July 19 sermon notes -Eph. 2, Mark 6:30

July 19 Eph. 2, Mark 6:30-34

After Herod’s banquet of death comes the feeding of a multitude.everyone who is there seems to be able to get what they need then a multitude of need-Herod’s banquet produced evil.  It is framed by this vignettes of healing. instead of trading and doing politics in the agora, the marketplace, Jesus heals.

Ephesians sees the fledgling church uniting Jews and Gentiles in the Jesus Way.new citizens, equal citizens in a new political community, the church not far off but near to God, all of us

all of us manage the tension between affiliation and segregation. Mercifully, we have moved past the issue of state-imposed segregation. Barrier of hostility/enmity v. new unity-Cross xs out cancels out makes a bridge between the parties less than being the cudgel that knocks down the Berlin Walls of isolation-no longer estranged parties but one the same side, the same team

Joseph Ellis book, the Quartet marks the struggle to take 13 states in a confederation try to become one nation.

We speak of lobbyists gaining access-here we all gain access to God, but the open door lets us in, it does not exclude-does not matter who we are, where we came from (Altonians)Ephesians offers an  early form of the CRA of 1964 -The church is a living building, a graced human organization.Ephesians and our need to hear it with class, gender, and race divisions-dividing wall of hostility- a phrase I used when invited to a community forum at morningstar some time ago.

difference does not need to be ignored or wiped away, but how relevant is it?. “common work for justice is another step, and praying together may be the most challenging of all.Ephesians declares peace on new terms, the The new household of God is not a purely spiritual reality that we visit briefly on Sundays -- a weekly "time out" in which we pretend peace is possible by sitting next to people we scrupulously avoid the rest of the time. The church is the daring practice of a new politics -- a different kind of power, the self-outpoured, boundary-crossing power of Christ's cross. We trust this power, letting it undermine every wall, until we are "built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God" (verse 22).(Sally Brown) Lord knows we need to hear words about antagonism and exclusion. We can claim a point of view and defend it. We don't have to bow and accept another point of view.I  dislike censorship from the left or the right.As international agreements often do, the adminsitration is facing a storm of criticism ove rits attempt to secure some peace with iran. Peace is difficult. Ephesians realizes this and heightens it in an interesting way. The blood of Christ, Christ’s life blood was shed in execution. Peace emerges from that offering of self more than the bloody victories of warfare.peace is a central word-Lord knows we need inner peace, but we hear the word in the context of groups. Simmering hostility is a constant force. In Mark notice that Jesus Came to a quiet place and get some rest.  The need and the pleas were enormous, and the heart of Jesus went out to them and he continued to teach and to heal. Too often the church, within its sabbath worship, uses the precious time to ask for more and more and more;. (Notice that these little incidents frame the story of the feeding of a multitude.household of god, of the spirit, JC as cornerstone, maybe keystone or capstone.The church is a new community. It is called to the highest of aspirations,We often fail, but we continue the effort.