Peace

           For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. (Ephesians 2:14-18)

           One of the complaints you’ve no doubt heard about our society is that it’s too polarized. There’s too much “us” and “them.” And I’ve already pointed out that there is no escaping this fact. There are those who are in Christ, and there are those who are of the world. There’s no getting around that fact, but the goal isn’t to reject those who are in the world, but to draw them into Christ.

          But the issue Paul is describing here is different. He doesn’t ignore the historical and cultural differences between the Christians formerly known as Gentiles and the Christians formerly known as Jews, but he tells us how to get past those differences. It’s a well-known method. Suppose you see an older brother tormenting a younger brother, as older brothers sometimes do. He complains about having the younger brother around. Later, he sees younger brother being bullied by someone other than himself. What does he do? Chances are that he comes to his brother’s defense.

           Or, consider what happened on September 11 and 12, 2001. As I was driving home from work before lunch on the 11^th, I heard a list of churches that were going to have prayer services that night. My new church was among them, that’s why I remember. Flags appeared. People came together. World War II was no different. Once we entered the war, America came together.

           Divisions are healed when differences are put aside or accepted as the result of our wanting something bigger and external or our wanting to defeat something bigger and external. That external something must be important to both sides (obviously, in the same direction.) In the case that Paul is describing, Christ is the bigger external thing, and even there, the unity is not automatic and instantaneous. If it were, Paul wouldn’t need to discuss it. We need to be reminded of our focus.

          Small wonder that the World does the opposite. We may hear that we’re all on this together, but seconds later, it’s “workers of the world, unite!” against our common enemy, everyone who is not a worker, and “dark-skinned people of the world unite!” against the light-skinned people, and “women of the world unite!” against men. The same call goes out to those who consider themselves LGBTQ, and even those who call themselves “neuro-diverse.” There is no end to the call for unity …among even tiny splinters of society, but the unity itself is divisive.

          The difference between the two sources of unity? One unifies toward. The other unifies away or against. Christ calls us to Himself. The World calls us to join together to fight a common enemy. Christ is eternal. The conflicts around which the World seeks to unify us must continue because the moment the various united groups don’t have an enemy to attack, they will return to fighting with one another.

         Christians fall into this, too – when we forget that our uniting force is Jesus Christ.