D IVISIONS RUN DEEP. Everybody agrees with the goal. Unity and reconciliation of deeply different cultural backgrounds. Integration into the same community. Equality. It’s the implementation that is difficult. After all, it’s one thing to say that you want to be inclusive across dividing lines, but a totally different thing to actually do it.
Our nation is divided. Perhaps only two other times, Civil War and Vietnam War, have we been more divided as a nation. We build walls to separate us from them. To keep them out. We erect barriers to peace. It seems that wall-building is a favorite pastime today. “Unfriending” people on Facebook. Shouting people down. Refusing to hear truth. Name calling. And a whole host of other walls that divide and separate.
Colin Kaepernick started a protest in 2016. He first sat, then knelt, during the national anthem. It was a protest against police brutality and the ongoing violence against people of color. But Kaepernick’s protest has been lost or the focus diverted. Maybe he picked the wrong way to protest. It’s easy to make this about patriotism, love of country, support for military. It’s easy to ignore brutality, violence, injustice and inequality. I know our military is suffering. Long and repeated tours of duty over the past 16 years. Suicide rates in double digits. PTSD. Broken homes and lives, for many. The pressures these men and women face are enormous. Their sacrifices to preserve the freedoms our flag represents are real. They need to be supported.
But the resulting rage, hate, and anger from all this is shocking. The name-calling is appalling. We shout at one another while building higher the dividing wall of hostility.
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QUESTION: IS THE GOSPEL that we come week in and week out to hear relevant to what’s going on in our country and world? Does it represent the power of God to bridge the cultural divide? To bring healing? Shalom?
Today’s Ephesians reading (see below) is one place offering relevant words for today. The Jewish Christians are used to living culturally different lives from the Gentiles. And Gentiles distrust the one-god-worshipping Jews. It is in this environment that Paul writes: “[Christ] is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one … .”
With that statement, Paul jumps right into to politics. Any peace talk in first century Asia Minor is politically charged. The Romans rule. Roman emperors have brought an unprecedented peace — of course, it’s peace through military dominance, with terror used when necessary. So, the proclamation “[Christ] is our peace” borders on treason. Despite all the swaggering claims of the empire’s rulers, true peace comes through a man the empire crucified.
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THE VERY BODY OF CHRIST brings us together. Christ’s life and death are what enable us to live together in peace. Paul drives home this point — through Christ, we must not only be made into one, but we are to be reconciled. Two divergent communities are not to just peacefully coexist. They are to be together, united. Acknowledging differences and coming to terms with them.
Ephesians is a call to action. A call to remove barriers. To tear down that wall. A call to overcome all that divides and separates. This is a call to justice and equality. This call echoes far beyond the early Christians in Ephesus — these words lay claim to us as well.
Reconciliation and peace because of Christ. A call to action. What if we understood the suffering of people of color in our nation today to be our suffering? What if we understood the suffering of our law enforcement and veterans to be our suffering? What if, instead of blasting each other, we moved toward each other in compassion?
What if, instead of blocking out each other’s pain, we sat down and listened to their stories? What if, instead of judging one another’s intentions and assuming the worst about other people, we followed the gospel command to offer grace and unconditional love? What if we tried to attack the problem rather than attack the messengers? The owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers got “vile voicemails” after LeBron James’ comment this week. A young white female country singer got death threats when she knelt after singing the anthem at last week’s Titans game.
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THE GOSPEL CALLS US to live higher. To do better. To be better than what we are. Differences in race, class, gender, economic condition, politics, and opinion exist, but they are not barriers to living in unity in Christ.
It seems to me that the gospel demands I move toward reconciliation and peace. That I begin the journey to shalom instead of telling others how to bring it about. That I seek to understand before I am understood. What if we take an honest look at our own complicity in contributing to the situations that exists today?
This afternoon is Path to Peace in Foley. 3pm. Read about it in the bulletin. This time focuses on racial harmony and reconciliation; unity and love. That’s a place to start. Differences among persons exist, but community is possible when dividing walls tumble down. Then we can be a witness of the kingdom of God to the wider, secular society.
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TODAY, ON WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY, we gather at the table where Christ’s body is broken and Christ’s peace is shared. We gather at the table, remembering the life and death of Christ that has reconciled us with God and with one another. We look forward to that day in eternity when all will be gathered — from North and South, from East and West — for that wonderful feast. This table is a symbol of the work we are doing so that we might proclaim peace and reconciliation. We gather at the table reminded of that Christ is our peace. We leave the table to work toward reconciliation and unity. Amen.
(Thanks to Doug Resler for his contribution to this sermon.)
— Keith Cardwell
