Eph.2:11-22
As we “sit” under the cascading outpouring of God’s grace and goodness as narrated by Paul we come to realize how lavishly God loves us. Such love as displayed in chs.1-2 of Ephesians is what alone catalyzes white-hot faith in us and consolidates it into an ongoing commitment to God’s great subversive counter-revolutionary movement against the revolution of sin against God and its outworkings in the attitudes, practices, institutions, and policies in the world. These latter define for us what it means to be “human” and live “humanely” in this fallen world of ours. God’s subversive counter-revolutionary movement (aka “church”) contests these definitions, unmasks their inhumanity and violence, and models God’s truly human way of living. We must be thoroughly saturated and soaked in God’s way and will for us and gifts and graces to us to be effective agents of his counter-revolution. Thus we continue to “sit” and in wonder and gratitude take in what God has done for and given to us.
My remarks here will cluster around two central themes of this section: peace and temple.
1. Remember, peace is ours as gift to be maintained not a goal to strive for.
Paul’s ethic is, as we have seen, rooted in a “become what you already are” pattern. Thomas Merton captures this when he writes: “We are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are”.[1] Paul will later exhort his readers to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (4:3). We are gifted with peace, who is Christ himself (2:14). This unattainable grace is given to us; we have only to maintain it, not create it. This is a precious learning in times of strife and conflict (which will surely beset us from time to time).
2. Peace is the English translation of the Greek word which translates the great Hebrew word “Shalom”. “Shalom” however, means much more than absence of conflict. It points to God’s dream for a world of abundance, generosity, and wellbeing for all on every level of life. Given that this “Shalom” is God’s gift to us in Christ, how might we “maintain” it as Paul exhorts?
Here are some images to stimulate your imagination. Which appeal most to you? Which do you find most challenging? We might, for instance,
· Scatter shalom – as in seeds; small packets of reproductive potential; dried parcels of life
· Raise shalom – as with children; think of mothers throughout all times and places in history
· Nurture / cultivate shalom – like a gardener tending seedlings, a farmer growing a crop, or any of us caring for our house plants
· Kindle shalom – as a fire: it sparks, burns, catches, consumes; alive and too hot to touch
· Act out shalom – like a drama or a protest; action/praxis; from rehearsal to proclamation
· Tell / testify / witness to shalom – telling stories of what we have seen and heard; shout and sing of what we have experienced
· Celebrate shalom – with eagerness, joy, gratitude, wanting to share, re-minding ourselves and others that it’s life-giving and inviting
· Desire shalom – so it becomes the thing we want more than anything else
· Yearn for shalom – longing & hope; lament & aspiration, fervent prayer and striving
· Work for shalom – effort, toil, struggle, “a long obedience in the same direction” (Eugene Peterson)
· Practice shalom – patient, persistent, repeated behaviours; dedication because you don’t usually get it right the first time (or any time)
· Experience shalom – with humility, because we too need to find wholeness and healing for our own brokenness and wounds
· Embrace shalom – like a hug that offers welcome, hospitality; arms entwined together
· Struggle for shalom – vigorous engagement, perhaps even conflict; combat / challenge / try to overcome ignorance, hate, apathy, fear, self-righteousness, pride
· Risk shalom – sacrifice, wager/gamble; never a sure thing, like the radical contingency of history that is still in the making
· Think / study shalom – reflect, critique, examine, contemplate, analyze, strive to understand how it works and what helps it to flourish
· Wait for shalom – never complete in our lifetime; it is ultimately God’s to create; will only fully come to fruition at the redemption of all creation
· Seek shalom – like a treasure that has been lost; look for it, pay attention, watch very closely, discern in order to see what others can’t or won’t
· Live shalom – be the change, make it integral to the way you live your life; be a living, breathing presence of shalom in the world
· Imagine shalom – because we haven’t even begun to dream of all the possibilities, we need creative new ideas, transformed minds, and energized imaginations
· Receive and share shalom – like a gift, given with the intent that it be passed along; a reminder that we can’t make it happen apart from God’s radical grace and generosity[2]
3. Christ himself is our peace and transforms the cross into a peace-making instrument.
Yoder Neufeld offers wise words in this regard:
“In the first century, the cross had the same meaning that torture chambers, firing squads, electric chairs, gas chambers, and lethal injections have for us today. Though early Christians might have heard of the emperor being called peacemaker, Caesar typically made ‘peace’ by putting his enemies (including Jesus!) on the cross … The cosmic Peacemaker of our text dwarfs Caesar in might and power (1:22). But his way of dealing with hostile and unruly subjects is to offer up his own life, his own body (members beware!), for the sake of the reconciliation of humanity to each other and to God.”[3]
We might do well to mull this passage over several times before moving on.
4. “Come to the Table”
I encouraged us to “Look to the Water” in the last section drawing on the baptismal imagery of that part of the letter (2:1-10). Here, drawing on the imagery of Christ offering himself (as both priest and sacrifice) for us and our peace and unity – “in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall . . . between us” (2:14) – I encourage us to reflect on and avail ourselves of the other great sacramental mystery – the Eucharist. Thus, “Come to the Table”!
The Eucharist is the great sacrament of the peace won for by Christ and given to us by God. I don’t want to get into sacramental theology here. But I do want to call attention to a practice you may or may not experience in your church’s celebration of the Eucharist but which may well prove vital and worth including in your Eucharistic celebration if it is not already there. I refer to the practice of what we Presbyterians call “Passing the Peace of Christ” to one another. It is often used in the Eucharistic liturgy. Jason Goroncy draws on little-known history and offers such wise reflection that I will quote him at length here.
“So to return to the question with which we began: What does it mean to share Christ’s peace with each other? For many, the exchanging of the sign of peace can be embarrassing and awkward. We might offer a peck on the cheek to members of our family or to friends, but strangers are more likely to receive a distant nod or a polite handshake. But it was not always so.
“During the Middle Ages the kiss of peace was a solemn moment of reconciliation in which social conflicts were resolved. The community was restored to charity before Holy Communion could be received. One of the earliest preaching missions entrusted to the Dominicans and Franciscans was what was called ‘The Great Devotion’ of 1233. Northern Italian cities were torn apart by division which in some cases amounted to civil war. And the climax of the preaching was the ritual exchange of the kiss of peace between enemies. Here at the table – in the eating of one loaf and the drinking of one cup – was enacted the reconciliation made real in Christ.
“And here at the table, we confess that we Christians have often been unimpressive witnesses to Christ’s peace. Our history is marked by aggression, intolerance, rivalry and persecution. These days we usually avoid the extremes of some early Christians, rarely poisoning each other’s chalices or arranging ambushes of our opponents. But we still tend to succumb to the dominant ethos of our competitive and aggressive society, though rarely with the clarity of a First World War general who instructed his chaplain that he wanted a bloodthirsty sermon next Sunday ‘and would not have any texts from the New Testament’.
“I want to suggest that when we offer each other a sign of peace we are not so much making peace as we are accepting and confessing the Christ who is our peace. To be a member of the Church is to share Christ’s peace, however nervous or awkward we may feel. . .
“When we offer each other Christ’s peace we are doing no less than accepting the basis upon which we are gathered together. We recognise that we are here together not because we are friends or because we enjoy the chummy atmosphere, or because we have the same theological opinions, but because – and only because – we are one in Christ’s indestructible peace. That’s why we gather as church: to exchange the kiss of peace with strangers, to exchange the sign of our Lord’s victory in the face of all that assaults human community. . .
“When a French Dominican celebrated a family funeral after WWII he saw that the congregation was deeply divided. On one side of the aisle were those who had belonged to the Resistance and on the other those who had collaborated with the Nazis. He announced that the funeral Mass would not even begin until the kiss of peace had been exchanged. This was a wall that had to fall before it would have made any sense to pray together for the resurrection of their dead brother. Hanging onto alienation is mortal. It is, in the words of Ann Lamott, like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.
“Jesus’ invitation to this table means his embrace of all the ways in which our communion is faulty, subverted or betrayed. Here, in bread and wine, he takes into his hands all our fear, betrayal, lies, cowardice, shame, pain, isolation, distances, silences, misunderstandings and disloyalties, saying, ‘This is my body, given for you’.
“Together we sing for joy that Christ comes, that he returns to our midst in the Eucharist, to strengthen us in our struggles, to share with us the burden of each day, to speak to us of peace when our minds are troubled, and to put the hope of eternal life in our hearts in that hour when our way seems to be entering the shadow of death. Here again we see that in spite of the barriers we have erected, the Eucharist is a sacrament of unity, joining us all in the same triumphant joy that the presence of the risen Lord gives to his Church. . .
“And so in this bread and wine, Christ is really present to us, even more present than we are to each other, more bodily. He is truly the embodied Word of God who pulls down every barrier. That’s what it means for him to say to us, ‘Peace be with you’. For him to be risen is, then, not just to be alive once more: it is to be the place of peace in whom we meet and are healed.”[4]
5. We are the new temple, the dwelling place of God.
God resides in us, you and me! Astonishing - even more astonishing than God deigning to dwell in the tabernacle and temple. God present to the world in and through you and me. This is the point of God’s subversive counter-revolution. God dwelling in and with us on his new creation, glorified in and through us, his humanity, fully alive (as Irenaeus put it)! Christ is gathering all things to himself (1:10) to order them in just this fashion. This is God’s “eternal purpose,” that for which Christ died and God raised and exalted him “far above all rule and authority… and put all things under his feet” (1:21,22). Think and pray on that and give glory to and worship God!
[1] Thomas Merton, The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton (ed. Patrick Hart, et al.; New York: New Directions Publishing, 1975), 308.
[2] Geoff Wichert at http://empireremixed.com/2011/06/08/vocabulary-of-shalom/#more-1009.
[3] Yoder Neufeld, Ephesians, 122.
[4] http://cruciality.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/christ-is-our-peace-a-reflection-on-ephesians-211%E2%80%9322/.
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