080606 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, call it “a dividing wall of hostility,” kept them apart.

President Reagan once visited her town and witnessed how the Berlin Wall kept families separated. Knowing how things ought to be, he said: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” People thought it would never happen, but it did. The wall crumbled, and Emma saw her brother for the first time in forty years. The “dividing wall of hostility was gone.”

Today’s Epistle lesson talks about a different kind of “dividing wall of hostility.” That wall separated Jews and Gentiles. It also separated sinners from God and the Kingdom. 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—dividing and separating peoples according to religion, culture, race, and language. The conflict between Jew and Gentile marks well the hatred people can have for one another.

(This is what caused Jonah to refuse to go to Ninevah as the Lord commanded him. I can’t help but wonder if it really wasn’t fear of what God might accomplish among the Gentiles that kept Jonah from doing God’s will—at least at first.)

It is historical things like that that identifies the dividing wall of hostility. The work of Jesus Christ was to tear down that dividing wall of hostility and make things the way they ought to be. He did this by allowing His own blood to be shed for all people—Jew and Gentile. In Christ, He called both to be fellow citizens and heirs of his kingdom and members of His ONE family—the ONE holy Christian Church.

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

But we ask, “How so?”

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

          A.      We have a sense of how things ought to be among us. We ought to worship together. We ought to care for one another. We ought to work together to take the Gospel of Jesus into our community. We ought to live in peace and harmony as God’s people.

          B.      But sin always raises its ugly head—even among God’s people—building up the 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. We tend to just shrug it all off as just being a part of our human existence. And when we do, we act as servants of Satan just like Adam and Eve. We cannot keep the dividing walls torn down.

II.     But Christ can and does tear down those walls of sin and hatred by taking our sin into his own body. And more than that, He brings peace to divided people to make things the way they ought to be (vv 13–17).

          A.      That is what the cross is all about—God reconciling the world to Himself, by literally removing the sin that separates people from God. When the sin is forgiven, it brings us to God. It also brings us to one another in a new way.

(Possible illustrations: the Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Joseph and his brothers.)

                   1.      Jeanne’s pastor talked with her about Christ’s forgiveness, how God is not angry with us over our sin anymore, and that Christ came to take away our sin. Then Jeanne, all on her own, suggested that maybe she ought to visit with Rita. They did. They forgave one another. Because a right Spirit was reformed in Jeanne she was able to once again worship. She and Rita were even able to sit next to each other in the same pew. Christ had made peace between them; he had made things the way they ought to be.

                   2.      These folks I mention, are real people with real human issues. Ray, who didn’t like people of color needed a change of heart. The Lord enlightened Ray’s mind to see how Christ loves people of every language, race, and nation. Today, Ray is able to receive Communion distributed by the pastor and the congregation’s first black elder!

                   3.      As for Janet and Mark, at last report, the Lord was still working on them. You see, Janet’s real issue is with her Lord and his Church. But, because the Lord has torn down the wall of hostility that divides He keeps inviting her to lift up her eyes to see that the wall is gone through friends. Mark? Well, he sees that the wall is gone, but as of yet he has not been able to say hello to his still estranged 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. That’s the way things ought to be! What do you think? Amen.