You Have Access to God | Ephesians 2:11–22

Transcript is automatically produced. Errors may be present.

Brilliant. Thank you, Olaf. Uh, good morning, friends. Uh, my name’s Alex. If you’re visiting, I’m one of the pastors here. Would love to get a chance to say hello to chat to you afterwards. Um, I’m going to start today with the elephant in the room or the door in the room. Uh, the reason I do that is this. I wanted to make sure I clarified things. I was building this in my driveway. Uh, and while I was building it, and let me stress was nearly finished building it, a cold caller wandered up the drive. They walked up towards me and said, “What are you building?” And I said, “Well, a door. It looks pretty obvious.” And she said, “Oh, yeah. It’s a really good door.” And I’m like, “Well, you didn’t know it was a door 30 seconds ago, so I think you must be selling something, right?” And she said, “Yes, windows.” And I was like, “Brilliant. I have a door, no windows.”

A while back, I was walking with a friend and they looked across at me at what I was wearing and they said, “You know, I think you get away with a lot because you’re English. I think you get away with a lot because you’re English.” Like immediately I’m like, that sounds like a compliment. And then also not a compliment, right? It’s got a level of it’s compliment and then it’s also like you look strange. You don’t fit in. There’s something wrong with you.

Now, I say all that because while I’m over some of my childhood hang-ups, 11-year-old Alex would have been devastated to find out that he didn’t fit in. For good reasons, there are very few photos of me around the age of 11. I did find this one with me and my brother when I was about six. This was the age where, if you remember being six, this was the age where your parents told you how to dress. They they bought your clothes for you. They put you in those clothes. If you had to get changed, they changed those clothes. And then you move to this different moment in time, this different age where suddenly you are responsible for dressing yourself. And at 11, in that moment, I just couldn’t figure out how to make that work. I would put on the strangest combinations of clothing. I would throw in a free t-shirt my dad got for buying and drinking cider, a pair of those long, like kneelength Bermuda shorts, maybe in multiple colors. I would turn up to things looking like I didn’t fit in the slightest. And I would actually get questions from friends that went something like this. Where did you learn to dress? I remember this one particular moment. Don’t feel sorry for me. I don’t need the Rs. I’m fine now. I’m an adult. Like I don’t need your sympathy. This is past me. I remember this one moment. We were planning this big event. We were going to get together. We were going to do this thing together. And so some of the people started talking about what they were going to wear the next day for this big celebration. And I remember them talking about wearing this, wearing that. And then one of them turned to me and said this, “Alex, I bet you’re going to wear that terrible fleece sweater you always wear everywhere.” And it was heartbroken because that was exactly what I was planning to wear. I remember turning up, leaving the door to go to this thing. And I I remember this moment of like you walk up to the door and you’re like, “Do I fit in here? Do do I have access here? Do I have entry here? Is this is this place for me? Maybe you felt like that for some other reason. Maybe it’s not clothes. Maybe you dress great, but you felt it at work. You’ve like wondered, why is it everyone gets the promotion and not me? Is there something wrong about me? Maybe it’s the relationship piece. You never quite found the relationship you’re looking for. Maybe it’s the family piece. People look at the way your family operates and say like, “What’s wrong with you guys?” May maybe the study stuff it comes really quick to everyone else and you felt like do I fit in here? Am I missing something? That that is the summary of how I felt at that age. I think the truth is it’s easy to label people whether they fit, whether they don’t, what type of person they are, what type of person they’re not. I think that happens to us regularly in life.

Move forward just a couple of years. had a moment at my birthday where my aunt turned up with a present. She was the aunt that always bought the breast presents. And I suspect because someone else in the family bought them. And this time the person I suspect bought them was my cousin, like 3 years older, really cool guy, someone I really looked up to. They turned up with this present. And inside it was still to this day the single best pair of jeans I have ever owned. I still miss them, but they wouldn’t fit me anymore. You know, it’s like 11-year-old Alex. There was this moment where they produced something that just fit. They gave me a gift card to the store where all the cool kids dressed. And I remember going and buying this outfit and walking out to meet these friends and the first thing they said was this. When did you learn to dress? It was like my coming of age party, this celebration. But it all came because someone else did something for me.

That’s the conversation we’re having today. We’re having a conversation in this book of Ephesians about what exactly this writer Paul, this first century writer, this early follower of Jesus, what exactly he thinks Jesus has done for people like you and I. And at the same time, we’re having this other conversation, one that I think you may not have thought about, but it affects you directly. Where is God? Is he in a place like a church or is he somewhere else doing something else? As we kind of push into this conversation, I hope you have moments where you’re like, “Oh, that makes sense. That is what Jesus did.”

So, let’s start here. I would say this. In the ancient world, the people saw things as a split between sacred and secular. There was the like holy places, the places where God dwelt for the Jewish people, specifically the temple, and then there was everywhere else. In that time period between about 3,000 BC and about 500 AD, they thought about the world in this split level thing. So like to come back over here for a moment, there was there was the the the common spaces, the everywhere spaces, the the secular spaces. Then there was like round the back world’s worst magic trick coming up. Abracadabra. Uh he is there sacred space. This is like this other realm that you step into. And to move from one to the other was sometimes a as brief a movement as a step. You cross the threshold. You walk through the door. You entered into the temple. And suddenly you have been transported. No longer just in the the common space. Now in the clean space, the sacred space, the special kind of place.

Let me show you this briefly in the book of Exodus. Early in the story early in the Bible. Then have them make a sanctuary for me and I will dwell amongst them. This is God speaking to this group of people, these Jewish people. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. Sanctuary is this word quadesh. It’s it’s holiness. Yes. sanctuary. Yes, but sacredness. Make me a sacred space and I will be with you only in that space. Not anywhere else, not outside, but in that particular space, I will dwell with you. Couple of chapters over, have Aaron, your brother, brought to you from amongst the Israelites along with his sons. Bunch of names. Nabad, Abhu, Eleazar, Eithar. I spent ages practicing that the other day just so I could get through it. So they may serve me as priests. Make what? Sacred garments for your brother Aaron to give him dignity. And I know one last one. Exodus 29. Take a ram for the ordination and cook the meat in where a sacred place in this world. People were very aware that some places were sacred. Some people were sacred. Some books were sacred. Some foods were sacred. There was a divide between sacred and there was a divide between secular. Whichever terms you use, it’s all the same thing really. Sacred and secular, clean and common, holy and unholy, people, places, possessions. In this world, they were absolutely clear that sometimes you came across a place that was sacred. They were limited, permanent. God was there with them. And this is what I want you to remember most of all.

This is how this system works. Whether you fit in determined whether you could get in. Whether you fit in determined whether you could get in. Your access was controlled by perhaps who you were. Perhaps whether you were male or female, perhaps whether you had a physical deformity or not. There were all sorts of things that decided this means you have access and this means you don’t. This is a piece of stone taken from the actual temple in Jerusalem. On it there is a writing that says no foreigners welcome past this point. It was written in Greek and in Latin the two common languages of the day but not in any other languages of the Jewish people. Why? Because it’s not written to them. It’s just written to the outsiders. The ones that don’t belong. You might translate the sign in this way. If this is the only sign you could read, you aren’t welcome here. You aren’t beyond you aren’t welcome beyond this point.

Let me explain that maybe in terms that are a little closer to home. Imagine you’re driving down Broadway, maybe going up to Inglewood, maybe going down to Highlands Ranch, just taking a morning drive perhaps, maybe going to work, maybe going to school, wherever you’re going. And as you get to South Fellowship Church, this church, in case you’re not sure which church you’re in, as you get there, you notice a sign on the video board outside. got all the different things coming up there letting people know you can get coffee here letting people you know you can get all sorts of like services here and then in the sign it says in Spanish no Spanish speakers welcome that’s what this was like imagine that moment where you’re someone from a foreign world wanting to enter into this space because you’ve heard God can be found there and then in this moment where you’re entering in you find a sign not welcome here no further for you.

Now, the truth is, in the end, this wasn’t just people from a different place. Everybody hit a place where they had to stop. Where they met a door where they could go no further. Maybe not a physical door, but definitely a metaphorical door. At one point, foreigners no further. At one point, Jewish women no further. At one point, Jewish men no further. At one point, priests no further. And at one point just the high priest, the most sacred person once a year just for that moment. Yes. But every other time, no. The the ancient world understood there were lines between sacred and there were lines between secular. There were lines between common and there were lines between clean. And they knew how to operate within this system.

And then comes the work of Jesus. And what I hope you capture is just how different that is for us as Paul walks us into this. Want to make sure you catch up if you weren’t here last week. Nathan, one of our youth pastors, had a conversation with us about grace. This idea that in this story, Paul reintroduces the work of Jesus by saying that he has come to offer grace. By grace you have been saved are the famous words through faith and even that not of yourself. It’s a gift. No one can boast about doing it. He tells this story of the work of Jesus and the grace offer it makes to each of us. One of my favorite poets Christina Rosetti says this about the work of Jesus literally from the mouth of Jesus. Who else had dared for thee what I have dared? That’s what this story sketches out. It says, “This is what Jesus did for you. What no one else could do, what no one else would do, he did this this this communion table.” That’s what we celebrate. That Jesus against all odds turned up for people like you and I. That’s what we celebrated together last week.

I might even phrase the work of Jesus connected to this door as this. In Jesus, God turned the porch light on. There’s this moment where this door was closed and suddenly the light comes on welcoming people home. The door’s open. You’re you you’re welcome to return. Anyone anyone who will come to Jesus is is welcome now. It’s open. It’s there’s no closed doors is the message of grace. The porch light is on. Come home whenever you’re ready. That’s what we looked at last week.

And now we enter into this passage as Paul gets a little more technical. He he nudges us a little bit beyond what what God has done for you as individuals, me as individuals. That that’s our kind of almost extreme focus. But for about a hundred years, the conversation going on theology of Paul has been this like is Paul really interested in individuals or is he interested in the fact that God is creating a new humanity for himself? that God is pulling all sorts of people together, creating something brand new. And I hope you get to see in this passage that that I think I think it’s both really.

Ephesians chapter 2 11. Therefore, remember that formerly you were Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision which is done in the body by human hands. In his first verse, Paul says,”Remember, you were once people that met that wall that said, “At some point, stop. You can go no further. You can get no closer.” If God is at the center of that temple, there is a point where the line says, “No more for you. Don’t you don’t get to go any further.” Remember that because that remembrance reminds you just how far God has brought your story. Remember, you formerly were Gentiles.

Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ. He uses this mimmonic device where he repeats those two words. Remember remember the there’s a famous little English poem that goes like this about bonfire night guy forks day. Remember remember the 5th of November the gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot. Welcome. You are now partly English. Congratulations. pause isn’t as memorable as that, but it’s still designed to catch your attention. And what he essentially says is this. Remember, you didn’t fit in. Remember, you didn’t belong. Remember that in terms of the story of God and what he was doing, you were outsiders. Stood outside the door trying to get in. Stood next to the wall knowing that if you went any further, you’d be killed. Remember that position you were in, and that will remind you what God has done. He he kind of wants to get to the heart of this. So what watch what he does here. He goes through this list.

Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise. And this is like the low point for him of the chapter. Feel this verse because this is what he wants us to know about who we were without hope and without God in the world. Paul says that’s Ephesians who you were outsiders. The door was shut.

And then in verse 13, he turns a corner. Not quite like the corner he’ll turn a couple of chapters later when he goes from talking about what God has done to what we should do now. But this is an emotional corner. You feel the shift without hope, without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Everything changed in that moment. Welcomed home, now children of God.

But now in Christ Jesus, you were once far away, outside the door, waiting, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

And then watch this next verse. Central verse to the whole passage. Verse 14, for he himself is our peace, our shalom, our wholeness. He is the core of everything that we are. Who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. Says there was a wall in the temple, a wall that divided you from us. A wall that divided two huge groups of humanity and said you are different. you are separate. Said that wall is gone. But not just that. Yes, he’s talking about how people react to each other. He’s talking about how people despise each other across groups. And he talks about how he’s welcoming all people together into the the thing that Jesus has done. Yes, he’s talking about that. But but let’s keep going. See what else he’s talking about. Yes, on one hand, Jesus work broke down the dividing wall between us. But what else? For he himself is at peace who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier the dividing wall of hostility by setting aside in his flesh in the work he did the law the rules the the the not not the moral laws but the ceremonial laws that decided who got to go through the door who got access by setting aside his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace. And in one body, verse 16, to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put together death their host hostility. One more verse. He came and preached peace to you who were far away, not Jewish, outsiders, and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the father by the one spirit.

On one hand he’s talking about how people treat people and how everyone is now welcome. On the other hand he’s talking about just how far we can go. That at some point everyone had a stopping point in how we get to access God. That at some point there was a limit. At some point everybody had to stop a door that he couldn’t get through. And somewhere in the midst of that he says that what Jesus work did is this gone done everyone now everyone now is in everyone now has access the porch light is on come home that’s the welcome that Jesus work invites you in and our response is what is yes or no but suddenly there are no more doors that are locked there are no points where war stands and says you aren’t welcome here. Now in this story Paul says everyone is welcome. Now here’s the thing. What I don’t you want you to miss on one hand this is about access. Sure you now have access into those innermost places where God dwelt. But but what also does it mean that there’s no curtain, there’s no wall. There’s no door. I I would suggest it means this too. God moved out. There’s no longer about place, about a particular space. That God, as someone once said, is loose and alive in the world. He’s meeting with people. He’s changing people outside of the buildings where people assumed he occupied at one point. We continue verse 19.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household. In the first century, the household was the most important thing. You didn’t grow up at 18 and leave. You belonged forever. And Paul says, “You belong now. You’re part of this story now.” But not just a household family. Look at the language he uses now. Fellow citizens with God’s people, members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the cre chief cornerstone. Now, he’s not talking about being part of a family. He’s talking about a building, but not a physical building. He’s now talking something beyond the physical. He’s saying that on some level that temple, that central place where God dwelt, now that’s not a building. That’s not people.

In John chapter 2, Jesus stands in front of that temple, that famous temple in Jerusalem. He’s getting all sorts of questions thrown at him by this religious group, the Pharisees. In that moment, he says to them, “Knock this temple down and in 3 days I’ll build it again.” They respond to him, “This took 47 years to build. How will you build how will you knock it down and build it again?” And the writer John says this that well the temple he was talking about wasn’t physical. It was his body. There’s a shift in language in the New Testament where suddenly temples aren’t physical buildings anymore. The first step is it’s it was Jesus. This is John Matthew 21:42. Jesus said to them, “Have you ever read in the scriptures, the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?” This is what Paul is talking about. This building is now a Jesus thing.

We as people, we love to build. We love to build things and say that they’re important. And sure, for a while they are. When we first moved to Colorado, I remember going to visit some friends. as we drove down Mineral and there was this gorgeous glass building, glass and steel. Looked like it was full of loads of important people that did really important things. And on the top in white letters, it said Lumen. I had no clue what Lumen was, but it felt like just the way the building was designed, like how important it looked, that these people were changing the world. And I’m sure at some point the people who built it believed it would. And then what happens just a few years later is what? It all comes crumbling down. And why? Because the building is no longer important. And because it’s two miles to the nearest Costco and you need a nearer Costco than 2 miles away. And sure, there’s an In-N-Out Burger all the way over in Low Tree, but you need an In-N-Out Burger near to you. So, you can complain when people drive from other places to your In-N-Out Burger. And you need a Shields. Even though you don’t know what Shields is, but when it’s here, you’re going to love it cuz it’s paradise. This is why we change things. This is why we shift things. We already get a sense that buildings that we build don’t last.

But perhaps we feel this lurking suspicion that religious buildings, they matter, right? Because God meets with people in buildings. We build and we build and we build. And that’s why when I meet some of you who’ve been here for a while, you say things like, “In the ancient Colorado, there were fields. In the ancient Colorado, you could get to veil in an hour. We feel the shifts in how we structure things. And yet we assume some buildings maybe, just maybe, they last forever. Maybe they’re important. But this is what Paul says. 21:22. In him the whole building, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you two are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit.

I can imagine this moment where Paul, this good first century Jewish guy who assumes the s the temple is the center of the world starts to realize exactly what Jesus has done. And maybe the gasp as he says, “Wait, now Jesus is the sacred space.” And then a further gasp as he goes beyond that and he says, “You guys are the sacred space.” that somewhere when we step into following Jesus, we become part of this temple that isn’t physical, that actually stretches way beyond physical. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul says this, “Don’t you know that you yourselves at God’s temple, God’s spirit dwells in your midst.” Maybe you’ve walked into a place, a physical space, and because of the way that our minds still work, you assume it will feel sacred. When I was in Rome just this past summer, I walked into St. Peter’s in the Vatican just to see what it felt like. Did it feel spiritual? Did it feel sacred? There were people doing spiritual things. kids flowing fly flying along all the way over the Atlantic to do first communion in the Vatican. Also Instagram snappers snapping Instagram reels. There was a weird mix of like spiritual stuff and non-spiritual stuff. But the building, it’s just a building. There’s nothing there. The message that Paul has for us is that God is building something greater than just a building that doesn’t last. When you walk through Rome, you see all sorts of buildings that have been there for thousands of years. And then you watch as they decay. The Colosseum, one of the greatest of those buildings, now unrecognizable from what it was, unless you have a guide that can tell you where everything was. But you know what stands in the middle of the coliseum that doesn’t decay? Right now in the middle of the coliseum where Christians were killed, thrown to the lions, put to the sword, the stands the thing that lasts decade after decade, century after century, millennium after millennium. The work of Jesus that he has done for us, the thing that he has created in us. Buildings don’t last. The church lasts. And Paul says, “You are the temple now. There is no more temple anymore. No more physical space you have to go to experience God. No more stops. No more walls. Now it’s you and God. Open access all together. Here’s what I think this means.

The person you sit beside is greater than the building you sit inside. The person you sit beside is greater than the building you sit beside. That’s what this means now. That whoever you’re sat by, however strange they are, however good or bad their perfume is, whatever they smell like, whatever they look like, they they your sacred space. Now, that’s easy to believe when you sat next to your husband or wife or maybe hard to believe when you sit next to your husband and wife. But still, the heartbeat of what Paul says, the person you sit beside is greater than the building that you sit inside.

Further question, what does this mean for our church, this place called South? And if you’re not part of this place and you’re just visiting, it’s great. But for those of you that call South home, what’s it mean for us? I think one of the struggles most of us will find if we’re honest, is in the modern world, we have sacred and secular. We still try to make those divisions because it makes life easier. Occasionally, I’ll have a conversation with a friend here in our community who’s still figuring some of this stuff out, and a word will slip out and they’ll be like, “Oh man, I’m so sorry I said that here in this place.” And my response is usually, “I’m not sure that matters as much as you think.” Maybe you come into this place and someone tries to tell you a joke and you’re like, “Oh, no, no, no, you can’t tell me that joke.” But then you go outside and you like, “Tell me that joke because it sounds hilarious.” We have this sense of divide, this sense of different space that I’m not sure we’re supposed to retain anymore.

Three different theories on what God has done. It might be this. No space is sacred. Doesn’t matter where you do church, rented hall, building, some kind, park, doesn’t matter. It’s one theory. Anglican view, some of our friends in the Anglican community, some space is consecrated or sacred. You you pray over it. make it sacred for a moment while you’re doing that thing there and the moment you stop it no longer is. And then another of you all space is sacred. that the table gathering at home when you talk with your family about this work that Jesus has done sacred the prison cell where someone prays for perhaps the first time ever sacred hospital bed sacred the mountains on a camping trip sacred sacred sacred sacred that anywhere becomes a place where God meets with people that he dwells falls with you wherever you go.

Which leads us to South. I took a picture of this building that we do church in. We do church in on the way out last night. It’s about 7:00. No one around. Sun shining on the front of it. And I got to think for a moment. What is this space that we gather in? Some of you it might feel sacred. Been doing church here for 20, 30 years. Some of you, for some of us who met Jesus here for the first time, might feel sacred. For some of us that had a revival of faith, it might feel sacred. But think for a moment about what this building that that is a strip mall that a church board. Let’s say it like that. Think for a moment about what this building tells you about who we are as a community. What is the building supposed to tell you? We try and keep it up. Try and make sure it feels hospitable. Try and make sure you feel welcome here when you walk through the door. Try to do everything we can to use it for the best of our ability, for the best that the guard can do with it. All those different things.

But here’s what I suggest. This building is designed to tell you and I it tells you that the main action is somewhere else. That the main action isn’t this moment. This is good. This is valuable. This is where we come and we remind ourselves of the story. But that story matters most when you and I believe it to such an extent that we can take it from this place and allow it to transform the world around us. Somewhere everything that you can experience, every person you meet is more sacred than this space.

This is CS Lewis, British writer, theologian. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Next to the blessed sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. It’s an expansion of Paul’s idea that the followers of Jesus are the temple and therefore sacred. But in this idea, everyone is a marode day. Everyone has an image of God. And so everyone you meet is on some level sacred.

The person you sit beside is greater than the building you sit inside. It’s just another way to say there is no place more sacred than the person God has placed you by. That wherever you live, whether you operate, whatever you call the marketplace, whatever you call work, whatever you call any of those things that you do, you meet people constantly in that place who are sacred children of God, made by him, carrying his image. That in Paul’s understanding, in Jesus understanding is what is truly sacred. Jerob Manley Hopkins said, “For Christ plays in 10,000 places, but only if we go into those places believing that we carry the spirit of God and a part of that place where people encounter God for themselves.”

So a question for you. What would it take for you to live in this way in the places God has placed you? What would it take for you to assume that you don’t come to here to encounter God and then go home to the common space? But what would it take for you to believe that when you come here, you remind yourself of the story? And everywhere you go, you encounter people that God calls sacred. You encounter places where God’s spirit in you can impact those people around you. But that happens no matter where you are. Church is not the place where you do spirit things and then go to places where you do non-spirit things. It’s a place where you remind yourself of the story and then you go to live it in every other part of the world.

Dan mentioned our friend Dell. This is him. I’m one of his I think birthday trips out. Another picture of him celebrating I think it was his 97th birthday was it? Anyone know 97th? I don’t remember. This is him back a few years before as some of you might remember him. I mentioned Dell not because I have to mention him but because I think he was someone that lived out this story that lived out this idea that sacred space is other places or sacred space is wherever you happen to be. Dell started a chaplency thing, started working with people in the military to help develop chapency programs so that there could be people to counsel them, people to navigate faith with them. But this is just Dell’s heart. One of the things they’d love about him, a normal person would think, you know, I’m going to have to pick, right? Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. I’m going to have to go to one of them. But not Dell. go into all of them. And and some people would think like, well, you got to pick a country, right? You got to say like America or France or some place. But not Dell does like we’ll just go to the whole world. Just everybody will include the world as our mission field. He was someone that believed that deep in his heart that this place was not the main action. That this place was not the center of anything. This is a place we come and we get together. We remind ourselves of the story. The main action happens in small groups, in service opportunities, on the mission field, in your neighborhood, in your marketplace job. It always happens somewhere else.

When I got to Colorado, I really struggled after a couple of years. And God gave me this verse. The Lord will guide you always. He will satisfy your needs in a sunscorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Maybe it’s a verse for you as well that this place does the watering shore. But the main point is what happens somewhere else.

As we come to this table, this table is the closest thing to sacred place I believe you can find. We don’t believe in this community that the bread and the blood literally become the body, the wine and the bread literally become the body and blood of Jesus. But we do believe that he is present in a particular way. Present to those of you who come in limping. The world is hard right now. The story feels broken. Present to you who come in leaping. The story is good. Present to each of us who have that sense of need. Present to each of us that have that sense of celebration of joy. We come here and we remember that somewhere at this table when Jesus first broke bread and said to his disciples, “Take, eat. This is my body broken for you.” And when he said, “Take, eat. This is take drink. This is my blood shed for the sins of the world.” He wasn’t just giving us a nice memorial story. Wasn’t asking us to remember him because he felt like he wanted to be remembered. In essence, what he says is, “Come here. Make this story central again in a new way. Remind yourselves. Remember, remember where you were. Remember, remember what I have done for you. Remind yourselves that this temple is not a temple anymore. That this is the temple that God lives in and take that to the world.”

That’s what this table does. Not just a memory. It’s more than a memory. It’s life. And so we come here not because we have to, but we come here because this is where we remember. We remember.

So I’m going to invite you to stand with me. And if you call yourselves a follower of Jesus, whatever your denomination, whatever your background, whatever you feel about yourself right now, and you know that you need to remember, come here and remember what Jesus did. No more sacred spaces except this one. Church is now the sacred space and we take that message to the world.

Jesus, no word can describe what you did here. You broke down doors, broke down walls. You created space for us to meet you, to know you. You are loose in the world now. And we are part of that story. Help us to feel that again. To live it out in whatever community you’ve called us to. This isn’t sacred space. Out there is sacred space. Wherever we go is sacred space. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.