One In Christ

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friend Church

July 21, 2024

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Ephesians 2:11–22 (ESV)

¹¹ Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— ¹² remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. ¹⁷ And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²² In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Remember. It is not often that the weekly scripture beings with a command, or a verb that strongly urges us to do something. That is what Paul is doing to the people of Ephesus. “Remember,” he says, “that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh.”

I want us to quickly pause to remember. I want us to consider who the people of Ephesus are. Too often, as we read through scripture we forget to consider the context of who is involved. The Ephesians, in many ways were similar to the people of Jerusalem. They like Jerusalem, were a commercial center of religious activity. It here that the great temple of Artemis was located. I have mentioned this Greek goddess a few times, as she was the virgin goddess of hunting and animal fertility. In their mythology she was the huntress, and was honored by sacrifices of bears. Her priestesses, because of this, were often regarded as she-bears.

This goddess was not merely the goddess of animal births, but she often regarded as the one that ruled over women and motherhood. When she was happy mothers gave birth to healthy children, but if one angered her, she showed her disdain but causing complications in child birth. This goes even deeper, she was also the protector of virtue. In the mythology surrounding her, those that did not honor her virtue found themselves dead. Much can be said about this but I will not go much deeper, but will conclude by saying she was served only by women, and by men who had dedicated their fertility to her.

I mention this because many of the verses we use to justify certain social constructs that we deem biblical are often verses taken out of their cultural context because we neglect to consider why those words were spoken. Like when Paul says that he would not ask a women to teach, it is not because they cannot teach. It is because those words were written to people within communities where women were the primary practitioners of the religions, and he was telling the men that we need both males and females to participate.

Remember. Paul says. “Remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.” In this passage there is only one imperative or commanding verb, and that is remember. This word is used only eight times in the New Testament in this manner. In Luke Jesus uses this imperative verb and says, “Remember Lot’s wife, Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.” He goes on to speak about the thief in the night that takes one and leave the other, which we develop much of our theology about the rapture around, but again we often take it out of context. He says remember Lot’s wife, she looked back with desire to the past, she longed for the life she had in Sodom and that longing resulted in turning her into a pillar of salt. Remember Lot’s wife Jesus says those that long for the past will find themselves lost.

The next instance of this imperative verb is in John, where Jesus says, “Remember the word that I said to you.” Remember his teaching. And he then goes on to say that a servant is not greater then their master, if they persecute him they will also persecute you. Remember Lot’s wife, remember Jesus’ word. Then we get Paul’s use of the word, remember his chains, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Then the writer to the Hebrews, “Remember your leaders.” Then John uses remember twice in the Revelation to the seven churches, first to Ephesus, and then to Sardis. “Remember, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first.” “Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it and repent.”

In each of these instances we are urged to remember and respond. But there is one instance, in today’s reading, where we are urged to rest in the recollection. Remember what you were before, remember who you are right now. Remember where you are going and what you are here to do. Remember.

Our culture has trouble with this. Some of us like to remember the past with longing, we fall into the trap of Lot’s wife. We forget the terrible stuff that was happening all around us and we long for the comfort and security of a life we once knew. There are others that often fail to remember from where we came, who we are right now, where we are going and what we are here to do. Those just long for the unknown future, thinking that we will get there if we merely will it to occur. But if we forget how we got where we are today, in our quest for the future, we will often repeat the errors of the past. Remember.

Paul urges us, he commands us to remember. Not like Lot’s wife, but to take a break and rest in the assurance that we are not what we once were. Remember that we are on a new path of life. The old ways are gone and we strive forward in repentance. Paul does not just stop with the remembering, we need to remember something in particular. “remember that at one time you Gentiles, in the flesh called ‘the uncircumcision’ by what is called the circumcision.”.

This word called is derived from the verb to assign a name or summon. There are two main variations to this root, the first is to name a style or give a nickname. My son is often called “Alby.” in this case it is a term of endearment, but the second derivative is to be given a label. This second derivative is not a term of endearment, but one that is often used to negatively divide a population into the good and the bad.

You were called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision. Paul is speaking about prejudice and discriminatory language. Not necessarily racism, because racism is derived from using power over others to exclude based on these labels, but it is prejudice and discrimination. It is divisive language used to place one against the other with the hopes of dehumanizing those on the other end of the label.

The truth though is that these are labels not reality. There is always an exception to a stereotype. One cannot judge all of humanity by these prejudicial labels, and when we do we are not participating in the kingdom of God.

Paul says you were once called this, by those that gave themselves a different label. The label of circumcision was made by the seemingly righteous. God commanded Israel to circumcise their children on the eighth day. To the righteous it is the sign, the seal that proves that you belong to the people of promise. The problem with this is that Israel was not the only ancient culture that participated in this. Several cultures practice circumcision, they do it for different reasons and at different times in life. For some it was a ritual of marriage, for others it was a a rite of passage to become an adult within a society, some cultures considered it vulgar, and others regard it as the height of hygiene. Paul says it was made in the flesh by hands. Even the righteous people of Israel had made this practice deemed by scriptures to be required, into idolatry.

Why would Paul a devout follower of God, a trained Pharisee, regard this biblical mandate a form of idolatry?

As I sat considering this passage, I was reminded of the history of Friends, and of the many fruitful debates I have participated in various online forums. Religious rituals can become divisive when we detach them from the fuller gospel. What was circumcision? It might surprise you to know that most of the cultures that live in and around Israel practiced circumcision. But in most cases this ritual was to bind a husband to his wife. We see this in the story of Moses. He grew up in the courts of Pharaoh, but as he grew he became concerned with the plight of his people, he then killed a taskmaster that was being brutal toward one of the Hebrew slaves. This murder caused Moses to run in fear to the desert. In the desert Moses came to a well where he met his future wife who was from the Midianite culture. If Moses’ parents were righteous Moses would have been circumcised on the eight day like all Hebrew boys, but Moses’s wife was from a different culture. When they had a child, they did not circumcise him. This was because in the Midianite culture this was a martial rite. It was a sign that this man belonged to his wife. As Moses was going toward Egypt to accomplish the mission God called him to participate in, we encounter a story that seems out of place. Someone is choking in a tent at night and Moses’s wife takes a knife and circumcises the individual because God demanded the blood. This ritual saved the individual but we are never told if it was Moses or Moses’s son that faced the danger, we only know that Moses’s wife was not amused by the ordeal and she felt as if something was taken from her, or her future daughter-in-law.

We can get distracted by various stereotypes. We can put unnecessary emphasis in areas. The act of circumcision was binding the Hebrew people to God, He was their groom and they were the bride. The ritual act of submission became a sign of division. Human hands redefined something God gave, and made it into something that pulled people away from the truth. Anatomy does not determine salvation. And yet we do this in our own cultures, in much the same manner. Are you baptized? Were you baptized as a child or an adult? Did you use water and if you did were you fully immersed or did you just get a few drops sprinkled over your head? Our man made understanding of this seemingly straight forward rite of passage has started wars among people. Wars over what exactly? In our quest to be righteous we often forget the point. The point is not to have water anoint your body, the point is that we become followers of Jesus.

I have consider, or remembered many things this week. I have thought about all the various divisions among us. Democrats and Republicans. Men and women. Caucasian and people of color. Educated and uneducated. There are times where divisions need to be made, I definitely want an educated surgeon. But there are other instances where the division does not have standing, and the stereotype associated with the label is based on access and privilege more than reality.

“Remember,” Paul continues, “that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise having no hop and without God in the world.” Again he uses words of division. Separated, alienated, strangers. To be separated is to be apart from or without. To be considered alien is to be foreign or of a different cultural background and not fully integrated into the dominate society. The sense here is that some were being excluded from the hope found in God.

I want us to just let this sink into our minds and hearts for a moment. Some were being excluded from the hope found in God. Why? This is a deep rooted and historical issue. This goes back to the beginning of scripture. First to the garden, then to the flood, and to the tower of Babel. There are not one but three falls within the book of Genesis. We often focus only on the first. Adam and Eve ate from the tree that God commanded them not to eat from lest they die. The tree they ate from was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But they did not just eat of the tree, they steered well enough away, even twisted God’s word to mean they should not even touch the tree, because if they stay away completely they would never sin. Then a serpent slithers his way into the conversation, this serpent deceives Eve saying that the tree would make them like God and not kill them, so she ate along with Adam.

A few months ago I shared that word for serpent could also mean burning or shining, and because of this some scholars have said that the reading of the account could be shining one, or a son of God, a lessor spiritual being. This shining one deceived humanity into open rebellion, causing them to unknowingly join a battle they did not intend to join. They became collateral damage in a war they did not choose to enter.

This story continues into the the flood narrative. The sons of God, or the shining ones, looked upon the daughters of man lustfully and took them as wives, this unnatural union, this desire of strange flesh, produced hybrid beings or men of renown, we often regard them as giants. But what this means is that certain people because of this unnatural union were given special knowledge or power. Knowledge of war and the weapons of war. Knowledge of potions and pharmacological magic. Knowledge of divination or determining the future. They were given knowledge that provided power and influence over others. Along with this knowledge, they were given the seemingly divine right to lord that power over those that did not have the power. This angered God and he sent the flood. He initiated a reset, a reset archaeology sees as the bronze age collapse. All at once great empires throughout the Mediterranean world collapsed together.

Then mankind wished to build a name for themselves, seeking to build a tower to the heavens so they could sit on the same plane of existence as God. From here God confused the languages and divided the nations among the sons of God, taking only Israel as his inheritance. This is the alienation of humanity the separation, but this was not what God desired. God from the initial fall in the Garden only wanted to bring humanity back to him. Yet humanity focused on power and influence. They increasingly separated and alienated themselves. They continued to seek the upper hand on their perceived enemies. But all along the way God’s only desire to to bring humanity back, to have them return.

Remember Paul says. Remember you once participated in this cosmic battle between the gods. Artemis over Apollo, Zeus over Ra, Thor against Shiva. A cosmic war with humanity caught in the middle. And only Israel having access to the Most High. Remember you were once separated, you were excluded, left without hope living only in the whims of vain and vindictive fallen shining ones who had lost their gleam.

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.”

The enmity between humanity and God was initiated by the sons of God. We were brought into the struggle through deception, convinced that there was something more outside of God’s will. We created the divide, we walked away from the source of life and brought in death. We unwittingly walked right into the battle and took up arms thinking that it was for our own good. But God so loved the world that he gave his one unique son, the only son of God that was of the same essence as the Father, to save us. He became our peace.

Peace only comes when one side decides to stop the continued hostilities. In the case of a war, this often comes with a military defeat, where one side overpowers the other and forces surrender. This type of peace carries a great cost, and usually the conflict continues. We can see this historically and we can see it being played out on our tv screens. True peace does not come from war. True peace comes when the ones that hold the power step back and instead of continuing the hostilities, they instead seek reconciliation and mutual profit. Some might call this appeasement, or compromise but it is not. It is finding a way to forgive, and move forward in a way where each side seeks the good of all involved. It is finding an alternative approach to conflict resolution.

In a cosmic battle between the gods, with humanity caught in the middle, how can we have peace? The one holding the power refuses to use the power. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be save by his life.”

Jesus came preaching peace to those far from God and those near. He showed us in his life the lifestyle God desires humanity to live. He made it his custom to worship with his community. He withdrew to isolated places to pray, and he ministered to the needs of those around him. He loved God, embraced the Holy Spirit, and lived the love of God with others. And he did this while we were still the enemies of God. He then offered himself to humanities injustice and suffered and died. He gave his own blood on the cross, why? The theologians will say to cover our sins, but it is more than that.

Even in the temple of Israel, the people God chose to reveal himself through, there was separation. Not everyone could enter the temple, any time and in any way. Aaron’s own sons died in the tabernacle because they introduced strange fire in the holy place. This story tells us of he lack of discipline within the lives of those priests. The people of Israel could only approach the throne of God, on his terms, and only when he allowed them to. Paul tells us that Jesus broke down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. This references the temple. There were degrees of closeness. The court was the court of the Gentiles, then the outer court for all men of Israel, then the inner court for the priest and the most holy of holies where the ark of God was placed. A veil separated the holiest place, then walls. When Christ died we are told that the veil was torn. God left the throne room and came to his people. The separation no longer exists. The war is over. All that remains is within us. Will we accept the terms of peace or will we yearn for something else?

Remember and Return. We were once excluded, and Christ came to us. We were once divided but Christ tore down the walls. The war has already been won, and we can live in peace if we only return. But so often we are like Lot’s wife, looking back and longing for the comforts and wealth of injustice. So often we forget the chains, and those that have remind us of the hope we have. We forget who we once were and how Christ loved us even when we lived in open conflict against him and his ways. Remember and join Jesus in his life and lifestyle. Love God with all you have and all you are. And love your neighbor. There is no division in Christ. Come find peace.

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