Sermon Tone Analysis

*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

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*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.

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/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/