Ephesians 2:11-22

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’ (which is done in the body by human hands)- remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 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, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Let us pray,

May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all of our hearts, be pleasing and acceptable to you, our rock and our redeemer…

This summer we’re working our way through some of the epistles, some of the letters, to the early churches. It’s really fun to read about the early churches. To learn what they struggled with. To maybe see a bit of ourselves in some of those struggles. And to use the wisdom the authors of these letters offer to us to help us work through our own struggles in the church today.

This morning we have a passage from the letter to the church in Ephesus. The church in Ephesus was a church in Asia minor in the late first century living under Roman rule. This is a culture where emperors were treated like Gods. These emperors did not take kindly to any challenges to their authority. This is also a culture where the family you were born into really mattered. Because your birth determined your lot in life.

Into this historical context, the author uses talks about how harmful division is within the life of the church. Divisions happen anytime a group of people try to live in community with one another, the author reminds us. But these divisions cannot be allowed to distract us from what we have in common. The hope that we have for our future. Won for us by Jesus on the cross. 

I think it’s also helpful to understand what the author is talking about when he talks about circumcision. In the Ancient Near East, human beings were either Jews or Gentiles. Jews were descendants of Jacob. And considered themselves to be a part of God’s chosen people. They circumcised males to mark them as part of God’s chosen people. It was a way to quickly identify a person as Jewish or not.

Gentiles were basically everyone else. They were not circumcised. And Jewish people did not consider Gentiles a part of God’s chosen people. Jewish people considered themselves superior to Gentiles. And Gentiles didn’t understand the point of following all the rules of Judaism. This division over religious differences went on for centuries. 

Then Jesus entered the picture and changed the entire course of human history. Out of these two distinct groups of people, Jesus sought to create a new humanity. For it is written:

His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

What the author is saying here is that sin’s power to divide the world has come to its end in Jesus. Since all have sinned and all have fallen short of the glory of God. All need Jesus and the peace that comes with the forgiveness of our sins. This is something we do not deserve and cannot earn. It is something Jesus did for us out of love. But with it comes a new responsibility. The responsibility to figure out how to live as fellow citizens with God’s people.

One way that we figure out how to live as fellow citizens with God’s people is through the sacrament of baptism. In baptism we teach children that they have been called, claimed, and marked as Christ’s own. We proclaim that they are no longer children of this world. They are children of God. And we promise, with God’s help, to help raise the child in the ways of Jesus. In our common baptisms we embody Christian unity. 

In the Presbyterian tradition, we often baptize children before they really understand what is happening to them in baptism. I’ve grown to appreciate the symbolism of this. In baptism we bear witness to our belief that God chose and claimed us before we could chose or claim God for ourselves. I also love that we always do baptisms in the context of worship. Because it is impossible for any of us to live our baptisms apart from a worshipping community. We need Jesus, and we need each other to live as citizens of God.

That’s not to say that living into our baptismal identities will be easy. Sometimes the call of our baptisms will ask us to do what is right instead of what is easy. Sometimes the call of our baptisms will take us to unexpected places and spaces. Where we will encounter women and men who are different than us. And we’ll have to figure out how to live in peace with them. But most often the call of our baptism will beckon us to listen to the still small voice of God at work in our lives and follow the Spirit’s promptings.

Summertime is a wonderful time to practice listening to the small voice of God at work in our lives. In preparation for our Fall Bible Study, I’ve been reading a book on prayer called Creating a Life With God by Daniel Wolpert. The book offers different practices on how to listen to God’s voice through prayer. This week I’ve been working on a practice called Lectio Divina. It is an ancient practice of prayerfully reading scripture.

Lectio begins by selecting a passage of Scripture to read. I usually choose one of the daily Scripture readings because it’s easy to pull up on my phone. You read through the passage once and write down a word or phrase that stuck out to you. After you’ve picked your word or phrase, you meditate on what that word or phrase means to you today. Then you offer a prayer based on your reading. Finally, you contemplate any action God is calling you to as a result of your reading.

I like having structure in my prayer time. And lectio gives me structure, while also giving me the freedom to spend 30 minutes reflecting on one word if that’s the direction the Spirit leads me in. I definitely spent most of my prayer time on Wednesday this week looking up “adherents” and wondering what it means to adhere to God.

But what I really love about lectio is that it’s a way for a group of people to prayerfully read through Scripture together. I think that it is especially useful when a group of people are meeting and they’re anxious about what they have to accomplish together. Reading Scripture together can lower the temperature of the room and remind people how to live into their baptismal identities together.

Friends, whether you are newly baptized or can’t remember when you were baptized it was so long ago, all of us need a little help figuring out how to live out our baptismal identities. My hope and my prayer for us this summer is that we would take some time seeking the still small voice of God in our daily lives. Whether that stillness happens on a beach, in a stream, or at a community pool. God is with us always. Let us go out into the world leaning into the call of our baptism as we face a divided world. 

Thanks be to God,

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.