When we say that word - what comes to our minds eye? What is our default visual?
Do we think of symbols?
Do we imagine “feel good” personal situations?
Do we think of scenes of God’s Creation?
A quiet forest
A beautiful mountain scene
A breathtaking seashore
Or my favorite, sunset over water.
What is it about peace that is so alluring and attractive to us?
We all want it, but there seems so little of it in our world. Why is it so hard to bring about? And in the midst of our crazy world, where is God in the midst of it all…and shouldn’t he be doing more about it?
So that’s the small issue we’re going to tackle in this post in our series “Magnify the Lord”
I won’t repeat myself on why we are using the word magnify. I would invite you to read the post from “Magnify Love” to get the analogy. Likewise with the backdrop on the use of the Letter to the Ephesians from the New Testament.
In this post we’re diving into chapter 2 to see what this letter teaches us about peace.
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Ephesians 2:14-22 (NLT)
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.
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There is a lot to pick from in this passage alone. The topic of God’s peace is about as expansive as God’s love.
On a very fundamental level, we could say God’s peace can be understood in two ways or forms.
Personal Peace (Individual)
Cultural Peace (Community)
Let me briefly comment about personal peace.
We can define it as a harmony with God that brings about calmness of body, mind, and spirit. It is state that overcomes our earthly circumstance. Indeed, nearly all of the letters of Paul start with the phrase “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Personal peace is simple to say, harder to do. Not harder…it’s just that we have to actually practice it. If we repeatedly utilize the MAGNIFICATION process, such as reading scripture, engaging in worship, devoting time of prayer, we will start to experience personal peace.
But I want us to focus on the other part of peace: The cultural-community peace. To do that, let’s focus our telescope on one particular sentence from the reading.
He [Jesus] brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near.
Notice the words: “Good New of Peace.”
Peace equals the Gospel, especially in our communities. If we want PEACE, we have to SHARE our PEACE, and doing so will the same as sharing the Gospel.
Let’s begin with the context (surrounding situation) of our scripture. Notice it tells about two groups of people: Jews the chosen people of God, as described in the Old Testament, and Gentiles, who was anyone who was not part of the Jewish faith.
In reality, there was very little peace between Jews & Gentiles. To be quite honest, there was a fair amount of hostility. Yet, the Apostle Paul writes:
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.
I like how that is phrased.
“He broke down the wall of hostility.”
That statement is both literal and a figure of speech.
We need to recognize how the Jewish faith was lived out in that context. As it evolved, it created a system of barriers. It started with cultural barriers, which over time, turned into physical barriers. Culturally, they didn’t associate with anyone outside of their own tribe. From that, they erected physical barriers, especially around the Temple in Jerusalem.
And we know - if we are raised in a culture that erects walls between us and people we see as “other,” “lower,” “less than.” It impacts everything on how we conduct our lives. It creates what sociologists call a “prejudice.”
What is a prejudice? A deep-seated, culturally shared, negative view of someone or something. Literally means “to pre-judge.” Our approach becomes: “Don’t confuse me with facts that contradict what I already believe.”
It is passed down from grandparent - to parent - to child - to grandchild. It is a persistent sin. It impacts the way we see the world and how we act in it.
But that is human nature. People we view as “other,” especially when it comes to cultures & beliefs we perceive as threatening. Our prejudice kicks in and we stop thinking about it. We don’t examine or question our opinions or beliefs.
For Jews and Gentiles it had become pretty bad. They had all kinds of barriers to separate themselves from each other.
The coming of Jesus destroyed those barriers…
He revealed that the promises of God were not just reserved to only the Jews…but that he chooses us as well. As we read in chapter 1 of this letter,
God LOVES us.
CHOOSES us.
Makes us HOLY & WITHOUT FAULT.
All through the power of Jesus’ life, death & resurrection.
The same is true for prejudice.
If we think about it…if ANYONE should experience prejudice (prejudgment)…it is us. And yet Jesus erased that from us thru his work on the cross.
That is what the Apostle Paul is pointing out in this letter. He is telling a group of Jewish believers who now see Jesus as Lord, but who still had prejudices against Gentiles.
Paul says - the old prejudices are gone. Torn down.
Indeed, he uses a metaphor of renovation project.
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.
Many of these early Jewish believers embraced it and welcomed the non-Jews into their faith and life. We don’t know about the existing dynamic in this particular church in Ephesus, but overall, that kind of response wasn’t in the majority.
History suggests that most of the practicing Jews just couldn’t get over their deep prejudice. They couldn’t accept Gentiles as equals among them. So they rejected it, turned away, and God’s intended peace for them and their lives. Peace didn’t get realized.
That was way back then. Sadly, not much has changed. Our human condition of prejudices continues. As a result, we too put up cultural and physical barriers, even between us who call ourselves Christians.
Let me share this observation by writer David Guzik:
"This absence of peace can be especially perplexing to non-Christians when they witness how Christian groups of different backgrounds treat each other. It is as if they forget that they were saved by the same gospel and that they have the same access to God. Instead, one or both groups usually feel they have superior access to God."
I will share with you that for the first 37 years of my life - when I wasn’t a Christian…this was a BIG objection for me. When my wife Christy tried to share and explain the Gospel to me, this was one of my first lines of defense. “Have you seen how different Christians view each other?”
So if we want to overcome it, let’s start by being careful when and how we speak.
If you want to debate theology - be my guest. But do it among fellow believers who have a developed faith. Even then do it GENTLY and HUMBLY. Remember - nobody walks around thinking they have the wrong theology. In fact, nobody is ever going to reduce God to a theology.
But let me finish this post on a positive note.
We should focus on is the TRUTH of God’s peace for the community, and for our culture.
I want to offer something that is both simple in thought and easy to do. But to do that, we need to be aware of our cultural bias.
Bias is different from a prejudice. Bias is more of a default preference. An unthinking kind of response. We are influenced by our biases without realizing it.
One of the biases we have revolves around news. We are biased - inclined - predisposed toward paying attention to bad news. When we hear the news - it is almost always BAD news.
Why?
Not because the media creates - but that we crave it. They are only giving us what we know we will consume. Doesn’t mean it is untrue (it is not fake), but the tenor and flavor always leans toward bad news, because they know we are more likely to sit up and notice.
Now hear me well - I am not saying IGNORE BAD NEWS. I’m not advocating the proverbial “head in the sand” approach because bad news can motivate us to respond. But at the same time, since Jesus came, there is what we call: “The slow in-breaking of the Kingdom.” Like a pre-dawn light, we know that the sun is on its way.
God has not abandon us here. He has not left us in a cesspool of our own brokenness. He lets us participate in the in-breaking of the Kingdom
So I want to report some GOOD NEWS that isn’t in the media much…as evidence to what I am going to suggest.
1) Extreme poverty in the world has fallen.
Measure at $2 a day (from 35% 1987 to 11% in 2013.) While that’s a low bar for what counts as poverty, it is a sign of the tremendous progress made in recent decades.
2) Global life expectancy is up.
In the space of 25 years, on average we can expect to live six years longer. (We also getting taller!)
3) Child Labor is down.
Not as much as we want, but the rate of decline,40 percent reduction from 2000 to 2016, is worth celebrating.
4) Education and literacy is up.
85% of the world can read & write to some degree, which is WAY UP from what it used to be.
5) World Hunger has dropped.
By one comprehensive measure (Global Hunger Index) in the past 17 years the level of hunger in the world has decreased by 27 percent. It’s still a problem that we haven’t solved, but we’re trending in the right direction.
6) More people live in a democracy than ever before.
A generation ago (WWII) that number was around 15%. Now about 60% of world population is in a democracy.
7) Global stockpile of nuclear weapons is down.
When I graduated from high school, there were nearly 70,000 nuclear weapons in the world! It’s down to around 10,000…which is 10,000 too many (it only takes one to ruin our day), but again, we’re trending in the right direction.
These are only 7 out of many positive trends in the world.
Why are these things happening?
Did a single person make it happen? Did someone swoop in like a super hero and made the difference?
No!
It happened because countless number of people recognized the problem and started working on it. That work wasn’t all coordinated into one big effort, but rather a thousand different small efforts. All working & contributing toward tearing down the dividing wall of hostility. Taking that wall down one small brick at a time in a million different ways.
It’s like a swarm of army ants doing small things that add up to big changes.
It’s a simple equation really. If we do small things that bring down the level of poverty, hunger, child labor, and nuclear weapons…
AND
We contribute in small ways that cause education, literacy, and democracy go up…
Our world is going to experience more peace.
Okay, but what do we do to jump in on that? What is our role?
If we want community peace - start with our individual peace. But then make an effort toward community peace.
David Crouch - author of Culture Making tells us the only way to change culture is to add to it. We can’t take culture away. We can’t replace culture. We can only add to it until the larger group (culture) says: “Hey - that’s worthy of doing. Let’s do it.”
So what can we add?
My response: Do a small “good.” ANY small good. Provide a benefit or an advantage to someone or something.
Think of it this way: None of us argue there is such a thing as a small sin. In the economy of the Kingdom, all sins (bad things) are equal. They separate us from God. IF we believe that is true…then the inverse has to also be true.
In the economy of the Kingdom, all good things are treated as equal.
Stated another way: There is no such thing as a “small” good.
Add small things to our community culture that will help bring peace. That will MAGNIFY peace.
And that will be our way of sharing the Gospel. The Good News of Jesus Christ.
Keep the Faith ~ Pastor Art
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