July 21, 2024 Text: Ephesians 2:13-22
Dear Friends in Christ,
President Reagan said this in a speech before the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987. “Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe…As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind…General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Our text talks about a “dividing wall of hostility” that separated Jews and Gentiles. They had their own religion, culture, and language. But God created people to live together in peace and harmony.
Christ came to tear down the dividing wall of hostility. God in Christ reconciled Jew and Gentile to himself. That is the way things are supposed to be. United together. One Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one Spirit. All in one communion of saints.
“HOW CLOSE IS GOD TO US?”
Our text in verse 13, “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” This would be all of us. We were once far off and away from God’s grace. Sin does that to a person.
How close is God to us? The very blood of Christ has brought us into God’s family. We are blood bought possessions. Hebrews says, “. . . without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Heb. 9:22b). The words of John: “ . . . the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from every sin.”
How close is God to us? God owns us. Through our faith in the blood of Christ to wash away all of our sin.
What is the most frightening thing in the world? World War? A world that is morally inept? The godlessness of nations? The most frightening thing in the world is the thought that God wouldn’t love us anymore. We constantly offend him with our words about Him and our actions toward Him. What if Christ looked at us and said, “I’ve had it! I don’t love you anymore!” But . . . He doesn’t! Listen to our text . . . “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one (Jew and Gentile) and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility . . . He came and preached peace to you who we far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” (vs. 14, 17, 18)
How close is God to us? We have peace. That is to say God is no longer hostile toward us because our hostile sin against Him. Christ bore God’s wrath and punishment. For Christ’s sake we are forgiven.
Jesus has fully paid our sin so he won’t say that he doesn’t love us anymore. He will say, “I love you and my suffering has brought you peace.”
God is accessible. And that accessibility is in front of us through Word and Sacraments. In our darkest moments he is there. He is there when we leave this world.
That makes us His family. “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, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (vs. 19-22)
How close is God to us? Through Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary and by virtue of the faith He has instilled in us He has made us . . . family.
We haven’t forgotten, have we? C.S. Lewis said, “the devil always sends errors into the world in pairs – pairs of opposites. And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is worse. You see why, of course. Her relies on your extra dislike of the one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one.”
The devil wants to divide. Christ wants to unite. How close is to God to us? He is using you and I to share this message with others. As his family members he asks us to share his love and grace and compassion. Rupert Brooke wrote: “Now God can be thanked, who has matched us with this hour of history.” We are at the right time and the right place – touching the souls of others. And you thought your life was meaningless? Now when God is this close!
Amen.