“One New Humanity…”

A sermon based upon Ephesians 2: 11-22

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Third Sunday After Epiphany-C,  January 27^h,  2019 

(4-14) Sermon Series: Growing Up In Christ (Eph. 4:15)

Who doesn’t remember those famous words President Ronald Reagan uttered in front of the Berlin Wall: “Mr. Gorbachov, tear down this wall! 

The Berlin wall was built to keep people in; from fleeing their homeland.  It was constructed in 1961 and became a symbol of communist aggression and oppression.  The Berlin wall was eleven feet high and was topped by barbed wire.  While the wall was only 25 miles long across the city, the border, known as the “Iron Curtain” went across the entire eastern part of German, 810 miles. 

The area right behind the wall was an area known as the “death area.” Refugees who had reached that area were shot without warning. Beyond that was a trench to prevent vehicles from breaking through. Then there was a corridor with watchdogs, watchtowers and bunkers, and then a second wall.  At least 100 people were killed trying to escape over the Berlin Wall.  It was a day of incredible rejoicing on November 9, 1989 when that wall came tumbling down.

It is interesting that the largest construction project ever undertaken by humanity was the building of a wall.  This is, of course, the Great Wall of China. It is said that enough stone was used in that 1,700 year project to build an 8 foot wall girdling the globe at the equator. The Great Wall snakes its way over more than one twentieth of the earth’s circumference; 13,000 miles. It is the perfect metaphor for humanity’s obsession of building walls to separate one people from another.  The Great Wall of China was built to keep out foreigners.

We live in the time when there is much concern about border control, and building walls.  Back last summer, when it was approaching 95 degrees, Teresa and I took our ‘date day’ and drove to Blowing Rock, where we found a cool spot with a rocking chair and talked to tourists passing through.  One of the people we meet, was from San Antonio, Texas.   The ‘Border Wall’ was in the news that day, and he had an opinion to share, saying that you could not stay in Mexico, without permission, so why should we allow people to stay here without permission.  We in America can’t simply keep allowing people to come into our country without some kind of control.  Like it or not,” he said, “America needs some kind of border wall.”

In both the ancient world, as well as in our modern world, we still need borders, and walls for both security and sanctuary.  But walls can also be restrictive, oppressive, and separating. The great American poet Robert Frost once wrote:

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know  What I was walling in or walling out,  And to whom I was like to give offence.   Something there is that doesn't love a wall,  That wants it down." https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44266/mending-wall.

THEREFORE REMEMBER…  (11)   YOU…HAVE BEEN BROUGHT NEAR (13)  Do you know who else doesn’t like ‘walls’.   It’s Jesus. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says in today’s text, beginning in verse 13:, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 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 with its commands and regulations. HIS PURPOSE WAS to create in himself ONE 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. HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY and peace to those who were near. For through him WE BOTH HAVE ACCESS to the Father by one Spirit.

Consequently, you are NO LONGER FOREIGNERS AND STRANGERS, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. IN HIM THE WHOLE BUILDING IS JOINED TOGETHER and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are BEING BUILT TOGETHER to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” 

The wall St. Paul is referring to in specific is the WALL BETWEEN JEWS AND GENTILES. God did not like that wall.  Through Jesus God destroyed that wall.  The FIRST CHRISTIAN CONGREGATION WAS ALL JEWISH and most of the members would have preferred to keep it that way. But God gave Simon Peter a vision and gave St. Paul a passion, so that together THEY BROKE DOWN THE WALL THAT KEPT GENTILES OUT. They began to understand that Jesus didn’t like walls that made some people feel inferior or rejected, or keep people from knowing God or from getting to know each other to. 

We sing the old spiritual, “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho, Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, And the walls came tumbling down!” 

Joshua was an Old Testament Hebrew name. In the New Testament Greek, the name “Joshua” becomes “Jesus.” Jesus fought the battle of Golgotha, and the walls came tumbling down the wall between Jews and Gentiles, the wall between men and women, the wall between people of different colors, the wall between saints and sinners. It could have been Jesus, not Robert Frost, who first said, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.”

HIS PURPOSE WAS…PEACE (15).

So, why did God knock down the ‘dividing’ wall between Jew and Gentile?  God knocked down that wall because God wanted to destroy this wall of ‘hostility’ and hate.  For you see, hate is not from God.  You cannot love God and hate your brother or your sister. 

This is what John writes, just like Peter and Paul: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8.  ).  This text tells us once and for all, that there is no hatred in God. God is pure unadulterated love. Anyone who says they hate anyone for any reason cannot be filled with the Spirit of God. It is a logical impossibility.

Sometime back we are told the American Red Cross was gathering supplies medicine, clothing, food, and the like for the suffering people of an African drought and civil war. Inside one of the boxes that showed up at the collection depot one day was a letter. It said, “We have recently been converted and because of our conversion we want to try to help. We won’t ever need these again. Can you use them for something?” Inside the box were several Ku Klux Klan sheets. 

For any of our younger members who may not be familiar with the Klan, in parts of our nation historically the Klan has been the very epitome of racial and religious hatred. The most interesting manifestation of their hatred was that they used a cross a burning cross as a means of intimidation. The truly sad thing is that, in their twisted minds some of them actually believed they were serving Christ with their hateful acts. They were serving Satan.

Anyway this particular group had come to know the love of Christ and had disbanded, and they sent their robes, their white sheets, to the Red Cross. Quite significantly, the Red Cross cut the white sheets into strips and eventually used them to bandage wounds the wounds of suffering black people in Africa. Now that is a conversion that would thrill the heart of God. ( Rev. Adrian Dieleman, http://www.trinityurcvisalia.com/sermons/jn15v08.html).

All forms of hatred are from Satan, not from God. Nothing could be more evident from the New Testament. It is difficult to see how Christians can hate anyone in Jesus’ name. In our lesson for today, St. Paul says that Christ came to break down the “wall of hostility.”  This is my prayer too,  that, if anyone is this room has any hostility in your heart toward any other person for any reason, or toward any other group of people, that you will ask God to deliver you from that hostility.

Years ago, beloved actor Dick Van Dyke wrote a little book titled Faith, Hope, and Hilarity. In it he told about a Sunday School teacher who asked her class, “What do you think about when you see the church doors open to everyone who wants to worship God here?” An African-American student answered, “It’s like walking into the heart of God.”  

That young man was right. God’s nature is love. Wherever love reigns, God reigns. Hatred is from Satan. Love is from God.

CONSEQUENTLY, YOU ARE NO LONGER FOREIGNERS…(19),

And this brings us to the final thing to be said: God’s kingdom comes when we have God’s love in our hearts.

There is a little chorus that many of us learned to sing in grade school: “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me . . .” And that is the way peace always comes. It is when we as God’s people open our hearts to God’s love and then pass that love on to others. We may not be able solve all the world’s problems, we may not be able to speak to all the world’s people, we may not be able to personally intervene to prevent the death of innocent people in places where hatred is strong and life is cheap. But what we can do is take responsibility for our lives, to pray for God’s love to reside within us, and then live out that love on a day-to-day basis so that everyone we come into contact with is touched by that love. 

Do you see any other hope for the world? I don’t know of one. We need leaders and we need citizens who are committed to love, committed to peace and committed to justice in this world . . . or hatred will destroy us all. Surely, if we are totally committed to it, we can find new solutions to old problems.

Wallace Hamilton once told the story of a Christian farmer who raised sheep. But he had a serious problem. His neighbor’s dogs would, from time to time, get into his sheep pen and injure or even kill one of the sheep. The farmer went to talk with his neighbor but his neighbor didn’t do anything about it. So the farmer thought, the next dog that attacks my sheep will be a dead dog. But he knew that was wrong. His next thought was to sue the man. But Paul makes it clear in the 6th chapter of 1st Corinthians that Christians don’t sue Christians. “I’ll build a wall,” he thought, but that would have been expensive. He didn’t have that kind of money. And besides, walls are such ugly things. 

Finally he prayed, “Lord, what should I do about my neighbor’s dogs?” Then that night the answer came to him. The next morning he went out to his sheep. He selected two baby lambs and he took those lambs to his neighbor’s house and gave them to his neighbor’s daughters as pets. The girls were thrilled (there is nothing cuter than a little lamb). His neighbor was thrilled because his daughters were happy, and since he now had sheep of his own to protect, he started controlling his dogs. (Rev. John Fitzgerald, https://booneumcevents.org/uploads/Sermon2009_09_20.pdf).

Wallace Hamilton told that story as an illustration of Christmas. When God wanted to make peace with the world he sent us the Lamb of God. But it speaks also to the heart of the Gospel message. Christ came to tear down the wall of hostility. Never has the world needed the peace that Christ brings more than it does today. There is hostility and hatred all about us. These come from the powers of wickedness, not from God. God’s intent is that we all be one family. And we shall be when you and I surrender ourselves completely to the love of God through Jesus Christ.  Amen.