Coloring Outside the Lines

*** Promo Relational Vampires series...

Finishing Not In It To Win It. How does following Jesus informs our engagement with our political system? How do we treat one another when we don’t agree? How can we participate in privilege while maintaining unity, remaining Christlike, and preserving our witness?

Talking about the lines we draw or others draw that create boundaries or barriers

Some lines good…

End zone

Hwy stripes - tells others with half of the road is mine

Property lines - tells me where to stop mowing. Mow 6 inches over line so they know I’m a Christian.

Some lines not so good.

IDK if you’ve ever experienced being on the wrong side of a line...

My family was oilfield trash

Julie’s experience - the Booneville Becks

Ever found yourself on the wrong side of a line?

Maybe you’ve experienced something similar. Found yourself outside the lines bc of your ethnicity. Maybe bc your family’s reputation proceeded you. Maybe you couldn’t afford the right clothes or shoes in school. Maybe you’ve experienced the invisible barriers due to your gender.

I think all of us could probably identify with being on the wrong side of a line.

Have you ever been on the “right” side of one? Making clubs in school. Sadistic joy in letting others know there was a club they couldn’t join…

Unfortunately, many times we draw lines in the church. We create a coloring page, and we expect everyone to color within the lines we create. Our lines determine who is in and who is out. Who we will welcome and who we won’t. At our worst, our lines cause us to classify who is friend and who is enemy. Whether we mean to or not, we become the guardians of God’s grace.

This morning I was us to finish our series by looking at God's vision for a world without lines, and as a church we get to trample these artificial boundaries to bring God's vision to fulfillment.  And if you've ever felt like you are on the wrong side of an arbitrary line, or maybe you’ve been guilty of creating an arbitrary line, this week's message has something for you. I’ve called it Coloring Outside the Lines.

Pray...

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Read Ephesians 2:11-22

Ephesians 2:11–22 (NRSV)

So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision”—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 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.

Paul is writing to a church that is wrestling with lines. They’re struggling with how to be a church with so much diversity - especially the big differences that exist between Jews and Gentiles. Their culture is appying pressure to stay within the expected lines. Paul gives them reason to color outside the lines by reminding them of what Jesus has done in their life. His thoughts are simply organized by “Once… But now… So then...”

Once…

Paul describes our life before Christ

Foreigners

Outside God’s promises

Without hope

By a fluke of birth - ie not being born into a Jewish family - we were shut out from relationship with God. At least as far as the Jews were concerned.

They created lines to keep gentiles away. Literal wall surrounded Temple warning Gentiles not to enter on pain of death.

God’s chosen people, but forgot what they were chosen for. NOT for an exclusive relationship with God, but that through them God could save the whole world. But they took their birthright and hoarded it.

And they did it for all the right reasons.

They had to protect what God had given them. They had his teaching and commandments. They needed to stay pure. So they put up barriers - literal and figurative - to keep the unclean or unworthy away. God’s grace needed a guardian - after all, can’t just let in any rabble.

Worth pausing to ask if we put up barriers that keep people from Jesus…

Are there certain kinds of people we won’t invite?

Are there some visitors we will make feel welcomed and some we won’t based on their appearance, their clothes, their smell?

If you are a Christian, maybe you need to remember once YOU were on the wrong side of the line. All of us had a BC. If you aren’t a Christian yet, this next section contains good news for you.

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But now…

Paul tells us what Jesus has done on our behalf

Brought near

Broken down the dividing wall

Abolished the law against us

Reconciled us to God and one another

Whatever has kept us from God has now been made obsolete in Christ. We no longer relate to God through an old covenant, but through a new one instituted through Jesus’ sacrifice.

The work of Jesus on the cross goes far beyond our personal salvation. It accomplished what God had planned all along - one people living in relationship with him and each other.

In breaking down the barrier that kept us from God, he also removed the barriers that keep us from one another.

That means we should be very careful about erecting our own barriers.

I know. What if the wrong people show up? What if someone who doesn’t see politics the way I do, who votes for the wrong team? What if someone comes who has views radically different than mine about immigration, abortion, or the end times starts coming? What if a person who is living an alternative sexual lifestyle shows up - a lifestyle I think is opposed to the Bible? What if sinners come?

I have news for you. They already have. We’ve had a person here who was trans. Many of you probably didn’t know. And rather than attack or accuse this person of a sinful lifestyle, we instead embraced her into our community. And surrounded by a loving community allowed space for the Holy Spirit to begin unwinding all the pain that led to transitioning. And in the end, she chose to transition back to her birth gender.

Space was created so walls could come down - in God’s time.

We might just remember here how patient God has been with each of us as we have tried to work through our own issues. Idk about y’all, but even after becoming a Christian I was still really messed up in some ways.

I still am. And so I’m thankful that God doesn’t keep me at arms length until I get my act together. He invited me - and you - to draw near to the only one who can actually straighten us out.

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So then…

Paul explains that, bc of what Jesus has done, everything has changed. We are no longer excluded by the fluke of our birth. We are no longer excluded from God’s promises or from his household. The lines that kept us out are gone. God colored outside the lines. He did what nobody thought he’d do; he came in the flesh and took the responsibility of our sin upon himself.

And all of this is the pure grace of God. A few verses previously Paul said, Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”

It’s all grace.

Illustr: ever had someone in the drive thru line ahead of you pay for your meal? How did it make you feel? Happy? Cared for? Often we feel humbled. Like, I didn’t do anything to deserve this. This is the power of human grace. Now multiple it by a billion. That’s the power of God’s grace.

This isn’t our own doing, so there is no room to boast. No room to hold ourselves aloof from others. No excuse to keep up the walls.

God chose Israel to be a light for the nations. They instead hoarded the light and ended up squandering it. Let’s not make the same mistake. If you are in Christ, you are not “in” for your own sake only. You are part of God’s plan to reconcile everyone to himself.

That means we each have to build bridges, not walls, for those around us. We have to make it easier for people to find Christ, not harder. We must learn to color outside the lines.

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Learn to empathize with people coming for first time. Imagine you walking into a biker bar in the desert southwest. How would you feel? That’s how they feel.

You and I have to do the scary work of tearing down the very walls they make us feel secure. I’m not taking about a wall at a national border; I’m taking about the walls we build around the church.

It’s time for each of us to ask, “Am I doing anything that makes it harder for someone to feel welcomed in our church?” Positively, “What is one thing I could do to make it easier for people coming to church?”

Remember what your life was like BC. Extend the compassion and grace you recieved to others.

My vision is for our to be one of radical hospitality. When we say everyone is welcome - I mean it. Read website welcome…

Welcoming is not the same thing as agreeing. We’re not saying something is OK. It just means that we will lower the barrier to entry so that others can hear the good news of Jesus too. Have safe space to figure things out.

And this will always be messy and uncomfortable. But Jesus became messy and uncomfortable to reach to you and me. How can we not pay it forward?

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Ministry...

If you have never surrendered your life to Jesus, you need to know that Jesus prayed for you too. That you would also enter into this oneness with your heavenly Father. He took on flesh and become one with us so that we could become one with him...

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Communion

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*** Announcement reminders ***

We’ve been closing our worship times by praying prayers that remind us of who we are and that help form us to represent God well. During the next few weeks I’d like us to prayer a kind of Christian pledge of allegiance - the Apostles’ Creed - asking God to help us keep Jesus in the center of all we do and say.

*** Explain “catholic” church ***

I believe in God, the Father almighty,     creator of heaven and earth;

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.     He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit         and born of the Virgin Mary.     He suffered under Pontius Pilate,         was crucified, died, and was buried.     He descended to the dead.

    On the third day he rose again.     He ascended into heaven,         and is seated at the right hand of the Father.     He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,     the holy catholic Church,     the communion of saints,     the forgiveness of sins     the resurrection of the body,     and the life everlasting. Amen.

Now as we prepare to take this time of worship into the week ahead, the Lord who loves you says:

Matthew 5:14–16 (NRSV)

“You are the light of the world… Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

GO BE THE CHURCH!!