Wilderness Wanderings

Eph 3: 12-13

12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 13 I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.

In one of my classes at school we are reading "Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good" by Steven Garber. We recently finished reading the last chapter called "Learning to Live Proximately." The chapter focused on a strong theme of how we must learn to live incarnationally to particular people and particular places. We are called to live in long obedience, keeping at the tasks that we are given.

Garber writes, "The Hebrew vision that echoes across the centuries and through cultures offers a different way to be human, where knowing becomes doing. And the Christian vision incarnates this conviction, telling the story of the Word becoming flesh, and of words becoming flesh in and through our vocations."

Paul writes in verse 13 "I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory." It is important to look at the context of where and why Paul's letter was being written. Paul was writing from prison. Why was he in prison? For bringing the good news of Jesus to the Gentiles. Paul knew that he was being used for a purpose. He was living out what he was chosen to do, and what he was called to do: preaching the gospel, the good news of Jesus. Paul suffered for others just like Jesus.

Paul acknowledges the wisdom and grace that God gave to him throughout his letter. He recognized his responsibility in bringing the good news to others. Paul's knowing of Jesus became doing, traveling to bring the good news to the unreached. In a way this can be related to vocation. As Garber writes it's "that to which I am called as a human being, living my life before the face of God." It is bringing together all of life, wholeness in the responsibilities and relationships that we encounter in our days, living for Jesus.

Paul knew he was being used for a greater purpose because of his trust and confidence in Jesus. In verse 12 he writes "In him and through faith in him we way approach God with freedom and confidence." This is good news for us. We can have trust and confidence in Jesus, knowing what Jesus has done for us. Through Jesus we have access to God. The whole church, united in identical boldness, has access to God with no fear or shame.

By faith in what God has done and is doing, we can trust and know that each of us has a place in the service of God's eternal plan.

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ephesians 3:10-11).

For many of us, when we think of Christ's work of salvation, we think of individual souls being saved. We think of personal conversion stories. But when Paul writes about the mystery of gospel, he expounds on the church. The result of the preaching of Christ's unsearchable riches and the mystery is the birth and growth of the church. Gentiles and Jews embraced the gospel, were converted, and found themselves joint members of the family of God and the body of Christ. The church is central to the redemption project of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

It was happening as Paul wrote. The mystery that God revealed to him was taking concrete shape before people's eyes. And in this new community, this new multi-racial humanity, the wisdom of God was being displayed. People could see it with their eyes. Indeed, the coming into existence of the church as a community of saved and reconciled people is a public demonstration of God's power, grace, and wisdom.

God's mighty resurrection power, his immeasurable grace and kindness, and his manifold wisdom were on display as people once separated by language, custom, politics and religion were forged into a new community through the anvil of the cross. The word for manifold means many-coloured, and was used to describe flowers, crowns, embroidered clothe and woven carpets. The church as a multi-racial, multi-cultural community is like a beautiful tapestry. Its members come from a wide range of colourful backgrounds. No other human community resembles it. Its diversity and harmony are unique. It is God's new society. And the many-coloured fellowship of the church reflects the many-coloured wisdom of God.

So then, as the gospel spreads throughout the world, this new and variegated Christian community blossoms. It is as if a great drama is being enacted. History is the theatre, the world is the stage, and the church members in every land are the actors. God himself has written the play and he directs and produces it. Act by act, scene by scene the story continues to unfold.

But where is the audience? The audience are the cosmic intelligences, the principalities, and powers in the heavenly places. We are to think of them as spectators of the drama of salvation. Thus, the history of the Christian church becomes a graduate school for these spiritual beings.

Beyond this we cannot say much about what these spiritual beings are. We just don't know. As the creation reveals God's glory to humans, the church reveals God's glory to these beings. We cannot see them, but they can see us. They watch fascinated as they see Gentiles and Jews being incorporated in the new society as equals. Indeed, they learn from the composition of the church not only the manifold wisdom of God but also his eternal purposes. This purpose he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in the arena of history, through his death and resurrection, the gift of His Spirit, the preaching of the gospel and the emergence of the church.

Who these beings are is not important. What is important is that we understand what God is doing. We must recon with the truth that the church is central to God's grand design for history. God has a purpose for the church, she is the showpiece through which he reveals his power, grace, and wisdom. And all who believe in Jesus Christ become part of this great intergalactic drama.

It may not always appear that there is much power, grace, or wisdom in the church. But know this, God has no other plan. And he will work until all those rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms have bent the knee before the Son and declared him, Lord.

Then this doxology will be complete:

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:17-21).

I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things (Ephesians 3:7-9).

This passage undermines a common misunderstanding of grace in the Christian church. In fact, it reveals, that we have shrunk grace down to something that we can manage. But it does not belong to us. Since, it belongs to God, we must allow him to define what grace is and means and does.

For many Christians, we understand grace simply and only as something that we receive from God. It is limited to the forgiveness of sins and the 'get out of jail' free card, that is, escape from this world into heaven. Its like there is a hole inside of us which God fills with his grace and by it we eventually float away into heaven. Or its like a beautiful plate we get at Christmas. We love it but not wanting to damage it, we hang it on the wall. Occasionally, we stop to admire it and think to ourselves, some day I should eat from it.

God's grace is much more than that. The revelation of the gospel is not only that we will understand it and receive it, but it enlists us in the service of the Revealer. Paul was made a servant because of "the gift of God's grace." The gift obligates. Grace in this verse does not relate to Paul's salvation, but to his ministry. Through grace he became a servant of the gospel. Grace connects us to God and Christ and to each other, and it also enlists and empowers us.

The gift always comes as a task. Grace always brings responsibility. Paul alluded to this earlier, "For [God] chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight" (1:4). In our text, we are told how it worked in Paul's life. Paul viewed himself as a manager of grace. His ministry to the Gentiles was unique, but all Christians are to be managers of grace. All who have received grace should extend it to others.

This becomes the main theme in chapter 4, where Paul writes, "But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it" (7). Peter puts it rather bluntly, "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms" (1 Peter 4:10). To receive grace is to be taken into its service. Grace connects, enlists, and empowers. It will not allow us to be passive, for it is God's power at work in us.

This is the theology of grace Christians must recover, which means that preachers must preach it. This is by no means a salvation by works theology. It is a much fuller, richer, more Biblical understanding of grace. If we can get past the militaristic overtones of the hymn, "Onward Christian Soldiers", we must admit that the poet had a more robust understanding of grace than many of us today have. Grace enlists in the service of the gospel. There is just no other way to read the Bible.

By now, you are likely objecting, "But who am I"? What can I possible do in service to the gospel? Paul anticipates the objection. "Although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people", I was entrusted as the first to bring the gospel to the gentiles. For all his sense of the privilege of being an apostle, Paul had no great sense of his ability or of a high rank. He felt he should have been rejected because he persecuted the church, but he was chosen—a choice not based on his ability, but on God's grace. Anything he accomplished was a result of the power of God at work in him.

Not everyone is called to the public proclamation of the gospel. But as Eugene Peterson keeps reminding us, we are all called to "practice resurrection." We put off the old self and put on the new self. We let go of the practices of sin and selfishness and actively engage in the practices of grace and love. We stop drawing attention to ourselves and point people to Christ. So, as you head off into a new day, whether now or tomorrow morning, take time to ask God to reveal how you should steward his grace.

Because of this understanding of grace, Paul ends his prayer with this doxology:

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:17-21).

For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:1-6).

Most Bible scholars believe that, with verse 1, Paul intended to begin his prayer which concludes the chapter. But he interrupts himself to write about the role he has been given in the grand narrative of the work of God in Christ Jesus, the vast cosmic redemptive story, with the church as its focus. Because of his part, he has become a prisoner in a Roman jail. Imprisonment is no big deal for him, it simply offers a different venue by which to carry out the mission he has been given.

And this undertaking is his concern in these verses. He calls it "the mystery of Christ" (4). Mystery here, is not something that is still hidden. Rather, it was hidden but has now been revealed by God himself. It is something that could not have been known if God had not told someone about it, and in this case, that someone, is Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.

This 'mystery of Christ' has to do with these Gentiles (non-Israelites). What God has revealed is that in Christ these Gentiles are now included in the great work that God was doing in and through Israel as recorded in the Old Testament. For those of you who struggle to find value in the Old Testament, let this mystery focus your reading and study of it, "What was God up to?" "What promises did he make to Israel?" To know what God is doing in Christ, we need to be familiar with that story.

But, of course, the fact that the Gentiles were going to benefit was already known long ago. God had promised Abraham, "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Genesis 12:3). So, what is it that Paul learned?

Two things, that, through faith, the Gentiles would be joined to Christ. And, that through faith in Christ, and because they are now united with Christ, they are united with the Israelites as well. They are not second-class citizens, like the god-fearers, but first-class citizens with Abraham's descendants. Since Abraham's time, Israel had recognized only two people groups in the world: his descendants and those who were not.

When Christ tore down the 'dividing wall of hostility' with his blood, he was overcoming that great division. The mystery now revealed is that this 'new Israel', composed of both Abraham's descendants and those others, would come to be known by a new name, 'the church'. Within the church, all are saved by grace, all our children of God. Everything God promised to Israel is now given to all Christians.

In an age in which division perforates the church, it is so important for us to hear this message of the gospel. Our divisions are not between Jew and Greek, but both our divisions and our individualism are challenged by the gospel of grace. To be in Christ is to be made one with all who are in him.

The gospel is not merely about getting to heaven; it is about life now as well. It is as much about discipleship as about initial conversion, as much about unity as about individual faith, and as much about new life as about forgiveness from God.

We are to live unity. We are not asked to like other Christians, to be like them, or agree with them, but to recognize that we are one with them and share the same Lord and the same benefits. We may not write people off any more than one part of the body can dismiss another part. Unity is not some nonessential, some afterthought, or some by-product of the faith, but it is at the heart of Christianity. The revelation that came in Christ was a revelation about unity. If we do not proclaim unity, we have not proclaimed the gospel. If we do not live unity, we have missed the gospel's impact.

With that challenge, we declare with all those in Christ,

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:17-21).

In Christ Jesus 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 (Ephesians 2:21-22).

What images come to mind when you hear the word 'church'? For many, it's a building, such as the one at 61 Mohawk Road West, Hamilton, the one we gather in to worship God on Sundays, where we go for mid-week ministries and meetings. After all, we often refer to such a building as 'our church'. We invest ourselves into that building and the things that happen there. Time, money, talents are all committed to ensure that things continue to run as smoothly as possible.

For others, the word church summons up images of people. The ones who sit around us on Sundays. Those that we have become friends with over the years, maybe some we grew up with. Some have walked with us in tough times. Others were our teachers in spiritual things. They nurtured our faith; they helped us grow as Christians.

Yet for others, church conjures up difficult images. Disappointment from being neglected in a time of need. Rejected because we walked away at one time. Shame for not measuring up. Or deep hurt from being used or abused by those in authority. Though it may seem all put together on the outside, often the church has dark stains hiding underneath the carpet.

Such are the things that the word church suggests to us. Yet in today's text we are invited to view the church from a different perspective. To see what lies behind the building, beyond the people, deeper than the dark stains that deeply damage the church's witness.

We are often tempted to believe that our time, talent, and treasure are what hold the church together and keeps her going. As useful and necessary as these are, it is Christ Jesus that binds and sustains the church. It is not primarily the preachers that bring in the people, it is Jesus. It is Jesus who builds his church. Even though we will continue to say, 'my church', and 'your church', we must recognize that these phrases are inaccurate. The church, the congregation, does not belong to us, nor to the pastors. People may come and go from our fellowship and church buildings will continue to be built and sold for other purposes. Despite the apparent transitory nature of things, Christ holds his church together.

As the old hymn goes, "the church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, the church is a people". Here the song gets it right, but I think the refrain is slightly off balance, "I am the church! You are the church! We are the church together! All who follow Jesus, all around the world! Yes, we're the church together!" The emphasis is too much on the human dimension and on our ability to follow Jesus. It places the onus on us to be the church.

In our text, we Christians are not doing anything. All the action belongs to Christ, and to God. The church is not primarily what we do, but what God does to us and for us, she is the grand work of God. Five passive verbs are used to tell us how we get included in the action: we are brought near (13), the Spirit gives us access (18), we are built upon the foundation (20), we are joined together (21), we are built together (22). When we are pulled into the action, it is God who pulls us in. Already now, despite all our imperfections and distorted power plays and wrangling over the most minor issues, we are being gathered as the temple of God; the Holy Spirit already lives within the church.

The church is much more than what meets the eye, it is more than the building and more than the people. It is the work of Christ, who is 'growing up' a people who worship him, a people who are learning to follow his Word and Spirit, a people who increasingly live under the sway of his kingdom. People who are not static, but people who are maturing, who begin as acorns and grow to be oak trees.

It is not our actions but God's that are most important in the church. There is far more to the church then what we see. Like an iceberg, we only see the tip. We see the people, the buildings, the programs, but underneath, far larger and for more important and influential is the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The church is not a building. Rather, we are the building material Christ is using to build his church. It is the place where God welcomes us home. Next time you hear the word church, imagine that.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:17-21).

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is 1 Samuel 25 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

Dive In!

1. How is 'delayed gratification' similar to 'waiting on God'? How are they different?

2. What word of fool is used here? In what ways does this characterize the way that you live?

3. What three-fold temptation does David face? Where else do we find this temptation in the Bible? How have you faced it?

4. When insulted, David said, "Strap on your swords". When crucified, Jesus said, "Father, forgive them." This week, pay attention to what your impulse is.

5. In what situations do you need to 'let God be king'?

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. (Ephesians 2:19-20)

If you recall from earlier this week, Paul reminded these gentiles in Ephesus of how they were once defined by all the things they were not: "Not-Jews" "Uncircumcised." "Separate from Christ." "Excluded from citizenship." "Foreigners to the covenants of the promise." "Without hope." "Without God in the world." Seven negative identity markers covering all the things that the Ephesians were not.

How many of us define ourselves this way? By our not-having? "Not skinny enough." "Excluded from the property market of our peers." "Not part of the group." "Don't belong." "Not enough money." "Not what she has." "Not what he can do." "Not happy." "Without the right job." Many of us do it—it is much easier to see what's lacking than all the things we have.

How many of us define our experience of church the same way? By what it isn't? "Not welcoming enough." "Not my style." "Not progressive enough." "Not conservative enough." "Not loving enough." "Not serving enough." "Not enough money." "Not enough volunteers." "Not the right programs." "Not diverse enough." "Not doing enough." "Without all the people who used to attend." "Without hope."

Our eyes get good at seeing the things we pay attention to. And what we human people tend to pay attention to are all the things that aren't there. The things that should be better, fuller, faster, more pleasing, and more aligned to our values, but aren't. As Christians, this simply is the wrong way to see the world. It is an immature way of using our capacity of attention.

Paul will have none of it. In Jesus Christ, neither we nor the church are defined any longer by what we are not, but instead, by what we are. We are defined by what he has made us to be. Paul begins rattling off the positive identities we have received in Christ through the peace and salvation he has given. We are "fellow citizens." "With God's people." "Members of his household." "Built on the foundation of those faithful ones who have gone before throughout the generations, including Jesus Christ himself."

We are to train our attention on the unseen things, yes. But not the unseen things that aren't there. Our eyes are to be trained for the unseen things that are there: reality as it really is. Like a Holy Spirit stirring about, forming Christ in us. A God who has always provided and will continue to do so out of his Creation of abundance. A living Lord who beckons us to see his gifts that are abundantly more than all we could ask or imagine.

If we are to live Christian lives, we need to know who and what we are, not what we aren't. And we need to know what the church is too, rather than what it isn't. It is the place where we citizens of God's household and Kingdom gather to train our eyes to see the unseen reality of a living God at work, making us ever more fully into who we already are in Jesus Christ and giving us every good gift with which to bless this world along the way.

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. (Ephesians 2:17-18)

Jesus is our peace. He has done it. He has destroyed the barriers and dividing walls of hostility, putting them to death in his cross. And not only the barriers that stand between us people who are often harboring hostile feelings toward one another—but also the barriers between us and God. In his flesh he set aside the law with its commands and regulations, forged all of us into one single, new humanity, and reconciled us to God through the cross.

Through this work of our Prince of Peace, we have been brought near both to God and to one another—no matter the diversity or hostility that might still separate us. Progressives and conservatives, foreigners and citizens, Catholics and Protestants, estranged family members—no matter: all who are in Christ have been made one and the most significant word about our relationships is spoken by him—"Peace." There is peace. This too is a grace God has worked into us that we must ever be working out.

Interestingly though—Jesus does not force us into this peace that he has made. He just comes and preaches it. Offers it. And like a Sunday sermon—no one is obligated to take it, agree, or do anything with it. Jesus will not coerce us into working out what he has worked in by his grace. Otherwise it wouldn't be grace, just another form of slavery.

Remember that Jesus did not create peace in Jerusalem by overthrowing the Roman occupiers and taking control of the city, enforcing his kingdom and its peace on the population. Jesus created peace by taking all their violence and hostilities upon himself as they cursed, condemned, whipped, and crucified him. In Luke's telling, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, saying "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes" (Lk 19:42).

But note what Jesus did do: he came to Jerusalem and preached his kingdom of peace. They rejected it and killed him. But peace was made all the same—it happened through the cross, through the putting to death of these hostilities. And on the other side—a possibility for a new, peace-laden resurrection life arose with this same Jesus who again came and preached his kingdom of peace, even to those who had betrayed and abandoned him. Paul declares that nothing has changed. Jesus came and continues to come to preach peace to all those both far away and near.

The peace of Christ is on offer. Will you accept it? If we receive and believe that Jesus really has accomplished a peace between God and us and everyone else—then by the Spirit, the working out of this peace that has been worked in cannot but transform us and all our relationships.

And, because the source of this peace is in Christ, it is an inexhaustible gift. It can continually flow from his life into our lives through the power of the Spirit, and from there into the lives of others—enough of it always, to cover every new hostility and division. As Isaiah puts it in some of our favourite Advent verses: "Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end" (Isaiah 9:7).

Won't you accept this good sermon of good news preached by our Lord? May his peace transform you by the Spirit. And through you, the world.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

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. (Ephesians 2:14-16)

I was once at an ecumenical gathering where one of the giants in leadership among the group, a learned Reverend Doctor, declared that Christians have no business talking about peace. "We Christians are the problem!" he said. "From the crusades, to colonial campaigns, to bloody religious wars during the reformation, to residential schools—Christians have little track record to draw on when it comes to peace."

He's not wrong. Christians haven't often been agents of peace and reconciliation. Not even in our own lives. How many times haven't you or I added bricks to the walls of hostility that divide us from others? Even our efforts at good produce unintended harms more often than we'd like. So maybe this Christian leader is right and we don't have anything to say when it comes to peace. We're just as much part of the problem as the next person.

And yet, the statement of this Christian leader also somehow rings hollow. If followers of the Prince of Peace can't talk about peace, who can?

It is an urgent question. Violence continues to erupt all around us, most recently embodied in the war in Gaza. Can we speak peace into this situation, tainted though our actions have been? Closer to home, there are relationships that are broken and breaking. Can we speak a word of reconciliation—of forgiveness or confession—despite the fact that we ourselves have helped fortify walls of hostility?

When it comes to these questions, Paul sets us back on the right foot. He affirms that yes, left to ourselves, we are indeed dead in our transgressions. Our history is littered with sin, discord, and division. Thankfully however, peace was never about our action. It is about the action of Christ.

He is our peace. He is the one who tears down the dividing walls of hostility and destroys the barriers. He is the one who unites deeply divided ethnic groups into one new humanity within his church. And he does it through his cross where all the hostilities we can muster are put to death—whether the hostilities of our past, present, or future. All of them die in the death of Christ on the cross. His victory over human hostility is total. None of it survives, such that what remains, is peace. The peace he gives to us all as a gift in this new resurrection life.

This is the reality in Christ which will be made fully manifest at his second coming. For now though, amidst the continuing hostilities of our lives and world, take heart that we Christians can still speak of peace. The way we do it is not by pointing to ourselves, but to Jesus—reminding ourselves and others that "he is our peace." And, where Jesus is present among us and his cross evident through us, glimpses of that peace still come.

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. (Ephesians 2:11-13)

In some ways, these verses are a repeat of the verses that began the chapter where Paul wrote "you were dead in your transgressions and sins." In that spot, as with here, Paul begins with the past tense so that the present tense can be set in heightened contrast—because in Christ, things look a lot different!

While the first point Paul was making at the beginning of the chapter was about death and life, sin and salvation—now he begins to work his way into the implications of being part of the community of the saved. What does it mean to practice this resurrection life? It means working out the grace that God has worked into us, firstly. That we heard about yesterday. But it also comes with a change in status and relationship.

Here Paul comes with a litany of things that the Ephesians were and weren't before Jesus entered the picture. "Gentiles." "Uncircumcised." "Separate from Christ." "Excluded from citizenship." "Foreigners to the covenants of the promise." "Without hope." "Without God in the world." Of course, what one immediately realizes is that this list only makes sense from the point of view of a Jewish person. Aside from contact with the Jewish community or Jesus Christ—no one in Ephesus would have known about any of these deficiencies or labels. Aside from the question of hope, did anyone in Ephesus really know or feel that any of these things Paul lists was a problem?

Well, as we find out early on in the book of Acts—relations between native Jewish Christians and new Greek converts to Christ very much was a problem. Pious Jews were accustomed to praying a daily prayer of thanks to God for not being created as a gentile. The Temple courts, likewise, were divided into inner and outer courts. One for gentiles on the outside, and one for Jews on the inside. Gentiles could not pass through the dividing wall on the penalty of death. Warnings were posted in Greek and Latin to make sure they knew. Hostilities ran hot. As they did at some level between most differing ethnic groups.

But here's the thing—Jesus tears down all these ethnic hostilities and barriers. He strips these believing gentiles of all their former disqualifications. Not only that, he has the audacity to bring these gentiles who were once far away into not just the inner court, but into the very presence of God! He tears the veil to the Holy of Holies and by his own blood, invites them right in!

This is not merely an interesting point of ancient history or Biblical research. In his cross, Jesus shatters all ethnic and national boundaries inside his church. Not just then, but also today. And not firstly by giving courses on EDI or anti-racism to tell us of our biases or how to treat one another. No, it begins more subversively than that. Jesus begins simply by bringing those who were once far away, near. Near enough that we all have to encounter one another and contend with the fact that we're all now siblings of the same saved family.

Here in the presence of Jesus, stuck now with hated enemies, immigrants, and foreign outcasts who have become our sisters and brothers, is where transformation into the life of resurrection begins. Will you submit to the encounter?