Walls, walls, walls. We see them
being built everywhere. People have built walls around their domiciles and
fields since time immemorial. Cities have done the same. Even nations and
empires have tried to do this, e.g. the so-called Great Wall of China. Most of
that came to a stop with the onset of modern weaponry and fighter and bomber
aircraft, to which walls mean nothing. However, there have been some notable
exceptions, such as the wall between East and West Germany. Now, the two
nations that are the most closely linked and generally friendliest to each
other, are both building walls - The United States of America and Israel. The
US’s new president wants to build a wall between his country and Mexico and get
the Mexicans to pay for it. I am not sure what kind of logic gives rise to such
fancies. It is not that dissimilar to what Israel is doing. They may not be
expecting Palestine to pay for the wall they are building monetarily, but they
have a great tendency to build it on Palestinian soil, which is a similar
action in the end. We even see walls being built around houses of new
immigrants in our city.
Governments, which are a necessary
evil in our despoiled world, might like to build walls, ostensibly to protect
their citizens. However, that does not mean we have to like it, agree with it
or accept it.
Walls are built because of fear.
There is no other reason. There is a fear of the outsider. There is a fear of
what we have and try to maintain on the inside. Of course, the government has
to perpetuate this narrative of fear among its citizens to gain their support
for their wall-building efforts. We certainly see that happening in both Israel
and the USA. There is so much "fake news" and so many
"alternative facts" that it is hard for us to know what to believe of
what our governments and media say, let alone what the same agencies of the
other side say. Unfortunately, these messages do nothing to change the
situation between the parties on either side of the wall in such a way as to
make the wall unnecessary. In fact, it usually aggravates the situation. It's
time for a new message.
But wait, the message is there,
for those who hear it, and it's 2000 years old, perhaps older if you dig deeper.
Unfortunately, that's the key phrase, 'for those who hear it.' We can continue
to try to speak to our governments to get them to hear it. However, the more
effective way is to take matters into our own hands as individuals and groups
of citizens of like mind and get to know the people on the other side of the
wall and find out they're pretty much just like us, so why do we need a wall?
I make reference to 2000 years
because I am a follower of the perfect man who lived 2000 years ago, Jesus of
Nazareth. His purpose, as God becoming man on earth, was to break down walls
between God and man, man and man, walls within us and walls between us and the
rest of the created universe. Each generation seems to struggle with how to do
that.
At the same time, that message
was heard 2000 years ago. Within 25 years of Jesus' crucifixion, it had spread
from Jerusalem and Palestine to Ethiopia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, what is now
Turkey, Greece and Italy. The Apostle Paul, who was one of the key figures in
this endeavor, was hoping to go to Spain when he was martyred by the Roman
empire.
The anti-wall message was one of
the key features of letters Paul wrote to the Christian congregations he
founded around the Mediterranean. Our pastor was led to share a series of
messages on The Letter to the Ephesians currently, and what appropriate timing.
The anti-wall message is there loud and clear.
Paul, writing to the non-Jews, or
Gentiles, states, "remember that you were at that time without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of
promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 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. He has abolished the law
with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new
humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both
groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that
hostility through it. So, he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off
and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one
Spirit to the father. So, then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you
are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as
the cornerstone" (chapter 2, versus 12-20).
That is the message of
reconciliation. That must be our mission today, and in Canada this means with
our historically and even currently wronged indigenous neighbors, and presently
endangered neighbors such as our Muslim brothers and sisters. If we believe in
Jesus, the Bible itself describes us as ambassadors of reconciliation for this
cause. Let it be so.
