Sermon: Breaking Down Dividing Walls

 Ephesians 2:11-22
Breaking Down Dividing Walls
James Sledge                                                                                                 July 18, 2021

Acts17v25.blogspot.com, January 3, 2013

 I recently finished reading Caste: The Origins of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. For those who aren’t familiar with the book, Wilkerson argues that America’s persistent struggle with race is a more deeply ingrained problem that people realize because we aren’t simply dealing with the residue of slavery and Jim Crow legal segregation. We are dealing with a caste system where there is a dominant caste, whites, and a subordinate caste, Blacks.

This caste system, writes Wilkerson, is pervasive, shaping the worldview of all who live in it, both Black and white. It is the air we breathe, the water we swim in, and it does not go away because laws are changed or because a Black man was once elected president. Those in the dominant class benefit from it even when they are not “racists.” It is a resilient system that does not go away easily, that will not go away without a great deal of hard work and effort from those in the dominant caste.

I found the book a little depressing. It made the racial divisions in our country seem even more profound and intractable. But I also think the author paints a more realistic, accurate picture of race in America than many of us imagine.

For (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. The writer of Ephesians is not talking about Blacks and whites but about Jews and Gentiles, the defining us and them for the first Christians. I don’t know that this division amounted to a caste system, but there were certainly similarities.

Some Jews would not share a meal with Gentiles or invite them into their homes. Gentiles could not enter the Temple in Jerusalem but had to remain in one of the outer courtyards. The first Christians were all Jewish, and initially, they did not allow Gentiles to join. If a Gentile wanted to join the church, they would need to become a Jew first. Men would need to be circumcised, and they would need to abide by Jewish dietary restrictions.

The first big, knock-down, drag-out fights in the church were over Gentiles being able to join. People like the Apostle Paul argued that being baptized into Christ was what made one a Christian, regardless of whether or not the were Jewish or circumcised. But the leaders of the church in Jerusalem insisted that Paul was wrong. Only Jews were allowed in.

By the time our letter was written, likely be a disciple of Paul, Paul’s viewpoint has become more accepted, and the church was becoming more and more Gentile in its makeup. But the writer insists that the church has not left its connection to Israel behind. Instead, Gentiles have been joined to God’s covenant with Israel, and the two groups have become one. For (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.

In the mid-1990s, I attended a meeting of the Presbytery of New Hope. I served a church in Raleigh, NC that belonged to this presbytery which covered the entire northern half of eastern North Carolina. Presbyteries are regional councils made up of all their pastors and elder representatives from each congregation. They typically hold meetings five or six times a year, and this was one of those regular meetings.

If you’ve never attended one, presbytery meetings can be rather boring, mundane affairs unless there is something controversial on the agenda, in which case they can get rather testy. This particular meeting had nothing controversial to address, and the mood was light. Presbytery meetings also typically include worship, and the worship in this meeting was led by a theater ensemble called C.H.A.I.N.S. That’s an acronym for Creating Hope And Inventing New Stories. It was a part of the Presbyterian Prison Ministry at the Raleigh Correctional Center for Women. 

This theater ensemble was made up of current and a few former inmates at the prison. The members who led worship that day were all Black, speaking to a congregation that must have been 90 percent white. Their presentation began with a powerful dramatic monologue from one woman who begged the listeners, “Lend me your hope. I have misplaced mine.” This was followed by choreographed dramatic dialogues that moved from terrible personal despair to joy and hope and ended with another monologue from a just released woman entitled “I Was in Prison.” She told of drawing her hope from those people involved in prison ministry who had visited her, and who continued to help her find work and make the transition from prison to a contributing member of society. As she finished, one of the still imprisoned women closed the service by singing “I Believe I Can Fly.” The pastors and elders rose in a tremendous standing ovation, and many were wiping tears from their eyes, myself included.

As I saw the tremendous response to these women, I thought about outsiders and insiders and about how Jesus welcomed outsiders. As I’ve already said, most in presbytery meeting were white. Many of them came from rural areas of eastern NC where much of life remains segregated. They probably rarely if ever interacted socially with a Black person.

Plus these women were prisoners, people convicted of selling drugs, assault, and stealing to support drug habits. A lot of those at that presbytery worship probably supported get tough policies on crime, longer sentences, building more prisons. And they certainly wouldn’t associate with criminals. Yet here they were, being led in worship and moved to tears by Black women from prison.

For a brief moment, the dividing walls between Black and white, rich and poor, prisoner and upstanding citizen came down, and something remarkable happened. For a brief moment, the gathering lived out its oneness in Christ. But then we all returned home to our segregated churches and lives, and the dividing walls went up again. 25 years later, despite the Bible’s claim that all are one in Christ Jesus, Presbyterian congregations remain largely segregated, as do many of our lives.

In our scripture reading, the dividing walls come down and there is reconciliation between groups. It happens through the cross. It does not happen with the wave of a hand or from good intentions. It is costly. Not surprisingly, Jesus says that following him is costly, that it demands that we take up our own cross.

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We live in a world of deep divisions, but if we are in Christ, we have been granted a sense of what it means for all divisions to end, of a world where, as the Apostle Paul says, There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

What is more, we have been called to be agents of reconciliation, those who break down dividing walls and end hostilities. We are to be Christ to the world, and such work will no doubt be costly, just as Jesus’ work was.

When it comes to racial reconciliation, what might those costs be? What costly steps would we be willing to take to break down the dividing wall, the hostility between us? It is surely something more than simply not being racists.

For (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. I caught a glimpse of what that peace, that reconciliation looks like at a presbytery meeting 25 years ago. In Christ, strengthened and equipped by the Spirit, surely we can help others glimpse it, too.