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.
Please be seated.
It's a privilege to share this time with you.
I am grateful to the clergy colleagues
who invited me to share in the gospel with you this morning.
And grateful also to my conversation partner
in preparation for this time,
the Reverend Dr. Jonathan Lewis,
who is a scholar of Paul
and will be coming forward with a book soon on this subject.
So if today interest you,
keep your eyes out for his book on Paul,
which will be released soon.
The letter to the Ephesians was written as a theological treatise,
a summation of Pauline's thought that was perhaps attached
to a collection of Paul's letters
that circulated to his early churches in Asia Minor.
This is according to E. Elizabeth Johnson,
Professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary
in Decatur, Georgia.
Biblical scholars are split on whether Paul himself wrote the letter
or if it was one of his first disciples writing under Paul's name,
pseudonymity being a common practice in first century,
in the first century.
It wasn't considered plagiarism, Baylor faculty.
And either way, Paul's letters and thought were well in hand
while Ephesians was written.
And here this morning are the themes coming back up again
of the letter to the Romans, the mystery of how God is able in Christ
to bring together and have, bring diverse and divergent people together
and have their hostility torn down through the life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ for He is our peace.
So then how will God in Christ tear down the barriers,
the walls of hostility that exists between us,
even among Christians here in this nation?
For God in Christ to break down the hostility among us,
will require a re-examination of Paul's thought and application for the church.
For popular Christian preaching in our nation to often misrepresent Paul,
not merely by pulling out verses from Paul's letters to a particular church
in a particular time and a particular place
and universalizing the verse for all Christians in every time and place,
an application that Paul could not have imagined
and never intended for the churches that he founded.
But also Christian preaching in our nation to often misrepresent Paul
by only covering half of his theological equation.
Could the mathematicians among us imagine if we talk half equations as the whole truth?
How well would our engineering function if we premised our projects
on half equations as the whole reality?
Likewise, how well will the body of Christ be able to carry out its function
of reconciling humanity to God and one another if we are working on a half equation?
The answer is the church cannot, and she is not.
We, the church, are failing to live into our reconciling vocation outlined in Ephesians
because popular preaching too often falls short.
To quote Paul from Romans, chapter 5, verse 10,
for if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son.
The mathematicians may wait in a moment ago, now the English majors.
Notice the word if, if signals a dependent clause, if there's an if, then there's a then.
For if we were enemies, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son,
then how much more surely having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?
Popular Christian preaching in our nation is incomplete, Paul line thought.
We hear the forgiveness of sins through the cross of Christ.
We hear about his death on cavalry and being brought near through the blood of Christ.
But when did we last hear from a major pulpit outside of St. Albans, of course,
how we will be saved through his life?
In short, we hear about Christ's death.
But not his spirit filled, resurrection full, life that transforms us.
Do not miss here. We must begin from our beginning.
And indeed, our portion of Ephesians appointed for today begins with the act of remembering.
To begin, we must remember in our own lives in the past, when we were following the course of this world,
when we follow the desires of our own flesh, to put it bluntly, we have to remember our sin.
We must begin by remembering with Paul and Romans that we have all fallen short of the glory of God.
The possibility of breaking down barriers requires humility in place of pride,
a broken and contrite heart rather than self-justification.
Remember our sin, and then the cross will happen to us.
For Paul, the cross is the crux of human history prior to the cross,
the law with its commandments and ordinance were tantamount, but the cross abolished the law according to Ephesians.
To truly understand Paul, we must recognize his boasting about his life in Philippians chapter 3.
Listen to Paul boast. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more.
Circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews,
as to the law of Pharisee, as to the zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law.
Blameless. This is Paul boasting.
But then something happened to Paul. He encountered the resurrected Christ.
The one who under the law was cursed by having hung on a tree from Scripture,
the one who due to crucifixion had to be on righteous, that one had been vindicated by the life-giving creator God,
resurrected Jesus Christ. For Paul and so doing God created and Christ a new humanity,
don't miss the word created. Resurrection for Paul is the act of the God of creation,
doing a new thing in the world. And let us pause here momentarily to note that new creation always appears minor in the moment.
Who cares if one human being has their mind changed this morning? What difference will that really make?
In the life and ministry of Paul, we have evidence that the changing of just one mind,
the encounter of one human being with the life-giving power of God in Christ can change the trajectory of a nation and of the world.
John Paul Letterack is a professor emeritus at Notre Dame.
He has facilitated conflict transformation work in places around the globe.
And he asserts from a wealth of experience in some of the most protracted conflict on the planet to watch for the seemingly naive.
For he asserts that the word naive from the French means new born.
And so he says in situations of conflict, embrace naivete for some new possibility longs to be born.
Paul's naivete is what the God of creation needed to address the hostile human division that surrounded him.
For through the revelation of the risen Christ, Paul discerns a call, a commission in God's grace.
For the purpose of reconciling hostile human factions.
Paul's understanding of grace is so often also mispreached. For Paul, grace is a gift given to be shared.
How often is grace depicted in popular preaching as for my own liberation from sin rather than for the reconciling of humanity.
Grace for Paul isn't for the individual. It is the power of God to build community.
And some of us have not received the full measure of grace of God because we did not understand that grace is the power of God not for me only.
But for the building of community here and now.
So then, how will Christ tear down the barriers, the walls of hostility that exist between us, among professed Christians here in this nation now, here in this naivete, how will God act?
Through grace, not the half equation, grace of popular preaching, only forgiveness of sins for the individual, but rather through a church that not only experiences forgiving and being forgiven as a beginning place.
But also encounters the risen Christ naively.
As though something new, nascent is being born among us. Can you perceive it?
If you can, then perhaps today you are being commissioned with Paul.
You are receiving a measure of God's grace, the life giving power of God given to Christ's body to tear down barriers, the walls of hostility that divide us for Christ Jesus is our peace.