Text:\u00a0 Ephesians 2: 13-22<\/p>\n
I am a Wisconsin synod Lutheran pastor.\u00a0 You are member of a Lutheran church in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod\/Evangelical Lutheran Synod.\u00a0 As Lutherans we have certain convictions and beliefs.\u00a0 Because we do we keep a kind of distance from those Christians that preach some things we believe are false.\u00a0 So we don\u2019t invite those other Christian preachers to our churches.\u00a0 We don\u2019t do mission work with them.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want to give the impression that the differences don\u2019t matter.\u00a0 For God\u2019s Word, God\u2019s truth, does matter.<\/p>\n
Yet here is where we need to be careful.\u00a0 Here is where we can get some wrong attitudes towards others.\u00a0 If a congregation is holding up Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.\u00a0 If it is preaching the gospel of Christ crucified to save us and forgive us.\u00a0 That we are saved by grace through faith in him, then that is a Christian congregation where God\u2019s people reside.\u00a0 And even though we may not be able worship with them on this side of heaven or take communion with them, we need to remember.\u00a0 In a very special way, we are one. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ, One Holy Christian church, the communion of saints.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the remarkable thing that we hear about in this section of God\u2019s Word:<\/p>\n
In Christ, We Are One <\/strong>The first Christians were Jews.\u00a0 The newborn Christians at Pentecost were Jews.\u00a0 But when those early believers were scattered by persecution they shared the gospel of Christ with Gentiles also. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 These were people who had been far away.\u00a0 They may have lived a short distance from Jerusalem up in Antioch but they were far away.\u00a0 Far away from God, his Word, his promises, and the hope that he gives in Christ.<\/p>\n <\/strong>But here Paul reminds these Gentile Christians. <\/strong>13 <\/sup>But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.<\/span> Those words speak to us as well. That\u2019s how we came into this world.\u00a0 Far away.\u00a0 Without hope and without God.\u00a0 But we have been brought near through the blood that the Son of God shed for each of us.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s something else here that these early Christians needed to know.\u00a0 Like I said, they were either Jew or Gentile Christians.\u00a0 Until now, they really didn\u2019t think much of each other.\u00a0 There could be some real hostility.\u00a0 Here Paul speaks about a wall\u00a0 once divided Jew and Gentile, but should no longer.\u00a0 That wall was the Law of Moses.\u00a0 It regulated everything for the Jew.\u00a0 What they were to eat.\u00a0 How they were to live.\u00a0 How they were to practice their religion.\u00a0 God intended to show his people what holiness was.\u00a0 And what would they find as they looked at their life?\u00a0 I\u2019m not holy. I need God\u2019s forgiveness.\u00a0 Well there in that law, the commanded sacrifices pictured where that forgiveness would be found.\u00a0 In Christ.<\/p>\n That law was also meant to serve another purpose.\u00a0 To put a hedge around his people that set them apart from their pagan, idol worshipping neighbors.\u00a0 Just think about the dietary laws.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of hard to mix with people when you can\u2019t eat what they would serve up..<\/p>\n But the Jews had turned God\u2019s law into something else.\u00a0 Not a blessing that God provided but a reason to look down on the Gentiles, to despise them.\u00a0 It was common to refer to the Gentiles as dogs.<\/p>\n If you are familiar with the temple that was in Jerusalem, you know there was a court-yard for the Gentiles.\u00a0 There the Gentile could come and pray but could not enter the temple proper.\u00a0 Between those two places was a barrier with a sign that said this.\u00a0 No foreigner may enter\u2026Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/em>And the Gentiles also had it in for the Jews as well. Who are they to think they are better than us.\u00a0 And besides they are such hypocrites.\u00a0 They hold up their law but they don\u2019t even obey it themselves. <\/em>How could you ever get such folks together? <\/em><\/p>\n <\/em>And when you think about it, isn\u2019t that our fallen nature?\u00a0 Find a reason to look down on others.\u00a0 At times it\u2019s been about skin color or tribe or family.\u00a0 Sometimes it the rich and the not so rich.\u00a0 People who lived in city or the country.\u00a0 North or south east or west or somewhere in between.\u00a0 Something about this fallen nature of ours that wants to\u00a0 look down on people.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n But in Christ, in his church, that cannot be.\u00a0 In Christ, the Gentile was brought near to God. \u00a0No standing outside in the narthex.\u00a0 In Christ, that law of Moses that separated Jew and Gentile was gone.\u00a0 14 <\/sup>For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, <\/span><\/p>\n You see, the wall comes down in Christ as Jesus puts us all on an equal footing.\u00a0 For all of us are one in a terrible way.\u00a0 We are fallen sinners whose guilt put us at odds with God.\u00a0 But in Christ he has made us one in a wonderful way.\u00a0 By his death for us on that cross, we are reconciled to God. \u00a0That\u2019s how we meet today, as one, under his cross.\u00a0 So look to your left.\u00a0 Look to your right and see who God wants you to see.\u00a0 Fellow citizens with you of God\u2019s kingdom; members of God\u2019s family with you.\u00a0 For in Christ, we are one.\u00a0 Brought together as one.<\/strong><\/p>\n This makes me think of my years at the Seminary.\u00a0 For two years I served an inner city church, Siloah on N 21st<\/sup> st.\u00a0 There I witness again and again how very profound is our oneness in Christ.\u00a0 That church was about 400 people.\u00a0 The majority were black, about 60%.\u00a0 When my daughter, Katie, went to Sunday School she was the only white child in her class.\u00a0 The little girls would stroke her hair because it was \u00a0different from theirs.\u00a0 So many differences that could have separated us, as they do out there.\u00a0 Yet in Christ, we were one.<\/strong> We confessed our sins as one.\u00a0 We kneeled at the communion table as one.\u00a0 We ate and drank our Lord\u2019s Supper as one.\u00a0 We gave praise to Christ as one.\u00a0 For in Christ, we are one, brought together as one.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you came to the church building where I vicared, you would see a beautiful stone wall behind the altar going all the way up to the ceiling.\u00a0 When the church was built the farmers brought big stones from their fields to build that wall.\u00a0 In a pile outside, those stones did not look all that impressive.\u00a0 But when the stone mason got hold of them he brought them together into something quite wonderful.<\/p>\n Well God has built something quite wonderful.\u00a0 His Church.\u00a0 But not a church built from bricks and mortar or wood and nails.\u00a0 No, a church built out of many living stones, built together as one<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 One in Christ.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>Paul has us <\/strong>start with the foundation.\u00a0 A good foundation is so important in the places I have lived.\u00a0 In New Orleans, your house could sink into the mud if the foundation wasn\u2019t right. You could watch them drive piling into the ground to prevent that.\u00a0 \u00a0Here in California \u00a0we\u2019re concerned about \u00a0earthquakes.\u00a0 So it\u2019s important to check out the foundation if you\u2019re thinking of buying a place.<\/p>\n God\u2019s Church has a solid foundation.\u00a0 How does Paul describe it?\u00a0\u00a0 20 <\/sup>built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone<\/span>.\u00a0 The apostles and prophets.\u00a0 That\u2019s the Word of the Old and New Testament.\u00a0 God\u2019s church, we his people\u00a0 sit squarely on the truth of that Word.\u00a0 And like a building in ancient times, there is one main stone which the Church is built around.\u00a0 One main Living Stone.\u00a0 His name is Jesus.\u00a0 Promised by the prophets.\u00a0 Born of the Crucified for our sins and risen with life for each of us.\u00a0 Life with God.\u00a0 Life eternal.\u00a0 His name is Jesus ascended to the right hand of God and one day returning to redeem us from this messed up world.<\/p>\n 21 <\/sup>In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord<\/span>. \u00a0\u00a0Again what Paul is describing is not some grand building designed and built by human hands.\u00a0 He\u2019s describing what we confess in our Creeds.\u00a0 I believe in the Holy Christian church. <\/em>Not a church found in one place or another.\u00a0 Not a church found in one Christian denomination or another.\u00a0 But a church found everywhere or anywhere that human hearts look to Christ in faith. <\/em>22 <\/span><\/sup>And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit<\/span>.<\/p>\n Realize how blessed we are.\u00a0 We may have joined this congregation, but we didn\u2019t join his church.\u00a0 No God brought us to faith in Jesus and built us in.\u00a0 He built us into his church where he promises to live among us by his Spirit. He built us together as one.<\/strong><\/p>\n You know years ago I was there to see a chapel built in New Mexico.\u00a0 It was a really nice design.\u00a0 But a few years old, the roof started to leak.\u00a0 If you sat in the wrong place, you\u2019d get wet. Sometimes you could hear the water run into the bucket. \u00a0I was so disappointed in the workmanship.<\/p>\n How different God\u2019s church.\u00a0 His roof will never leak or fall down on your head.\u00a0 Instead in His Church you will find shelter from every one of life\u2019s storms- even death\u2013You will find shelter and real hope in Christ. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 Ephesians 2: 13-22 I am a Wisconsin synod Lutheran pastor.\u00a0 You are member of a Lutheran church in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod\/Evangelical Lutheran Synod.\u00a0 As Lutherans we have certain convictions and beliefs.\u00a0 Because we do we keep a kind of distance from those Christians that preach some things we believe are false.\u00a0 So we don\u2019t invite those other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions\/351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>I.\u00a0 Brought together as one
\nII.\u00a0 Built together as one.<\/p>\n