author of the letter, in this case Paul who further identifies himself as an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. And then he notes the recipients: To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Did you hear that? To the saints who are in Ephesus, a geographical location are also in Christ Jesus. In Ephesus and in Jesus.
The phrase “in Christ” is dominant throughout the 6 chapters that make up the letter to the Ephesians. “In Christ” or “in Him” or “in whom” appear over 30 times in this letter, and a third of the occurrences are in the first 14 verses, today’s lessons. We are to live both in a specific place, and in Christ. The Christian faith is to be such a union with the Lord that we actually live in him—he is our home. It is in him that we live and move and have our being. “To live in Christ is to be determined by him. He shapes who we are” (Snodgrass, Klyne. The NIV Application Commentary: Ephesians. Zondervan p. 42). This idea will have implications for our salvation and for our lives in our churches and in our world.
Paul’s letter continues with a doxology, blessing and praising God for all he has done for Jews, for Gentiles, for us. The language is effusive and majestic, building and developing, setting the tone for the rest of the letter. There are so many riches and so much deepness in these 14 verses—just 2 sentences in the original Greek, that it’s impossible to mine the depths in a brief sermon. But since I started with geography, with the idea of being in Christ, we’ll look at a few of the benefits that come with being in Christ.
First of all, God blessed us in Christ to be holy. We are incorporated into the mystical body of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are in Christ, in his body and that’s where we reside. If we live in Christ, that defines us and our lives become more and more determined by the character of Christ. He is our environment. When we sin, we forget where we live. We forget our home—we forget who we are and whose we are. When we live in Christ we are empowered by his spirit, and we live progressively more holy and blameless lives. We tend to focus on Christ being in us, inviting God into our hearts, but the idea of living in Christ is much greater. “If we emphasize only that Christ is in us, we define reality, and Christ is about one inch tall. If we realize we are in Christ, he determines reality and encompasses all that we are” (ibid p.63).
We were chosen in Christ, destined and elected. God chose us first. The initiative is God’s, based on grace. We were destined by God for relationship with him, to be his children. This doesn’t remove individual responsibility, but our actions and decision for Christ are a response to his action towards us. The focus is on God and his grace. And our election is always in and through Christ. The question is not whether one is elect, but whether one is in Christ.
In Christ we are redeemed—we are set free from the bondage of sin through the payment of a price—the blood if Christ. Through Jesus’ sacrificial death he paid for our sins once and for all. In Christ we receive forgiveness. We no longer live under the bondage and tyranny of sin, but because we have been forgiven we live under the Lordship of Christ—we live in Christ. And all this is because of the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. In Christ we are inundated with God’s grace, God’s unbelievable and undeserved acceptance of us. The initiative is God’s and it is in and through Christ Jesus. It is grace upon grace, to the praise of his glorious and amazing and abundant grace.
In Christ we have the revelation of God’s will. In Christ, through the gospel, God’s purpose and work are revealed. The hidden is revealed. The mystery is made known. And God will complete his plan of salvation. The whole universe will be reconciled in Christ as Lord of all. The fulfillment of God’s purposes began with Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and in the fullness of time all things will be united and reconciled in Christ.
In Christ we are marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit. When we become Christians we receive the Spirit as a deposit or guarantee of our life with God—marked as God’s own forever. The Holy Spirit is the payment of a deposit on our lives, a guarantee that our inheritance of life with God will be delivered.
To summarize, “God blessed us, chose us from eternity, graced us, planned for us, sent Christ for us, revealed to us, will sum up all things in Christ in whom we have a part, gave us the Spirit as a guarantee, and will redeem us as his own people” (ibid 66-7). And all of this is in and through Christ.
For Paul, salvation is not about asking Jesus into your heart so you can go to heaven. It’s about faith in Jesus, but a faith that results in being united with Christ, living in Christ. It’s not about believing facts, about reciting formula for salvation, but about being joined to Christ. Once again, it is in him that we live and move and have our being. He is our home.
When we live in Christ, wrong allegiances and tyrannies lose their power. Jesus is our Lord, establishing our very being. It’s been said that being a Christians is about Being, not Doing. It’s about being determined by our life in Christ. Our geography is that we live in Christ, and are part of Christ. We are not simply individuals, but incorporated into Christ Jesus and will more and more act in accord with who he is. All that we do, good and bad, involves Christ and we are transformed into his likeness. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul says that “he who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion” (1:6).
Where do you live? What is your geography? What does it means for you to live in ______________ and in Christ. What’s the significance for ________ that you live in Christ? What’s the significance for Jesus Christ that you live in _________? We need to reconcile the place that we live and the Christ in whom we live. How are you called to live in Christ and in ___________? Where do you live?
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