For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us… In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. (Ephesians 2:14, 21-22)
I spend a lot of time in conversations about ‘the church.’ Sometimes we mean the building. Sometimes we mean the community. Sometimes we mean the organization/institution. We talk about those who are ‘in’ the church and those who are ‘outside’ of the church. We talk about those who are ‘connected’ to the church and those who are ‘disconnected.’ I know way too many people who have ‘separated from’ the church. And let’s not get started with the many conversations about and unfortunate impact and way-too-frequent reality of ‘conflict in’ the church.
These days there is lots of conversation about walls, and usually that conversation is about divisions between groups of one kind or another (one group on one side, another group on the other). But what about the ‘dividing wall, that is, the hostility between US’? What about the walls that run right through the middle of communities? What about divisions within families, divisions within congregations, divisions within denominations?
One of the most compelling things about the message of Jesus–which, unfortunately, ‘the church’ doesn’t always model well–is the vision the writer of Ephesians lifts up in this passage. It is summed up in the theme verse from Lutheran summer camp many years ago:
‘he came to proclaim peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near’ (Eph. 2:17)
After college, when I found myself attending a small Lutheran congregation in north Minneapolis, I was particularly convicted by the ‘passing of the peace’ portion of the service. I remember wondering how I could look into someone’s eyes, shake their hand and say ‘the peace of God be with you,’ when I held so many deep prejudices about that person’s ‘rightness’. As I wrestled with that prejudice, and with the invitation week after week to ‘share a sign of Christ’s peace with your neighbor,’ I felt the ‘wall of hostility’ crumbling. As I was invited up to the Table, and extended my hands out to receive ‘the body and blood of Christ, given and shed for you,’ I experienced the ‘wall of hostility’ crumbling. As I witnessed the Word spoken as the waters of baptism were sprinkled (and sometimes poured or sprayed) over someone, proclaiming that person ‘sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever,’ I witnessed the ‘wall of hostility’ crumbling.
We have a powerful message. Our message is that the walls of hostility have come down–that the things that usually divide us do not have to divide us any longer. That’s true when looking at our context, at ‘the stranger,’ and at the many ways we separate ourselves from those ‘outside the church.’ But it’s ALSO true for those of us who call ourselves the church! What would it look like for us to come together and strengthen one another as we are ‘built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God’? How would that transform conversations about our communities? How would it transform the conversations about our buildings? How would it transform our conversations about the organization/structure?
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