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Ephesians 2:11-12

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.”

In the games played by nations and individuals walls are extraordinarily symbolic and frequently used. When I was a child a wall was built between East and West Berlin, symbolically and actually separating the Communist East with the Democratic West. Then not too many years ago President Ronald Reagan made famous the demand, “Mr. Gorbechav, tear down this wall!” By the end of his Presidency, what many of us thought would never happen happened – the Berlin wall came down. I have a small chunk of it as a souvenir from a friend of a friend.

Within the last few years, another wall has started going up. This one between Israel and the Palestinian settlements in the West Bank designed to deter the horrendous suicide bombers that have been terrorizing Israeli citizens for most of a decade. Daily portions of this barrier are erected, sometimes crossing roads, cutting through the middle of towns, separating shoppers from their markets, employees from their workplaces, children from their schools.

Certainly walls aren’t new, and one wonders if the ancient wall in stretching almost 4,000 miles from east to west along the top of China, built between the third century BCE and the 17th Century CE, actually ever really kept peace between peoples or has had more effect as a great tourism magnet for modern China.

Whether or not the Great Wall of China actually deterred the raiding Mongol or Turkic armies, I cannot say. Whether or not the Berlin Wall actually shored up Communism (or, conversely, protected democracy) I cannot say. Whether or not the wall in the Middle East will protect Israelis I do not know. I can say with assurance that such walls did and do destroy the livelihood of established communities, tear apart families, and scar the land and our history with reminders of the limitations of our human capacity to communicate, negotiate, arbitrate, and mediate and our insufficient willpower to work with our neighbors to find a mutually constructive way to peace and prosperity.

Yet, we continue to believe the lie, and it has been promoted far and wide, “Good fences make good neighbors.” No! Rather, we must believe in the truth, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.”

The Apostle Paul found walls painfully symbolic of human limitations, also. Throughout his ministry, as he spread the good news of the Gospel of Christ to more and more people around the known world, he was vexed with the persistent nature of human divisiveness.

Being more concerned with walls of an interpersonal nature, Paul’s concerns had less to do with brick and mortar and more to do with hearts and souls. He was disturbed by the walls we build in our hearts against one another, and thus against the God who created us all.

To the church of Galatia, he pleaded, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” To the church at Corinth he expressed, “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” To the church at Ephesus, he reminded, “For [Christ] is our peace; in his flesh has he make both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.”

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall?” God, in Jesus, doesn’t love a wall.

Every conflict has its flashpoint, that situation or comment or thing, usually more symbolic than real, that gets people all riled. For the New Testament church it was the issue of circumcision, the Jewish male ritual that literally marked the body with the sign that you were a Jew, an “insider,” that you were a member of this group and not that group. As Christianity spread, being based not on ethnicity nor family lineage but on commitment, it naturally spread to non-Jewish people. This was fine, especially when it was only a few converts and you could still expect them to follow all the Jewish rituals. But as entire communities of Gentiles (or non-Jews) joined, it became increasingly harder to convince them that they needed to be circumcised. Plus, the definition of faithfulness became less and less tied to specific rituals and cultural traditions and more and more focused on the singular affirmation that Jesus was the Christ.

Paul’s initial solution was to encourage the communities to have it both ways. In congregations with a heavily Jewish tradition, then require circumcision. In predominantly Gentile congregations, don’t worry about it. But, as many compromises go, it left both sides angry and at odds with each other. Paul quickly realized that they were not just talking about a little bit of skin at the end of the penis, they were talking about deep-seated fears and frustrations of people. Circumcision was not the issue, citizenship in the Commonwealth of God was in question, and “What must I do to be with you in Paradise?” was the wall being erected fast and furiously in the emerging church.

Isn’t that the way it always is with conflicts that divide nation against nation, sister against sister, brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, church member against church member? It may be promoted as a struggle over water rights, or an ancient slap-in-the-face by one great-great-grandfather to another great-great-grandfather, or a barking dog, or a comment at coffee hour, but scratch the surface just a little, and a Pandora’s Box of fears, prejudices, hurts, and unfulfilled hopes come pouring out. In my years of listening to good people come to me to vent their grievances against another person, I rarely find the issue which initiated the conversation is the issue about which we need to talk.

It is our job as followers of Jesus Christ to recognize a wall for what it is – a sign of our inability to fully and faithfully communicate with one another and our lack of willingness to take the time, effort, and care – and risk the vulnerability – to truly explore the deeper issues at work in our conflicts. The very same situation can either be a moment of division and violence or of grace and possibility. We can either sadly agree that “good fences make good neighbors” or we can wrestle with the harder but more fulfilling truth that “something there is that doesn’t love a wall.”

We have our choice as to where we will place our citizenship: a country of walls or a world of peace.

Two stories illustrate the difficulties of our having citizenship in a country of competition, criticism, and cold calculations and the power of having citizenship in a world of compassion, care, and commonality. Both stories are from the renowned Baptist preacher and television commentator, Tony Campolo.

When Tony was pastoring a small church in a rural community, he discovered that a young woman of the town had become pregnant out of wedlock. The word was out and the gossip about her condition was everywhere.

He went to see her and as he knocked on the door he had an uncanny awareness that the Holy Spirit was on him in a special way and that something unusual was about to happen. The young woman invited him in, and as he sat in her living room he explained to her about the forgiveness of God and how God wills for each of us to have a new start. She responded with great energy and committed her life to Christ. Tony writes, “I watched joy cross a face that an hour before had been marked with sadness.”

He wasn’t surprised when she showed up at church the following Sunday. She showed up the week after that and the week after that. And then she stopped coming. He went to visit her again and asked why she wasn’t attending church anymore. She said, “I can’t! Every time I go into that church I get the feeling that I’m dirty and no good.” Tony encouraged her not to feel that way. “Jesus has forgiven and Jesus has forgotten.”

He was taken aback by her response. She said, “Jesus may have forgiven and Jesus may have forgotten. But the people down there at your church – they haven’t for given and they certainly haven’t forgotten!”

The walls of the country of criticism and competition and cold calculations are mighty high indeed.

But there’s another story Tony tells. This is of a small country Presbyterian church where a friend of his served as minister. There was a young woman who came to his church and presented her child for baptism. Like the situation in the first story, the child was born out of wedlock, with no father in the picture at all. In a small rural community, a single woman with a child and no husband is likely to fined herself shunned.

The day of the baptism the woman stood alone before the congregation, holding her child in her arms. The pastor had not foreseen the awkwardness of the scene. He came to the part in the Presbyterian baptismal service when the questions are asked, “Who stands with this child to assure the commitments and promises herewith made will be carried out? Who will be there for this child in times of need and assure that this child is brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?”

It was then that the pastor realized that there was no godmother or godfather on hand to answer the question. The girl’s parents were not supportive of her and so were not present. No one was there to answer the question, or so the pastor thought.

Then, without hesitation and as if on cue, the entire congregation stood and with one voice said, “We will!”

In the great world community of compassion and care and commonality, there is no need for walls – of any kind.

Where will you place your citizenship? In a country of walls or a world of peace?

Perhaps that is the voice of God I am hearing and not Robert Frost. “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.”

Amen.


Rev. Allen V. Harris
 

Copyright 2006 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris

Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096