Sermon Text: Ephesians 2:11-22
One of the unique features of the worldview of the ancient Hebrews was their belief in the unity of the human race. In contrast to the myths and legends of other ancient peoples, which seldom acknowledged a common humanity with rival nations, the Hebrews believed that all human beings, from all nations, descend from one set of original parents, Adam and Eve.
All peoples are essentially one, with a common human origin, and a shared human nature. And yet, the Hebrew people separated themselves from the other nations.
In fact, the God who had revealed to them in the Book of Genesis, that they shared a common humanity with all other nations, is the same God who told them, in the Book of Exodus, that they were specially chosen, and were to be a distinct and separate nation. The Lord said:
“I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”
The Law of Moses, revealed by God for his chosen people, served two functions. First, it was a barrier, which fenced off the Hebrews from Gentile nations that lived according to different ethical standards, and that worshiped their gods according to different religious tenets.
And second, the Law of Moses was an internal teacher for the Hebrews, expressing to them the righteous requirements of God; and picturing for them the promises of the future Messiah and Redeemer: who someday would fulfill all that the Law demanded, and live out all that the Law illustrated and pointed to.
The necessity of Israel’s separation from the heathen nations was not because they were a master race, or were of a superior ethnicity. Again, their humanity was the same as the humanity of all others.
And it was not merely being born into a Hebrew family that made a man to be a part of this special nation. The entry point was the rite of circumcision, which brought a Hebrew baby, or a Gentile convert, into the national covenant with God; and which placed that baby, or that convert, under the Mosaic Law, with all of the requirements and messianic symbolism of the Mosaic Law.
The separation of Israel from all other nations was for the purpose of keeping it uncontaminated by the idolatry and moral abominations of the other nations.
The oracles of God were entrusted to the Israelites; the worship of the Tabernacle – and later of the Temple – was established among the Israelites; and divinely-inspired prophets were continually sent to the Israelites for their instruction and admonition: so that this nation, of all nations, would someday be a fit receptacle for the coming of God’s Son into the world.
And when that did eventually happen, as a fulfillment of all that God has pledged and promised to his people, it would not be for the benefit just of those chosen people. As God had told Abraham many centuries earlier, all nations would be blessed through him, and through the messianic Seed who would come into the world among his descendants, as one of his descendants.
God became a man in Israel, because Israel had been especially prepared for his arrival by the working of God’s grace. But God did not become man only for Israel. Jesus, the Jewish Savior, is in truth the Savior of the world.
The prophet Simeon, as he held the baby Jesus in his arms in the Temple at Jerusalem, expressed it best when he prayed to the Lord: “My eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all people, a Light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Your people Israel.”
Once Jesus had come, had fulfilled his calling to atone for the sins of the world by his death on the cross, and had then risen from the dead – to inaugurate the new holy nation and the new royal priesthood of his church – the reason for that former separation was now gone.
This separation between Hebrew and heathen, between Jew and Gentile, had served a valid and necessary purpose. But this national separation was no longer necessary. In fact, a cessation of this separation was now necessary.
As far as the mission of the Christian church is concerned, the continuation of this division is now forbidden, since all nations are now to be brought into fellowship with God, and with God’s people, through repentance and faith in Christ. People from all ethnic backgrounds, and from all the families of men, are now to be incorporated into the new living Temple of God.
After his resurrection, Jesus said this to his disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” Truly, in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek.
In today’s text from his Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul is writing to Gentile believers, and is explaining these things to them – and to us. He writes:
“Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh…, were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from 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 Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. ”
God had approved the separation and even the alienation that formerly existed between Israel and all other peoples. But now he no longer wills this separation.
That being the case, God certainly does not approve of the alienation, the suspicion, and the prejudice that still exist in this world, among human beings of various other races, nationalities, and ethnicities; and that often exist among people for other reasons, too.
People often fear the things that they do not understand, or with which they are unfamiliar. And they are often hostile and even violent toward the things that they fear.
It is possible to be frightened by the strangeness of those who look different, who dress differently, who speak a different language or speak your language with an accent, or who follow some unusual cultural customs. You might feel uncomfortable being around people whose frames of reference for life are different than your frames of reference.
But as a Christian, you cannot throw up a wall of division and hostility between yourself and other people, only on the basis of those kinds of differences – which are, literally, only skin-deep.
You share a common humanity with all other people. And that matters more than these other factors – a lot more! Our unity as human beings in God’s unified creation, and in Christ’s universal redemption, overrides every external and superficial difference that would nevertheless threaten to keep us apart, and keep us afraid of each other.
In his atoning death for the sins of the world, Jesus has redeemed all of us. He was a Jew, who was tortured to death through crucifixion at the hands of Gentile Roman soldiers.
But even as they were doing this to him, he was loving those Gentiles, and praying for those Romans: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” How can we do less?
And the Great Commission that the Lord has entrusted to his church – and to you as a member of his church – encompasses all people: even as it encompassed you, and created a home for you in the family and fellowship of God’s church.
In this fallen world, filled as it is with so much hatred and enmity, the people of God march to the beat of a different drummer. We are called upon to break those cycles of suspicion and animosity that human sin has – in many cases – kept going for generations upon generations.
Sometimes it takes courage to reach out to people who are in many ways different from us, and to invite them to be a part of our congregation – and to be a part of our lives. Some risks might be involved.
But Jesus will give us the courage we need. And in love, he wants us to take those risks. We should remember that when Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” “all nations” really does mean all nations.
Today’s Gospel from St. Luke touches on the ongoing outreach of the church to a world that is often indifferent or even hostile to what the church stands for, and to what the church is offering.
People think they are too busy with earthly things that are, in themselves, good and worthwhile things, which actually come to humanity from the loving hand of divine providence. But those otherwise good things become idols when we are devoted to them more than to the God who gave them.
“I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.” “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.” “I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.”
Indeed, we are often patronized and insulted, ridiculed and rebuffed, when we invite people to the banquet of salvation that the Lord has prepared for everyone in his sacred means of grace. Too often, people just don’t care. But we never stop caring.
We never stop inviting. We never stop loving them, as Christ helps us to love them, even when they never love us, and even when they sometimes hate us – and accuse us of hating them!
And so we follow the command of our Master, go out into the streets and lanes, and seek still to bring in the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind. This could very well include people with literal physical infirmities and disabilities of this nature, who are, of course, always welcome here.
But it also includes – and chiefly includes – those who have been impoverished and maimed in spirit by the attacks of the world, the flesh, and the devil. They are the walking wounded, in need of much healing and restoration.
And they are welcome to walk among us. We will be patient with them and console them, even as Christian brothers and sisters have so often been patient with us, and have consoled us.
And in the fellowship of the church, we will all learn together, with God’s help, a new way of thinking, a new way of living, and a new way of believing and hoping: as God’s forgiveness cleanses us; and as God’s grace opens our eyes, our ears, and our hearts.
Everybody is invited to be a part of this. Absolutely everybody: of all nations, ethnicities, cultures, and social classes. To be sure, all are invited on God’s terms, according to his Word.
That means, therefore, that all are invited, not to be blessed in their sin, but to be delivered from their sin. All are invited, not be left in a condition of spiritual death, but to be raised from death into the life of Christ: by the power of his forgiveness, and by the power of his victory over the grave.
And, there still is room for more. There will always be room for more. There is room for more in God’s church throughout the world. There is room for more in this congregation.
And there is room for more in our hearts: hearts that have been opened and transformed by the Holy Spirit, where God now dwells, and where a compassionate and welcoming love for all of God’s people also now dwells.
And what a wonderful blessing it is, when a congregation, in its earthly worship, is able to experience just a small taste of what the worship of the grand congregation of God’s saints in heaven is like. In the Book of Revelation, St. John writes of his vision of heaven in these words:
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”
The temporary division between Jew and Gentile, and the sinful divisions that exist between every other nation, tribe, people, and language, have all been broken down, and removed, by the cross of Jesus.
And the cross of Jesus has established peace between Jew and Gentile, and between people of every other nation on earth, who together have received the forgiveness of their sins through Christ, and who together are indwelt by the Spirit of Christ.
By this Spirit, we who are baptized into Christ have been baptized into one body; and are together the spiritual offspring of Abraham. And by this Spirit, we who believe in Christ have been adopted in him as children of God, to whom we cry out together, as members of his eternal family, “Abba, Father.”
God does direct us to stretch ourselves beyond our comfort zones, in order to be instruments of the Lord in bringing the gospel of reconciliation and peace to all people, of all nations. But that gospel is not only what we are commanded to bring to others.
It is also the message that has been brought to us, and that has liberated us from our fears: from our fear of other people, and of their differentness; and from our fear of God, and of his judgment against our sins.
The peace that the cross of Christ has established, and that the gospel of Christ announces, is not only a peace among nations. It is also, and especially, a peace with God.
In his holiness, God is offended by our human rebellion against him and his goodness. But God is at peace with us in Christ, because God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting our trespasses against us.
It is a great joy to be a part of the new thing that God is doing among all the nations of humanity. It is a great joy to be a part of the family of God, the new holy nation of God, and the eternal church of God.
Elect from every nation, Yet one o’er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation: One Lord, one faith, one birth.
One holy name she blesses, Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses, With every grace endued. Amen.