Sermon: "Walls and Bridges"

Intro to Scripture - Ephesians 2:11-22

While this letter is addressed to the church in Ephesus, the earliest copies we have contain no greeting for a particular church, which means it was likely a circular letter – one that was sent to many churches and meant to be circulated as a common teaching.

The focus here is on Christian unity.

In the mid to late first century, as the first Christian churches were forming, Jewish and Pagan converts to the faith were struggling to find common ground and a common identity for their new and distinctly Christian communities. 

Jews and Gentiles were separated by a painful and often violent history,

by divergent cultures and convictions, and by mutual hostility and suspicion.

Initially, Gentile Christians were expected to convert to Judaism –

to submit to circumcision and follow the Jewish kosher laws –

in order to be considered true followers of Christ. 

Paul and Peter worked together to negate this requirement, teaching that Jesus had intended the gospel to be brought to all nations.

What had begun with Judea was now open to all.

Gentiles do not become Jews; but conversely, Jews do not become Gentiles.

Rather, both Jews and Gentiles become united in Christ as Jew and Gentile.

God in Christ has made one humanity of the two.

For Paul, it is not our differences that divide us, but our hostility, and our inability to see the other as part of the Body of Christ. 

The Rev. Maureen R. Frescott

Congregational Church of Amherst, UCC

July 22, 2018 – Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Psalm 23; Ephesians 2:11-22

“Walls and Bridges”

Over the last few days, many of you have made your way over to Souhegan High School to visit the Moving Wall – a half-sized replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that has traveled around the country for over 30 years - moving from one small town to the next, allowing people to pay their respects and remember those who lost their lives in the war in Vietnam.

The replica may be only half the size but it has solicited some full sized emotions in those who’ve had a chance to see it. 

 

 If you’ve ever visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC then you know what a moving experience it can be.

Standing adjacent to the National Mall, the nearly 500 foot-long slab of black granite rises up out of the earth, reaching 10ft in height at its apex, before gently sloping back into the earth at its completion.

Over 58,000 names are etched into the wall.

Each standing as a remembrance of a fallen soldier from the not-so-distant past, as the polished surface of the granite reflects the faces of those standing in the present.

Visitors to the wall are often seen touching the names in tearful silence,

or putting paper and pencil to one particular name to create a rubbing to take with them, or like many, leaving something behind in tribute –

a photograph, a letter, a dog tag, a military patch or medal, or some personal item that would have meaning only to the one it was left for and the one leaving it behind.

A baby’s sweater, a book of poems, an engagement ring given as a promise of a life together that was never to be.

In Hyattsville, MD, about a 30-minute drive from the Vietnam memorial, stands a massive warehouse, where storage bins stacked from floor to ceiling house the items that are gathered up each night from the foot of the wall.

Since the walls completion in 1982, over 400,000 items have been reverently collected and cataloged.

One of the more personal items in the collection is an unopened care package addressed to US Army Specialist Charles Stewart Jr.

Stewart was a 19-year-old from Gladstone, MI, who began his tour in Vietnam in March of 1972.

In October of that same year, Stewart’s infantry unit was disbanded as part of the plan to begin withdrawal of American troops from combat areas, and he was reassigned to a position in the Aviation Brigade.

While en route to his new assignment, the helicopter that Stewart was riding in was hit by a heat-seeking missile and crashed into a flooded rice field just south of Saigon. 

There were no survivors.

The care package, sent by Stewart’s parents, arrived in Vietnam a few days later.

The package was returned to his parents and was stamped KIA 10-31-72 – marking the date Charles Stewart Jr. was killed in action.

The still unopened package was left at the Vietnam Memorial in October 1993, nearly twenty years after it was originally mailed.

On it was a hand-written note:

“Charles Stewart, Mom & Dad want you to have these cookies & Kool Aid.  It’s time they gave these to you. They send all their love.”

 

One name, one story, one war, one wall.

The walls we build to remember those we’ve lost as a result of human conflict stand in contrast to the walls we build in the midst of conflict.

The walls we build to keep our enemy at bay.

To prevent another from encroaching on our land or taking what we value.

To keep us and our loved ones safe.

To keep those we don’t trust or understand or want to associate with at a distance.

We human beings are extraordinarily adept at building walls.

Give a child a pile of blocks and they’ll have them stacked one upon another in no time,

building block walls around block houses, imagining what dangers might be kept out and what of value might be kept in.  

Walls are of course not innately a bad thing.

They do have their purpose and are at times a necessity.

As they hold in livestock, and hold back floodwaters,

and hold up the roofs over our homes and our churches,

keeping our spaces safe, and sound, and sacred.

But it’s not the physical walls that we build that concerned Jesus, and later, Paul, as much as the spiritual walls.

The walls that we erect between God and us.

And the walls that we erect between God and those who are not us -

Projecting all of our human biases, ignorance, and failings onto our Creator, as we build a wall around God, placing some of us safely on the inside while others are left standing on the outside.

This desire to build walls that divide us rather than focus on what unites us, is not a creation of our modern politically charged world.

We may blame social media, and fake news, and foreign bots for planting the seeds of discontent and unraveling the thread of civility that once kept us from labeling each other as friend or foe – and there is some real blame to be placed on all of the above – but those seeds were not planted by outside forces, as much as they were watered and nurtured.

The seeds were already there.

Wall building is in our nature.

While some may revere the early church, and at times long to return to the days when the Christian faith was pure and uncorrupted by the influences of modern morality and the powerful trappings of empire,

the truth is, there never was a time when unity reigned and the followers of Jesus all gathered around a table breaking bread in harmony.

Judaism was and always has been a diverse religious tradition with many different expressions and interpretations of the Abrahamic faith,

and the followers of Jesus sprung up out of that diversity, marching to the beat of their own drummers as well. 

The early church attracted converts who were Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, and members of other Jewish sects too numerous to count.

The church had Greek gentiles and Roman gentiles, and Ethiopian gentiles each with their own portfolio of pagan beliefs and practices that they couldn’t help but weave into their newfound faith.

Even Jesus’ disciples, the ones closest to the source of the gospel stories, birthed their own distinct communities – with James and Peter, and later Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each putting their own spin on the Jesus story and presenting their own interpretation of how he intended his message to be lived out in the world.

There’s an internet meme that has Jesus standing on a hillside looking out at his disciples while saying, “Okay guys, I’m only going to say this once so listen up. I don’t want four different versions of this floating around.”

It’s funny because it’s true.

And then there’s Paul.

Paul’s letters to those early Christian churches have come to be revered as much as the Gospels themselves, and regardless of what we may personally feel about Paul and his influence, there is no denying that his letters stand as a testament to the diversity of the early church  -

and the age-old struggle that we human beings have with living and working and worshiping with those who are NOT LIKE US.

The word diversity has itself become a controversial term in our time.

With some celebrating it and calling for more of it – in our social structures, in our media and entertainment, in our institutions, and employment practices.

While others claim the focus on diversity is divisive, because it emphasizes and separates us by our differences rather than lifting up and uniting us in our commonalities.  

For some, acknowledging our diversity brings all of our gifts into the mix and strengthens us as a whole. 

For others, acknowledging our diversity reduces us to individuals, fragmenting us, and weakening us as a whole.  

I can say with some certainty that among those of us in this sanctuary this morning there are those who fall on either side of the diversity dial – with some wanting to dial it up and others wanting to dial it back.

And yes, some would argue that calling attention to this diversity of opinion on diversity is in itself… divisive.

Our denomination, the United Church of Christ prides itself on being a "diverse" body of believers. As we say at the beginning of worship every Sunday,  “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.”

Yet the United Church of Christ logo also contains the phrase:

“That They All May Be One” – 

words spoken by Jesus in the Gospel of John.

How can a church be diverse and united at the same time?

How can we be "many" and "one"?

Is this even possible?

Will our differences always divide us and keep us from finding peace based on what we hold in common?

Is it possible for us to be "Jew and Gentile, male and female, captive and free," as well as rich and poor, gay and straight, native born and foreign born, conservative and liberal, black and white, and every color in between….

and still gather at the same table and break bread together?

Unity and Diversity may seem to be conflicting ideals but as we see in Paul’s letters, and in the many different gospels we have, Jesus seemed to think we were capable of seeking and celebrating both.

The Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, Jesus and the Canaanite Woman,

our gospels are full of stories of people reaching across the divide and making peace with one another while still remaining who they are and without denying the God given differences that make their story uniquely their own.

Wall building is in our nature.

But bridge building is in our nature as well.

Just as a child may feel compelled to build a wall out of building blocks,

once the wall is completed they may feel equally compelled to knock it down, and build a bridge instead.

It may take a little more effort and creativity to build a bridge rather than a wall, but as we know, we human beings love a challenge.

God gave us that as well.

If you need a tangible example of diversity found within unity, I encourage you to head over to the high school and visit the Moving Wall memorial, even in the rain. I believe it’s there one more day before they pack it up tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.

And as you look at the names etched on the wall notice that none is bigger than any other, that each name is uniform in its size and depth and color.

But each represents a unique story, a unique human being,

in life and in death, that is evident in the diverse collection of items,

and tears and prayers, that the living leave behind.

“So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth,

were without Christ, being aliens and strangers to the covenants of promise.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by Christ.

For he is our peace; he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two…

So then we are no longer strangers and aliens,

but we are members of the household of God."

Amen.