0800606 Pentecost 9

Pentecost 9, August 6, 2006

The Way Things Ought to Be

Text: Ephesians 2:13–22

Other Lessons: Psalm 23; Jeremiah 23:1–6; Mark 6:30–34

Sermon Theme: Christ makes things the way they ought to be for us.

Goal: That hearers recognize that the dividing wall of hostility between themselves and God and between themselves and others has been torn down by Jesus.

Introduction: People knew how things ought to be. Emma ought to be able to visit her brother who lived on the other side of town. But she couldn’t. A wall separated them.

When President Reagan visited her town, he saw the Berlin Wall. He knew how things ought to be, and he said so: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” People thought it would never happen, but it did. The wall crumbled. Emma saw her brother for the first time in forty years.

Our Epistle talks about a “dividing wall of hostility” (v 14) that separated Jews and Gentiles. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. God loves all people, and he created all people to live together in peace and harmony. But the wall just seemed to get bigger. Jews and Gentiles were separated by their religion, culture, race, and language. Jews and Gentiles hated one another. (Possible illustrations: Jonah refusing to go to the Gentiles; Galilean Jews taking the long way around Samaria to get to Jerusalem; the Zealots’ opposition to Roman rule.)

Christ came and tore down the dividing wall of hostility and made things the way they are supposed to be. God in Christ reconciled both Jew and Gentile to himself. He put an end to all the sin between the two, overcoming past hostilities with his own blood shed on the cross. He called both to be fellow citizens of his kingdom and members of his family. He united both into the one holy Christian Church. That’s the way God wants things to be. That’s the way things are supposed to be between people—united together through the blood of Christ, having one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one Spirit, and one Bible, all in one communion of saints. Incredibly, that is what we now have, because, as he did for Jews and Gentiles, so

Christ Makes Things the Way They Ought to Be for Us.

How so? What dividing walls of hostility does Christ tear down among us? How does he make things the way they ought to be? He does this by putting to death all hostilities through his blood.

I.          Things too often aren’t the way they ought to be among us.

            A.        We know how things are supposed to be among us. We worship together. We care for one another. Together we take the Gospel of Jesus to our community. We live in peace and harmony as God’s people.

            B.        But sin builds up big, tall, dividing walls of hostility among us.

                        1.         In the workplace. Jeanne had not participated in the life of God’s Church for more than twenty years. On his second visit to her home, the pastor learned that things weren’t the way they were supposed to be because Jeanne had had an argument with another member of the church years ago when they had both worked at the same school cafeteria. Sinful words were said both by Jeanne and her co-worker Rita. After that, Jeanne couldn’t bring herself to worship in the same church. The sins committed at work changed things from the way they ought to be to the way things are not supposed to be among fellow workers and church members.

                        2.         In the home. Mark and Janet called it quits after fifteen years of marriage. The sins committed against each other built a dividing wall of hostility between them. The sins of a broken marriage meant that the way things ought to be quickly became the way things weren’t supposed to be, not only between them and their families, but also with the Lord and his Church.

                        3.         In the congregation. Ray became very upset when the first black man joined the congregation. He refused to take Communion out of the same cup. That happened thirty-six years ago. The sin of racism made things the way they’re not supposed to be.

            C.        The devil works hard to build these walls of hostility among us. His divide-and-conquer tactics destroy friendships, families, and congregations. He separates people from people and people from God.

II.        But Christ came to tear down those walls of sin and hatred by taking our sin into his own body. He came to bring peace to divided people and to make things the way they ought to be (vv 13–17).

            A.        The cross is all about God reconciling the world to himself, removing the sin that separates people from God. The Gospel is for all people. It’s for us and for those on the other side of the wall. When the sin is forgiven, it brings us to God. It also brings us to one another. (Possible illustrations: the Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Philemon, Joseph and his brothers.)

                        1.         As Pastor sat with Jeanne, they talked about Christ’s forgiveness, how God is not angry with us over our sin, and that Christ came to take away our dividing sin. Then Jeanne, all on her own, suggested that maybe she ought to visit with Rita. They did. They forgave one another. Today Jeanne worships every Sunday. Before Rita passed away a few months ago, they sat next to each other in the same pew. Christ had made peace between them; he had made things the way they’re supposed to be.

                        2.         Ray? That’s another story that Jesus worked out to be the way things are supposed to be. The Lord enlightened Ray’s mind to see how Christ loves people of every language, race, and nation. Today, Ray receives Communion as it’s distributed by the pastor and the congregation’s first black elder!

                        3.         As for Janet and Mark, well, the Lord is still working on that one. Things are not the way they’re supposed to be with Janet and her Lord and his Church. But the Lord hasn’t given up. He’s torn down that wall of hostility that divides and keeps on inviting her to lift up her eyes to see that the wall is gone. Mark sees that the wall is gone, but hasn’t yet been able to walk over to the other side and say hello to his haven’t-seen-you-in-a-while brothers and sisters in Christ.

            B.        What about you? How are things with you and the Lord and with you and your fellow Christians? Did you know that any wall that may seem to be separating you is gone?

Conclusion: Christ has forgiven all your sin. Your relationship with God is what it ought to be. You have peace with God through Jesus. That same forgiveness tears down the walls of hostility that divide us from one another. We see it as we forgive one another as God in Christ forgives us.

Liturgical Setting

All the assigned readings coordinate quite well as they emphasize the care and compassion of Christ, who reconciles us to God and gathers us together as one, the one holy Christian Church. In the Old Testament Reading, God compassionately cares for the scattered sheep that have suffered under unfaithful, negligent shepherds. God promises to gather his sheep, to give them faithful shepherds, and to “raise up . . . a righteous Branch” (v 5) to rule over and shepherd them. In the Gospel, we see the Good Shepherd at work, filled with compassion for the harassed and helpless sheep. The beloved Psalm emphasizes the Shepherd’s compassionate care for the individual.

Textual Notes

The apostle Paul makes it clear that there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, either in the area of justification (see Gal 3:28) or of sanctification (see Col 3:11). Despite the deep division between Jew and Gentile in the minds and activities of people, Christ has done away with this wall of division. These truths are the point of our pericope. (See Harold Buls, Exegetical Notes on Epistle Texts [Fort Wayne: Concordia Theological Seminary Press, 1987], 337–38.)

The entire text is Christocentric. Both our peace with God and our peace with one another depend on Christ.

Our text is rich in doctrine and is useful in discussing a wide range of teachings. Pieper cites it twenty-eight times (v 20, twenty-five times) in discussing the nature and character of theology, Holy Scripture, and the application of saving faith. Surprisingly, our text is cited only once in his discussion of the holy Christian Church (Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics [St. Louis: CPH, 1951]).

V 13: This verse suggests an outline for our sermon. What were we? “Far away.” What are we now? “Brought near through the blood of Christ.”

V 14: hē eirēnē. The article before “peace” emphasizes that Jesus is the one and only. Jesus establishes peace between God and us. But this peace is also between people and people. In Paul’s day, there was no greater division or hatred than between Jew and Gentile. Yet Jesus brings the two together, breaking down every barrier between them. We can apply this text today to hostilities between races, genders, generations, economic classes, political parties, cultures, language groups, and so forth. Jesus tears down the barriers and brings all together into one Church. We who are diverse, because we are united in “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph 4:5), live in peace with one another.

Vv 15–16: How did Christ make this peace? Through the cross, where he fulfilled the Law for all of us. He fulfills and abolishes the ceremonial law so that it no longer divides. He fulfills the moral Law so that the sins committed against one another are forgiven and no longer divide. In Christ, the Jews and Gentiles have their differences, hatred, and grudges set aside. Jesus takes them all away (see Buls, 39).

echthran, “hostility.” The Jews truly despised the Gentiles. They called them “dogs, sinners, unclean.” The Gentiles returned the name-calling. They detested the Jews. (R. C. H. Lenski discusses this attitude well in The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians and Philippians [Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1937], 440.) What a privilege we have to address the hostilities within our own congregations, proclaiming that Jesus died on the cross for these hostilities and to put an end to them. This sermon has great potential to promote peace and harmony in the Church.

V 17: God initiates the peace. Christ proclaimed the same peace to Jew and Gentile. Christ, through faithful shepherds, continues to do so. There is only one Gospel. It is for all people. It is for us and for those we do not like. It is for Americans, Middle Easterners, Europeans, Asians, and Africans alike.

V 18: A nice Trinitarian passage. Jews and Gentiles both come to the Father through the same Christ and the same Holy Spirit.

V 19: This verse begins to summarize what has just been stated, but does so by introducing many rich metaphors: “no longer foreigners and aliens,” but now citizens and members together. We note that the NIV translates the loaded tōn hagiōn, “with the saints,” simply “with God’s people.”

V 20: One nation, one household, and also one building. There is a debate in the commentaries over the difference between the foundation and the cornerstone. The best explanation is that the foundation and cornerstone are not two separate things but one and the same. The building is all based on the setting of that one stone. One cannot separate Christ from the prophetic and apostolic Word. The foundation and cornerstone always go together.

Vv 21–22: There are not two temples, one for the Gentiles and one for the Jews. No, all are a part of the same temple, the same building project, the same Church. Christ does the building, and his Spirit lives in the building.