A Sermon Preached By

Rev. Peter W. Shidemantle

July 23, 2006, 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

PEBBLE HILL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

5299 Jamesville Rd., DeWitt, NY  13214

Phone:  315-446-0960     FAX:  446-0672

phillchu@twcny.rr.com     http://pebblehill.presbychurch.org

            That is one leg of the paradox, the truth that we confess in faith – how Christ makes us one, how he brings peace, is peace.  There are no more walls between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female – all are one in him. 

            Now Paul is speaking of the Christian community here, but there are universal implications.  That is, Christ died for all of humanity.  Forgiveness of sin and salvation is for all and available to all, and all are to be made known of this – even to the ends of the earth – by the followers of Christ who are to proclaim this love and demonstrate this peace, this peace that is already given.

            Peace, no more walls, no more hostility – one truth.  No peace, great hostilities between all sorts and manner of people, including Jews and gentiles, Christians, Muslims, and everyone else – another truth.

            One of the ways theologians have dealt with this paradox over the centuries is to put it in terms of “already and not yet:” it is already true that Christ is our peace, that dividing walls have been broken down, that hostilities have been overcome, that all are one; and it is also true that this is not yet so.  We live in this tension, and we are called to be conscious and aware of this tension, to be discerning, because this is where our faith is to be expressed – within this tension.  To live as if there are no more human divisions, that there are no walls between us, as if we were all one and that no hostilities exist is to deny the truth of living in this world.  But to live as though Christ has not made us one, that God’s love does not extend even to my enemy, that walls of separation are an inevitable expression of how human beings live together in this world, is to deny the power of hope and the power of faith to bring change, to make a better world, to give room for God to work. 

            Already – and not yet.

            Of course the current conflict in the Middle East is one unavoidable context in which this tension is being lived out by people of faith in these days.  The phrases and the images of this text from Ephesians – “Jews and Gentiles,” “dividing wall(s) of hostility,” “without hope,” leap from the scriptures to the front page of the newspaper and back again – as bombs fall and missiles rain down and tanks rumble on – and Christ is our peace.

            It is not easy to live in a paradox, in this context a multi-layered paradox.  One thing it does, I believe, is to force us to look at how we approach the differences and divisions, the hostilities between and among people and groups.  It forces us to go deeper than we ordinarily might, from our uniquely privileged vantage point, deeper than our inclination to want to say that all people are largely the same, that they have the same basic needs and aspirations and hopes.  It may be true, but such a sentiment apparently does not serve as motivation enough to bring down dividing walls between people.  Such sentiments may cause us to have sympathy for people who are in dire straits, and this may make us feel better about ourselves, but it doesn’t do much to touch the deep divisions and hostilities in our world.

            We need to look at how Paul/writer of Ephesians approaches it.  He doesn’t begin by focusing or what is similar or different between people or groups who are hostile to one another.  He starts with Christ.  He starts with the blood of Christ, shed for us:  “For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility.”  For us peace is not first a state or condition, not a break in hostilities, not a decision in interpersonal relations to “live and let live.”  It doesn’t depend on coming to an understanding we can both live with, not a compromise of powers.  These things may in fact be how worldly peace is achieved.  But even when we are nowhere near that, which is currently the case in Middle East, the peace of which Paul writes, the peace to which we are to witness as ambassadors of Christ, is becoming part of the life of this person whose blood was shed for the whole warring world, and in whose death is the life of the new humanity.  As members of the household of God, the body of Christ, we choose to live not as strangers to one another, but as reconciled to God and to one another in him.  Paul’s letter to the Ephesians was not just his vision for how to handle differences and disagreements in the church.  It is his larger vision of the profound unity between all persons all cultures. 

            Sometimes we forget our calling.  Sometimes we think that what we are about as the church is to try to be a strong and successful organization, a good place for kids to come or get our needs met or meet people who share our values - a place to get baptized, to get confirmed, to get married, to get buried.  It is all of these things, but primarily none of these things.  It is primarily to demonstrate what God intends and desires for the whole world.  Just as Israel was chosen by God not for anything special about them but through them for God to be a blessing to all the nations, so the church of Jesus Christ is to demonstrate the new humanity, to show what the kingdom of God is like, to love one another as God has loved us, to care for the world as Jesus cared for each one he met.  In short, to share the peace that is Christ, which does not depend on worldly peace.

            And so, you see, we are freed up to be Christ’s peace in the world.  This is not some disembodied state of existence that is unfazed by the turnings of the world.  Just the opposite – it is a peace that we seek to enflesh in the world, as Jesus was God “in flesh” in the world.  It is first to be enfleshed in us.  We are, as Paul puts it, the “dwelling place of God,” a “holy temple in the Lord.”  

            We have this wonderful vision of no more walls of division, no more hostilities.  We have this message of reconciliation and peace.  But it’s easy to lose heart when the pictures we see are all about division and hostility.  What does it mean that Christ is our peace if it doesn’t amount to more than a pretty picture?  Clearly the ministry of peace and reconciliation needs to be embodied in us, who are together the house in which God dwells, God’s holy temple.  We’ve got to let God live in the whole house, not just keep him in the living room where we have our best furniture and only use it when guests come.  Christ needs to live in us, in the whole house – he’s got to live in our minds and in our hearts, in our hands and in our feet.  His peace will not be seen in us, will not be known in us, if we do not live in such a way that says his peace is real, if we do not give witness to the love that has broken down the walls between us and those with whom we are at enmity, if we do not seek to love as Jesus loved, if it is more important to hold grudges than to forgive, more important to secure our own lives than to live for others.

            These are obvious things, but do we not need to be reminded of them, especially in times such as these – that it is Christ who is our peace.  This is not the end point of our search for peace but the beginning point.  The peace that is Christ in us, and us in him, moving and stretching outward to relieve the suffering of the victims of the weapons of war (always and everywhere the church’s function, along with other organizations of healing and compassion), and continuing to reach further to affect the policies that cause the walls to be built and the weapons to be stockpiled, and the voices of the oppressed to be silenced.  We need to be unceasing in prayer, as I invite you to join in this prayer by Bob Stoddard, a Presbyterian minister in Wilmington, Delaware, who was on our recent trip to Israel and Palestine, and who is the former Vice President for Development at the Lebanese American University in Beirut. 

O Messiah Sepherd, who led our ancestors beside the still waters

of Galilee, healing broken bodies and restoring lost souls along its shores,

come again to our Holy Land which has become a valley of death.  Instill within all for

whom it is sacred your compassion and love.  Comfort all with your guiding rod

of righteousness and staff of justice that we may neither fear nor do evil.

O Prince of Peace, silence the thunder of Howitzers and Kalashnikovs

and the roar of F-16s and Katyushas that the screams of pain, the cries of

mourners and the pleas for mercy and peace may be heard.  In the midst of battle, prepare

tables in green places where sworn enemies might break bread together and discover their oneness in You.  Make us instruments of your healing and peace and lead us all along new

paths of righteousness toward that time when You will reign in all fullness and glory and

we will all dwell with You in justice, unity, and peace forever.

This we ask in your blessed name, Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

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