Community Church Sermons
Year B
July 19, 2009
The
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Sunday
Ephesians 2:11-22
Rev. Rhonda Abbott Blevins, Associate Pastor
The year was 1987. President Ronald Reagan stood in front of
the grand and historic Brandenburg Gate addressing a crowd assembled on the
western side of the Berlin Wall. There he issued the most famous words of his
presidency, and one of the most celebrated lines of our generation. To a
divided world, with that ominous icon of the Cold War behind him, he said these
words:
We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom
and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen
the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be
unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the
cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek
prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe, if you seek liberalization,
come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the fall
of that wall. The Berlin Wall fell a little over two years after President
Reagan’s historic challenge to the Soviet leader. You may recall the images on
television and newspapers of celebrations with East Berliners and West
Berliners standing together on top of the wall with sledgehammers and pick
axes. Go back in time and remember. Can you see the celebration? Can you
hear the singing? Can you taste the freedom?
Maybe you remember the human interest stories of families
reunited after years of being separated by a wall . . . a wall made of stone
and barbed wire, fortified by landmines and tanks and police dogs and soldiers
on rooftops armed with rifles? Shards of broken glass
protruding from the cement. A wall intended to divide.
When the wall was built, the East German government claimed
that the wall was being erected as a protective measure to defend itself from
Western aggression. However, the wall wasn’t built to keep people out;
rather it was built to keep people in. East Germany was suffering from
brain drain, the young and the educated were leaving the country at record
pace. The wall was built as a prison. 100 (maybe 200) people died trying to
cross that wall into freedom.
Ironic, isn’t it? Walls we build for protection and security
often become the walls that imprison us.
Now 20 years after the wall came down and the German
reunification that followed, there is still talk in Germany of cultural
differences between East and West Germans. In fact, a poll taken just a few
years ago “found that 25% of West Germans and 12% of East Germans wished that
East Germany and West Germany were again cut off by the Berlin Wall.”[1] Locally,
some call this tendency “Mauer im Kopf,” which
translated means, "the wall in the head."
Do you suffer from Mauer im Kopf, the wall in the head, a condition that causes
you to imagine that you're different from other people . . . people of another
class, or race, or country? Mauer im Kopf is a boundary in the psyche dividing us from
other children of God because they are a different gender, or they affiliate
with a different political party, or because they worship at a synagogue or a
mosque instead of a church. If you suffer from Mauer im Kopf, you’re not alone. Humanity has
suffered from this devastating condition since the day we drew first breath.
It’s the very condition that Paul addresses in our scripture
lesson this morning. In his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul confronts the
Ephesians about the wall in their head, the imaginary wall dividing Jew from
Gentile. He reminds the Ephesians that at one time they were “aliens” of
Israel, cut off from the promises of God. But listen to the cure for Mauer im Kopf, the
wall in the head syndrome:
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been
brought near by the blood of Christ. For 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 . . . that he might create in himself one new humanity.
(Eph. 2:13ff NRSV)[2]
One new humanity!
Paul proclaims that Christ’s death on the cross opened up the Brandenburg Gate
and razed the Berlin Wall that we might have one new humanity!
No longer is East cut off from West. No longer is Jew separated from Gentile.
No longer is man estranged from woman. No longer is slave distinct from free!
What a cause to celebrate! Christ has broken down the dividing wall! Can you
see the celebration? Can you hear the singing? Can you taste the freedom?
But sadly, our world hasn’t heard the news. The New York Times didn't send a
photojournalist and CNN forgot to place an embedded reporter on Golgotha that
day. Our world hasn’t heard that Jesus knocked down the wall that divides us.
Because even today, 2000 years after the wall came down and
the human reunification that followed, people are still building physical
walls, a symptom of Mauer im Kopf, a
tell-tale sign of that psychological disorder that plagues most of us called
“the wall in the head.” Israelis are building a wall to separate themselves
from the Palestinians. You and I and the rest of the United States citizenry
are building a barrier along our border with Mexico. There is talk of erecting
a barrier between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Not to mention the invisible fences
called demilitarized zones, like the one between North and South Korea.[1]
We build our barriers telling
ourselves “good fences make good neighbors.”
It was Robert Frost who penned that
now famous proverb, "Good fences make good neighbors." The line
appears twice in the poem, “Mending Wall.” Set in the countryside, it's about
one man questioning why he and his neighbor must rebuild the stone wall
dividing their farms every spring. The neighbor comments to the narrator, “Good
fences make good neighbors.” The poem’s narrator displays a disdain for
the expression and the walls erected between people, yet he also shows a
grudging and sorrowful acceptance of the line’s truth in its application to
human relationships.
“Good fences make good neighbors.” Certainly there’s truth
in that line . . . an incredibly sad truth.
The greater truth, the more hopeful truth, the truth
inspired by Christ Jesus himself, is that genuine peace is attainable only when
we abolish the things that divide us from our brothers and sisters. We can
build walls. We have that power. The good news is that we also have the power
to tear them down.
I know someone who recently had a family member who
apparently committed a heinous act of violence toward two other people. Though
the facts aren't yet clear, it seems that this person’s dear cousin broke into
his ex-girlfriend’s house, stabbing her and her new boyfriend repeatedly. It’s
hard to imagine how the young man’s family feels . . . confused, angry,
disappointed . . . yet still holding love for the young man underneath all of
that.
My friend had a decision to make in the middle his flurry of
emotion. Would he reject his cousin, which would mean building a wall between
himself and his aunt and uncle and that whole side of the family? Or would he
continue to support the family as the young man and his parents face the
judicial system and a possible conviction. It all came to a head when my friend
was asked by his aunt to visit with her and the young man, now out on bond.
What do you think my friend did?
What would you do if someone in your extended family committed a senseless act
of violence like that?
At first, my friend refused the
visit. He didn’t want to see his cousin. His anger and disappointment caused
him to erect a wall, cutting off the young man along with his aunt and uncle,
despite the love and support my friend had received from them after the loss of
his wife a few years earlier.
As you can imagine, my friend's aunt was incredibly saddened
and upset by that rejection.
But then he did the right thing. After much inner angst and
turmoil my friend telephoned his aunt and apologized for his initial response.
He explained how his anger and disappointment clouded his love for the young
man and his parents. He explained how he didn’t think about all the
ramifications of refusing a simple visit. He apologized and humbly agreed to
see his cousin and aunt and uncle, warning his aunt that he wasn’t quite ready
to forgive and embrace the young man just yet, but that he would work toward
that.
I was so very proud of my friend for
tearing down the wall he built between the two families.
We can build walls. We have
that power. The good news is that we also have the power to tear them down.
It takes a strong person to tear down
walls built of anger or disappointment or fear. It takes the very love of
Christ to say "I'm sorry" or "I forgive."
In our world we certainly see walls
being built, but we also see old walls crumbling! Our generation witnessed the
end of South African apartheid. We watched as an African American man took the
oath to become the president of The United States of America. And closer to
home, this very morning you and I walked through the doors to a church that has
torn down old denominational walls, where Presbyterian and Methodist, Lutheran
and Catholic worship together, united under one banner, Jesus Christ our Lord!
Look around you . . . walls
everywhere are coming down! Can you see the celebration? Can you hear the
singing? Can you taste the freedom?
In closing, I want to share a story
written by someone who lived in West Berlin as a kid in the early 70's while
his father was stationed there. The army apartments they lived in were close to
the Berlin Wall, and sometimes he and some other boys would climb up the side
of the wall and peer over in mischeivous curiosity. He
writes:
So there I was on the tower, already under observation from
the guard tower. I looked up at the guards through my father's binoculars; they
watched me across the no man's land of death. So I'm looking up. The East
German and the Russian were staring back at me through their binoculars. We
looked at each other for a bit and I flashed a peace sign up at them. (Hey - it
was the 70's!). What amazed me was how they just looked back, expressionless. Then the fun part. The East German got bored and looked
away, putting his binoculars down around his neck. The Russian kept watching.
Then he looked away to check on the German - and on the side of his body away
from the other guard - he very quickly flashed a peace sign back at me. As a
young person, that was one of those human moments when I started to realize,
"Hey, people are just like us." It was a bold and risky thing for the
soldier to do, but he totally made my day and gave me a memory to last a life
time.[3]
We're the same, you know. Russians and
Americans, East Germans and West Germans, Jews and Gentiles. We're all
just children of God.
Toward the end of President Reagan's
speech that day at the Brandenburg Gate he spoke in prophetic tone: "This
wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The
wall cannot withstand freedom."
May faith, truth and freedom tear
down the walls in your life. Amen.
__________________________________________________
[1] One in 5 Germans wants Berlin Wall
rebuilt.” Reuters, September 8, 2004. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5942091/
[2] Karen Chakoian,
“Ephesians 2:11-22, Pastoral Perspective.” Feasting
on the Word, Year B, Volume 3, David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor,
eds. Westminster John Knox Press, 2009, p. 256.
[3]
Adapted from a story written by Joe Vandervest on
http://aoshs.wichita.edu/WallStories.htm