( Sermon Ephesians 2:17-22 ) [ Deutscher Text ] [ Announcements (German)565.75 KB ]
Grace to you and peace from God our father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us pray in silence that God may bless us as we hear his word.
Open our hearts and ears, Lord. Your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
Amen
Dear congregation
In preparation for this sermon today I looked through some old sermons for the 2nd Sunday after Trinity. I found one on the epistle text for this Sunday, preached in the year 2016, our first year in Pretoria. I was preaching in the little congregation at the Hartbeespoort Dam while on the same day there was the ecumenical German service at the German School. The sermon was a plea for ecumenism and a praise of the joys of working together. The service at the Dam is also an ecumenical project, led in turn by our church and the Stadtmission (German city mission).
Unfortunately, in the past years ecumenism in Pretoria has become a lot more difficult. Of course, the fault lies with the female pastors of our church who don’t want to be silent in the congregation. I read this sermon as challenge to myself. What does Christian unity mean to me, and the diversity in the body of Christ? How far am I willing to go to give signs that we still belong together despite all our differences? Or is there a boundary somewhere beyond which I have to say, it is no use to try to come together and not worth the effort to build unity? Of course, in the congregation of St Peter unity is a constant theme and challenge. In how far are we one congregation and how do we show this? Must we? Do we? Of course, Corona has made everything even more difficult, and many people are relieved during this time, that we don’t “have to” do things together.
This text comes from the letter to the Ephesians. The theme unity lies at the heart of this letter - and most definitely not because it was any easier then as it is now. The early church had incredible tensions it had to overcome, battles for the soul of the new faith, for its praxis, for the question how one can live together, especially Jews and Gentiles. Jews had kept apart from the other nations, those who wanted to keep the purity laws could not associate with the others, But suddenly they were thrown together, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one messy mixed up, constantly fighting crowd.
The letter of the Ephesians is mainly addressed at Gentile Christians in Asia Minor, probably initially at several congregations surrounding Ephesus. I read from Chapter 2 the verses 17 to 22:
17 Christ came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
This text from Ephesians paints a beautiful picture: A congregation united in the spirit and bound together by the peace of Christ. No one is a stranger or a foreigner anymore, and all know they are one big family. All together are a great temple for the praise of God, everyone a stone in the great building, every one important, all united.
But when we look a bit more closely it soon becomes clear that it is not all so simple. This is a building, cobbled together from a strange mix of building materials, uncut sandstone blocks, polished marble, moulded bricks. Can this together make a pleasing building? This is a patchwork family where all live under the same roof, but they don’t get on particularly well. The apostle reminds us: Remember, you are one family, you belong, you all belong together. Live as if this is true. But he probably would not write it if this were easy and happening automatically. One does not need to talk of unity if everyone is living it. Even Luke the reconciler, who writes about the early church being one in the spirit cannot but mention some of the conflicts that happened.
We human beings probably all have the tendency to feel most at home with those who think and act like us and do not question our beliefs. We choose our friends, our congregation, associate with people who share our values, our political views, our cultural treasures, our language. We feel comfortable and really care for one another. But God is not happy with that. Again, and again, he leads people out of their comfort zone, thoroughly mixes them up, builds bridges where people want walls. This happens in every family, and it begins in the most intimate of spheres, where life is supposed to begin – with human sexuality. I sometimes think God made sexuality so strong and a bit uncontrollable because he wanted people to break down boundaries, to mix them up. Those who just stay among themselves sooner or later are no longer viable communities. Little isolated villages who keep marrying each other sooner or later have a much higher incidence of disorders and illness. Life is ultimately not possible without approaching the stranger. Even someone from my own group and culture can still be a foreigner to me. My husband Detlev and myself both come from good Lutheran families with missionary background but there were still some big differences to work on. I grew up in English liberal surroundings, Detlev in very Afrikaans Potchefstroom. My family sang a lot, particularly loved singing rounds in harmony, we seldom had braai and were no campers. Tönsings were the opposite. Our family now loves to camp and braai, we sing quite a lot, but only in unison. Rounds do not work.
Who decides who belongs to the family? This is not something the children can determine but only the parents. In previous generations they even got to decide who their children can marry – that is who may join the extended family. Siblings don’t have a say whether another child may join the family – even if they really want to keep their Mom to themselves. When parents adopt a child their decision and signature makes that child part of the family. That child belongs. For many oldest children, the arrival of the first sibling is quite a shock. The new arrival is not only joy but major upheaval, actually initially a burden because one cannot play with it yet, and it takes away the space on Mom’s lap. It has become crowded. It is probably good that siblings don’t have a veto on new arrivals. They could prevent some real joy in their life because the beginning is so difficult. With the arrival of the gentiles in the early church the Jewish Christians were dethroned. This was not easy, and I am sure the Gentile Christians initially did not feel so welcome in the mixed congregation. Paul insists on it. You are members of God’s household, part of his family. You belong.
There are conflicts in families, no matter how they are put together. And our father in heaven is one, who adopts children from all over the place and does not ask first how they will get along. The signature is there. The new ones are no longer strangers but citizens, part of the family.
The older siblings have to learn to live with the new arrivals. How does one manage that?
One could say many things about this, but I just want to mention two key words: Protected spaces and celebration, fun and feasts.
When our second child Paul was learning to crawl, we got a hand-me down play pen from an acquaintance. I thought this is perhaps not a bad thing, letting him crawl around in a safe space now and again. But not a chance. My intelligent son saw right through this device depriving him of freedom and would have none of it. But we soon discovered that the thing had its uses after all. Now and again, we put it up and placed Elisabeth into it. She realized she now had a time where she could build puzzles or stack blocks in peace without a destroyer on all fours coming for it. Elisabeth soon realized that she now had some peace, and as long as Paul was occupied with something interesting, he did not seem to mind. It was as if he knew that sooner or later the sister would come out again and play with him. If this had not happened, there would surely have been protest, then the protected space would have become a fortress which needed to be stormed.
Every family needs protected spaces, so that the different family members can develop. “Me time” is what we call this today. Especially mothers need that now and again, so as not to burn out. The older children need a space to do what they enjoy; one cannot only focus on the youngest ones. But it is important that now and again the family comes together, eats together, celebrates together, has fun together. My father, in my memory was always locked in his study, we only disturbed him to call him to a meal or if there was something really important. But Sundays he was always there and played games with us, Rummy, and Uno and MahJongg. That was our time, and we could build deeper connections.
It is very sad that in many families protected spaces have become fortresses and one lives past each other and no longer makes time to be a a family. One does not eat together; one does not even watch TV together any more as everyone has their own screen in their room - one could not agree anyway on what to watch together. It is easier that way, there is less conflict, everyone does what they feel like. But life becomes poorer. It is a family in name only.
Of course, it is not always easy to plan family activities. What 50 plus parents and enjoy and what teens like to do is usually not quite the same. An attitude of give and take needs to grow. The children make suggestions for family video night, holidays are planned together so that everyone has something they enjoy. Sometimes we know, they don’t really feel like it but are doing it for our sake. And parents should also do that, listen to the children’s choice of music in the car and see that one can enjoy it. If you give up on these joint activities a family can unravel quickly. It is not easy in the immediate family; it becomes more difficult in the extended family and of course quite a lot more difficult in the wider Christian family. One does not really feel one is family, one wonders why one should make the effort, why one should stand back in one’s own needs.
Celebrating together and sharing the joy is of course much more difficult where there are tensions, where political opinions diverge widely, where one no longer shares the same values. Sometimes one needs to take a step towards the other even if it seems it requires nothing but sacrifice from me. Sometimes unexpected joy can come from such an encounter.
A group that demonstrated this in an overwhelmingly powerful way was the choir of the Church of Peace in Hillbrow. I will never forget the day where they came to me and said they wanted to sing in the German service, in German. It was Good Friday, and they sang “O Haupt” as they called it (O sacred head). It was a turning point in the relationship between the two sections of the congregation. The German part suddenly realized that the new arrivals were not only a burden but could also be an enrichment. Many were deeply moved. And then in the next year came the even bigger project. “We want to take part in the Choir festival. That is mainly German? That does not matter. We will learn”. And they practiced – more than many of the German Choirs. This demanded sacrifice, time and nerves, especially the nerve-wracking arrival in Kroondal with countless eyes on this strange spectacle. It was a determination to celebrate and have joint activities with the “other side” that opened many doors in our church.
I have no easy answers how one builds community with brothers and sisters where the differences run very deep. In our time Corona has opened a new frontier in families and groups of friends between those pro and contra restrictions and vaccinations. Sometimes there comes a time when one has to withdraw behind protective walls just to stay sane, and I am sure we are forgiven if we sometimes don’t know how to talk to one another. In our gospel reading the master of the house does not seem to be that reconciliatory either after some refuse his invitation.
Nevertheless, again and again we are reminded of the fact that we are a family, whether we like it or not, and our life is enriched deeply if we do not take the easy way out and simply box ourselves in, but that we make attempts to come out of our room, eat together, find an activity we can share in, even if not everyone enjoys it equally, but that reminds us of what it means to be family.
Joint services are not always only a joy. They take time and effort; everyone has to give up something. Usually, fewer people visit them than come to their own service. And there are always family members who prefer to eat alone than to go into a tension-filled space. But I believe we cannot really understand what it means to belong to God’s family unless we are sometimes prepared to face the tension. And I think we cannot really understand Paul, who stood in the midst of these tensions, particularly because he had invited Gentiles to the celebration. He knew this invitation to the others, the uncomfortable ones, this came directly from Christ himself, who had forcefully ripped Paul out of his comfort zone and placed him on a completely different path. Paul had not chosen this role for himself, going to the streets and alleys and the country lanes and making them come into that God’s house may be filled. He no longer had any choice.
To build community is painstaking work, it costs effort and nerves, and withdrawal is always a temptation. But there are also wonderful moments where one realizes, I don’t want to miss out on this wonderful, enriching diversity. This building from all these different stones has a beauty that no other building can match. Such a moment was for me being a delegate to the Lutheran World Federation Assembly in Hong Kong. It was an overpowering impression – of the foreign reality of Asia, and of this global and diverse Lutheran family. We got to know each other. Amongst others there was a youth delegate from Tanzania from the tribe of the Maasai, with whom I got along well. In 2017 I took part in a seminar in Wittenberg with pastors from all over the world, amongst others the woman from Tanzania, now an ordained pastor. We greeted each other like long lost cousins.
New family members always disturb the good order and the more different they are the greater the disturbance. But we need the diversity in the great building of the temple of God and at some stage we realize that the other one is not only a burden I need to carry, but if they really become part of the household, at some stage become someone who can also carry my burdens.
Building community, living ecumenism, this remains a challenge and sometimes we will only see the burden and not the joy. Then it is a comfort for me that the text speaks of Christ being the one who builds. We cannot manage this on our own. Christ promises us in the watchword: “Come to me you who are burdened and heavy laden and I will give you rest”. Sometimes building community can leave us burdened and tired, but we can trust this promise: Christ continues to build and can give us the strength and the joy that can help us again take a step towards our brothers and sisters in the knowledge: We are one family in the Lord.
Amen
