United by the Death of Christ

4United by the Death of Christ

Ephesians 2:11-22

On Friday, Jan and I watch the film Testament of Youth which was released in 2014.

Based on the book by Vera Brittain…

Memoirs of WW1…

Moving scene at the end…

“Their suffering is like our suffering. Their blood is like our blood. There can be no more war.”

Of course there is nothing new about groups of people hating each other:

Israelies Palestinians killing each other in the Holy Lands.

Catholics and Protestants killing each other…

The history of the world is littered with such examples. And the same was true in Bible times.

Back then the there was no love lost between Jews and Gentiles.

It was fuelled by a sense of religious superiority:

The Jews were God’s chosen people and they looked down on the Gentiles who weren’t.

But the Gentiles also looked down on the Jews. They called them ‘godless atheists’ because they didn’t worship statues and idols like everyone else.

But it wasn’t just religious bigotry. Jews and Gentiles had been at war with each other for centuries, and for much of that time the Jews had come off worst.

They had suffered terribly at the hands of the:

Assyrian Empire

Babylonian Empire

Persian Empire

Greek Empire

And now, at the time that Paul wrote to the Church in Ephesus, the Roman Empire.

This caused a huge problem for the early Church:

Jewish Christians felt superior to Gentile Christians…

Gentile Christians felt superior to Jewish Christians…

And so, it’s within this context that Paul appeals for unity.

His main argument is that Jews and Gentiles have been united by the death of Christ.

And he says in verses 14-16

“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.”

---------

The first half Ephesians chapter 2, which Jonathan preached about last week, can be summed up in the word ‘grace’…

The second half of the chapter can be summed up in the word ‘reconciliation’.

Taking the chapter as a whole, the main point of that through God’s grace, and by Jesus’s death on the cross, both Jews and Gentiles have been reconciled to God, and therefore as a witness to this, they must be reconciled to one another.

Reconciliation is a theme that the Apostle Paul is particularly fond of, and I briefly want to show how he talks about it three other of his letters.

To the church in Rome he wrote (Romans 5:11):

“Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

To the church in Colossae he wrote (Colossians 1:19-20):

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

To the church in Corinth he wrote (2 Corinthians 5:18):

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”

---------------------

This last verse, 2 Corinthians 5:18, is one that Bishop Christopher has been particularly speaking about recently.

A couple of weeks ago he sent a letter to leaders throughout the whole diocese.

For those of you who don’t have an Anglican background, that probably needs a word of explanation.

42 dioceses…

Coventry and Warwickshire…

CofE churches, church schools, chaplaincies and the Cathedral

Bishop Christopher is the head of the whole diocese in Coventry and Warwickshire.

As I say, he wrote a letter to all clergy, headteachers, churchwardens and others, in which he said:

When I first came to the diocese I was very impressed by the way in which our parishes were united by what has been called our three-fold purpose statement:

“To worship God, make new disciples and transform communities.”

My commitment to these foundational activities remains unchanged.

At the same time, I’ve been challenged to ask the question, “Why do we do these things?” and to distinguish the why question from the what (we do) and how (we do it) questions.

Our mission is “to worship God, make new disciples and to transform communities”. But is this really the best way to describe the shared purpose of the whole diocese?

Because of our great cathedral, the diocese is known throughout the world for the ministry of reconciliation.

Although this ministry began and continues in Coventry Cathedral, in recent years we have seen a growing desire for ‘reconciliation’ to be at the heart of the Whole Diocese of Coventry.

St Paul described the gospel in in this way:

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:18

Perhaps this verse gives us the best answer to the question, “Why does the whole diocese of Coventry exist?”

------------

But what does Paul mean by the word reconciliation?

It’s all about the restoring of relationships, and there are three dimensions to this: upward, inward and outward.

Let’s start with the upward dimension, and the restoration of our relationship with God.

Through the death of Christ we are reconciled with God.

Expand…

Testimony…

Then there’s the inward dimension, and the restoration of our relationships with one another.

The point that Paul is making is that, for Christians, there are no longer any barriers that divide us.

If children from different backgrounds are adopted into the same human family, they become brothers and sisters (whether they like it or not).

As Christians we are adopted into God’s family, and therefore all other Christians are our brothers and sisters. Whether we like it or not, that’s the realty.

That’s why Paul says in Galatians 3:27-28,

“…for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

That’s the reality, but unfortunately, Christians often behave as if these barriers are still there.

Jew or Gentile…

Slave or free…

“The Church of England had links to slavery through missionary organisations, which had plantations in Barbados. The bishop of Exeter personally owned slaves.

Anglicans involved in slavery often poured their ill-gotten gains into church coffers. And in cities with strong links to the slave trade, such as Bristol, the church bells were peeled when Wilberforce's anti-slave trade bills were defeated in parliament.”

Male and female…

The reality is that, through the death of Christ we are all one. And Paul urges Christians to behave in ways that demonstrate this reality.

Ephesians 2:19-22

“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. In him 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.”

And finally there’s the outward dimension, and the restoration of relationships in the world.

Vision …new heaven and a new earth…

God calls each of us to this ministry of reconciliation.

Telling others the good news of the Gospel…

Helping people to reconciled with each other…

Helping the whole of creation to be reconciled to God…

This ministry is so huge, so all-encompassing, we can’t do it alone. That’s we all need each other.

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”