I Hope the Nerves Never Leave

I preached my second sermon for my preaching class today. I thought I might throw up, and I hope I never outgrow that. I don't ever want to feel competant. "The pulpit is a dangerous place for the human ego," Neely said. And he's right.

We are a world of joiners, a people of labels. And that’s part of the absolute trauma of high school – trying to figure out which clique you’ll join and where to sit in the cafeteria. Every high school seems the same. There are the geeks and the jocks and the nerd and the burnouts and the rebels and the invisibles. By joining one, you become enemies with the rest, so you must choose carefully. I’ll be honest, I really liked the burnouts but just couldn’t see a future in dropping acid. You had to have higher than a straight D average to join the geeks, so I was disqualified. I was the captain of the girls swimming and diving team, so the jocks were an option, but throwing food and chest bumping just weren’t my mealtime activity of choice. I don’t think I need to explain why I didn’t sit with the nerds; actually, you don’t “join” the nerds, you’re placed there by social allotment. So that left the invisibles and the rebels. Neither seemed like great options, but forced to choose I went ran with the rebels. More because they had a better seat in the cafeteria than anything.

Since graduating high school, I’ve told myself that I am not one of those people who needs to join something, to have labels that define who I am. I’d like to think of myself as having matured past this childish way of thinking. No, not a loner or a looser, just chosenly independent. Well at least I thought this way until I was going through my wallet and pulled out my Visa Debit card, my Women’s Fitness gym membership card, my Dominic’s membership card, my American Airlines frequent flyer miles card, and my American Heart Association Membership card. So maybe I’m a joiner, too.

This is nothing new. Nothing profound. We are a world of joiners, a people of labels because we desire to be part of something bigger than ourselves. We want to have an identity, something that gives us definition and value. So we choose what we join, and what we won’t. Who we are and who we aren’t. And while being part of something bigger than us unifies us with some, it builds walls between others. “Us” and “Them” is much more a part of our vernacular than we’d like to admit. The church isn’t much different. We find ourselves in an environment not too far from a high school cafeteria. We have the Lutherans here, the Baptists there, the Emergents here, the Evangelicals there, the Armenians here, and the Calvinists there. This is nothing new in the church.

The passage we’re going to walk through today discusses two groups of people. The Jews and the Gentiles, identified by their religious practices or lack thereof. Historically opposed to each other, looking over their shoulders at the other’s table in the cafeteria. But as we’re going see, the walls between them were not God’s best. He has a better plan for them. So if you’ll turn with me to Ephesians 2:11-18.

We were far from God. At one time, we were alienated from the promises of God, which left us without hope and without God.

The group we are a part of gives us our identity, and we as Gentiles are identified as a people far from God. This passage begins with, “therefore remember”. In light of the grace of God (Eph 2:8-9), remember…

that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—

Two religious camps are in position here, the circumcised and uncircumcised, members of the covenant and strangers of the covenant, the insiders and the outsiders, the religious and the religiously indifferent. Because of this division, Gentiles experienced two types of alienation. The first type was social that resulted from the hostility that existed between the Jews and Gentiles for thousands of years; the Jews saw the Gentiles as outcasts, lower than dogs on the social scale. The second and more significant type of alienation was spiritual, because the Gentiles were a people cut off, far away from God (McArthur 1805). Paul calls them to remember this drastic distinction among themselves, to remember when what is made in the flesh by hands mattered when religious rituals defined our relationship with God and others.

Now Paul lists the repercussions the Gentiles experience as a result of being “the uncircumcised ones”

¹²remember that you were at that time separated from Christ,

Gentiles were without Christ, the Messiah. They were a people with no Savor, no Deliverer.

alienated from the commonwealth of Israel

The Jews shared this common wealth, the blessings and benefits of being God’s chosen people. They experienced His protection, His provision and His presence. But the Gentiles were alienated from this commonwealth. They were outsiders.

and strangers to the covenants of promise

Gentiles were not able to share God’s divine covenants in which He promised to give His people, The religiously Circumcised, a land, a priesthood, a people, a nation, a kingdom, and a King. The covenant offered eternal life to those who believed in Him.

I spent last summer in Namibia, Africa. Whenever I traveled with my Namibian family, I had to pay to visit every national park or monument, while the Namibians did not; there was a higher tax on my food and my other purchases. For everything I bought I paid significantly more just for being a citizen of another country. I was a foreigner, an alien to their country, and therefore I didn’t enjoy the benefits of being a citizen. I was just an on-looker, a tourist, an outsider so I did not possess the same rights a citizen enjoyed. Being a foreigner is one thing when you’re sight-seeing. It’s quite another when we’re talking in salvation terms. The Creator extended a promise of salvation to the nation He chose as His own people. The Gentiles – we as Gentiles – were excluded from that promise. We did not have the access to God. We are foreigners to the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to covenants of promise. Lastly,

having no hope and without God in the world.

Being outside this commonwealth, this covenant, leaves us with no hope and without God. A significant part of the covenant was a promised Messiah, God Himself made available to the Jews. Foreigners and aliens did not have this hope because they did not have this God. We as Gentiles, were hopeless. We were without God.

Application: I don’t like this kind of remembering. It’s hard. Do you remember? Do you remember the time you were without Christ? Many of us do not want to remember. Some of us have a lot of baggage in our past that we are trying hard to forget. Maybe there’s sexual sin or rebellion or brokenness in our past. And so we want to put it as far from ourselves as we can manage. Moody was our “fresh start”, our place to “put the past behind us.” But now you have so adequately come to Moody as a “new man” or a “new woman” that you have almost forgotten where you have come from. You are not allowing your past to be a part of your journey, a chapter in your story. Remember, otherwise the end of your story won’t make sense. Remember who you were.

Some of you find yourself on the other end. The problem is, you do remember. Every day, you remember where you were. You remember addiction without hope. You remember the rebellion without God. Our past is not to rule us, we are not to wallow in our debt or allow guilt to riddle our souls, but we cannot forget either. Many have heard the illustration of a chalk board when talking about salvation; that when we were saved, Jesus erased completely all of our past hurts and fears and sins so that we never have to deal with them ever again. But tell me, are they away? Do you live today with no reference to yesterday? I beg to differ with that illustration. We must remember, because unless we know where we have come from, we cannot value where we have been brought. If we do not allow ourselves to sit in realization of these verses, that we were without God and without hope, we will not value what comes next. Remember who you were. Thankfully, the Text doesn’t end there….

¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were^(F) far off have been brought near^(G) by the blood of Christ.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” “But now.” God has intervened. A change has taken place with regard to our position before God. And this is how He did it…

¹⁴For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one

“He Himself is our peace.” Now isn’t this interesting. Peace, in the form of God Himself on this earth. Peace, not through religion or ritual, but through Deity wrapped in man-flesh. Something had to be done about the hostility between us and God, and so Jesus came. And He didn’t just speak for peace. He didn’t just make peace attainable through more sacraments. He Himself IS our peace. When we stand before the Father He, the God-man of Jesus Christ, is the one we point to. He Himself. We can say, “Him, because of Him I belong. I once was an outsider, but because of Him I’m an insider to these promises.”

I find this overwhelmingly exciting. Both – the circumcised and uncircumcised, the religious and irreligious, are one because Jesus is our peace. He is our peace with God and He is our peace with one another. These two polar opposites, are now one through the one who is our peace.

and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances,

The layout of the temple in Jerusalem dramatically marked the estrangement of the Gentiles, it was a visual depiction of the “outside-ness” of the Gentiles. In the temple were many different courts. The temple building itself was constructed on an elevated platform. The Holy of Holies was at the very center, then just outside it was the court of the priests, and outside that the court of the Israelites, then the court for the women. These three courts were all on the same elevation. From this level descended five steps to a walled platform, and then on the other side of the wall fourteen more steps to another wall, over 3 feet thick. Beyond this wall, farthest from the Holy Place, was the outer court or Court of the Gentiles. On the barrier separating the lowest court from the rest were posted signs in both Latin and Greek, warning that death would come to any Gentile seeking to advance further toward the Holy of Holies (Dunnam). Death for attempting nearness to God

But that was then. That was when we were far off. Now we have been brought near through the blood of Christ. When Christ shed His blood for our sin, He gave everyone access to the Holy of Holies. The middle wall of separation, the wall that kept us out, kept us from God, kept us far away, that middle wall of separation has fallen. By the death of the God-man, a new man is made possible. Through Christ alienation has given way to reconciliation and hostility has given way to peace.

¹⁵by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances,

Jesus did not do away with the law, but He did away with the law as expressed in ordinances. Before, ordinances or religion was the bridge that gave access to God. But now Jesus has done away with that bridge because He stands in its place. Jesus Himself is our bridge to God. Because ordinances could not contain what Jesus accomplished. Religion is no longer needed. Ordinances are no longer necessary. We have access to God through Jesus Christ. He broke down the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances. And He had great reason in doing so…

that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,

By the death of the God-man, a new man is made possible. A man reconciled to God and reconciled to one another. He has created in Himself – in the one who Himself is our peace – one new man from the two.

¹⁶and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Jesus allowed himself to be killed to kill the hostility between us and God. He became obedient to death to put to death the enmity between us and one another. There is no wall between us and the Holy of Holies, so there is no wall between us and the others in this temple court. Peace has been made. With God, with each other.

There is no “Us” and “Them” and more. “We” is in it’s place. Look with me at the last two verses.

¹⁷And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

We find ourselves in the Holy place with a Holy God together. We have access to the Father because one Spirit indwells us.

So we, believing Jews and believing Gentiles, have been brought to peace with the Father. We both needed it, both the religiously devout and the religiously indifferent. Both were broken in their own way, neither religion fixed anything. Both have been brought into this body, the church.

I’m thrifter to my core. Paying over five dollars for just about anything is kinda ridiculous to me. About a month ago, I passed Saturday afternoon in a thrifter's haven: just under a mile of yard sales in Bryn Marr neighborhoods on the north side. Everything you could want or need or imagine wanting or needing was on a sidewalk somewhere in Bryn Marr. At one table, there was this crazy vase. When I saw it, I immediately pressed a sarcastic comment to Elizabeth, my partner in bargain-hunting. I'm still hoping it's owner at the time didn't overhear. It was really strange; I mean, definitely one-of-a-kind. It looks like someone broke about twenty-five china plates and tried to make something out of the pieces, so they stuck them together in thick, off-white pottery. It’s a big ‘ol thing. It weighs seven or eight pounds and is over a foot tall. I had no conceivable idea of what I would use this thing for. I bought it for two dollars. I still don’t know what possessed me to. I live in dorm room; I don’t have anything to put in a vase. And like I said, it’s crazy. I wonder why the artist used some of the pieces he or she did. While some of them I can imagine having once been a beautiful piece of delicate china, some look more like ceramic mugs from Goodwill, and as different as they may be they’re all stuck together.

That’s us. That’s the church. We’re one-of-a-kind and some days it feels like were never meant to be stuck together in this thing called the church. We were all broken, broken religious, broken in unreligious, we’re the broken circumcised and the broken uncircumcised. And yet the Lord came and was Himself broken to put us all together into something beautiful, something useful. Together, because of Christ, we are something more whole.

I’m not good at remembering this either. Not only do I not remember who I was before Christ, but I frequently forget who I am because of Christ. I forget that I am redeemed, that I have been brought near. I forget that because I am near to God, I am near to those who are also near to God. Sometimes I forget that I don’t need my ordinances any more, and I still try to gain access to God through religion. Sometimes, by my religion, I alienate myself from God and from those around me. And I’m not alone. The church is still full of religion, religious hostility still walls us off from one another. Maybe you judge your friend because he’s a Calvinist, or your roommate because she’s not. Maybe your go home with an elitist attitude toward your family, because you know more religious stuff than they do. My friend was telling me last night about how her parents have cut themselves off from her aunt and uncle because they baptize their babies. It’s funny how Jesus can be refreshing like a cool drink in summer’s heat, and Christianity can be like spoiled milk (McManus). It doesn’t take long to realize that what restrains others from trusting in Jesus is not the compelling nature of Hinduism or humanism or Buddhism or Taoism or atheism. The real obstacle that most people struggle with when it comes to Jesus is this thing called Christianity and these people who call themselves the church. But we have been stuck together. We’re in this together. For the long haul. Together. Peace, friends, is our common ground. We both have peace with God and therefore peace with one another. Are there issues to be taken up and discussed and debated? Yes. I’m not saying we do not insist on biblical teachings, rather that we’ve forgotten one of them.

We’re not too far from high school, are we? We’re still a world of joiners and a people of labels. But by being joined to Christ, by being labeled at His, we are joined to one another and labeled as His church.

So remember. We were far from God. We were without hope and without God in this world. But today we are different. BUT NOW is our reality. Peace Himself was broken and hung to break down the dividing wall between us and the Father. We have divine grace in common, and find ourselves with a mutual God. And that changes things. Or at least it should.