Tuesday, June 21, 2022

An UNEASY Peace

 

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders.  You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts.  In those days you were living apart from Christ.  You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them.  You lived in this world without God and without hope.  But now you have been united with Christ Jesus.  Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.  For Christ himself has brought peace to us.  He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.  He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations.  He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups.  Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.  He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near.  Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.  So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.  Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.  We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.  Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.  Ephesians 2:11-22

When the Apostle says that the Gentiles used to be outsiders, there has to be just a little flapping of the undecided flag.  When hostilities have existed for centuries, it is an uneasy peace (at best) when the ink on a treaty is yet to dry.  Witness to this is everywhere.  Driving home on I-40 on Sunday, after our Annual Conference at Lake Junaluska in the beautiful Blue Ridge of the Great Smoky Mountains, every so often I saw a huge Confederate flag waving near a home.  For some, after 157 years, the War Between the States is only on pause.  In any neighborhood, predominantly black or white, those of the opposite color or heritage walk uneasily, especially after the sun goes down.  Despite the continual outcry from political heads over spilled blood, often the blood of children, gun sales are the healthiest investment ever.

Peace is elusive, something like nailing Jell-O to a wall.  It sags with every sideways glance, uneasy, tenuous, and barely believable.  Yet the Apostle claims, without stuttering, that Christ has put an end to that which divides the only race on planet earth, humanity.  And for those who will be embraced by Christ, He gathers them all close.

Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”  Mark 3:35

For You Today

It takes vulnerability to love unconditionally, knowing that your trust can be, and often will be violated, broken, and crushed.  And Jesus demonstrated that for us on the cross.  He was broken for our unwillingness to love.  Let’s let Harry Emerson Fosdick have the last word today:

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©  


[1] Harry Emerson Fosdick 1930, God of Grace and God of Glory (info @ Hymnary.org) & (Wikimedia Commons)

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