no division

Good morning brothers and sisters,
Yesterday's worship was a wonderful opportunity to welcome Joyce, Marla, Colleen, Amy and John into membership at Laurelton officially and to celebrate God's calling in our life. We also had the joy of welcoming AJ into membership in Christ's family by baptism. I left church feeling very blessed. I want to remind you of the interfaith Thanksgiving service at Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (1000 N Winton, about 1/2 mile south of church) tomorrow night at 7. It's a great opportunity to worship with other followers of Jesus and to give thanks to God for all our blessings.

Speaking about other Christians, Paul writes in our passage today to a church mostly made up of gentile believers. It's hard for us to imagine the division that had existed between Jews and gentiles, but any division we see in society now can give us the idea. Paul writes that when we follow Christ, we are joined to his one body and we become one. At the cross, Christ puts to death all that divides the church. In him we have unity, welcome and fellowship. Part of our challenge is to make that unity more visible as we welcome others as brothers and sisters.

God bless,
Sam


Ephesians 2:14-22
¹⁴For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. ¹⁵He 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, ¹⁶and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.

¹⁷So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; ¹⁸for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, ²⁰built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. ²¹In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; ²²in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.