A sermon based upon Ephesians 2:13-22, NIV
Preached
by Dr. Charles J. Tomlin,
Flat
Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
4rd
Sunday of Advent, December 24th, Christmas Eve, 2017
Christmas is almost here; and almost over too for those who can’t
wait to get back to normal, to get back on your diet, or to move along into the
coming new year.
So, now that we are almost there, and we are near the climax of
this year’s Christmas celebration, what will remain, what joys will last beyond
the fun we’ve had; beyond the presents we give to others, or we have had given
to us? And what is the most important
‘gift’ we still need to keep, not just for Christmas, but for the days, weeks,
and months still ahead.
I can’t think of any greater ‘gift’ we need this Christmas, than
the hope for ‘peace’. As we all know,
this has been a noisy year for national and world politics. News reports say that planes carrying
Nuclear Weapons have been moved to the front of our airstrips, for the first
time since the Cold War. This comes
with the increasing threats coming from North Korea, not only as this rogue
nation has tested and armed its own nuclear arsenal, but as our own government
has expressed its determination to act and retaliate with ‘complete
destruction’ if any ‘threat’ is carried out.
In a world constantly threatened by ‘wars and rumors of war’, with
‘division’, extremism, and radical, religious, but also human evil, is there
any gift more valuable this year than‘peace’?
YOU WHO ONCE WERE FAR OFF… (13)
Our text today, from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, is not
normally considered to be a Christmas text, but it does point us to the heart
of what it means to have peace. It tells
us that Jesus himself, came into this world to preach ‘peace’ (2:17). These words
echo the words of the angels, who when announcing Christ’s birth greeted lowly
Shepherds with greetings for peace: “Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth
peace…good will toward men’ (KJV, Luk. 2:14).” You know the words. They are some of the greatest words of
Christmas, and they are words for ‘peace’.
What Paul helps us to clarify, is that this hope for peace is not
just about any peace. During the day
Jesus lived, there was a peace across the world known as the “Pax Romina” or
the “Roman Peace”, but this was a peace that was man made, humanly
manipulated, forced and often a cold,
cruel way to peace. In contrast, the
‘peace’ that Jesus came to preach is a peace that is not immediately visible,
coming from deep within. It is a peace
of the human heart that has peace with God, because God has first made peace
with us. This is what Paul means when he
says, “You who once were far away have
been brought near by the blood of Christ” (13). It is God, who in Jesus Christ ‘was reconciling the world unto himself
(2 Cor. 5:19), who ‘made peace’ by his blood (Rom. 5:1). “Even
while we were still sinners,” Paul
says, “Christ died for us”(Rom. 5:8).
The peace that God offers to us, ‘through’ the death of his only
Son, is the peace that comes from knowing that God has made the first move, the
first offer, and the great sacrifice, to ensure that ‘peace’ can come into your
life. For you see, when Paul speaks
about being ‘far off’, he is not
talking about only being separated from other people, but he is first talking
about being separated from God. Paul is
primarily talking to Gentiles, to those who have known little of God’s plan and
God’s purpose for peace. But now, through Jesus Christ, and through his
sacrificial death and resurrection from the dead, this plan and purpose is now
being sent into the world that is ‘far off’ from everything God has been
about. Paul says to these Gentiles, ‘Remember….you were separate from Christ,
excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the
promise, without hope and without God in the world’ (12). Now, that’s far away. How far away is it?
I saw a Christian Film recently about Human Trafficking in the
United States, entitled “Priceless”. The
story is about how a young Christian Mexican girl and her younger sisters, had
been falsely told that if they got into a semi-trailor they would have a new
start in America. They were secretly hauled
across the border and taken to a hotel, where they would be introduced to a new
life, given shelter, food, in exchange for a terrible kind of human slavery,
which targets young girls and gives them a life that can destroy them body and
soul.
But in this story, inspired by true events, the man who drove the
semi, was unaware of his cargo, until he was nearly run off the road, and heard
the screams in back. He opened the door,
and then later opened his heart, to help the young woman and her sister escape,
and later became her husband and together they set on a mission to stop human
trafficking. What is most moving about
this story, is how not only were the Traffickers exposed, but also the Truck
Driver’s own depressed, and wayward heart, was brought home to the faith he
needed to get through his own personal ‘separation’ and ‘distance’ from God. He found ‘peace’ by giving hope, help, and
‘peace’ to another, and the great peace he found for his life was there, to be
discovered, in overcoming his distance from God within his own heart.
There are, of course, many ways to describe the ‘distance’ that
can grow within us, which separates the person we are with the person we are
meant to be. Who we are meant to be is
a people who remain close with God with a persistent hope, but too often,
through the struggles and situations of life, we can become ‘far away’ from
where we are meant to be. But no matter
where, or how far away we are, Paul says,
God has made the move to bring us back; back home, back to our true
heart, and back in right relations with others, by first putting us in right
relations with God.
Isn’t this reconciling move by God at the core of what Christmas
is about? Christmas not just about
sitting by a nice warm fire with family and friends, but Christmas is also
about getting the warmth into us, so that even ‘strangers’, ‘guests’ and maybe
even enemies, can become friends again.
This is something I saw recently in Ken Burns great Documentary on the
Vietnam War. Burns not only used America
GI’s to comment on the war, but he also interviewed the enemy, the
VIETCONG. They were now talking freely
about the horrors of the war, helping us see it from both sides. Some of them were commenting how much
surprise they had when they saw American military men caring for, even risking
their lives, for their fallen in battle.
American soldiers shared how they could never find full closer of the
war, until they visited those places again, or until they shook hands, shared stories, and
cried tears, with those who had been their enemies. There was no closure, until they sat down in
‘peace’ and became friends.
HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE.. (17)
Whatever, however you try to understand what Christmas means you
must also accompany it with what Easter means, what Good Friday means, and what
all of Christianity means. Christmas can
never stand alone, on its own.
Christmas is a day that not only celebrates the birth of a child, or
points us toward the death and resurrection of our Lord, but it also points us
to the “peace” God aims to bring to human hearts all year long.
What I love about this text from Paul, is that he says that Jesus
not only came to preach peace to ‘those
who far away’, but he also came to preach peace ‘to those who were near’.
God’s peace is never a one side, one person, all for once, event. God’s peace is a peace that is offered to
all the parties, or it is not offered at any at all. God’s peace is offered to both those who need
to draw closer to God; those who are far away, but it is also those offered to
those who are already near, so close even that they may not even see their own
need for making peace. What this means
is that there is no inward peace, without it also being a shared, outward peace;
and there is no true outward peace, without it also being a peace that moves
outwardly deep from within, desiring to create community, unity, hope and
reconciliation between separated, differentiated, segregated, and marginalized
people.
The peace that Jesus came preaching, was preached to the outcast,
the crippled, the brokenhearted, and the despised, who were also being invited
to join in God’s family. In spite of
differences or divisions of who we are, where we are, or where we have been in
the human family, Jesus aims, through his death, not only to bring people peace
with God, but he aims to bring people into peaceful community with each other. Until we all admit our need for the kind of commonly
shared ‘peace’ which ‘seeks and saves those who are relationally and
spiritually ‘lost’, then we won’t have a peace that remains for long. Jesus, as a preacher of peace, came to not
only put his spirit of peace within us, but he also came to inspire us to move
toward others---especially toward those who are in a different, difficult, or
distant place.
In short, the peace that Jesus preached is a ‘reconciling’ peace. Can’t you see this is the greatest story ever
told, the story of the reconciliation between the Prodigal Son and the Waiting
Father? The main emphasis of this story
is not the Son who left or came home, but on the Father who waited and welcomed
his wayward Son with peace. This is
what made the story conclude the way it did, with the Father throwing a party
for his once ‘lost Son’, a son who was lost, but is now returned and is home at
last. It was the ‘peace’ that was already
in the heart of the Father, causing him to gladly receive and accept the Son
who rebelled and ran away. This peace
within the father gave us this story, and it is the peace of father, a peace
that loves and waits on us, that not only enables us to return to God, so that
we to may turn toward each other with peace.
Is there any greater Christmas story than a story that includes
the reconciliation of people who were once far away, but are now brought back,
not only to God, but also to each other?
Life certainly has a way of
pulling us apart. But the joy returns, and
becomes even greater, when we find to
do the work of peace and come back together again. Years ago, in one of our
churches, we put on a play at Christmastime entitled ‘Two Tickets To Christmas’. It was a story about a family, who had somehow
drifted apart, but were again brought back together again at Christmas, through
unexpected events. I looked to find that
“Christian musical” on the internet, but was unable. Perhaps it is a sign of our times that when
Christian presence is in decline, that Christian peace, among families, in
communities, and also in civil discourse is harder to find.
So, what is it that can bring people together, when life,
circumstances, and even cultures can so easily keep us apart? Is there any message of Christmas that can
bring people together? These days, it
seems that religion is more divisive than cohesive. Even a well-known Christian theologian has
said: “There will be no world peace until there is peace between religions
(Hans Küng). So, how can we find a religious, Christian, Christmas
message that compels us toward each other, toward our common human needs and
hopes, rather than repels us away from each other? How can people who celebrate faith, and
perhaps see reality very differently, sit down with those of other faiths, or
who have no faith at all, or have a very secular faith, come together around
themes that are inclusive, rather than exclusive of each other?
FOR HE IS OUR PEACE… (14)
Bringing people together, who differ within the depths of their
heart, is almost impossible on regular terms.
This is exactly what Paul
understood, when he wrote in our text; ‘For
he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed
the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh
the law…creating a new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in
one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to
death their hostility’ (14-16). What
Paul means here is that peace is not something we can make happen, between us
and others, but peace is something Jesus has already accomplished ‘through
the cross’…, that is through his own suffering, sacrifice and death, Paul
said, that in that day, in a fundamental way, Jesus had ‘put to death their hostility’.
Jesus had accomplished a new way to peace.
A wonderful way of seeing how Christ’s presence in our hearts can
break down ‘hostilities’ between people is to see how Jesus himself, in his
life and ministry made a way for peace with those who differed from him. This story occurs in three of the gospels,
beginning with Mark, where the disciples notice someone, who is not one of
them, using the ‘name’ and ‘reputation’ of Jesus to cast out demons. The disciples reported to Jesus, ‘We tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t
stop!’ Hearing their report, Jesus
responded, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name
will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For
truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear
the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward (Mark 9:39-41).
Jesus’ approach toward those who not only differ from him, but who
also ‘use’ his name to do good, reveals an incredible inner strength and inner
peace, as well. When Jesus gave his
guiding principle, ‘Whoever is not
against us, is for us’, we see a Jesus, who, out of the peaceful heart, is
able to prioritize what really matters,
Of course, people have differences and have differing approaches of
doing good, practicing faith, or seeing God.
It is normal to have differing viewpoints, different experiences,
because we live in different cultures. But
within these differences we have from each other, the most important concern is
what is the intention of the heart. Do
we intend good for others, or do we intend harm? Jesus saw this person who was not ‘with him’ as being ‘for him’ because he had the same intention of doing good within
his heart.
Christmas, when it is rightly celebrated, takes us straight to the
heart what God intends for humanity, and how God’s intentions should be
received and reflected in us. Christmas,
the coming of Christ, is about God’s intentions ‘for us’. ‘If
God is for us, then who can be against us,” Paul wrote.’ Since God is indeed for us, no one can really
be against us, at not in a way that separates us from God’s love. Having peace, a peace that Christ gives, we can
draw closer’ without fear, to those who are ‘far off’ from us, and we can make
peace, becoming not just peace ‘havers’, but we can also become peacemakers, in
this world that needs Christ, and needs true Christians, and people who know
the true meaning of Christmas, as much as ever, so we can all find the way to
peace.
Since Christ himself has accomplished the way of ‘reconciliation’, what we must do, if
we want to have and make peace, is to make his way, our way. We too have to die to self. We too have to ‘put to death’ the
‘hostility’. We too, have to offer
reconciliation by ‘setting aside’ the ‘law of the flesh’ of what’s right,
whether it is righteous or not, and grasp the higher, deeper laws of the heart,
or spirit, we call grace. Only by offering
ourselves, can we ‘make peace’ and invite God’s grace into the strife of this
world.
By making Jesus the ‘chief
corner stone’ in our own lives, we experience the ‘peace’ that invites us
to make peace with those who differ from us. For, if we want peace, especially among religions,
or peace among our
differing opinions and politics, we must not force our belief or faith on another,
but we must share our own experience with others. And the experience that always makes for
peace is the experience of God’s grace. Christmas
isn’t Christmas, can’t really be Christmas, until we
uncover, discover, or recover, the experience of God’s grace. Grace is where the whole story of God’s peace
begins: “For by grace you have been
saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (2:8).
This grace, God’s
grace toward us, is the ‘gift’ we must continue to unwrap, if we want to come together in
peace with each other. As I conclude this message, let me ask you, as we make our final
approach toward Christmas 2017, what new experience of God’s grace gives you a
renewed sense of peace? What ‘gift’ of
grace has God given you to bring peace in the midst of a warring world?
An interesting ‘grace’
gift this last year, was a newly discovered handwritten note from the brilliant
scientist of the 20th century, Albert Einstein, which sold for 1.3
million dollars. Einstein was a secular
Jew, who had only leftover traces of God in his life. But even with ‘leftovers’ he expressed a
jewel of ‘grace’ for some troubled soul, which can be understood by anyone. The hand-written note, left on a piece of
stationary in the Imperial Hotel of Tokyo, reads in German: Stilles
bescheidenes Leben gibt mehr Glück als erfolgreiches Streben, verbunden mit
beständiger Unruhe.” Translated it says: “a quiet and humble
life brings more joy than a pursuit of success which comes with constant
unrest.” I don’t think Einstein had a lazy life in
mind, but I do think he aimed of finding inner peace, not matter your situation
or position in life.
Here again, just one
more gift of God’s grace in this noisy, striving, warring world, which you and can
now stop and celebrate, as we celebrate the peace with God, which Jesus established. For he was born to bring us all ‘peace’. Merry Christmas!
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