May 3, 2009 — 9:49 PM
Christian Community: And the two became one
Scripture Lesson 1: Isaiah 57: 14 -19
Scripture Lesson 2: Genesis 2: 21-24
Scripture Lesson 3: Ephesians 2:11-18
“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…. 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….”
Aren’t those beautiful images of what God did through Christ? God, through Christ, brought together people who had previously been at odds with one another – people who had been fighting over who got to be called “Children of God.” God did away with the old dividing lines and brought all of humanity together to be the church. God reconciled the different factions and gave them peace.
So, if this is what God did and continues to do in Christ, what are we doing?
It seems to me that we in the church today spend an awful lot of time putting up barriers and building back up the dividing walls of hostility that Christ broke down. It seems to me that we are acting more like the Jewish Christians referred to in Ephesians who were so concerned with keeping the law that they excluded people, in that case the Gentiles, because they were uncircumcised.
The Jewish Christians did this because they were concerned with the purity of their gathering. And they were concerned with the rightness of their actions. But by focusing on these concerns, the Jewish Christians were relying on their own efforts instead of allowing God to be God. And I think we, the modern Church, have gotten ourselves into a similar mess.
I know I’m alone in thinking that this is the state of our (big “C”) Church today. I have plenty of anecdotes from people I know who have left the Church or have little to no respect for it because of this very issue. They have either been personally affected by the internal struggles or they are tired or sickened by all the bickering they see going on. They have moved on to find a connection with God in some other way or have stopped believing in God all together.
It’s oh so easy to look at the actions of others and point out the many and various ways in which they are excluding people from being called “Children of God.” But I’m going to ask us to do something a little more difficult tonight. I’m going to ask us to offer up ways in which we ourselves are guilty of doing this very thing.
Now, I know that it’s not the best idea to try to start a conversation by asking a question that I know will be difficult for people to answer. But I think we need to really stop for a moment and be honest with ourselves. We often act in small, and maybe even big, ways that have the effect of denying the fact that someone or some group of people are not equal with us in being children of God.
I invite you to think of types of people that cause you to put up barriers or build up dividing walls instead of reaching out to be in community with them. And I’ll give an example for myself to give you time to think.
When I first thought about asking this question during our sermon discussion time, I immediately pictured a woman I used to work with who drove me absolutely nuts. She’s a fixer. She likes to suggest ways that people can fix their situation – regardless of whether or not she has been asked to offer suggestions in this way. I always dreaded talking with her because it seemed that even our inane small talk gave her an occasion to tell me how I could fix something in my life. You can bet that after only a few interactions like that I began to avoid talking to her. If I was about to leave my office and heard her voice in the hallway I would wait to give her time to move on before going out. I don’t think she does this out of sense of being better than those with whom she is talking. It’s just how her mind works. She likes to figure out how to make situations better.
But, she drove me insane. It made me stop listening to her. She probably offered me some good tips. But because she did it without my asking for her help, it felt invasive, pushy, maybe even tone-deaf on her part. And because I felt like she wasn’t really listening to me, I felt justified in not listening to her. I began to think less of her – she was an annoyance to be avoided instead of a person to be respected and interacted with. It might have been a move I took to for mental self-preservation, but I still didn’t fully value her as one whom God calls God’s child.
She is a good representative of the type that pushes me to put up barriers – people who don’t really listen to me, who think they know me before they’ve really given me a chance to tell them who I am. If I get even a slight sense that someone is doing that, I shut down and write that person off. Not very Christian of me, eh?
Okay, does anyone else care to share a type of person or actions that people engage in that lead you to put up barriers or dividing walls? You don’t have to go into such detail if you don’t want to. Just tell us a type of person that makes you put up walls or think less of them as people.
[get comments from the congregation]
People who think differently than us. People who feel like their opinion is the right opinion and everyone else must agree with them. People who are bullies. People who are completely unaware of others. And the list could go on and on.
Those barriers and dividing walls go up pretty quickly don’t they? And once they’re up, they’re very difficult to bring back down.
God knows that. That’s why it took an extreme action on God’s part to get those walls to come down. God had to come live among us in Christ and die on the cross to get those divisions to go away. God knew the stubbornness of God’s people when God was dealing with the Israelites as well in the passage from Isaiah.
This passage tells us that God had tried to get the people to change their ways by accusing them and being angry with them. God was enraged by their sinful greed and punished them by hiding God’s face from them. And yet, the passage says, “they kept on in their willful ways.” Even God’s absence wasn’t enough of a motivator for God’s people to change their ways.
Our human propensity to build up walls, to exclude people, to look out for our own interests to the detriment of others is part of what we religious types call “original sin.” It is something that we are unable to fix on our own. It is bigger than us and so ingrained in us that no matter what we do, we will never completely eradicate it from our lives.
This isn’t an idea that’s so much in vogue these days. People don’t like to be called “sinners.” It’s so negative. It makes us feel bad about ourselves. But that’s not my point. That’s not what I’m hoping to do here. I am lifting up this characteristic of humanity to help us understand that we need God.
We need God.
Christians are good at saying that but really poor at actually acting in ways that show that. We practice what has been called “functional atheism.” We say we believe in God but yet we act as though we have to save ourselves – as if we have to do everything to make things right in this world.
But Scripture tells us otherwise. In the Isaiah passage, God says: “I have seen their ways, but I will heal them; I will guide them and restore comfort to them, creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. Peace, peace, to those far and near…. I will heal them.”
And in the second chapter of Ephesians, just before our passage from today, the writer tells us: “For it is by grace you have been saved, though faith – and it is not from yourselves, it is a gift from God – not by works, so that no one can boast.”
We need God. And once we recognize that fact and ask for God’s help, then those barriers and dividing walls will begin to come down. Unfortunately, they don’t just drop away immediately and never come back. That whole human sin thing has a way of creeping back in. So we have to be continually mindful of our propensity to putting them up.
What can we do to help us be mindful of this? What can we do to allow God to tear down the walls we so easily construct? Does anyone have any suggestions of things they do to help them to remember that that person who pushes our buttons and makes us want to put up walls is also a child of God? How can we keep ourselves from so quickly dismissing people?
[get feedback from the congregation]
Prayer is a biggie! Maybe it’s the simple prayer, “Help!” or “God, I need you.” Or maybe something like this: “God, please help me to remember that (so and so) is also your child.”
Another important action we can take is to engage the other in a conversation to learn more about where he or she is coming from. We should not enter into this type of conversation with the hopes that the other will change and come around to our way of thinking. I’m guessing we’ve all been the recipients of that type of “conversation” in the past. No, we need to enter into this conversation truly open to the moving of the Spirit – hoping to gain insights into who this person is and why he or she believes or acts in the ways that are bothersome (or offensive) to us.
Just recently, an email list I’m on of people from my high school graduating class sprung to life when one of my former classmates expressed some disgust with President Obama and the way he represented America abroad during his recent trip. It was along the lines of something that might be heard on Fox News or maybe Rush Limbaugh’s show. Pretty quickly, a more left-leaning member of the class shot back an answer debunking the arguments that had been offered by the first.
Often this would be where the conversation ends – each side has lobbed its arguments into the air and run for cover. But the woman who sent the original email came back expressing thanks for the opposing viewpoints and welcoming more. She acknowledged that she is surrounded by people who think and talk like she does, which greatly limits her exposure to other ways of seeing things. She was honestly seeking dialogue. And once others on the list saw that this was not going to be the typical throw your argument bomb and then run type of email discussion, they too joined in.
We’ve since moved on to other, related, topics on which there tend to be great lines drawn in the sand and have had some good back-and-forths about the issues involved. Many on the list are people I haven’t interacted with in any way since we graduated 22 years ago! And here I am, learning about them and their views on what are often controversial topics. It’s been interesting, to say the least.
When true conversation happens, it can really deepen a relationship, even if both parties involved remain committed to the ideas they originally held. This kind of conversation is very useful in helping us to remember that “the other” is also a child of God.
But sometimes, conversation is not possible. And in times like those we have to fall back on a saying that we’ve probably all heard before: We cannot control how other people act; we can only control how we react.
In cases like these, maybe all we can do is pray to God for help in changing how we react so that by our actions we do not devalue another of God’s children. And it may be that our reaction is to separate ourselves from a person or a type of persons. But hopefully that would be the last option we turn to.
God created humans to live in relationship with other humans. The creation stories show this to be true. Our passage from Genesis today comes at the end of the recounting of how God made man and then made all the other creatures. But in the end, none of these other creatures brought man the companionship that he desired. None that is until woman was made. This creature, made from the same flesh, finally met the man’s need for relationship – a relationship so deep, so meaningful that the two became one.
This same wording is used in Ephesians to explain how peoples are brought together. Through the cross, Christ brings people together to be the Church. It is a bond that creates “one new humanity out of the two….” Old divisions are put away. Unity in peace is what remains.
God, in Christ, is reconciling us one to another. God offers us peace – the peace that dispels hostility. Let us be open to receiving that peace. Amen.
Let us pray: God, you are the God of reconciling peace. Come and bring us that peace we pray. Help us to see that all people are your creation, your children. Help us to not be so quick to throw up dividing walls between us and those who annoy or disturb us. Help us to be examples of your reconciling love in the world. All this we pray in the name of your son, Christ Jesus. Amen.
