Building Up and Sending Out: Part 2
August 25, 2024 Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Nehemiah 2:11-20Ephesians 2:11-22
“Building Up and Sending Out: Part 2”
Melissa K. Smith
When I was a kid, my siblings and I loved playing with building blocks. We would try to build castles with help from our imagination – and it truly was fun to see what we created. Our cardboard building block castles always had a gate or wall. When we would go to the beach, we would try to build sandcastles, and our sandcastles always had a mote. From an early age I knew that a castle traditionally has ways to keep people out and keep people in.
Our scripture reading this morning shows us that the Kingdom of God is not a Castle on a Hill with a mote and a gate. Through Jesus Christ the dividing wall has been destroyed and unity can be achieved. …but let’s take a step back.
Last week we talked about building up the Church and we looked at Nehemiah’s story. Nehemiah longed to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem – and with the King’s blessing and God’s provision, he was able to do so. In light of this morning’s passage that talks about Jesus breaking down the dividing wall, was Nehemiah’s building project wrong? No – but it was built up for a particular season.
Before Jesus’s incarnation, the people of God were scattered – The Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Roman empires did a number on the Holy Land and on the identity of the people of God. During the Persian Empire, when Jews were allowed to go back to their homeland, Nehemiah worked to help them restore their identity, their culture, and their faith. The wall around the city was necessary for a time because they did not have any other unifier. But the wall that helped Jews maintain and grow into their identity slowly became built less by bricks and physical materials and became built with legalism and exclusion.
It worked for its intended purpose of strictly adhering to their identity – and we can speculate that during the Roman occupation of Jerusalem the Jewish leaders leaned further into the law and the identity that defined them. But when Jesus came into the world it was time for these divisions to be torn down so that unity between Jew and Gentile – Jew and non-Jews – could flourish.
So, we are called to build up the Church, but we need to not hide behind walls or build sandcastle motes… but what are our walls and motes? Well, one wall we create when we build up the Church is falling into the trap of assuming that whatever happens out there is bad and whatever happens in here is good.
God is everywhere – and he loves his world – even the world that we can’t see beyond our horizon. Other walls are our legalistic tendencies and our traditions and culture. Are our traditions and culture bad? Absolutely not! But they can be unwelcoming. They can create barriers. If a young adult or youth came to your committee meeting with a new idea, would you be open to it, or will you say, “That’s not how we have historically done things.” For the visitor or guest who does not know the story of the Gospel as well as you, is there grace? Is there an invitation to help them know the Gospel? For the member who has felt excluded for years, is there a willingness to welcome them back into the Church family?
When we build up the Church, we need to remember our identity. Our identity, our foundation, is Jesus Christ. Of course, we do things a certain way for a reason. I am not saying that is wrong. But our reasons for what we do should be centered on Christ – and from there we will truly be the Church we have been tasked to build. When we take down the walls of legalism and exclusion, we will be left with a foundation that cannot be rocked. That is when we can take a step out and invite others into the Kingdom of God. But how do we do this?
The Apostle Paul says we need to remember who we are and where we have come from. He says, “Remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who were called “the circumcision” – a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands – remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world.” Do you remember a time when you did not know Christ? And if not, do you remember a time where you deeply struggled in your faith? A time where hope seemed impossible? Remember that.
By recalling those times, the importance of faith is put into perspective: let’s lower our walls and drop our defenses to let others into our community so that for them too, a life without Christ can be but a memory.
Paul reminds us that Jesus Christ is the reason why we don’t need to have a dividing wall anymore. In fact, he tells us that the dividing wall was broken down through his death on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain in the temple tore in two, eliminating the divide between humanity and God. So too did the dividing wall of hostility between person to person come crumbling down. So why are we still divided?
If we build up the Church with walls that exclude others intentionally or unintentionally, we are constructing a division that should not be there. We are acting antithetically to the Gospel. When we build up the Church, we are not constructing impenetrable walls. We are building a foundation, rooted in Christ, with doors wide open for everyone and anyone to have equal access to Jesus Christ. Paul continues to explain, “14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations.
His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” Jesus is our peace – and proclaimed peace to both the Jews and the Gentiles – to those who were in the wall and those beyond – he proclaimed peace to all. What is this peace? This is shalom – a sense of wholeness and completeness. Through his death, Jesus broke down the dividing walls, bringing the created world back into a sense of shalom – back to the way we were created to be.
When building sandcastles, it was always so frustrating when the ocean’s waves would come and knock them down – my mote did not do much good to keep the waves out. But let’s let the wave of Christ’s mercy, grace, and love, knock down the dividing walls between us. For in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female. In Christ there are no divisions. Any divisions are human made and are founded in sin, not founded on Christ. As we sang this morning, “Christ is made the sure foundation, Christ the head and cornerstone, chosen of the Lord, and precious, binding all the Church in one.”
As we build up the Church, founded on Christ and made without walls, we are free and able to go out – sent out to invite others in so that they too can experience God’s shalom established through the cross.
Let us build up – and let us be sent out, inviting the whole world to know and experience the peace of Christ.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Nehemiah 2:11-20Ephesians 2:11-22
“Building Up and Sending Out: Part 2”
Melissa K. Smith
When I was a kid, my siblings and I loved playing with building blocks. We would try to build castles with help from our imagination – and it truly was fun to see what we created. Our cardboard building block castles always had a gate or wall. When we would go to the beach, we would try to build sandcastles, and our sandcastles always had a mote. From an early age I knew that a castle traditionally has ways to keep people out and keep people in.
Our scripture reading this morning shows us that the Kingdom of God is not a Castle on a Hill with a mote and a gate. Through Jesus Christ the dividing wall has been destroyed and unity can be achieved. …but let’s take a step back.
Last week we talked about building up the Church and we looked at Nehemiah’s story. Nehemiah longed to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem – and with the King’s blessing and God’s provision, he was able to do so. In light of this morning’s passage that talks about Jesus breaking down the dividing wall, was Nehemiah’s building project wrong? No – but it was built up for a particular season.
Before Jesus’s incarnation, the people of God were scattered – The Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Roman empires did a number on the Holy Land and on the identity of the people of God. During the Persian Empire, when Jews were allowed to go back to their homeland, Nehemiah worked to help them restore their identity, their culture, and their faith. The wall around the city was necessary for a time because they did not have any other unifier. But the wall that helped Jews maintain and grow into their identity slowly became built less by bricks and physical materials and became built with legalism and exclusion.
It worked for its intended purpose of strictly adhering to their identity – and we can speculate that during the Roman occupation of Jerusalem the Jewish leaders leaned further into the law and the identity that defined them. But when Jesus came into the world it was time for these divisions to be torn down so that unity between Jew and Gentile – Jew and non-Jews – could flourish.
So, we are called to build up the Church, but we need to not hide behind walls or build sandcastle motes… but what are our walls and motes? Well, one wall we create when we build up the Church is falling into the trap of assuming that whatever happens out there is bad and whatever happens in here is good.
God is everywhere – and he loves his world – even the world that we can’t see beyond our horizon. Other walls are our legalistic tendencies and our traditions and culture. Are our traditions and culture bad? Absolutely not! But they can be unwelcoming. They can create barriers. If a young adult or youth came to your committee meeting with a new idea, would you be open to it, or will you say, “That’s not how we have historically done things.” For the visitor or guest who does not know the story of the Gospel as well as you, is there grace? Is there an invitation to help them know the Gospel? For the member who has felt excluded for years, is there a willingness to welcome them back into the Church family?
When we build up the Church, we need to remember our identity. Our identity, our foundation, is Jesus Christ. Of course, we do things a certain way for a reason. I am not saying that is wrong. But our reasons for what we do should be centered on Christ – and from there we will truly be the Church we have been tasked to build. When we take down the walls of legalism and exclusion, we will be left with a foundation that cannot be rocked. That is when we can take a step out and invite others into the Kingdom of God. But how do we do this?
The Apostle Paul says we need to remember who we are and where we have come from. He says, “Remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who were called “the circumcision” – a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands – remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world.” Do you remember a time when you did not know Christ? And if not, do you remember a time where you deeply struggled in your faith? A time where hope seemed impossible? Remember that.
By recalling those times, the importance of faith is put into perspective: let’s lower our walls and drop our defenses to let others into our community so that for them too, a life without Christ can be but a memory.
Paul reminds us that Jesus Christ is the reason why we don’t need to have a dividing wall anymore. In fact, he tells us that the dividing wall was broken down through his death on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain in the temple tore in two, eliminating the divide between humanity and God. So too did the dividing wall of hostility between person to person come crumbling down. So why are we still divided?
If we build up the Church with walls that exclude others intentionally or unintentionally, we are constructing a division that should not be there. We are acting antithetically to the Gospel. When we build up the Church, we are not constructing impenetrable walls. We are building a foundation, rooted in Christ, with doors wide open for everyone and anyone to have equal access to Jesus Christ. Paul continues to explain, “14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations.
His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” Jesus is our peace – and proclaimed peace to both the Jews and the Gentiles – to those who were in the wall and those beyond – he proclaimed peace to all. What is this peace? This is shalom – a sense of wholeness and completeness. Through his death, Jesus broke down the dividing walls, bringing the created world back into a sense of shalom – back to the way we were created to be.
When building sandcastles, it was always so frustrating when the ocean’s waves would come and knock them down – my mote did not do much good to keep the waves out. But let’s let the wave of Christ’s mercy, grace, and love, knock down the dividing walls between us. For in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female. In Christ there are no divisions. Any divisions are human made and are founded in sin, not founded on Christ. As we sang this morning, “Christ is made the sure foundation, Christ the head and cornerstone, chosen of the Lord, and precious, binding all the Church in one.”
As we build up the Church, founded on Christ and made without walls, we are free and able to go out – sent out to invite others in so that they too can experience God’s shalom established through the cross.
Let us build up – and let us be sent out, inviting the whole world to know and experience the peace of Christ.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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