Building a Holy Temple :A Sermon for Proper 11

As we continue our sermon series on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, I’d like to draw our attention to the last sentence of today’s lesson. Paul uses the image of a holy temple to describe one, unified dwelling place for God to reside. This metaphorical temple is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. But it is Christ who holds the household together. Paul tells the Ephesians that “In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” And then Paul reminds them - and us - that this holy structure that is joined together by Christ and inhabited by God is none other than the Church.

I mentioned last week that when we read these letters from Paul, we have to remember the context in which they were written. By now, we take many things about the Christian Church for granted. Of course the Christian Church is made up of folks from all over the globe. Of course we are a multicultural body. Of course God doesn’t limit who can be a member of Christ’s Body. 

But when Paul was writing his letters to the Gentile Christian communities he founded throughout the Roman Empire, there was still a bit of an “insider” and “outsider” complex happening among Christians. Conflicts between the “circumcision” and “uncircumcision” parties within Christianity were still prevalent, and perhaps Paul’s primary challenge was to bring about the reconciliation between these two factions. 

But there was also the conflict between Christians and the Jews. Some in the Jewish community had a hard time wrapping their heads and hearts around the idea that a whole new population of people were claiming to be included in the household of God, and inheritors of God’s covenant promise. Indeed, there were factions and conflict both within and beyond this brand new religion called Christianity. There was an identity crisis that was being sorted out, not unlike other brand new groups and organizations. 

Interestingly, this same topic is being discussed in our Friday morning Men’s Bible Study, though we are studying the Acts of the Apostles. Much of the early Christian story was one of the tension between who or what was to be considered clean or unclean, sacred or profane, insider or outsider.

Ultimately, those who advocated for the inclusion of the Gentiles into the household of God, as well as those who advocated for the Gentiles not having to follow the Mosaic law won the day. And here we are - inheritors of the promise. 

Again, as I have said before, in our current context, I’m not so sure that any of us spend a lot of time dwelling on what might seem to be archaic arguments of centuries past. And if I am not careful, I can backslide into feeling like some of these arguments are irrelevant to me. But as I have been studying this letter to the Ephesians the past few weeks, as well as participating in the Friday Bible Study, I have had an epiphany of sorts. The more I dwell on these insider-outsider, clean-unclean, who is in - who is out texts the more I realize just how relevant these arguments are to me. 

As an American, well-educated, straight, white Christian male born in the American South, I have almost always been an insider. And because of that privilege into which I was born, I have never had to fight to be included. I have never had to stand up for my worthiness to be treated equally. So the paradigm within which I have operated has been that of the insider. 

What oftentimes happens to “insiders” like me is that eventually, we might become deeply convicted about letting the outsiders “in,” and sharing our access to privilege with them. And that is a good thing. I think that the Episcopal Church’s decades-old slogan - “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You” - is rooted in that paradigm, even if it is on the subconscious level. In this sense, our slogan might be short for “We in the Episcopal Church want to allow you to share in our abundance, because that is what Jesus calls us to do...and because we’re nice people...most of the time.” Now don’t get me wrong - there are much worse paradigms from which we could operate.  

But the epiphany that I have recently had has to do with just how much of an outsider I really am - and we really are - when it comes to the arc of salvation history. As Gentiles, we are the outsiders who were granted access and welcomed in. We are the ones who are lucky - or said better - blessed - to have a seat at the table. We are the ones who the Apostle Paul and his fellow missionaries made it their life’s work to advocate for in their missionary journeys. My friends, it very easily could have gone the other way. The mission to the Gentiles could very well have failed. It was a dangerous, risky, and a near-impossible mission to accomplish both spiritually and practically-speaking. 

But as Paul writes to the Ephesians, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 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.” Of course Paul gives all credit where credit is due - to Jesus Christ and his work on the cross. It was Jesus’ death on the cross that opened the door for our salvation. But it was Paul’s persistent missionary work that carried the message “to the ends of the earth.”

So, the more I reflect on the profound courage and steadfast faith of the apostle Paul and his fellow missionaries, risking their lives to advocate for the inclusion of the Gentiles like me into God’s promise, the more grateful and humble I become. As a Gentile sinner living East of Eden, I have no business residing in the household of God on my own accord, yet, as Paul writes, “In [Christ] the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.” 

Paul has painted for us a picture of a structure that is made up of Jews and Gentiles together with the apostles and prophets as the foundation and Christ as the cornerstone. But the brilliant twist that Paul makes is that the metaphor shifts from God having a household in which we reside to us - the Body of Christ - being the household in which God resides. So it becomes God whom we are welcoming in.

When I think of the household of God - or even the Episcopal Church -  this way, it puts a whole new perspective on the whole insider-outsider paradigm. I would like to challenge myself to no longer operate from the position of the doorkeeper who is welcoming people and sharing my abundance and privilege with others because I feel like that is the right thing to do. Rather, I want to constantly be aware of the fact that as a Gentile, I am the outsider who was invited in solely by the grace, love, and mercy of Jesus Christ. I didn’t deserve it. I didn’t earn it. I wasn’t born into it. I wasn’t entitled to it. 

And when I think of Paul and the others risking their lives - traveling by boat and by foot - getting beaten, tortured, and imprisoned - because they were so convinced that we Gentiles belong in the household of God, I am grateful and humbled to the core. Let us all remember just how blessed we are to have been included in God’s plan for salvation history. And let us, with gratitude and humility, be faithful stewards of our inheritance by welcoming all - not because we rightfully possess something that we might  share with others, but rather, because we have have been graciously included and welcomed in ourselves.