Welcome to our Sunday morning service at 10 am. Join us in person or watch the live stream on our YouTube channel.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxBzxjBb3xU8ra2NHwvD_9A(The service can also be viewed at any time afterwards.)

Ephesians 2:11-22

11 So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision” —a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— 12 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 and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

14 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. 15 He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16 and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17 So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

I just bought a new raincoat.

It is meant to be a really good one. And what makes it really good, unsurprisingly, is that it doesn’t let in much rain.

But in another sense, it is not new. It has been recently made, and it is new to me, but I have owned raincoats before. So, having a raincoat is not a new experience, it doesn’t open up new possibilities, and I have to say that as good as it is, I am not especially excited about getting it. It is, just a raincoat.

And we could apply that same logic to many things we buy. Many experiences we have. They are mostly variations of what we already know.

To think about the Biblical contempt of newness, we have to try to think about things we discover that we didn’t know about before. Didn’t know existed.

Things that we have never experienced.

That is why in the Gospel of John we hear about the discovery of our faith being spoken about in terms of being “born again.”

So here we are today in someone’s house. Near Ephesus. One of the largest cities in the Roman world, with a huge temple to Artemis, the daughter of Zeus, not too far away.

Some of us had been worshipping at that temple not too long ago. Many of us were Jews and had been worshipping at the local synagogue.

But what we all have in common, was that we had each heard about this Jesus, not perhaps, first of all from reading about him, but by being told about him.

From an apostle perhaps, someone who had witnessed Jesus’ presence, who had an overwhelming encounter with the Holy Spirit. Someone who had been welcomed and cared for by one of Jesus’s followers. Someone whose sacrificial witness to Jesus was so powerful, that it made you want to know more. And in the act of finding out more, you too encountered the risen Jesus – and that encounter changed your life. 

And this was the reality that Paul is addressing today.

I am sitting with people who have come from such different backgrounds.

Paul used the very graphic phrase, the circumcised and the uncircumcised, to distinguish these groups. (That would not be a common way today of defining difference!)

It is important to understand some background. The first mention of circumcision is in Genesis 17. God appears before Abraham and promises that his descendants will become a great nation and inherit the land. The price for this covenant is that Abraham must circumcise the males of his household, and his descendants must all undergo the ritual too.

It is a command repeated in scripture 7 more times - so you see how important the practice was.

So, a simple point Paul is making is to say to all who have gathered, that this history is important.  The story of God and God’s people we read about, in what we call, the Old Testament, has now become the story of all those who have encountered Jesus. He fulfils the story, the hope the promise, the covenant.

11 So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision” —a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— 12 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 and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Like circumcision, this language about blood can also get in the way of what Paul is telling us.

We are told, “now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

It is not unfamiliar to us, that war and conflict involve injury and blood.

Everyone Paul was writing to would have understood the power of the Roman occupiers and the terrible brutality and violence of their conquests. The control they held through what they called the Pax Romana -the peace of Rome.

They would have all known that Jesus was executed by that same power. The Romans keeping the peace by spilling the blood of another troublemaker.

People then and today understand how that works. Terrorists and tyrants, understand how that works.

But to understand, to know what Paul is talking about we need, as the Gospel says, to be born again. It's a whole, new thing.  A change in our understanding of how God in Jesus, works.

That our hope is not found in the blood of conquest, but in the blood of the one who gave himself for us all.  In an act of weakness, service, sacrifice.

We might have understood better if Jesus had said "take up your sword." That would have been an old thing.  But instead, he said, “take up your cross if you want to follow me.”

14 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.

Paul is speaking to you and me about Jesus - and he is casting a new vision in which we all become members of this household.

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.

This little church in someone’s home, with all those different people.  Paul is saying, you are a new community built on the utterly astounding grace of God toward the whole world.

Paul tells us:

 “when he came, he proclaimed peace to you who were far away and to those who were near.”

And we read in our Gospels and we find exactly how Jesus did that.

He repeatedly crossed cultural, religious, and political boundaries to reach those on the other side - - women, Samaritans, lepers, Gentiles, tax collectors, and that general class of people who scripture simply identifies as sinners.

And what did he do?

He welcomes them into fellowship with himself and into the Kingdom of God.

So here we are in our house. Hearing this letter. We may have come here today walking past some Roman guards who looked on us with suspicion. We may have even passed those places on the outskirts of town where troublemakers and criminals were regularly executed.

We would have been all too aware of the contrast between the kind of peace enforced by Rome and what Paul’s letter to us is saying.  Paul is talking about the peace of persistent, unrelenting mercy for others, as Jesus loves us all the way to death.

Our reading today finishes with us being told that our little gathering is:

 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

The language is in the present tense: “You are being built.” This is an ongoing construction project of the Spirit, and in this new community of the cross, everyone is being changed.

This is our story to remember and to live out through reconciling love.

I’ve had quite a few conversations over these last days and weeks, about the anxiety and concern people have with the things that are happening around us. The images from Ukraine, Gaza, the unsettling stories about Covid and now MPox.  The challenges we face.  The same old stories, of worry, fear and greed and conflict and violence.

Think for a moment of that little community in Ephesus. The threats and dangers and rumours of war that would have surrounded them.

What they found, in the midst of that, and strangely maybe because of all those bad stories, they discovered that in their commitment to the good story, the new story of Jesus and God’s love for them, that story, enabled them to put all the other things in a different perspective. 

Their courage became a real witness to so many others, to seek Jesus for themselves.

Some of us may have been listening to the same old stories for too long. And our hearts may have grown hard, our attitudes cynical.

But here we are being told something new.  Calling us to witness to our faith through reconciliation, breaking down walls and building bridges of understanding and love.

We celebrate the diversity that God has given us and work together towards a community where all are welcome, valued, and loved.

So may God grant us the grace and courage to live out this unity in our lives, our church, and our world. Amen.