SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

This week, we come to the end of our sermon series, Seek Peace and Pursue it, with the sermon, What have we learned?  The past few months have been filled with turmoil and unrest. Even as order is restored, we realize the divisions in our world are deep.  How can we find a peace that will end anger and hostility? How can we move beyond the deep divisions of our world and in our lives?   One of the great obstacles for the early church was the division between the Jewish and Gentile believers.  The Gentiles considered the Jews to be arrogant and legalistic.  The Jews saw the Gentiles as idolatrous, spiritually undisciplined, and unworthy of salvation.  Paul tells the Ephesian church that in Jesus Christ the “dividing wall of hostility” has been broken down.  What does this mean for our lives?  It means that we can challenge anger, hatred, and division with the spiritual power of faith and hope.  May you sense the presence and care of the Prince of Peace as you read Ephesians 2:13-22:¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵ 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, ¹⁶ and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. ¹⁷ He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. ¹⁹ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹ In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²² And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.  (NIV)