Sermon Tone Analysis

I want to welcome you to Christ Journey from wherever you may be joining us today, whether here among our Coral Gables family, with our brothers and sisters at Kendall, or around the world through church online, I bring greetings to you in the spirit of hope, and I want to begin with this question:

Is unity amidst division possible?

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there was an election widely heralded as the most divisive presidential contest in the history of the republic of the United States.

On one side, you had an establishment candidate funded by deep-pocketed elites, who represented entrenched political interests and the continuation of the status quo.

On the other side were the populists.

These rabble-rousers who lived far from the power centers of New York and Washington, D.C., felt disenfranchised, exploited and ignored.

For them, the rapid technological change of recent decades had made them seem expendable.

For all parties involved, this upcoming election was the last chance for ordinary people to determine the direction of the United States for decades to come.

I am, of course, describing the election of 1896 between William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan.

(https://www.stockinvestor.com/23720/divisive-election-american-history/)

Division and discord seems to permeate into every generation regardless of the issues at hand.

Mark Twain once mused, “History does not repeat itself - but it does rhyme.”

And it seems now that rhyme of generations past is screaming in our ears.

Division rules the day.

1896, 2017, and beyond, the divides of culture, politics, society, and religion perseveres.

It is systemic.

It is institutional.

And it is also very, very personal.

The discords that separate exist both out there and right here (point to chest).

As one theologian so aptly observed, “Every person is a civil war.”

(William Barclay) We are inclined toward disunity.

It’s in our bones - in the chains of our DNA - to oppose each other and assert our will over another.

It could even be said that the origins of division itself began right here (point to chest)… and then radiated out from the human heart.

Take toddlers for example.

Many of you know that I have a vivacious 3 year old girl named Hannah going on 23 and an 18 month old wild boy named Levi.

As soon as my boy could roll over, he began attacking his sister with that big round belly of his.

At times, they would giggle, and it was cute.

My wife and I would try to capture it on video and then show others how cute our kids are, But other times, that boy seriously meant to do his sister harm.

He wanted her to know at the tender of age of nine months old who she was dealing with.

How did he learn that?

Why do we do this?

Could it be that division runs through our veins?

The history of our faith from the very beginning in the garden insists that division began when first humanity made that fateful decision to assert their will our God’s... Every human being since has been fighting the war within to control God… others... and ourselves.

We're walking civil wars.

If you disagree with me, just got to Krispy Kreme and try eating one doughnut.

You know it’s bad for you, but you can’t stop.

And before you know it, you’ve eaten a dozen doughnuts and regret every bite.

We hate our sin and love our sin at once and the same time.

The divisive tension we observe out there starts right here (point to chest)

It is not unique to this moment in time.

It is the very essence of humanity itself, and our divisive nature bears itself out in the very institutions that we create: political institutions, social institutions, religious institutions, family institutions.

And if you’re anything like me, you got to wonder, is there any hope for unity?

Out there?

In politics, with my job, for my family?

Is there any hope for unity in here?

To live as a whole self with with God… with others?

If there was a time, of all times, now is the time we need to address division as the people of God and seriously ask this question: Is unity amidst division possible?

What if the church made a culture splash for unity rather than a culture clashof division?What if the church soaked the culture with the refreshing waters of forgiveness and grace, bearing witness to how the Kingdom of God actually intersects withour world, not against it?

And perhaps as we do so, we'll experience a wave of forgiveness and grace within our own lives.

If history indeed rhymes, foretelling of our future to come, then I for one am ready to sing a different tune.

One of the greatest song sheets that provide direction for the church today is Paul’s letter to Ephesus.

Few cities in the ancient world compare to our own Miami as Ephesus.

The Roman Empire revered Ephesus - much the same as the Americas revere Miami as a gateway city.

Ephesus was a powerful commercial port and the capital of Rome's Asian province.

The city boasted one of the 7 wonders of the world, the Temple of Artemis (otherwise Diana in Roman mythology), goddess of childbirth and virginity.

The city idolized womanhood.

It also boasted a wide cultural influence among the Roman world for arts and drama, constructing a 25,000 seat theater - second only to the Roman coliseum.

Moreover, Ephesians satisfied their intellectual cravings each morning at the third largest local library in the world, the Library of Celsus, which housed 12,000 scrolls and faced the rising sun to the east for the morning light.

It was to this progressive, powerful, influential, culturally-minded city that Paul established the earliest Christian church in Asia-minor, who faithfully helped others find and follow Jesus Christ well into the 5th-century beginnings of Islam.

So, let me ask you: If you were Paul writing to modern-day Ephesus, our city Miami, and to America at large, what would be the most significant issue that you would want to address in your one shot letter to the new church plant?

For Paul under Holy Spirit guidance, of all the human and theological issues prevailing the culture both then and now, Paul made a culture splash answering this central question: Is unity amidst division possible?

His letter begins with one long, unbroken lyric of praise that splashes unity with every phrase.

Listen as I read it:

"3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are unitedwith Christ.

4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ (another image of unity).

This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.

7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.

8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan.

10 And this is the plan: (this is what theologians across the centuries have called the great open secret of Jesus) At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.

(the great hope of unity)

11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.

12 God’s purpose was that we Jews (the people of God then) who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13 And now you Gentiles (any non-Jewish person separate from the original promise) have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you.

And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.

14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us (what started as you Jews, they Gentiles - have now become one - us, the community redeemed in Christ) the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people.

He did this so we would praise and glorify him."

The key thought of Ephesians is this: "Jesus Christ is the center in whom all things unite, and the bond who unites all things.”

Jesus is both the rallying point and the glue, forming a NEW REALITY in an old world that in Christ, the Kingdom of God is here and now.

Amidst the fracturing, divisive, slanderous whirlwind of our culture, unity rooted in forgiveness and grace is the single, greatest witness of the church in North America and our city.

Wherever you see unity in the name of Jesus, you see the Kingdom of God here and now.

In this lyric, Paul identifies 12 images for unity in the Kingdom of God.

I want to look at 3 in particular with you.

First, at the top of his lyric, Paul wrote, " Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault.

God chose us for the purpose of forming our character into ones who would become: Hagios kai Amamos.

This Greek work, Hagios literally means reverent.

Often, you hear this word translated as ‘holy.’

Someone who is reverent expresses a right ordering of God and others in his or her life.

A non-reverent person prioritizes the self over God and others, thus causing division.

Inherent within a hagios life, a holy life, is unity.

A reverent person rightly orders God above all else, seeking to reconcile with God and others amidst times of conflict.

The other Greek word Paul used is Amamos, which literally means an unblemished sacrifice.

This word is seemingly unrelated to other one, which makes the paring of these two terms together interesting.

First century listeners would have perked up in their chair and thought: what does Paul mean by hagios kai amamos?

Hagios is a character word.

That makes sense.

But Amamos refers to an animal sacrifice; how could that apply to us?

In the same manner that God desired only the best sacrifice from his people, God, too, desires only the best from you.

In Spanish, the Greek Word amamos means ‘we love.’