"And the walls come tumblin' down..."
There is one particular verse in the Bible upon which I lean a lot of weight. In his letter to the Christians living in Ephesus, St. Paul writes:
“Christ… has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.”
- Ephesians 2:14
On Monday, February 24th, I conducted a little experiment. I looked at the front page of today’s New York Times and made a list of all the dividing walls, all of the divisions, that are sources of news at this moment. Here’s my list, above and below the fold:
a division between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden
a division between first-grade children and opioid overdosers
a division between Roger Stone and Justice Department prosecutors
a division between billions of investor dollars and failing tech start-ups
a division between open borders in Europe and coronavirus fears
And that’s just the front page. The examples multiplied as I read through the rest of the first section: Israelis vs. Palestinians; Socialist vs. Capitalists in Venezuela; Jean Vanier’s powerful ministry vs. his sexual misconduct.
And then… there is a friend of mine who says, “I am a walking Civil War.”
The divisions inside us, the dividing walls in our spirits, put the ones in the Times to shame.
Another fellow puts it this way: “I don’t do what I want to do. I do the very thing I don’t want to do.” Then he says, “It’s hopeless. The divisions inside me are killing me.” What do you think this same fellow says next?
It’s found in Romans 7:25. If you don’t have a Bible, Google it, because it’s the good news that will be the focus for our worship this coming Sunday.
This Sunday, the first Sunday in the season of Lent, is all about divisions. All three of the lessons describe huge dividing walls, outside us and in us, with a much longer and heavier list than in the Times.
(If you want to prep, here they are: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11.)
This Sunday, we’re going to deal with these divisions by leaning our weight on that verse from Ephesians with which I started this article. Here it is again, in fuller form:
But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups intone and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might creation himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to Godin one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.
- Ephesians 2:13-16
So here’s a little homework for Sunday:
As a warmup, read Robert Frost’s poem, “Mending Wall”.
Read the verse I referenced above - Romans 7:25 - and then keep reading, all the way through the next chapter. If I were stuck on a desert island and only had one little section of the Bible to read, I would pick chapters 7 and 8 of Paul’s Letter to the Romans.
Bring your dividing walls with you on Sunday. The Good News will make the coming down of the Berlin Wall look like small potatoes, compared to the love and amazing grace of Jesus.
See you Sunday, walls and all,
Jim