Passport Power

Our lesson comes from the second chapter of the book of Ephesians, starting with the 11th verse. Hear these words.

So then remember that at one time you were Gentiles by birth, called the uncircumcision, by those who were called the uncircumcision. 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 were once 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 the 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.

Friends, this is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

This is my passport. This little blue book gets me into 158 countries. 158. It’s got a Mexican jumping bean in it too. It is not the most powerful passport in the world, although it did just jump the farthest. The German passport, which is red in color, gets you into 160 countries. My passport, as I open it says this. The Secretary of State of the United States of America hereby request all whom it may concern to permit the citizen of the United States named here within, to pass without delay or hindrance, and in case of need, to give all lawful aid and protection. The Secretary of State says, I get to come into your country. As a matter of fact, Secretary of State wants me coming in your country awful quick. And then if I need any protection, I get it because I carry this. There are two places that a United States passport will not get you into; China and Russia. You have to apply for a visa to get into those two countries, but otherwise this has served me well. I’ve gone out of the country, I’ve come back into the country, and it’s gotten me back in several times.

A powerful passport. But Paul was telling us something. If you will allow me to stay with the passport image, that Jesus Christ is a powerful passport, he has, through his grace, through his sacrifice on the cross, he has invited the Gentiles into the kingdom of God. He has gotten rid of the ancient and holy division between the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews so dislike the Gentiles that, on Temple Mount, in the temple there was a wall. It was a dividing wall that kept the Gentiles out. And as a matter of fact, archeologists in the 1830s dug up the part of the wall, and in both Hebrew and Greek the wall said, if you transgress or trespass, this wall you have ordered your own death. Because to go past that wall for a Gentile meant death. And so, when Christ died for us, and when Christ invited the Gentiles into the church, the Jews were saying, now wait a minute. We didn’t sign up for this. We don’t want to do this new thing. And what is being pointed out is the truth of humanity.

We always create or we manage to create them and us. Them are they. They’re not us. Them do something wrong or something we don’t like. They’re not us. We do it right. And it becomes a part of our cultural DNA, and it becomes a part of our church DNA that we just separate out into teams. We separate it out into groups, we separate out into tribes. And if you don’t believe me, we’ll do an experiment. I’ll propose a new way of doing a ministry, or a new way of doing something in the church. Do you know what the response is? Preacher, we never did it that way before. And we’re not going to start now. They remind you that it’s new and then we’re not going to try anything new. And the other group that pops up is what I call the back to Egypt tribe. Preacher, we just need to do it like we did it back in the 1950s. If we just go back to the 1950s, everything will be okay. You know what was going on in the 1950s in church life? They believed that if they could keep you at church, they could keep you from sinning. So, they kept you at church all the time. Methodists? Methodist had Sunday night church Tuesday night visitation. Wednesday night church. In addition to what they did on Sunday morning, do you want to go back to the way it was in Egypt? So, we separate. We separate into the circumcised and the uncircumcised, and we create groups, and we choose sides, and we build walls. There was a wall in the temple to keep the Gentiles out.

We’re good wall builders. Have been for centuries. I am ancient enough that I remember a wall that was built in Berlin. And it existed for most, existed for all of my childhood, and existed for a great part of my life. The Berlin Wall separated East Berlin from West Berlin. It functionally separated communist Germany from Free Germany. It was complete with guard towers. It had a space of about 20 to 30ft. That was barbed wire on both sides, with concrete in the middle and the guard towers above. So, if you tried to cross from East Germany into West Germany, the guards had a good chance of dispatching you before you got to freedom. In college, I was taking German, and our professor had escaped from East Germany. Now you need to know, my German professor would not speak a word of English in the German class. So, you had to learn German and you had to learn it fast. And we would ask about her escape from East Germany. And she said, I won’t tell you because I have family that are still there, and I have family that are trying to escape. And that wall doesn’t exist today because Ronald Reagan, standing under the Brandenburg Gate in 1987, told Mikhail Gorbachev, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. And Gorbachev eventually relented, and the wall came down. And not only did the wall came, wall was destroyed, but communism as it was practiced back then in the Soviet Union, all ceased to be. You see, when you tear walls down, lives are transformed. Things are changed.

Unintended consequences bring in unintended blessings. You. You experience God’s sovereign power. Jesus tore down walls. Jews didn’t like him because he did it. Jesus welcomed into his cadre. Jesus welcomed into his tribe. Tax collectors. Prostitutes. Other sinners. He ate with them. He preached to them. He. He hung out with them. And Jesus would tell stories, and he would have tax collectors and Samaritans as the heroes of his stories. And the people could not stomach it because Jesus was saying that that other tribe, those people, the Gentiles, are loved by God and accepted by God. And when Jesus died upon the cross, when his last breath was taken, Scripture tells us that the curtain in the temple separating the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place was torn in two from the top, all the way down the bottom, signifying that in Christ we are no longer separated from God. That in Christ we no longer need an intermediary. In Christ we have the freedom to approach God’s throne and ask for forgiveness, to approach God’s throne and ask for blessing, to approach God’s throne as children approaching their father. And as the gospel goes out into the Gentile world, Paul will say this. For in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek. There is no longer slave or free. There is no longer male or female. For all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

He was saying that you have been grafted into this great movement that started with Father Abraham. You belong to God. You are part of God’s kingdom. But we like building walls. There’s a story told of a man who bought an old, dilapidated castle on the English coast. He didn’t know what he was going to do with the castle. He hoped that one day he would eventually move there and live in his castle. But in the meantime, he worked away from the castle. But every weekend he would go up there and notice that vandals had gotten into the castle again, that they were stealing furniture, that they were defacing the walls, that they were just treating his castle terribly. So, he found a contractor, got the contractor to come out and do the site survey, and said to the contractor, I need a wall. I need a wall to protect my castle, and I want the wall of a certain height and a certain radius, and I want one entrance into the wall with a heavy door. I want you to build this wall for me. And they agreed upon the design, and they agreed upon how it would be built in the materials to build it. And they agreed upon a price. The castle owner signed a contract and went away. A couple of weeks later. The contractor called him and said, I’ve got a problem. Guy that owned the castle said, what’s the problem? The contractor said, I can’t find any stone. There’s no stone in this part of England. And if I’m going to get the stone that you’ve requested, I’ve got to go across to the continent and it’s just going to be incredibly expensive. And the man said, I don’t want you to do that. You find whatever stones available, and you build the wall around my castle. Contractor said, are you sure?

The man said, I’m sure whatever stone you find, you use it. You build the wall. Contractor did what he was instructed to do. He called the man and said the wall’s done. The man came and he came, and he saw the wall. And the wall was perfect. The wall was had symmetry, artistry, beauty. The wall was high enough and wide enough. It was going to protect his castle. It was a glorious wall. The man opened up the heavy door, and there was no castle, because the contractor used the stones from the castle to build the wall. And that’s what happens to us when we start building walls. We find out that we are cutting ourselves off from resources. We’re cutting ourselves off from the possibility of being ambassadors for Jesus Christ.

When I was in seminary, I loved to take classes from the old professors. I would find the oldest professors on campus and sign up for whatever that professor was teaching because they had tenure and they had stories to tell, and their war stories about church life were just absolutely great to hear. But you’d get a lot of wisdom from these old guys. And and one semester I was taking a class from a man named Doctor Goldman, and Doctor Goldman was teaching us church leadership and, and all this other stuff that, you know, church administration and how to fill out forms, how to fill them out in triplicate if you want to go to heaven. That’s the way they tell you. And one Friday, he just said, you know, I want to talk to you men and women today. I know you’re young and you’re in seminary and you’re all building your theological library, and I want to talk to you about your theological library. And my eyes glisten because I have a vice. Lord, I have a vice. Books are my vice. And I’m hoping one day to have all my books in one place, because I’ve never had that before, because I have so many books. So, I’m leaning into Doctor Goldman. What’s he going to say about books? And Doctor Goldman said, when you buy books, buy books written by people you know, you disagree with. Don’t buy a bunch of stuff you already know. Don’t buy a bunch of stuff you already agree with. You find the authors who are your opposite you. You buy their books. It will help you understand how they think. It will expand your horizons. It will make you a better pastor and preacher and theologian.

What was he saying? He was saying in a very general way, don’t build walls that wall out people that are different from you. Jesus said the same thing, but he said it this way. He said, When the Son of Man comes in glory with all his angels with him, and will sit on his throne and glory, all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another has a shepherd separates sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand, the goats at his left, and the king will say to those at his right hand, come, you that are blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison, and you visited me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord.

When did we see you in those conditions? When did we see you hungry and give you food, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When was it we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it we saw you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will answer them. Truly, I tell you, as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.

You know what we do in our world building culture. We see that person right by the Toyota dealership at the exit to Walmart that’s got a sign. I’m hungry. I need a place to stay. And we think they should get a job. They should do something about their situation. It’s obvious it’s their fault that they are in these circumstances. And we in our righteous indignation, bow our backs and say: They and them are not like us. And where did Jesus say he could be found? You want to find Jesus? He’s hungry. He’s thirsty. He’s a stranger. He’s naked. He’s sick. He’s in prison. That’s where Christ is. That’s who he’s called us to. That’s who he’s called us to include in his kingdom and in his church. Oh, Christ is a powerful passport. All right. Christ has invited us all into the kingdom of heaven. Christ has made us his children, but we’re being a child of God comes with responsibility to live a Christ like life and to serve.

This is passport two of three. Some of you can tell it’s expired because it’s been punched out. This is my second one. I have a third one. I told the lady that I really liked the picture that’s in the second one. Could I use that old picture? And she said, ten years from now you’re like the picture that’s in the new one. Just as much as you like this picture. Every ten years it expires. Our faith in Jesus Christ does not expire. But sometimes I wonder if we ought to renew our faith. Sometimes I wonder if we ought to give Herculean altar calls for people to pray about the joy of their salvation, for people to give themselves again to Christ, to do the things in their lives that they have prevented him from doing. Sometimes I wonder if we as Christians ought to have some do overs, because we’ve gotten off the narrow path. We’ve gotten on the broad way that leads to destruction, and we need to refocus ourselves. I’ve wondered sometimes if we just need to admit, hey. My faith grew stale, and it expired.

What Jake didn’t say is that two of our young people came to faith in Jesus Christ at Camp. Yes, they did. There will be baptisms proceeding. The coolest thing is that four of our young people expressed the knowledge or the feeling or the sense that God is calling them into ministry. So, when you see some of them up doing what they believe God has called them to do, do not be surprised. Welcome them.

And then you’ve heard me talk about the August 18th event sip, snack and serve. We’re going to give you, as members of the church, an opportunity to express your service in Christ, to sign up, to volunteer, to discover a Sunday school class or a Bible study or a small group. We’re going to give you an opportunity to renew your commitment to serve in the ministries of Trinity Methodist Church. We’re working on a document and the ministries at Trinity Methodist Church. I limited everybody and said, you’ve got 2 or 3 sentences to describe your ministries. 27 pages of ministries typed, single spaced. That’s what’s going on at this church. We are busy, vibrant, growing, Christ serving, God honoring congregation. But you know what I need, and Jesus needs. Time to get busy, Church. COVID’s done. That excuse has gone. Some of the ministries that have been so precious around here, we need you to take up and do and be a part of. It’s sort of like renewing your faith, renewing your commitment to serve. And in case you’re traveling coming up, check the expiration date on your passport. You don’t want to get out of the country and have this thing expire on you, because you have a tough time getting back in. My friends, what is God calling you to do in his name and for his kingdom? Let us pray.

God, we thank you for the call you have placed on all of us in Christ Jesus. We thank you that Your passport is powerful, that we belong, that the church is ours, that Christ is ours and we are his. Bless us, God as we live out that calling in your name, Amen.