September 17, 2023
Sermon: “The Church: Peace as Divine Junk Art”
Tom Yoder-Neufeld – audio recording
Scripture:
Ephesians 1:10
10 God’s plan for the fullness of time is to gather up all things in and through Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.
Ephesians 2:10-22
10 For we are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
11So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision”—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— 12 remember that you were at that time without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 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. 15 He has abolished the law with the commandments and ordinances intended to keep us apart, that he might create in himself one new human in place of the two, thus making peace, 16 and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus killing that hostility through the cross.
17 So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18 for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the corner- or keystone. 21 In and through him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 in and through whom you also are built together into a home for God by the Spirit.22
NRSV