"Walls Come Tumbling Down" Ephesians 2:11-22
I heard a story about a Stradivarius violin, a precious instrument that musicians covet the way a baby wants his bottle. This particular Stradivarius was written about in the Yale Divinity School Alumni magazine.
The violin was owned by U.C.L.A. and had been placed in the charge of a faculty member, who was also the second violinist in a university string quartet. The second violinist reported the priceless instrument missing. Authorities were suspicious that the musician had stolen the violin, either for his personal pleasure or for monetary gain. He, however, said that he thought he's put the violin on top of his car when he was loading groceries, purchased on his way home from a concert. Then he drove off, simply forgetting the Stradivarius.
Decades later, just a few years ago, the hapless violinist's story was confirmed, when the instrument showed up at a music shop to be tuned. The present owner said he had bought the violin from someone who found it lying beside the on-ramp roadway to a Southern California freeway.
You'd think if you owned a Stradivarius, you'd guard it day and night, never let it out of your sight. Certainly, never stick it on top of your V.W. in the Safeway parking lot. But of course we all do get busy and life intrudes, even on the stewardship of priceless gifts. We've got to eat, got to shop and it's easy to put the Strad out of the way just long enough to get the Wheaties into the trunk and then- OOPS!
So it wasn't greed or treachery, it was just carelessness that lost the treasure. Lots of people think there's a conspiracy to muffle the Christian message- for instance, when town governments are challenged about promoting a specific religious holiday, like Christmas, by the display of the Holy Family on the Courthouse yard. But I say we are more in danger of our own carelessness about our treasures than we are from conspirators.
In Ephesians today we hear a message that is the very foundation of our entire Christian enterprise: Christ by his flesh has demolished the dividing wall to create a new humanity, made of peace and reconciliation. By his death on the cross Christ made us one body, all citizens with the saints and all members of the household of God; so then, you are no longer strangers or aliens.
This is our story- demolished dividing walls, crumbling fences, in order that all are welcomed into one community of peace and reconciliation. It's a treasure that has frequently been forgotten by Christians. Each generation needs to reclaim it anew.
Think of dividing walls demolished. Think of the Great Wall of China , meant to keep out strangers and aliens. It is now a tourist sight. When visitors regard that wall, they marvel at it's length and breadth- built and rebuilt over several thousand years.
Christ came to bring peace and reconciliations so that people would pass through walls that exclude or confine.
Think of the Berlin Wall, constructed to keep people in, erected so that East Germans could not escape the oppressive control of the U.S.S.R. That potent symbol of control came down in 1990, ending the Cold War.
Christ came to bring peace and reconciliations so that people would pass through walls that exclude or confine.
I saw a beautiful movie called "The Boy in Striped Pajamas" that traced the friendship of 2 little boys, one the son of a commander in the Nazi Army, the other helped with his family in a countryside concentration camp. Their sweet and innocent friendship begins when the Nazi child comes upon a fence that holds inside people who he supposes are farmers (which his parents have told him) and wonders why they are permitted to wear pajamas all day. They boys' conversations are confused since they do not speak the same language and their circumstances are so different. Finally the Nazi child understands that the boy in striped pajamas is hungry and brings food to share. Later they collude, as boys will do, to dig a hole under the fence so that games and toys can be pushed back and forth. Later yet the Nazi boy wiggles under the fence into the camp. One child is only afraid of parental disapproval; the other child must confront far darker fears.
The image of childhood friendship across such a barrier is a potent expression of boundaries crossed and a wonderful illustration of the sentences in Ephesians heard today. Jesus gave up his body to a Roman cross for the purpose of peace and reconciliation, to tear down walls that divide humanity into hostile cadres of suspicion, prejudice, and mutually destructive behavior. Or even divisions of points of view that are built up into walls of privilege.
We have this treasure- a Bible that traces God's works of salvation, peace and reconciliation, and yet how easily we forget this treasure. Our Holy Bible was, early in church history, walled off for just those who were trained as academics and priests. For centuries the Bible was available only to those who read Latin. Ordinary folk were prevented access. In a revolution of the faith, Martin Luther broke through that wall by translating the Bible into the language of the folk. A barrier to God's story came tumbling down.
In our own U.S. history slaves were forbidden to read, lest they hear the Biblical freedom message and claim their inheritance fully as the children of the household of God. Today in certain countries women are forbidden to read for similar reasons.
But the walls continue to come tumbling down, walls of exclusion, walls of repression. Do we appreciate this gift or do we sometimes get so careless that we leave it on top of the V.W. after grocery shopping?
Another example from church history which illustrates the demolition of dividing walls is Protestant ministry. For centuries priests had all the power and frequently retained the power for their personal benefit. Priests had sole access to interpreting the scriptures and offering the sacraments, access to God. Communion was literally walled off from the worshippers. Various reform movements challenged this system and eventually Christian ministry became open for those who were previously excluded- not just single men.
We have a notable history in this regard as members of the United Church of Christ, an inheritance from the scripture we hear today from Ephesians. The Congregational cousins of the U.C.C. broke down barriers of exclusion and oppression. We were the first to ordain a woman. These days that seems to go without saying- but the wall is still up for women in the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and with our Southern Baptist cousins.
Like the great wall of China, the fence that excludes women from ministry is coming down stone by stone. The freedom to travel into the former "boys only" enclave was scandalous in it's day, but today seems obvious. If we in the U.C.C. and continuing Congregational congregations fail to advocate against those walls that exclude, in the name of ecumenical easiness, we are failing to keep track of our treasure- that walls come tumbling down when the word of God is present.
The Congregationalists were also the first to ordain a black man to ministry in the United States . We forget how audacious and boundary breaking were these 2 radical acts of inclusion because now they are so commonplace. We forget that Bishops came to the ordinations of women in the Episcopal Churches and interrupted those services, cursing the blasphemy of ordination of women. I know this happened- I was a witness. There was great moaning and gnashing of teeth and mis-use of biblical texts to exclude women from the place of male privilege.
And right now, at the behest of the Pope, abbeys and teaching orders of U.S. nuns are investigated and punished by Papal authorities for getting out of line, crashing the boundaries that exclude and repress.
In the U.C.C. we fought these battles in the 19th century and we are inclined to forget the treasures that were won at great expense to our ancestors, who were roundly criticized and humiliated for suggesting that a woman or a black ought be called to Christian ministry.
This treasure- that all are called and welcomed to labor side by side because this is God's salvation plan- we must not stick this treasure back in some closet.
I hope you are watching what is happening in the Episcopal Church right now. By vote the wall has come down that prevents gays from ordination. We can expect that the wrath of Bishops from Africa and Texas will come down upon those who made that vote. People who like to fence out some will fight tooth and nail (just as they did the ordination of women) to retain their walls of privilege. And they will use the same snippets of scripture as they used to support exclude women.
Look at the cross of Jesus, the cross of our salvation. Notice that the vertical arm reaches up toward heaven. Any dividing wall that was thought to separate heaven and earth has been pierced thru by the ministry of Jesus. God is among his people, people have direct access to God. As Protestants we believe we all have equal access to God's word.
Now look at the horizontal arm- which is wide open, embracing all humanity. There are no fenced off areas to keep anyone away from the table, where all are welcomed. This is why we in the U.C.C. persist in our peculiar way to present an open communion table. Who dares turn away anyone who seeks a closer relationship with God? Who dares?
Our social and congregational landscape has walls of division still, but the salvation plan of God is that all walls will come down, stone by stone, and in their place will be constructed a heavenly home where Christ is the cornerstone. Our call is to celebrate when walls of division come tumbling down and to build our personal and community engagements so to witness to reconciliation and peace, right here, right now.
Please God. Amen.
