Fences

  "Good fences make good neighbors" is a famous line from Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall."  In it two neighbors walk the stony fence line in the spring putting back the rocks that have fallen over the winter.  One is thinking that, "Before I built a wall I’d ask to know/What I was walling in or walling out," and mentions to his neighbor that they really don't need a fence between them.  But the other automatically quotes his father who always said, "Good fences make good neighbors."   

  The latter part of Ephesians 2 concerns the breaking down of the wall between Jews and Gentiles who have become Christians.  The wall has been broken down by Christ who has made the two into one in him thus bringing peace.  The Christian world today is no longer broken down into Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, but, nevertheless, we have lines or fences that divide us. Today we have political fences, cultural fences, economic fences, racial fences and theological fences.  

  But we Christians are not a people of fences.  We are a people of unity.  Paul says, we are "no longer foreigners and aliens" because we are all citizens of God's Kingdom, members of God's household.  We are individually members and corporately members.  We are individually houses or temples of God and we are corporately one house or temple of God.  There is no room for a fence.

  For Reflection:  Jesus died for unity, reconciliation and forgiveness.  What fences have I erected with other Christians?  What am I walling in or walling out?  What am I doing to tear down my walls and the walls in the world today?

  Let us pray.  Father, I thank you that through the work of Jesus we are no longer foreigners and aliens, but we are fellow citizens with all of God's people and members of God's household.  We are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone.  I thank you that in him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple.  And I thank you that in him we are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (based on Ephesians 2:19-22)
  

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