Sermon for the Second Sunday after Trinity - Eph 2:13-22

 

Trinity 2

                                                                                       Eph 2:13-22

                                                                                       6/18/23

 

          Nobody wants to be an outsider.  Nobody wants to be part of the group that doesn’t belong.  In the first century world, the Jews were definitely the outsiders.  Those who did not live in Palestine were always a minority. They stood out because they didn’t offer sacrifices to the many different gods who were found in the cities.  They were different because they circumcised their male babies – an action that Gentiles considered to be repugnant. They were known because they observed the Sabbath.  They were different because they didn’t eat food like pork.

          Of course, the Jews didn’t think of themselves as being lesser than their Gentile neighbors.  Quite the opposite, they viewed themselves as being superior. After all, they worshipped Yahweh, the one true God.  They knew that the gods of the Gentiles were nothing. The Jews had the promise of the Messiah. They had the Scriptures. The Jews had the Torah – God’s law that told them how to live as his covenant people. They were the people of God, and the Gentiles were godless pagans.

          Not surprisingly, there was a tension between Gentiles and Jews. Gentiles could see that the Jews lived a life that rejected key parts of the Greco-Roman world. They were different and stood out.  Gentiles held the Jews in disdain.  Jews felt they were superior to the Gentiles.  They looked down on the pagans.  At times, this led to violence such as in 38 A.D. and again in 40 when riots and open conflict broke out between Jews and Gentiles in Alexandria, Egypt.

          This is the background for our text this morning.  The majority of Christians in Ephesus were Gentiles.  They had experienced a remarkable change in circumstances.  Before becoming Christians, they had viewed Jews as the outsiders and looked down on them.  Yet now they were worshipping the Messiah of the Jews. They found that they were the outsiders – the ones how didn’t belong by right to God’s people.  In the verses just before our text Paul says, “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands-- remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

          As our Lord said, “Salvation is from the Jews.”  Yet while Christianity had begun in the setting of Judaism, it wasn’t staying Jewish.  The Church was rapidly becoming a Gentile church as more and more Gentiles became Christians, and many Jews rejected Christ.  Jews in places like Ephesus were finding themselves to be the minority – the outsiders - in the faith that was the fulfillment of their own heritage.

          Paul addresses this in our text this morning.  Just before our text, at the beginning of chapter two, he has made the point that in truth – everyone was an outsider.  All – both Jew and Gentile – faced God’s wrath because of sin. The apostle said, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

          This is the reality that describes our lives as well.  Conceived and born by sinful parents, we enter into this world as sinners.  And that sin continues to be present in our lives. We covet the success and wealth of others.  We gossip about our neighbor as we share information that puts them in a bad light.  Sin is constantly bubbling up in our lives in both great and small ways.

          All of us live in the struggle with sin.  Most of us are Gentiles who were not included in God’s covenant with Israel.  But Paul says in our text that God has acted to address both of these.  He begins by saying, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

          The apostle points us to the death of Jesus Christ in which he shed his blood.  In our text Paul says that Christ has reconciled us to God through the cross.  On Good Friday, Jesus took our sins as his own.  He received God’s judgment against them.  Paul told the Corinthians, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

          Through baptism you have shared in this saving death.  But Christ did not remain dead.  On Easter God raised him from the dead.  And because you have been baptized into Christ – because you are in Christ – Paul says that already now you share in this resurrection.  He says earlier in this chapter, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--

and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

          God has done this for you. And God has done this for all people – Jew and Gentile alike.  In our text, Paul emphasizes the unity that God has created in Christ.  As a Gentile, at one time you were far off, but now you have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

          Paul emphasizes the unity God has created in the Church through Christ.  He says, “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace.”  Because of Christ, there is no longer any barrier between Jew and Gentile. 

          Christ has created one new man in his body.  Baptized into Christ, we have been joined together as the Church – the body of Christ.  Because of Jesus all people now have access to God.  Paul says, “And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.”  We are not cut off from God because of our sin.  Instead, through the death and resurrection of Jesus for us, we are forgiven and have access to God.

          Paul emphasizes our change in status.  He says, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.”  Where we were once unforgiven outsiders, now through Christ we are saints and members of the household of God. We belong.

          What is more our lives are now built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.  We have their witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Paul says that as the risen Lord, Christ is the cornerstone.  He tells of how are are joined together into a holy temple in the Lord. We are the dwelling place for God by the Spirit.  God has made us holy and is with us because we are the baptized children of God.

          This new status is purely a matter of God’s grace.  Earlier in this chapter the apostle says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  It is a gift, and it is a gift that causes us to live in new ways. As Paul adds, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

          God has called you out of sin.  He has made you part of his people.  This causes you to live differently than those around us.  Paul says in this letter, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.”

          Instead, we have been created in Christ Jesus to live in ways that are true to God’s will.  In repentance we put off the old man with his sinful ways.  Instead, we put on the new man that God made us in baptism. Therefore, speak truthfully with those around you.  Do not let anger rule in your heart.  Let your words build others up, instead of tearing them down.  Always consider whether you would want others to share that piece of information if it was about you.

          God has forgiven you through Jesus Christ. This is a blessing not just for you, but also for your neighbor.  Paul says in this letter, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”  The forgiveness you have received cannot stop with you.  It passes on through you to those in your lives.

          These are the blessings that flow from what God has done for us in Christ.  We were trapped in sin. Most of us were Gentiles who had no claim to be God’s people.  But God acted in the death and resurrection of Jesus to change all that.  Through our baptism into Christ we have received reconciliation – we are forgiven before God.  We have been united in the Church – the body of Christ – which knows no divisions due to ethnicity or race. For through Christ, all have access in one Spirit to the Father.