Title: No Longer Strangers                                                                                Calvary 071909
Text: Eph 2:11-22

Opening:
When you hear the word alien, what do you think off?
        Another planet,
        Looks: different (and definitely not a good image)
        Personality: evil, hostile, dangerous. (except for ET of course)

When I first came to the U.S. I was considered an Alien, then an Alien resident.
        But still enjoyed may privileges

However in the 1st Century, a stranger or alien wasn’t a good thing.
        The Greek word used for stranger or alien
                Paid higher taxes
                Hardly any benefits
                Always regarded with suspicion and dislike

We talk about the church being the body of Christ yet there are many things that we do that either break us up into smaller exclusive groups within the church or things that make the church exclusive from the rest of the world.

A Professor at New College in Edinburgh tells the story of how he was once in a strange city for a while teaching and studying and he was lonely so he would walk the streets in the evenings. Sometimes, through an uncurtained window, he would see a family sitting round the table or the fire in happy fellowship; then the curtain would be drawn and he would feel shut out and lonely in the dark.

I pray that this is not how our churches appear to the rest of the world. In the 70’s one pastor wrote “it is the tragedy of the Church that it is so often more exclusive than God.

There are a few cathedrals in Europe where they are pieced together with different styles where on some of the doorways or the windows, there may be a Normal arch; one part may be Early English and another Decorated and another with a Gothic look; some parts may have been really old others were added in our own day.
And even though there are all kinds of styles of architecture; but the building is a unity because through it all it has been used for the worship of God and for meeting with Christ.

That is what the Church should be like. It’s unity comes not from organization, or ritual, or liturgy; it comes from Christ.
In the Latin there is a famous fraise that sais “where Christ is, there is the Church.”
The Author to the Ephesians writes, “In Christ the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.”

The 1st Chapter of Ephesians that we looked at last week taught us  that all that we do should be to the praise and glory of God and today we’re talking about being not strangers but citizens and family member of God, that we all have unity in Christ Jesus through the power of the holy spirit that dwells and lives within us.

In 70 ad when temple was destroyed
Ezek “worship is better than Sacrifice” not rituals but life style of worship. And so from that point forward their teachings began to look for how do we live a life that is worshipful.

Jesus answered that question for us.
In the Gospel of Luke Jesus after his baptism in Ch. 4 it says,
“14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

On the youth mission trip these verses were our theme particularly the quote from Isaiah which was on our devotional booklet which said “The spirit of the lord is upon me …..”

Now that we are citizens and members of God’s family through Christ,  everything that we do should be to revel who God is to the rest of the world.

On the trip we were all given shirts that say “REVEAL” on them and each day we took one part of the verse and tried to live it out. So we were supposed to give hope for the poor, provide release for the captives, give sight for the blind, freedom for the oppressed and proclaim the day of the lords favor.

Some of these things we were able to do in a physical way by the work that we did other times we were able to reveal God by spending time with the residents (those whom we were fixing their homes) They were often people who lived by themselves and had no one to speak to, or to share their thoughts and emotions with.

For me, one of the great things that I saw on this trip was how the youth and leaders came together as what are texts this morning calls citizens or members of God’s family.

The challenge that Group-work camps has is that kids from all over the country come to these camps and have to spend time together and overcome the challenge of all being new to one another.

However for our group the challenge was multiple, because not only did we not know the other groups that were there but we didn’t really know each other. Which includes the leaders.

Yet by the end of the week, we were able to embrace the fact that we are all children of God and are loved by him and that God’s love teaches us to not only love God back but also love each other.

That is what Christ challenges us to do every day, to step beyond the fences that this world continues to build. And proclaim that we are God’s children and ask God to fill us with his Holy Spirit that we might reveal to each other and the world God’s love.

Barclay pg133 Story of French cemetery and Priest during WWII

During WWII in France, some soldiers brought the body of a dead comrade to a French cemetery to have him buried. The priest told them gently that he was bound to ask if their comrade had been a baptized member of the Roman Catholic Church. They said that they did not know.
The priest said that he was very sorry but in that case he could not permit burial in his churchyard. So, the soldiers took their comrade sadly and buried him just outside the fence. The next day they came back to see that the grave was all right and were surprised and puzzled because they could not find it. Search as they might, they could find no trace of the freshly dug soil. As they were about to leave in bewilderment, the priest came up.

He told them that his heart had been troubled because of his refusal to allow their dead comrade to be buried in the churchyard; so, early in the morning, he had risen from his bed and with his own hands moved the fence to include the body of the soldier who had died for France.
That’s what love can do. The world continues to put up fences that separate us. But God’s love is able to move these fences and proclaim that we are his children, that we are no longer strangers to God or to one another, and that is what unites us and calls us to reveal Gods love and fellowship to all the world. AMEN