We Are Truly God’s People. What Does This Really Mean In Perspective?

This sermon was delivered Gordon McCulloch to the congregation at Holy Trinity in Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 22nd July 2018; Holy Trinity is a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries.

Jeremiah 23:1-6 Psalm 23 Ephesians 2:11-22 Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

“Please join me in my prayer.” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength, and our redeemer. Amen. (Ps. 19:14)

1. Introduction

This morning I have taken the bold decision to base the sermon on our New Testament reading instead of the gospel. Bold because the New Testament is so rich in meaning, but so short on words. It is so rich in fact that out of the 11 verses this morning, I will only concentrate on three of them, and these three verses only make up two short sentences in which we can discuss the Jewish people, ourselves and the church of Christ in fair detail, while referencing them to a building. …

So starting with Ephesians 2 verse 19, it says … “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints, and also members of the household of God”.

Do you see what I mean; there is a lot in that verse … but I will start by focusing on the phrase, “members of the household of God” … so who are the, “members of the household of God”? … Well they are generally accepted as the Jews of course, as they have always been known as Gods people as we know, but to understand the gravity of this verse we need to understand God’s association with the Jews, and of course the land of Israel.

2. A Brief History of Israel and the Jewish People

And we need to refer to Israel as Israel is the very embodiment of the Jewish community … and as a nation, Israel is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land … bears the same name … speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. Think on that! Is that not impressive?

If it’s not, focus on the fact that the people of Israel, can all trace back their ancestry back to Abraham, and that is without www.ancestry.com; Abraham being the father of the Nation, the one who established their belief in the one and only God, and creator of the universe.

And we know Israel is a very small country in worldly terms, no bigger than the size of our west country of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset … … but Israel is a country steeped in history and controversy … a country destroyed torn apart, devastated, evacuated, and rebuilt. … Israel a tiny country defiant right in the centre of the much larger Muslims countries of the Middle East … but a tiny country with a continuous presence for the past 3,000 years. What an accolade?

And there are many stories of how God delivered the Jews from one enemy to another … by a succession of superpower empires like the Babylonians … the Persians … the Greek Hellenistic’s … the Romans … the Byzantine Empires … the Islamic state … the Christian crusaders … the Ottoman Empire … and even the British Empire … and that is without mentioning Adolf Hitler and the reformation of the state of Israel in 1947.

No country, no group or race of people have survived anything like that … no country or race has even come close to that, and from a non-religious viewpoint, those Jews must be a very special people indeed, God’s own people … and remember, God has not finished with them yet … as it has been prophesied time and time again, that as a nation, the Jews will eventually accept Jesus as their Lord, and that maybe in our lifetime, it is certainly getting close.

And can I just add my own interesting fact to this story, a bit of homework if you wish … and regardless of your politics, look at the different country’s or different regimes throughout history who have helped the Jews in their time of need … and see how they have prospered … and then … look at the regimes who have tried to destroy the Jews … … exactly, what regimes, they themselves have all been destroyed; … and the Jews themselves, well they are still there, living in land of Israel. … Now that is scary, and you must stand in awe of that one!

The Jews are certainly a very special race, and judging by their history … even from an atheist’s viewpoint; you cannot help but see that they have been blessed, or looked after or guided more than any other group of people; past, presence and dare I say, even in the future as Revelations tell us that Israel will have a place in the end days.