11So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth,£ called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision”—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— 12remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16and might reconcile both groups to God in one body£ through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.£ 17So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, 20built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.£ 21In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22in whom you also are built together spiritually£ into a dwelling place for God.
Ephesians 2:11 - 22 (NRSV)
For me July means hitting the books. Continuing education can be all about survival! One leadership class in which I’m involved this year has us considering the characteristics of various generations.
The people born between 1965 and 1976 are referred to as “Generation X”; they are 51 million strong. The group following “X” is called “the Millennials”. Born between 1977 and 1998, there are 75 million of them.
Between the ages of 11 and 44, the Gen X/millennial population is 126 million (more than one-in-three Americans ). They are also a lot different than your grandmother! From the “X’rs” to the “Mills” they have some very noticeable similarities. For instance, they either reject or rewrite the rules, and institutions (like the church) are either mistrusted or considered irrelevant .
Now, those are trends and generalities; not every person of those generations is exactly like that. But one unshakeable fact is that the 126 million X/Mill-ers are changing the landscape. They are multi-taskers moving at light speed; they have what anyone on the AARP mailing list would consider a chaotic lifestyle. Chaos! Anyone who travels the Interstates, parents a teenager or does occasional baby-sitting for a grandchild understands the meaning of chaos!
One of my professors this July is a “Gen-X’r”. He doesn’t give tests, but rather moves the class along with mini-projects, breaking into small groups for interaction; he builds a sense of community so the whole class can work on a learning curve together. Not exactly the Little House On the Prairie school marm teaching the three R’s! To a 40’s-born Baby Boomer it is chaos. Give me a book, three quizzes, a mid-term and a final and I’ll get an “A”. Force me into small groups and I break into a cold sweat.
There has always been a gap between generations. I’m certain I gave my parents more gray hair than they deserved. When it was my turn to be the parent, I was the one on the receiving end. When my son was a pre-teen he would get lazy about cleaning his room (big surprise!). Elizabeth would drop a hint or two, but never get any results. Then one day while Jason was at school, the “white tornado” would visit his room, restoring order and reclaiming a view of the floor surface. When Jason would come home in the afternoon you could hear it all over the house: Oh NO! She trashed my room again! One person’s “orderliness” is another’s chaos!
So what does chaos have to do with Paul’s letter to the Ephesians? There’s a connection between Paul and Moses. Listen to the first and second verses of the creation account in Genesis:
1In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Genesis 1:1 - 2 (NRSV)
That expression “formless void” in Hebrew is בֹּהוּ bo’-hoo, and it means to be empty . Formless, empty and covered in darkness; this is the very essence of chaos.
Paul uses the word “peace” a couple of times in his letter to the Ephesian church. This word is εἰρήνη eirēnē, and it means to join (as in knit back together that which was broken apart). When healthy bones are broken due to an injury, often they knit back together stronger than before the break.
On the one hand we have chaos – void, empty and dark – a kind of brokenness; on the other we have peace – brokenness being healed, knit back together. This is the kind of peace of which Paul spoke.
Peace and chaos – words and worlds that collide!
Which kind of world do we live in?
• Several days ago a Russian airliner went down killing all 168 souls aboard.
• In the current economic crunch, every day in America on the average, some 350 small businesses cease to exist.
• Children carry every conceivable kind weapon to schools hoping to protect themselves.
• Abuse in a myriad of forms abounds towards children, women, men, minorities and majorities; the courts can’t keep up, and the jails won’t hold any more.
The insides of people are scrambled over health, wealth and safety, and we take more pills to settle our stomachs, calm our fears and deaden every nerve ending we have.
The society in which we live is broken, chaotic, pulled apart and accelerating down that road faster than we know how to apply the brakes. And the chief enemy, Satan, whose name diablos means to break apart (as in chaos) is grinning from ear to pointed ear! He doesn’t have to do a thing; we have created chaos, a formless, dark, broken void upon the Creation.
Can there be peace?
In Paul’s letter he characterized the Gentiles (all those other than Israel, the Hebrews, Jews) as aliens – far off from being God’s friends. That’s a good description of how far chaos is from peace.
When I think of peace there are mental images that work their way into my mind:
• Sunrise
• A little grandchild crawling up in your lap, falling asleep lying close against you so you can sense her heartbeat.
• The peaceful death of an aged saint.
• And sunsets on a cool summer’s evening.
I like order; I like peace. But peace doesn’t exist in a world that’s broken, does it? Or does it?
He is our peace
Paul wrote to people who had found peace, reminding them how it came to them in the midst of their brokenness. Listen again to our text:
“…12remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace…” Ephesians 2:12-14a
Christ’s mission in coming to earth was to come to broken people with his peace – his kind of peace, the eirene which heals and knits back together broken things. He’s good at it, too! He’s the Prince of Peace!
When the cross was done with its deadly work and the tomb was filled on that Friday so long ago, the disciples were truly broken. Everything was formless and void; there was darkness – all hope was gone. Then, Sunday morning, there came reports by the women that Jesus’ grave was empty. With those reports raised a flicker of hope.
But several days later it was a gathering in the upper room that changed everything. The disciples had been hunkered-down together, against the fear that Jesus’ death on the cross was going to be their fate as well; after all they’d followed him. Jesus was suddenly with the disciples and his first words, at his first appearing were, Peace be with you
Whatever had been broken by sin, death and the cross suddenly was new, bright and whole. That’s peace!
But how about us?
It’s a good story, but preacher, have you seen my bank account and the list of bills? Have you seen MY X-ray? Have you heard what the doctor said? Have you not heard about the layoffs down at the plant? Do you not know what it’s like to live MY life?
It’s very true that all of us have some form of chaos that wants to blot out the peace. And the trick in living the life of peace Jesus wants to give is in understanding that he very rarely takes us out of the world, or the situation, or the trouble. Rather Jesus comes to us IN our troubles, our chaos, and he brings peace if we’ll just incline our hearts towards him.
My friend Dr. Bobby McDuffie was a principal in Jacksonville, Florida before retiring a few years ago. His post was at one of the worst assignments an educator could imagine. His high school was for the kids who were assessed as “beyond incorrigible”. These were not simply thieves or robbers; these kids were drug dealers, gang-bangers, skilled organizers of crime. Some of them were borderline sociopathic.
Once when I visited Bobby early in the morning, we were sitting in his office. As the buses dropped off one load of tough kids after another they had to pass the principal’s office. More than a dozen came in the door that morning. All of them had smiles. They called my friend “Dr. Mac”. The phrase was almost always the same, “Got any today, Dr. Mac?” Bobby would answer back, “Dunno…what you got?” One by one they held up completed homework assignments or a picture drawn with crayons, or canvas and oils. It was a kind of dance, this conversation; they turned-in completed work, and Dr. Mac handed back Little Debbie chocolate-iced cupcakes, or jelly rolls. Then came, “Thanks, Dr. Mac.” Bobby would wink and whisper, “Don’t tell none of the other kids.” The students would always smile broadly at that, and agree with a “Got it” or “I didn’t see no Debbie Cakes”. Bobby would throw a correction at their backs as they went through his office door… “you didn’t see any Debbie Cakes, knothead”.
If ever a place could be described as “chaos-central” that school was it! If ever I knew a person who operated in the peace that passes all understanding, it is Dr. Mac.
In describing once to some aggravated church folks why he spent so much time in the middle of chaos (eating and drinking with sinners), Jesus said, “I didn’t come to visit the healthy, I came to be a physician to the sick.” Jesus came to the chaos of our dark, broken, emptiness of a world to bring peace.
Our mission statement says that our mission and ministry is to be a witness to our families, community and the whole world. That tells us what we do; today’s text says why we do it – to bring peace in the chaos.
Have you had enough chaos? Talk to the giver of peace.
