Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Sunday, July 22. The text was Ephesians 2:11-22. Don’t we all at one time or another wonder about who we are, what is our purpose in life and what we can do to make a difference? This passage in Ephesians speaks to the issue of identity. We have the identity of the Jews and Gentiles and who we are all together in Christ. With the terminology of strangers, aliens and citizens, this passage seems to especially have bearing on our lives today in the United States with the various challenges we face. Paul wanted to make sure that the Ephesians remembered their former state. Twice he tells them to “remember,” first that they were Gentiles by birth and secondly, in metaphor-laden language, Paul describes them as being “without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,…strangers…having no hope and without God in the world” (v. 12). They had been alienated from the Jewish people and their God. The Ephesians’ ci...

This is the reflection on the text I'm preaching on this Sunday. It went out in our weekly e-ministry to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church. Ephesians 2:11-22 11 Remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, 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, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and 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 its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16 and might reconcile both groups to God in one body th...