Is It Time For The Emotional Walls To Come Down?
Good Morning Friends,
Pinch yourself. In life we can get disoriented, because we may perceive things to be true that are not. And that conflict can make us uncomfortable and disoriented and we can end up with a form of spiritual motion sickness. Our perception as Christians is that we will not suffer and yet we do even in winning but more so in the loosing. Our perception is that we should act in unity but too often we are isolated and lost in mixed metaphors. Sometimes we just put up our defenses or run away. But sometimes like the Chicago Cubs we can become a symbol of Biblical unity that wins despite the odds and the wait. Is It Time For The Emotional Walls To Come Down?
Scripture: Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge. For the Lord’s sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish. As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil. Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor. Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
1 Peter 2:11-25 (NRSV)
So 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— remember 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. 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. He 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, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.
Ephesians 2:11-22 (NRSV)
By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days.
Hebrews 11:30 (NRSV)
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
John 2:19 (NRSV)
Message: Submission to the power of the uniting force of the Shepherd over the flock and of the flock over the flock through relationship with the Shepherd keeps our behavior proper even though there is no visible restraint in place. The tender heart of the relationships that build our experience of touching home plate also molds our behaviors. God has torn down the wall between Jews and Gentile, the wall between the inner and outer court of the Temple and opened the door for the Holy Spirit so we can get a fresh start in Him and His love and joy. Jesus hit the ball out of the infield and beyond the outfield and over the wall changing everything. And then that emotional wall came down. And we belong here in this sacred moment and place God calls home…yes this place of joy. And so Christ has brought us together here in a different field of play so we like the sheep may dwell in this pasture without walls…dwell in the relationships that teach us how to behave, how to truly live in the unity found only in Christ. Likewise the wall is torn down so that God can build His home in us living stone by living stone. The apostles and the prophets are the foundation and God is fitting us all into place with Christ as the Cornerstone that holds it all together. God can call this place home. We too can call it home. It keeps us from straying. Here we are as a flock of sheep on a hill side not restrained by the divisive force of a wall but united in Jesus by the attraction of His home run in us. And we will rest in this place and, if we stray for a time, we will return to this place the Shepherd has appointed for us. Because we have been taught from one generation to another this way to live…because the teaching is united in Jesus we need no walls.
Pray our prayers and praise break down needless walls so that God’s purposes can be achieved between people and organizations. Pray that when the time is right we shout and blow a trumpet to be helpful in shaking the strongholds that must come tumbling down. Pray we listen to God’s strategy to break down dividing walls in our lives and apply it. Pray that through God’s power and our praying, walls come down right before our eyes. Pray walls of hatred and jealousy, anger and bitterness, criticism and judgment, fear and anxiety fall before our very eyes. Pray we value people enough to actively break down walls of apathy and prejudice. Pray we share a very special love… a peace that passes understanding… a mystery of how God takes down the walls that separate us from Him and the walls that separate us from each other. Pray that we never scorn His love by building walls of separation. Pray when we suffer that we focus on Christ the Good Shepherd. Pray that as the walls of separation come down that we build a temple of worship within us to the Glory of God in unity now and forever. Pray we rejoice in the winning but when we do not still rejoice in the hope of a day when we will.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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