Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

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Sermons

July 2003 (click here to return to "July 2003 Sermons" page)

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (July 20, 2003)

“No Strangers in the House” Dr. Julie Adkins

Text: Ephesians 1:3-14

SERMON

Last week we mentioned that the letter to the Ephesians

was probably a kind of generic letter

that went to a number of different churches,

so that it’s difficult to say very much

about situations or problems it might have been addressing.

But one thing we do know,

and this week’s passage makes it real clear,

is that the letter was addressed to Gentile Christians.

People who had become Christians

not out of a Jewish background,

but out of one of the many other religious options

available in the Roman Empire.

The challenge for us today when we hear these words

is to see our connection with those folks,

because it isn’t immediately obvious.

We live in a time when being a Christian

is at least an acceptable choice to make;

in many cases, it’s still expected.

For them, though, to be a Christian

was an unusual choice,

and was even starting to become dangerous.

For most of us, Christianity is

the old, old story we love to tell,

rich with history and tradition.

For them, it was something brand-new,

different in most ways from anything they had ever known before.

So, in this letter Paul makes an extra effort to let them know:

they are included.

He describes a stark contrast between

how they were before they knew Christ,

and who they are now.

“Remember,” he says,

“that you were at that time without Christ,

being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,

and strangers to the covenants of promise,

having no hope and without God in the world.”

Rather bleak, wouldn’t you say?!

Paul always did have a gift for overstatement.

“But now,” says Paul, “now in Christ Jesus

you who were once far off have been brought near.

“For he is our peace;

in his flesh he has made both groups one” …

that is, both Christians of Jewish background

and Christians of Gentile background.

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,

but you are citizens with the saints

and also members of the household of God.”

What a transformation!

The unwelcome outsider has been invited in,

and is no longer just a guest to be tolerated,

but a member of the household.

Among those of us who follow Jesus Christ,

there can be no strangers.

This is where we enter the picture.

In the first place, we do need to recognize, at least in passing,

that we are in a sense

the descendants of these Ephesian Christians.

We’re probably not used to connecting ourselves

to people from that long ago …

But unless your ancestry is Jewish and Middle Eastern,

you are a descendant-in-faith

of some Gentile Christian group somewhere.

Our heritage is that of people who

at one time were not among God’s chosen,

but who now, because of Christ,

are members of the household of God.

We were once the strangers and aliens,

suspect and unwelcome.

Now we are seated at the table

as fellow citizens with all the saints.

It may be hard to imagine ourselves in that way,

simply because most of us were born into the church

and have nearly always felt ourselves to be

a part of such a household, here or in another location.

But the connection needs to be made, and recognized,

because, otherwise,

we unfortunately tend to become just as smug and exclusionary

as those Jewish Christians who sometimes made Paul so mad.

We don’t do it on purpose,

just like they weren’t doing it on purpose!

We don’t lie awake at night

plotting ways to keep new Christians

or even just other Christians

out of our household.

But it happens, and it happens quite by accident.

I can imagine the Jewish Christians,

arguing and worrying amongst themselves:

How can we let those pagans join us?

We’ve always tried to keep the Law,

down to the last detail.

They don’t even know the Law;

much less do they try to keep it.

If we welcome them,

won’t that cheapen our faith and our efforts somehow?

Won’t it water down our tradition?

We’ve never done it that way before.

Can’t they just find somewhere else to go?

They didn’t necessarily want to shut people our.

It’s just that they couldn’t quite figure out

how to include new people

unless they agreed to become just like the folks who were already there!

Does that sound at all familiar?

Have you known of churches where

you had to be a member for 20 years or more

before you could even be considered

for election as an elder?

Do you know of communities where,

unless you were born there,

you will always be considered an outsider?

Are you acquainted with congregations

who introduce their pastor as “our new minister”

even after he’s been there seven years?

Or even, congregations that fall all over themselves to welcome a new member,

until he or she comes up with the first new idea?

These are places which may welcome the stranger or alien,

to a certain extent,

but which never let them forget that they are a stranger.

Paul says, that’s not how it is supposed to be.

Christ has made us one.

He has broken down

the dividing wall of hostility.

He has created in himself

one new humanity in place of the two,

thus making peace,

and reconciling both groups to God

in one body through the cross.

We are no longer strangers.

The category no longer exists.

Last week, you may remember, we said that

an isolated, independent Christian is a contradiction in terms …

that to be a Christian means, in part,

to be part of a community.

Well, this week, we might add to that list:

A church that claims to “welcome strangers”

is a contradiction in terms.

It isn’t yet really a church,

or they would know that there is no such thing as a stranger.

In Christ we are sisters and brothers,

not only to each other,

but even to folks we have never met in person.

A social club may welcome strangers,

but a church welcomes newly-discovered members of the household.

My West Texas friends Judy and Deborah made an interesting trip one summer,

to the Grand Canyon …

They got their hiking boots and their backpacks,

and went to the north rim, and hiked down it,

and back up the south rim,

and had a great time.

And then they got in their car and drove home.

Wait a minute, you may be saying …

How did they do that,

when they had left the car at the north rim?

Well, they hadn’t.

It was at the south rim, waiting for them.

As she was telling us about it,

Judy said, “This would make a good sermon illustration,”

and she was right:

You see, what happened was,

they had a friend in Arizona

who made some arrangements for them.

He fixed it so they would meet up with

some other friends of his who also wanted to hike the Grand Canyon.

So, Judy and Deborah met those folks

at a predetermined Pizza Hut at a predetermined time,

and they traded cars with these people they had never met before.

And these total strangers drove Judy and Deborah’s car

to the south rim and hiked north,

while Judy and Deborah drove their car

to the north rim and hiked south.

So when each group got done with their hiking,

however long or short a time they wanted to take,

they could get in their own car and drive home.

As Judy told us this story, she was still a little amazed by it –

that they had entrusted their car to a pair of strangers,

and those people had trusted them with their car.

“But you know,” said Judy, “we knew it would be okay,

because we knew someone in common.”

That’s a parable of a sort for the Christian life.

We are not strangers, or aliens,

because we have someone in common.

He is our peace.

In him we are built together

into a household of faith,

with Christ himself as the cornerstone.

We are the dwelling place for God,

and there can be no strangers in this house.

Amen.