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Sermon for Season of the Church, 2009 

Sermon Text: Ephesians 2:11-21 

Sermon Theme: Wall of Separation

God commanded Moses to make the tabernacle. Later Solomon built the temple. But both these buildings had the same basic design. Here you have to imagine a little bit and most of you know this. But in the very center of the tabernacle/temple you had the Holy of Holies. This was a perfectly square room where the Ark of the Covenant was stored. The Ark of the Covenant, that gold covered box that Indiana Jones was always trying to find, was supposed to represent where God dwelled specifically with His people. Now the children of Israel didn’t think they had God trapped in a box. They knew he dwelled every where. But at that one spot God was to be found forgiving his people.

But our God is a holy God. Sinful men could not just walk up to a Holy God. God is so holy that it was a very dangerous thing to get to near. The only person who could even enter the holy of holies was the high priest and only one time a year and only after a very elaborate rite to cover him up so that he might not come to close to the living Holy God. Even then they still tied a rope around his foot so that, if the little bells that were around the hem of his robe stopped jingling, they could pull him out.

The next space right outside the Holy of Holies was the Holy Place. There only the other priests could enter and only after being covered and clothed and washed. Even there is was dangerous to come to close to a Holy God.

Right outside the Holy Place was the altar area and the court of Israel. There only the Men of Israel, usually a representative of the family, could come close to the altar, because still it was a dangerous thing to come close to the living Holy God, one did not want a small child wandering to near.

Right outside that courtyard was the courtyard of the woman of Israel. Only they with the small children could enter this area, because again it was dangerous to come close to the holy living God.

Outside all of these courtyards and all of these places, the outer ring was the court of the Gentiles. They were still allowed to come to the temple but they could go no further than just their court. What I mean when I say there was a wall of separation in the Old Testament between Jew and Gentile is that there was a literal wall of separation with gates and guards and everything else. All theses walls, and guards, and priests, and courtyards, they told Jew and Gentile alike that Our God is Holy, powerful, separate, and not to be trifled with.

This was the original point of this separation. It was to protect people from nonchalantly having contact with the Holy God. There are stories in the Old Testament of sinful people coming in contact with the Holy God and it never worked out real well.

But this original separation of protection had become something else entirely. It had become a separation that had worked its way through into Jewish and Gentile lives to such a degree that a Jew would no longer even eat with a gentile or shake a gentile’s hand, and so too would Gentiles look down upon Jews and often force them into Ghettos. So when Paul is referring to that wall of separation in Ephesians he is referring to the wall that separated people at worship but also separated people in their daily lives.

Now that you know the background this is where Paul begins. He says, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near though the blood of Christ.” So what Paul is saying is that those non- Jews who were far away, in that outer court of the temple, and often even farther away like in strange places such as Germany or England or Norway have been brought near.

And how have the gentiles been brought near? They have been brought near because, “(Jesus) He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.”  

This is important. So often we divide Christ up. We say he refers to the Spiritual stuff. Then we say or think what do we do about the physical stuff we are dealing with. Gentiles and the Jews are dealing with very tangible physical issues. They are dealing with discrimination that runs on both sides. Paul doesn’t say he eat with each other. Or get over it. Paul takes us back to the temple.

He says that the walls of separation that originally separated all of us from a Holy perfect God have been broken down because finally a sacrifice was offered in the blood of Jesus Christ that brought true forgiveness once and for all. All that separation that was instituted so that people would be kept away from the Holy God and not be destroyed is finally torn down in Christ. Finally before a holy God, in Christ we have peace.  

What Christ and the cross does it literally breaks down these walls of separation in the temple one by one. The cross removes all needs for gates. It removes all need for guards. It removes all need for walls. The cross allows people through Christ to actually come near to God. It allows us to actually call God our father and Jesus our friend. I watch you all every Sunday morning come forward to communion and it is usually a treat to watch you. Some of you come with somber faces, some with joyful, but I want to remind you this morning that for 2000 years of Israelite history people longed to be able to do what you do so easily. They longed to be able to walk right up to the altar and be near their God, but they could not. But in Christ all of you may.  

This is why that new painting that we have that hangs over the altar in the chapel is so appropriate. It seems strange to have the adoration of the magi above the altar. But why are the magi coming? They are coming because at that little manger was where God was found among His people. Why do you come to communion? Here upon that altar is where God is found hidden in bed and wine among His people. You all know that the blood of Christ covers your sins. I great litmus test is: “how many of you have been struck down lately walking to communion?” We still have a holy God but through the blood of Christ that wall between us and Him has been torn down.  

Then Paul moves on and says if we all have access to the Father by one Spirit then we are no longer foreigners or outsiders we are all fellow citizens, we are all God’s people, all His children. So Paul moves from the reality that we all have in Christ and then to the reality of earth. He literally says if we are all forgiven in Christ and made part of his family then how can we exclude each other? How can we build walls of separation? How can we not challenge any division or separation?

These are fair questions for us today? Here is the law for us today. Christ tells us very simply that building walls between each other, especially in light of what Christ has done, is sinful. We know its sinful. Look at the world and look at all the walls that are built between peoples, cultures, and countries and tell me its not sinful?  How then can we build or allow a wall to stand between a group of people in Christ’s church, a friend, a spouse, a relative?

The truth of the matter is when we build a wall or do not challenge it, we are saying that this person is not worth our time, our effort, and our love. We desire that separation to continue. This is a very dangerous game. Because if Christ has forgiven us and our neighbor then who are we to hold grudges against them. For we still have that holy God and it is a very dangerous thing to think lightly of His forgiveness.  Walls by their very nature say that this grievance or this hurt or this harm or this desire is greater than the blood of Christ.

Also the other danger is that when we build walls or allow ourselves to remain in them we allow ourselves to be isolated, alone, and often dwelling upon the grievances of the past that slowly poison our thoughts and our days.

Dear children of God remember that through all that Christ has done you are fellow citizens, living stones in the temple of God. Do not let walls be built up among you. Where they are repent, look to Christ, for in Christ there is not one wall that can remain. So let us walk up to the altar together, drink His body and blood together, and ask that the walls in our lives be torn down.

For those who have built walls that we would have preferred them not to build. Let us never grow tired of inviting them to put down their bricks and motor and come back into the community of Christ. Perhaps the wall is not too high yet and they can still be brought over.

Let us not forget that walls are not God’s desire for us. He does not wish us to be alone. He died so that we may be able to call all Children of God our brothers or sisters and so that we can call him not just a Holy God, but also our Father. Amen.