Making Peace

Sermon for North Hill Adventist Fellowship
Sabbath, February 5, 2011
Third in a series based on the book of Ephesians


Seven times in Ephesians, Paul refers to a mystery—to a profound secret that had been hidden for ages but was brought to light in the life and teachings of Jesus.

What was this mystery, this secret, this truth that was so valuable Paul put his life at risk to preach it?

Chapter 1
9 God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure,
which he purposed in Christ,
10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--
to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

The heart of our message for the world is this: God intends to create harmony where there is discord, community where there is conflict, agreement where there is argument. God's dream is a congenial, peaceable, happy world.

This divine dream provides a stark contrast to the images from Egypt we have been watching this week. Thousands, even tens of thousands of people marching in the streets demanding an end to the autocratic rule of Hosni Mubarak.

Late in the week as it became clear that Mubarak's rule was finished, I heard more and more expression of concern about what will happen next. Will the Muslim Brotherhood emerge as the new theocratic tyrant in Egypt. Will the collapse of the Mubarak government mean war with Israel. Will the nation devolve into chaos?

One of the factors driving the protests has been the economic hardship experienced by millions of Egyptians. No matter what form the government takes, there can be no quick fix of the economy. So the question arises: Will the nation fall into endlessly competing factions? Is there any person, any political party, any ideology that can pull the people together for the long, hard, uncertain journey toward a more prosperous future?

Without some measure of unity and common purpose, Egypt will not be better off than it has been under Mubarak.

Paul writes that God's purpose is “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together.”

Given God's power that should be relatively easy to accomplish.

President Tito created unity in Yugoslavia. Serbians, Bosnians, Croatians, and Albanians all cooperated together . . . as long as Tito managed with his iron fist. But as soon as the iron fist was removed, as soon as the secret police were no longer a terrifying threat, the nation fell into competing factions, civil war and disaster.

It was the same in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Sunnis, Shias, Christians worked together, suffered together. Once Saddam was gone along with his dreaded secret police sectarianism has ripped the country apart.

God could, in theory, impose unity on the world. He could threaten: step out of line and I'll blast you. Apparently, God is not interested in that kind of imposed order. God's goal is the order of willing harmony. The order that arises from mutual respect, love and holiness.


God in Christ, demonstrated that his relationship with humanity was as important to him as life itself. He allowed himself to be killed rather throw his strength and weight around.

Paul writes that God intends to bring everything together “under one head, even Christ.” God pursues unity with a complete willingness to yield himself to every possibly legitimate demand. God's goal is not winning an argument or winning a war. God's great desire is not vanquishing enemies, but winning hearts. He aims to destroy not enemies, but enmity.

Through the death of Jesus, God demonstrated he was more radically committed to harmony and love than he was to his own individual pleasure.

God is so committed “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together.” he was prepared to die in pursuit of that ideal.

God would rather die than live without us. God was willing to die to accomplish peace.

Paul repeats this theme several times in the book of Ephesians.

In chapter two, he writes,

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier,
the dividing wall of hostility,
15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.
His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace,
16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens,
but fellow citizens with God's people and
members of God's household,

Who are the separated groups Paul is referring to in this passage? Who are “the far away ones” and “the ones who are near”? Who are “the foreigners” and “the citizens,” “the natural born children” and “the new members” of the family?

Paul is writing about Jews and Gentiles.

In Paul's world the separation between Jews and Gentiles was sharper and more emphatic than our divisions between Democrats and Republicans, Catholics and Adventists, Liberals and Conservatives, rich and poor, Mexicans and Tea Party members.

The division between Jew and Gentile was sharped than the division between Shiites and Sunnis.

It was at least as pronounced as the division between Muslims and Christians, between atheists and Christians. Paul looked at the deepest division conceivable in his world—Gentile/Jew--and said God's plan was to bring them together, to make them into one body.

God's dream for our world is to create harmony in place of conflict. To create peace between Jews and Arabs, between Muslims and Christians, between North Koreans and South Koreans, between Crips and Bloods, between men and women, between rich and poor.

God wants to bring together under the headship of Christ everything, every person, every group in heaven and earth. God dreams of a cosmos at peace.

In chapter three Paul makes this point again:

3:6 the mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel,
members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

So what does this mean? How does it apply in our lives?

First, it means I'm included. You are included.
The strong, beautiful, smart people are included. You are part of God's family. You are citizens. You have not just a Green card. You have a passport and birth certificate.

The weak, ugly and dumb are included. You, too, are part of God's family. Citizens with a passport and birth certificate in your drawer at home.

The health nuts, the marathoners, mountain climbers, swimmers, bicyclists are members of God's group.

The addicts, alcoholics, anorexics, obese, and people with disabilities.

Those who are happily married with healthy, beautiful children.
Those who are single or are childless. Those whose children are in jail. People who are divorced or trapped in apparently unbreakable cycles of conflict. Homosexuals.

God's dream includes all of us.

If you step out of the family, God will be disappointed. God's dream will be incomplete.
If we push someone out of the family, God will be disappointed. God is working to create a single, harmonious family.

This is the great mystery, the secret God wants us to share with each other and with the world.


Since our Father in heaven is working to create a harmonious, single family out of all the families of earth, since God is working to create unity between Gentile and Jew, then as God's beloved children, we ought to give ourselves to the work of reconciliation.

Our first and highest objective will be to build community, to include people, to bridge divisions, to seek reconciliation.

We will not participate in the political demonization that is so common in our present society. (And has been for most of American history. A hundred years ago politicians were not more civil. Two hundred years ago, there were fist fights in the Senate and duals between opposing politicians.)

God would not be happier if the people I disagree with politically and religiously simply disappeared.

As children of God, we will work for peace. That means we will look for the common ground between opposing viewpoints. We will try to hear the truth in opinions we disagree with. We won't quit arguing. We won't pretend to agree. But our disagreements will be voiced with respect.

We will work for the preservation and restoration of relationships. American Christians vigorously denounce people in other cultures who practice polygamy. We fail to see that our so-called serial monogamy is a radical rejection of God's principle of seeking reconciliation.

With co-workers, friends, classmates our goal in situations of conflict will be winning hearts. That will matter more than winning arguments.

It seems to me this last point is one of the greatest challenges for us and is our greatest call: In our relationships with others, the highest goal is not winning arguments, but winning hearts, not justice but mercy, not truth but love.

Love cannot thrive apart from truth. Good relationships sometimes require us to speak unpleasant truths. Authentic relationships sometimes require us to have arguments. Healthy relationships cannot exist apart from justice. BUT justice, truth, and getting the other person to agree with our point of view must not be our highest objective. Rather love, mercy and surrender will be our highest goals and we will see truth, justice and argument as tools to be used wisely and judiciously in pursuit of those higher goals.

God would rather die than live without you.

He invites you to participate with him in this radical commitment to reconciliation.