"I have a dream -that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down at the table of brotherhood...I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin. I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as brothers and sisters. I have a dream today."

Do you recognise the speech? Martin Luther King, August 1963. It is his ‘I have a dream’ speech which even 40 years later is still, remembered, recognised, replayed and studied, in fact its even available on YouTube. And it was a speech that paints a picture of a fantastic dream, but it was then and it remains now just a dream.

We may be forty years further on but we still live in a world that remains defined by its divisions, where unity and peace are the exceptions. David Irving, the man who denied the holocaust, was asked if he was a racist and said: "I think there is something built into our microchips which makes us dislike [have an instinctive emotional aversion to] people from different cultures."

Sadly Irving’s comment is closer to reality than Martin Luther King’s dream. We don’t have to look to far to find evidence to support that, be it prejudice on the grounds of gender, race, education, sexuality or class. In fact class is probably the one that is most common in Britain but which we are least aware of.

Martin Luther Kings speech may be over forty years ago but it remains just a dream. If only there was somewhere where that dream could become a reality. The passage we are studying this morning is about just such a place - and it is the Church - the gathered people of God.

1. A divided World
One of the assumptions that people make about the Bible is that because it was written 2000 years ago it can’t be relevant to today. But as you look at this passage what strike you are the similarities. Ephesus and the world of the time was marked just like ours by division; by wealth, birth, education, occupation, social standing. Even religion was a cause of division, not between atheist and Christian, or Jew and Muslim, or Sikh and Hindu, but between Jew and all non-Jews or Gentiles.

In fact so bad was the division that if a Jewish man married a Gentile woman his family held a funeral for him. There was hostility, Jews referred to Gentiles as ‘dogs’ and worse. The Jews were God’s people with immense privileges and access to God through the temple, priests and sacrifices. They were God’s covenant people - those God has made promises to about a future. And the Gentiles were not they were outside that, they didn’t keep the same food laws, they did things Jews regarded as defiling. Even in the temple the Gentiles could only go so far, even if they converted to Judaism.

That is the point that (11-12) make. The Ephesian Christians were Gentiles and they were "uncircumcised... separate... excluded... foreigners... without hope and without God in the world."

Here is a diagram that hopefully helps to represent this for us.

But actually although the Jews were privileged there was one thing that kept them apart from truly knowing God. Sacrifices had to keep being made for their failure to love God with all their being - what the Bible calls sin. It meant their had to be the sacrifices, the priest and the temple with its limitations between them and God. (17) They were near, but they still didn’t know God, there was still a barrier to that relationship.

Jesus tells the story of two sons, one after a row with his dad effective says I wish you were dead give me my inheritance so I can go and live how I like. The other well he stays he looks like he loves his dad but actually when the crunch comes the relationship is just as broken it’s just been a slow freeze.

The division here is not just between Jew and Gentile, but between Jew and Gentile and God, between humanity and God.

2. The Only Solution
Did you notice as we read the passage that by v19-22 there has been a dramatic change? Those who were "uncircumcised... separate... excluded... foreigners... without hope and without God in the world" are now "no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow-citizens...members of God’s household... being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."

The barrier between Jew and Gentile and God has gone, Clip: Lord of the Rings ch 23 1:26:52-1:29:36. What united the fellowship? They were all different Dwarf, Elf, Hobbit, Wizard, man, they distrusted each other, but what united them was more important than what divided them.

Look at (13-18) the hostility is ended because what unites them is more important than what divides them. "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ." That means by his death.

(14-15) Make the same point Jesus has made peace, between Jew and Gentile and (16) more importantly between humanity and God. How?

Well our problem is that we can’t please God, not just because we can’t live up to his standard but because we have got our relationship with him wrong. We like to live life our own way, we like to decide right and wrong for ourselves with no thought for what God says.

Imagine for a minute that a friend of yours comes up with a revolutionary new invention, it is a cheap affordable robot that does all the housework. They bring you round one and you have a coffee while he offers to put it together. ‘No you say its ok I’ll do it.’ ‘Ok’ he says handing you the instructions, you walk over to the recycling box and put the instructions in. He looks on flabbergasted as you proceed to struggle, make a mess of and ruin what he has given you, ignoring all his instruction and warnings. How should your friend react?

That’s what we do, we ignore the creators instructions, what he says is best for us, and it leads us to make a mess of what he gives us. But more importantly the mess shows the ruin of the relationship.

But Jesus ends the hostility between us and God, he reconciles (16) humanity to God, how? Because he lives as we were meant to, he lives listening to the creator, obeying the law, but dies as one who has ignored him. Do you see the substitution? we deserve to pay for our rebellion and ruined relationship with God but he does in our place. He deserves relationship with God and a future and that’s what we get in his place, we are reconciled to God.

Am I saying Jesus is the only way to have a relationship with God? (16) That’s what the Bible says; Jesus reconciles humanity to God. The question is do I recognise I need reconciling, do I recognise that Jesus does that for me, he makes a relationship with God possible.

3. God’s new people
I love watching rugby and I have my England shirt here, the world cup has been pretty intense so far, and it will be even more so if England come up against Wales, Ireland or especially Scotland. There is an added ferocity to those matches. But I also have a British Lions shirt, and on the crest are the 4 badges of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Once every 4 years the fierce rivals come together and form one squad to face a team from the Southern Hemisphere. The barriers are forgotten, they are one team with one purpose - what unites them is more important than what divides them.

Not only does Jesus end the hostility between God and man but between Jew and Gentile, not by brokering a truce but (15) by making them a new people, "to create in himself on new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body [the church] to reconcile both of them to God..."

What marks this new people - the Church - out is not their differences but that through Jesus they have been "reconciled to God through the cross". They are no longer two groups but one people, God’s people.

That’s why we’ve had bread and wine this morning to remind us of what Jesus has done for us as individuals, yes, but also to remind us that it is what unites us. That though we are all different we meet together because Jesus has died to pay for our rebellion against God and to restore our relationship with God. We have become a new community.

There are implications for us from this. The church is to be for all ages, all classes, all races, all backgrounds. In fact the more diverse the more glory to God because it shows the gospel can save anyone. That’s why we welcome children, its why noise doesn’t matter, the church is the place for them to be. That’s why we are to love the elderly, who society may marginalise, but who we love and respect, or the social outcast, or the refugee, or the asylum seeker.

The Church is for all because the gospel is for all and we must take it to all. Class, race, education, may all be barriers in society but it must not be in the church.

I have a dream it is of a church where young and old laugh together and learn to love God together. I have a dream where wealthy and poor love care and study the Bible together and provide for each other. I have a dream where Christ matters more to us than class, gender, race or social status. That dream is not mine it is God’s and it is to be seen in the Church - the people of God equipped to be grace in the community to the glory of God.

1. Is my hope in Jesus as the one who ends the hostility between me and God?
2. Have I allowed God’s grace to affect my attitudes and actions towards others? Or are there still areas of prejudice I need to confess?
3. What affect should this have on our life together? How are you going to put that into action today?

Vision and Values