"The Old Rooster"

Ephesians 2:11-22

 

     During vacation I finally had the opportunity to finish the book Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson.  Tyson teaches African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  Part of the story revolves around Tyson's father who was a Methodist minister in Oxford, North Carolina and a Civil Rights activist. Eventually he was moved to another parish but it was unclear why.  Some people felt that he had been run off.  He said he felt it was time to move on, that he had done all that he could do in Granville County.  What I found interesting was his response to his critics.  "Maybe some of those old boys were glad that I left.  You know they were.  And maybe some of them were trying to make me leave, and maybe they did some crowing after I was gone.  You know, the rooster crows and the sun comes up, and the old rooster thinks that he has done it.  But the Lord sees it a little bit differently."

 

      Isn't that what Paul is saying in Ephesians?  It is not about what we do, it is about what God does.  Left up to us, we build dividing walls of hostility.  We do it in families, we do it in churches, we do it in communities, we do it with nations.  The situation between Lebanon and Israel being a prime example.  We like to think it is the other person who builds the walls, that we are the bridge builders. We like to think that it is the other person who starts the argument and that we are the peacemakers.  But Paul makes it very clear.  Jesus is our peace.  It is Jesus who has made us both one.  It is Jesus who has broken down the dividing wall of hostility.  "The old rooster thinks that he has done it, but the Lord sees it a little bit differently."

 

       What causes the walls to be built?  There are any number of reasons.  Fear, pride, selfishness, greed, ignorance, gossip.  Who among us can say we have never helped build a wall?  What finally tears down those walls?  Grace.  The grace of God demonstrated most clearly in Jesus the Christ.      

 

        What is our responsibility as Christians and as a church?  According to Paul our task is not to bring about peace.  Our task is to provide a place where the peace of God can be experienced.  It is to be open to the grace of God that can change not only the lives of others, it can change us.  It is not to build more walls.  The church is not an us against them mentality.  It is a place where we recognize that we all need the grace and peace of God.

 

        It is ironic that the Passing of the Peace during a worship service builds more walls than it does bridges.  There was an elderly woman in the church in South Bend that said if we get up one more time and traipse around the sanctuary to pass the peace I am never coming back.  My mother and brother always share how disruptive it is to their worship when people are wandering about the sanctuary.  Now you have to understand that I come from a non hugging family.   Once we get to know someone it is okay, but we don't hug anyone we don't know.  And then there is the other extreme.  There are people who will not go to a particular church because they do not get up and move about to pass the peace. 

 

         The same is true of hymns.  They are meant to praise God, to help us hear a word from God, to move us to greater service.  Instead, we build up walls around them.  We need to be singing the old hymns, we need more praise music.  What is sacred to some is a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal to others.

 

       Much of this has to do with personal taste, where we come from, what we are used to and familiar with.  It seems to me what we need to think about is whether or not we are providing an atmosphere in which the peace of Christ can be experienced, not just by me, but also by the five year old and the fifteen year old and the seventy-five old and the person who comes from New Jersey as well as the person who comes from Tennessee.

 

        In reality those are just minor issues.  If we are building walls as we consider the minor issues of the church, I doubt if we will be building any bridges as people deal with major issues in the world.  I think there are times when we see some horror done by one person to another we think to ourselves, I would never do anything like that. I am above that kind of thing. And then we hear about the wife of a Baptist minister shooting him while he is asleep.  I must admit that I have been sleeping with one eye open since I heard about that.  The church and the community were stunned.  You begin thinking that he must have abused her or their children.  It turns out it was over money, some bad investments that put them in a financial bind.  And you begin thinking about what might push me over the edge.  What is my boiling point?  Is there something that would push me to do something like that?  I don't have to worry about it as long as things are going well but what if the bottom fell out.   And as much as I want to say no, I am above doing anything that would hurt someone else, the truth is there is probably a little of Cain and David in all of us.  And the truth is we all had our part in putting Jesus on the cross. 

 

        God not only broke down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile in Jesus.  God broke down the wall that divided us from God.  In Jesus the wall of sin and death came tumbling down and we were given new hope and new life.  It wasn't anything we did, it is all gift from God.

 

        Soon after the report of the Visioning Committee was completed I was visiting Joe  Watkins in the hospital.  He had read the report and he made the comment, "If you don't do anything else, put glass doors in the entry way.  Make it more open and welcoming to visitors."  In other words, make it a place where God's grace can be experienced.  And when lives are changed and we think the old rooster has done some great thing, remember that the Lord sees it a little bit differently.