Mt. Lebanon United Presbyterian Church
     
 
Pastor Steve Aguzzi - "Tear Down This Wall "

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This Sunday
October 1, 2017





Sermon Title:
"Come Together, Right Now,  
Over Me" 
Ephesians: Spiritual Riches Series  
 
 
 


Scripture: 
Ephesians
 2:11-22  





September 28, 2017

Dear MLEPC Members and Friends,

I'm big into reading. I've read my share of novels, science fiction, and text books, but what I really like is to read theology and philosophy. For most people, this is the quintessential snooze-fest--like a paperweight for the soul, and a sleeping pill for the mind! For me though, it is invigorating. I love the challenge, and I love how theology and philosophy ask questions that drive to the heart of reality, the human condition, the human predicament, the foundation for existence, the essence of purpose and personhood, and most importantly, the movement of God in this world. All this is to say that because of my infatuation with reading, I'm really into Amazon.com. It's so convenient to have stuff delivered to your front door. I even have a friend who had toothpaste delivered to their front door.

In between being a university student again, and simply being a member of the work force, I was status non-Prime on Amazon.com. It drove me crazy! I wanted my free shipping, and I didn't want to pay the $99/year for it! When I became a student again, I received Prime at a reduced rate. The cool part was that my status changed. I went from non-something to something. And with that something came all the benefits I could dream of--in this case, free shipping.

Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus, in its second chapter, mentions something important. It mentions a status-change. Before the advent of Jesus Christ, and before His redeeming work on the cross and resurrection from the dead, Gentiles were essentially spiritual second-class citizens. I know that's hard to imagine, but think about it. God made His promises to the Jews: first to Abraham, then through Isaac, then through Jacob. He promised them land, progeny, and blessing. He promised them the law, He promised them election, and He promised them restoration after they screwed everything up. God "loved Jacob, but hated Esau" (Rom 9:13). To say that God did not show favoritism would be intellectually dishonest. But when Jesus came, something changed. The wall of hostility dividing Jew and Gentile was vanquished. This is not to say that the special status of Israel has now permanently disappeared (Rom 11:25-26). But it is to say that Gentiles, who were once far from God, are now heirs to the kingdom of God, a royal priesthood, and they (we) have been given a new status as God's children through the work of Christ. Ironically, the tables have turned in modern history regarding the relationship with Jews and Gentiles. Now, it is the Gentiles who oftentimes boast over the Jewish people, forgetting that we are branches that have been engrafted onto the root (Rom 11:11-31).

We as human beings have a tendency to interpret our own status and confidence in who we have been declared to be as a 'free pass to belittle others,' or view them as anything less than what they are--made in the Image of God. This is wrong. The walls that we put up are oftentimes put up in a vain and conceited attempt to safeguard our own high status. Meanwhile, we don't even deserve the status that has been granted to us. God has declared us as royal heirs in spite of us, not because of us!

We live in a world full of walls, and full of hostility. Understandably, some of these walls must be set in place in order to protect the vulnerable, or to protect values, systems, and ethical standards that are worth protecting. That said, so many of the walls that we build are done so to insulate us from any kind of otherness that might threaten who we think is on the in or on the out. We often times do this out of fear.

On June 12, 1987, then President Ronald Reagan, challenged the leadership of the USSR to "tear down the wall" at the Brandenburg gate in Berlin. That wall represented a lot. It represented hostility between the Western Democratic world and the Eastern Communist Bloc. It represented stockpiles of nuclear arms. It represented, admittedly, the difference between communist atheism and oppression and Western free markets and democracy. That being said, it took some compromise on both sides between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in order for the wall of hostility to come down. For Gorbachev, it took a realization that Soviet communism had failed miserably. And for Reagan, it took something even more subtle. It took establishing a posture that viewed the people of the Russian world as valuable enough to woo and convince instead of simply threaten with annihilation and M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction). It took a posture of détente, when such a posture was not particularly popular.

Our world today is confusing. To some degree, if we bend to every culturally popular whim, and give in to demands of liberal fundamentalism and extremist political correctness, we run the risk of losing some of the things that make America unique: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom in general. On the other hand, I believe Ephesians 2 calls us to re-examine our motives, and especially our view of, and approach to, other people. Do we have a tendency to view others as lower than ourselves, looking down upon them, or have we been "transformed by the renewing of our minds," (Rom 12:2) and therefore we "are humble, thinking of others as better than ourselves" (Phil 2:3)? One thing is for certain: there is no greater equalizer than the cross of Jesus Christ. For at the cross of Jesus we are faced with the reality that without Him, we are nothing.

"The One will triumph who first died for the victims then also for the executioners, and in so doing revealed a new righteousness which breaks through vicious cycles of hate and vengeance and which from the lost victims and executioners creates a new mankind with a new humanity. Only where righteousness becomes creative and creates right both for the lawless and for those outside the law, only where creative love changes what is hateful and deserving of hate, only where the new man is born who is neither oppressed nor oppresses others, can one speak of the true revolution of righteousness and of the righteousness of God."

-- Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology

Pastor Steve
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