Dwelling Place

Ephesians 2:13-22; Mark 6:30-34
July 29, 2018
First Presbyterian Church, Sterling, IL
Christina Berry

Our first reading this morning is from the letter to the Ephesians. This letter was not written to a particular body or to address a problem. The writer has a vision of the church larger than any one congregation. In Ephesians we see an image of the universal church, all the faithful, made one in Christ, the head of the body. In this scripture reading, the image is of those divided, as if a wall had been built up between them, are now brought together, built up together – united, with no more barriers between them.

Those who were once without God – the Greek word is “atheos” and is only found once in the entire bible – those far away are brought near through Christ Jesus. Let’s listen for Gods gracious word to us in Ephesians 2:13-22

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off
have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
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.
He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances,
that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two,
thus making peace,
and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross,
thus putting to death that hostility through it.
So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off
and peace to those who were near;
for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,
but you are citizens with the saints
and also members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
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.

God’s word for God’s people.

Our gospel reading is a brief scene from the life of Jesus with the disciples. Mark’s brisk storytelling style keeps thing moving, and in this text Jesus and his friends have been very busy. In the previous verses, Jesus had sent out the disciples, sent them in pairs to share the good news of God’s love with all people. They’ve just returned from that errand, and they want to tell Jesus all about their mission trip. Jesus proposes a brief retreat, a time to rest, but the crowd that follows him everywhere has other ideas. Let’s listen for God’s word to us in Mark 6:30-34

The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while."
For many were coming and going,
and they had no leisure even to eat.
And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.
Now many saw them going and recognized them,
and they hurried there on foot from all the towns
and arrived ahead of them.
As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd;
and he had compassion for them,
because they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them.

The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

The building of the wall began around 220 BC. The emperor ordered that new walls be built to connect fortifications along the empire's northern frontier. The builders used whatever materials were readily available – stones from the mountains, packed earth on the plains. No written histories survive to tell the exact length and placement of the wall, but “it has been estimated by some authors that hundreds of thousands, if not up to a million, workers died” in the building of that wall.[1] The great wall of China still stands to this day.

Another wall went up overnight, on August 13, 1961. Berliners found themselves cut off from jobs, from family, from homes, separated by a hastily constructed wall that was mostly barbed wire and barricades at first. To attempt to cross that wall meant to risk death. It did mean death for at least 200 people who made the attempt. For 28 years that wall stood, dividing brother from brother, sister from sister, mothers from their children. The heavily fortified “death strip” “contained anti-vehicle trenches, barbed wire and beds of nails under blinding floodlights.”[2]

The great wall of china was erected to divide friend from foe, to separate one kingdom from another. The Berlin wall was built to keep people in, prevent them from leaving.

On November 9, 1989, East German officials announced that East Germans would be allowed to travel directly to West Germany, The government tried to backpedal later that same day, announcing that citizens who wanted to leave the country should line up at immigration offices the next morning.

But it was too late.

Thousands of jubilant East Germans were already on their way to the wall. Crowds of East Germans arrived at the wall to find confused guards, [who were] unaware of the sudden change. The people stormed the gates demanding that they be opened. From there, the wall came down.

The wall in the scripture reading from Ephesians was a literal wall.
Walls in the temple were there to separate people,
walls of division to keep a lesser group of worshipers from joining others.
Gentiles could not join in worship with Jews.
Women could not join in worship with men.

The wall in the reading from Ephesians was also a figurative wall.
The walls stood for hostility between groups, and among people.
The walls of division among believers had to come down.

Some walls grow up slowly, like the walls between groups of people;
one group believes it needs to separate from another,
to protect its beliefs, to maintain its purity, to hold its power.
The other group protests their equality,
demands equal sharing in the power
or insists the separation isn’t necessary because they are not less than.
The powerful group points to the protests and demands and resistance
and says, “That proves our point.”

Some walls are built gradually, almost imperceptibly,
as one side persistently defends its own point of view,
and the other side just as persistently defends ITS own point of view.

Some walls go up quickly, almost overnight,
when a people feel threatened or afraid,
when they are overwhelmed with anxiety
about maintaining their own positions of power or control or wealth.

Whatever their origin, regardless of their aim,
walls of hostility and separation
bring shame to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus and the disciples were weary from all their coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat, they tried to break away from the crowds that were following them. They tried to create a separation – of time and space – but the crowds figured out where they were.

And when Jesus saw them he had compassion on them.
He saw that they were desperate for what he had to offer them.
He saw that they were reaching out in hopes that he would come to them.
He felt like a shepherd to those lost sheep.

Jesus and his followers were not guards at the wall, working out the rules for who was welcome and who was not. And even in their weariness, they reached out. Even overwhelmed by the relentless demands on them, they continued their ministry to the world.

They could have done otherwise.

Jesus could have simply gathered up his group of like-minded followers and holed up in a house in a village somewhere, sending away anyone who did not sign on to their statement of belief.

Jesus could have appointed Peter to be the gate-keeper, and require the people who came to the gate to participate in seminars until they could articulate the articles of faith.

James and John and Mary and Susanna could have erected a wall to enclose the right people, the lost sheep of Israel, and keep out the lost sheep of every other race and nation.

But Jesus saw the crowds and had compassion for them.

After Jesus died and was raised and returned to heaven, his followers continued to struggle with the building of walls – not just in Ephesus, and not just in the first century, but across the centuries. They built metaphorical walls to separate themselves from foreigners, barricades to keep women out, to keep people of color separate, to keep out all manner of people.

And across those same centuries,
the Holy Spirit has come with the power of God
to take those walls down.

Those same Christians have built other walls –
walls of schools and hospitals, homeless shelters, and churches.
Within those walls, the many sheep without a shepherd found rest.
They found learning and healing, hope and faith.

Those walls are not built to keep others out
but to shelter them from the storms of life,
to strengthen them until they are ready to go back out.

The cornerstone of all those walls is Jesus Christ himself.
We are the living stones who rest upon Jesus,
and together we form a home for faith, for love, for ministry.

Someone once said that church buildings
are not retreat centers or cruise ships, but mission outposts,
base operations from which Christians are deployed into the world.

With Christ as our cornerstone and our center,
we can not only come away and rest,
but we can be built up into a dwelling place,
where others who are weary can find rest,
and others who are wandering can find a home.

We who are already here do not need to concern ourselves
with deciding whether others are welcome,
for we were strangers once too, lost sheep, people without a home.

But now, through the love of the shepherd,
we know these words are true:

“You are no longer strangers and aliens,
but you are citizens with the saints
and also members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
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.”

Thanks be to God!

Amen.


[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China
[2] https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/berlin-wall-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-barrier-that-divided-east-and-west-9847347.html