[2 Sam. 7:1-14a; Eph. 2:11-22; Mk. 6:30-34, 53-56]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Where do we belong?
Who among you originates from a Commonwealth nation?
This intergovernmental organisation, founded in its present form in 1949, joins together 53 countries, most of which used to be British colonies. All the members together cover almost 30 million km2 and gather together almost 2,5 billion citizens. Queen Elisabeth II is the Head of the Commonwealth.
All member states are considered equal, the United Kingdom, Britain no longer is ‘the boss’. Membership is voluntary, and countries apply to join or can leave as they chose. Under exceptional circumstances a member country can be suspended. It’s like a very big family, and all the family members have the same rights and privileges, but also the same responsibilities.
The letter to the Ephesians this morning mentions “citizens in Israel”. A different translation uses here the words “commonwealth of Israel”.
We all want to belong.
We all belong to the great human family, living on this wonderful planet together with all creatures great and small.
Unfortunately, unlike what God commanded us in Genesis, to take care of Creation, to be fruitful in the sense of making sure everything has a place to grow and be part of the bigger whole, we’ve made quite a mess of things.
Pollution, climate change, deforestation, exhaustion of natural resources…this isn’t at all what God intended when He appointed humankind as stewards of the earth.
Lord have mercy!
Moreover, the nations and peoples of the world don’t exactly ‘play nice’ with each other.
Somehow, we’ve gotten it in our heads that our race, clan, country, etc. is better than the next and that we should have the upper hand and that what we say goes.
War, religious terrorism, greed, colonialism, occupation…haven’t we learned anything in the 50.000+ years of what we call ‘modern’ human history?
Christ have mercy!
As Christians, we also all belong to the great family of the Church; in the service of Baptism we say that “Christ is adding to His number.”
In some churches, people actually address one and other as ‘brother’ or ‘sister’. This might seem a bit presumptuous, but there’s something to be said for it. After all, Jesus taught His disciples “that whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”. (Mt. 12:50)
And yet the Church too isn’t always what we would call a ‘happy family’; we in the Church, in the churches have a tendency to prefer our own ways and traditions against those of the other group; we in the Church have the tendency to exclude based on a whole series of reasons which we think are very logical and therefore valid, but which in fact are unkind, often spiteful and -if we’re being truly honest with ourselves- sinful.
Because others don’t experience or express their Christianity the way we do, we won’t share Communion with them; because others don’t parent their children the way we think they should, we won’t baptise the kids; because others have a certain background, have a certain job, are in a certain relationship, we’re raised in a certain place or a certain way, we won’t marry, burry or even welcome them.
It’s them versus us, and isn’t Jesus lucky to have us, because we’re on the right side, right?
How very arrogant, how very cold, how very sad.
Lord have mercy!
Saint Paul or one of his students too was writing about these inner-Christian divisions.
From the very beginning there were those we would classify as Jewish-Christians, Jewish converts, and those we call Gentile-Christians, non-Jewish converts, converts from the pagan, Hellenistic nations.
While the Gentile-Christians were in the majority, a lot of Jewish-Christians, by virtue of their shared heritage with Jesus, reckoned they should be dictating how a person became a Christian: they insisted for instance that male converts were circumcised and that everyone adhered to Jewish dietary laws.
But Paul emphasises that “[Jesus’] purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two...”
A commonwealth of humanity.
A commonwealth in the body of Jesus, called the Body of Christ, the Church.
This is the way God gathers all nations into one place, making peace, “peace to those who were far away and peace to those who were near.”
And who are we to disrespect this peace, God’s peace by disrespecting and excluding others?!
By God’s grace no one is a foreigner or a stranger anymore, all have become fellow citizens, members of the same commonwealth of God.
This theme of unity runs throughout the epistle to the Ephesians:
one new man,
one body,
one Spirit,
one hope,
one Lord,
one faith,
one baptism,
one God and Father of all.
How could we possible fight amongst ourselves any longer?
Because we’re human and humans are sinful; humans have a tendency to loose sight of what is right for others and for themselves.
God in His grace, out of Fatherly love has made us one, let’s not hurt God by hurting each other.
We all belong to the Church, we all belong to God, we all belong to each other.
Jesus’ death on the cross changed everything: there’s no spiritual distinction anymore between Jews and Gentiles.
Even if the Jewish-Gentile division doesn’t seem relevant in our modern times, there are plenty more divisions we’re commanded to overcome, to heal.
The unity of the Church, of the Body of Christ is to be an example of unity in diversity to the world.
All Christians belong to this unity and as such are called to represent unity, to represent love and acceptance, to represent peace.
We all belong.
We belong to our family, our country or nation, our sports or book club, our city or neighbourhood ...
We belong to our church or churches.
We belong to the Church.
We belong to God...as we belong to each other and to ourselves.
One commonwealth.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.