College. I loved college. I worked hard, studied all the time. But I had so much fun too. I went to California Lutheran University, and I lived my first year in Pederson Hall, named after the Norwegian farmer who gifted all those acres in 1957 for the establishment of a new Lutheran college. It was in Pederson Hall my freshman year, that I noticed a senior, named Heather Embree. She was my R.A. (resident advisor). We were just friends that year, but we were around each other a lot, both heavily involved with the campus ministry program there at Cal Lutheran, and back at our residence hall. And one time, in early spring of that first year, Heather and I were talking about how “cliquey” our residence hall had become. There was “this” group and “this” group and “this” group. And then there’s always some who feel left out...
What could we do to “break down the walls”? We wondered together. Heather had some R.A. programming funds at her disposal, and so we decided to organize...a camping trip. After all...most great disputes are solved by camping -- Got a problem at home? Go camping. Got a problem at work? Go camping. We perceived a problem with our residence hall...
(What if our legislators all just went on a big camping trip together. Congregations do it all the time. Youth groups like ours. Army, marines, special forces: they go camping together all the time, and I defy anyone to try to break the bond that they share, even decades later.) That’s because camping brings people together! That’s what we believed anyway.
So Heather and I actually billed this the Great Pederson Hall “Breakin’ Down the Walls” Camping Trip. Heather booked 2 campsites, and she and I got to promoting, passing out flyers. This was before the days of cell phones, and email was very new and clunky...Word of mouth, personal invites, a little friendly coercion especially with our painfully shy, sweet friends: “Nope. You’re going.”
And before you knew it, we had quite a crowd headed out over the Santa Monica Mountains to Big Sycamore Canyon State Park, nestled into that canyon right across the Pacific Coast Highway from the the ocean. Beautiful night...beautiful location...
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| Breakin' down the walls! |
...and an incredible event, that actually turned into quite a party. Word got out and even more came than we expected. I saw people mixing that night that you wouldn’t have ever imagined. The geeks with the baseball players. The campus ministry goody-two shoes, with the racy theatre crowd. The druggies with the Young Republicans: playing guitars, all gathered around the same camp fire. It was a blast! And I remember Heather and I high-fiving each other several times in-passing during that evening. “Breakin’ down the walls!” we celebrated joyfully.
It was such a good event, actually, that it got us in trouble with the park rangers. Actually it got Heather in trouble. My future wife, who had never done a bad thing in her life -- but because her name was on the reservation -- Heather Embree got black-balled from the the whole Pacific coastline network of campgrounds for 1 year!
Totally worth it! (We were pretty proud of ourselves -- breakin’ down the walls. But it was just a glimpse.)
This second chapter of Ephesians is about breakin’ down the walls. The walls that divide us. The big issue then was not jock vs. scholar. (The jocks were scholars.) It was Jew vs. Gentile. And the special marking that set the Jews apart was circumcision. That was the physical mark on the Jewish men.
It reminds me of one of my favorite poems, by one of our favorite artists:
“Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches Had bellies with stars. The Plain-Belly Sneetches Had none upon thars. Those stars weren't so big. They were really so small You might think such a thing wouldn't matter at all. But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches Would brag, "We're the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches." With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they'd snort “We'll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!"
And whenever they met some, when they were out walking, They'd hike right on past them without even talking.” (The Sneeches, Dr. Seuss)
How are we like the Star-belly Sneeches or like those freshmen in Pederson Hall? Has anything changed? How do we set ourselves not just apart from but better than others? [pause] Either way we are far apart, when we do this.
Racism still plagues our nation. My race is better that “those other people”. I read this week in Time that Gen X (my generation) is just as racist as previous generations, and it’s not clear that the generations behind us are much better. We might be reverting because we’re so far off from one another. Or classism -- my position in society is better -- higher or more noble or more hard-working. “With [our] snoots in the air [we] sniff and we snort, ‘We’ll have nothing to do with that [other class] sort!’” Sexism, hetero-sexism, immigration status? The list goes on. And “cliques” are a genteel way of putting it.
So what’s God got to say about this?
I don’t have high hopes of the divisions going away, all the walls between us crumbling. This is not a “let’s all just hold hands and pretend we’re ok” sermon. We’ve got a lot of work to do. Relationship takes work. Human brokenness and frankly, stupidity, remains. But here’s what we do know as Christians, here’s what God’s got to say: It’s not us, as much as we might try, it’s not us, but Christ, who ultimately breaks down the walls...
We are broken and lost and proud; but it is in God’s incarnation and God’s cross and God’s Pentecost that the boundary between heaven and earth is shattered forever, and God comes to be among us. Christ breaks down the walls, not Heather and I, or you. Ephesians says:
“[Christ Jesus] 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 hostility. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near...In [Christ Jesus] the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.”
(That deserves a high five!) “Breakin’ down the walls!” And now growing together. What a vision for the church -- a place for those who were once far off, and a place for those who are near (those who have always been around). Now we are all built together spiritually, into a dwelling place for God.
Good to be reminded again that the church is not a building...as we talk so much about our building these days. The church is not a building.
This building only houses the church -- us. And this church is not for the like-minded. This building -- which houses Christ’s church -- is to house the whole diversity of God’s creation. Left-wing, right-wing and everything in between. If a church is just like-minded people, then it’s not the church, it’s a club. (Pastor Ron Baesler: “...and I say praise God.”)
In Christ there is no Lutheran or Catholic, main line or evangelical, gay or straight, advanced degrees or jobless, American or Mexican, married or single, black or white, college graduate or high school drop-out.
In Christ, we are brought camping (even you painfully, shy sweet Lutherans). “Nope, you’re going”. This is our campground. In Christ we are brought camping, where we all gather around the same fire: the same bread and wine, the same holy water of baptism, the same Word of God, word of life. Unity amid our diversity.
And it is such a good event that it might even get us in trouble.
Totally worth it.
AMEN.
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