July 22, 2018

9th Sunday After Pentecost
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Psalm 23
Ephesians 2:11-22
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
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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