9th Sunday After Pentecost
Jeremiah 23:1-6 Psalm 23 Ephesians 2:11-22 Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who is our unity and peace. Amen We live in a world divided. I know, it’s an obvious statement, one so obvious that it hardly needs saying everywhere we turn it seems like another division is appearing, another crack in the ground beneath our feet separating us from our neighbor, it’s chaotic and tiring and frankly sometimes it’s hard to know what to believe or if it will ever settle down. into this division Paul proclaims that our unity and peace come from Christ And in the midst of the daily conflict this sounds perhaps a bit hollow, a nice sentiment to be sure, but idealistic, out of touch with reality, we’ve become so tired by everything around us that we even question the peace of Christ as hollow optimism. yet, when we dig a little deeper, this unity and peace in Christ that Paul proclaims on behalf of God is based entirely on reality, it is a message of hope because it is unity and peace that have arisen from chaos, much like what swirls around us today Chaos is nothing new to us humans we heard God speaking through the prophet Jeremiah in our first lesson, “Woe to the shepherds who scatter the sheep of my pasture! Says the Lord.” and God goes on to promise to gather the scattered together again and to raise up from David a righteous branch, who shall lead and bring about justice and righteousness. As Christians we believe that God fulfilled that promise in Jesus Jesus, who we see in our gospel having compassion for the crowds because they were like sheep without a shepherd, pressing in on Jesus and his disciples such that they couldn’t even eat, and when Jesus and the disciples get in a boat to go to the wilderness, to rest and get back in touch with God the crowd anticipates where they are going and follow them, wherever Jesus goes he creates an uproar because the people, the everyday people on the ground, need so much, education, health care, food, hope. And they find it in Jesus who is our unity and peace Unity and peace that comes about through the sacrificial actions of Jesus as Paul reminds the Ephesians: “For he [Jesus] 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 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.” Jesus brings peace and unity by crossing boundaries, often invisible and stronger than physical barriers. He sees a crack in the ground as a place to build a bridge or take a bigger step, he sees people on the other side as friends he hadn’t met yet, he sees all as beloved children of God who need the loving direction of a good shepherd who will see the sheep through the peaks and valleys of life whose sheep are unified through the shepherd. And ironically Jesus’ peace disrupts the world, because it is true peace, where all live in harmony with one another, as opposed to the peace of the world where one group finally dominates another group and there is an absence of open conflict. Jesus’ peace is a peace that must be practiced, it starts small and begins to grow. In our second reading Paul is giving the Ephesians a pep talk before they continue with the mission of Christ and in the part we heard today he reminds them that though they are one community now they started out as two, two communities that the world said would never get along, and even in Christ, at the beginning there were conflicts, fights over what was required for a person to become part of the community, and now people who started out as divided strangers “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…” Sometimes when a community is established it’s hard to remember just what it took to get that way Peace and unity, even peace and unity in Christ is a state that is intentionally grown into which means ultimately that there’s hope for us and the world around us because in Christ we are called be growers of peace and unity. Peace and unity grow when we take the time to listen and try to understand someone who holds a differing opinion than ours, peace and unity grow when we reach out instead of pushing away, peace and unity grow when we build bridges and cross boundaries to reach the children of God on the other side, peace and unity grow when we know that we have enough and work to share the extra. And yes this is hard work, so there are times when we need to go to the wilderness, to reconnect with God, to regain hope for the large task still ahead of us so that when the seemingly endless crowds push in around us we can still look with compassion rather than contempt as we remember that we too were once in that situation but like lost sheep Jesus found us, brought us into the fold and continues to care for us like the good shepherd that he is, guiding us in unity and peace. Amen
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AboutPastor Emily Johnson preaches weekly at Christ Lutheran. These are manuscripts of her sermons given at Christ Lutheran. Feel free to engage with them in the comments section of the blog. Archives
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