The Chief Cornerstone - Ephesians 2:11-22

2:11-13 - Here is another time when the NIV is coming in handy, because honestly for the life of me, I have no idea what Paul is talking about. He just talked about why God wants all people back (love), and how that works (grace), but now there's another piece of the puzzle to reconcile, and that has to do with the Jews who had the gospel and the gentiles who are new to it. Paul reminds his audience that they were born gentiles and were "without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." The IM clarifies this statement nicely, saying, "The gentiles had been 'without Christ' and were 'aliens' and 'strangers,' meaning they were not part of Israel and had not entered into covenants with God. But now that they had entered into the gospel covenant with Jesus Christ, Gentiles who were once 'far off' were 'made night by the blood of Christ.'" Christ had brought non-believers to eternal life through His atonement, and that was a pretty novel concept to both Jew and gentile at this time. But the part that really struck me was when Paul talked about "having no hope, and without God in the world." I know that people outside of the gospel will say that you can be happy and have hope without being committed to the gospel, and that's true because the Lord has provided ways for those who don't have access to the gospel to be happy, and I think that that is what the "Light of Christ" brings to people. But I know that for me personally, the gospel fills a void that would be gaping open without it. I spent many years living my life without God in it. I know that he watched out for me, but I was not interested in Him, and I abandoned the gospel, and there were reasons for that, and honestly, I wish I had never done that, but I don't regret it because it's been a part of my journey. I know what it's like to not have God in my life, I know what it's like to have no hope. And really, what is hope? To me it is a trust that eventually things will be better, and I've definitely lived without the trust that things will be better, and that's demoralizing to the point of complete dysfunction. And I believe that this life can have joy in it, but for the most part, this is a hard life to live, regardless of your station or status. Paul is simply reminding the gentiles that they have lived a life previously that did not have a relationship with God or the hope that the gospel provides. 2:14-18 - Now when it comes to between the Jews and the gentiles, Jesus Christ "made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us." This statement refers to the temple in Jerusalem. The IM explains, "the temple in Jerusalem contained several courts or areas, and only certain types of people could enter each court. Gentiles were permitted to ascend the temple mount and enter the outer court, called the court of the Gentiles. The inner courts of the temple, however, were shielded from Gentile access by a special partition or wall that stood about one meter high. If a Gentile passed beyond this wall, he could be put to death… In Ephesians 2:12-19, Paul spokes about the 'wall of partition,' meaning the spiritual barrier that separated Jews from Gentiles and also separated Gentiles from God. These and all other barriers were removed by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Gentiles who accepted the gospel were no longer to be regarded as aliens, strangers, and foreigners- they were now of 'the household of God.' part of God's covenant people. By accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, both Jewish and Gentiles members of the Church had access to God." Apparently, later in Paul's third mission he took a group of gentile converts to the temple in Jerusalem and it caused a riot, because clearly the Jews had not accepted them as fellow members of God's people. 2:19 - Now, through the atonement, Jesus intended for all believers to be one, regardless of origin or ethnicity. No one who believed in Christ was meant to be a "stranger" or "foreigner" but to be treated as "fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God." The article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com quotes Mark E. Petersen as noting, "One of the areas in which we are most lacking as a people is tat of fellowshipping. Paul taught anciently that all saints should be fellowshipped and made to feel that they were fellow citizens in the kingdom and that they were truly of the household of God. People need this sense of belonging. Everyone needs it. Some have left the Church because they were not given this feeling. They were not truly welcomed. Some have been ignored by other members. That is not the spirit of the gospel. It is not the way to promote activity in the Church. By our friendly spirit, by our adoption of Paul's teaching, by our truly regarding all Saints as fellow citizens in the kingdom and as members of the household of God, whether they are active or inactive, newcomers or members of long standing- I saw by such an attitude we can and will save many souls." I really struggle with the concept of fellowship, but not for the reason that might be implied. I feel that too many members are uptight and hesitant to fellowship, and there are a lot of reasons for that. For instance, there is a new family in my ward, and my ward is almost completely white, and not just white, but never left Utah white. But this new family isn't white, they are from a war torn country and have encountered a lot of trauma related to the war. That trauma comes with baggage and I accept that issue because we all know that I have plenty of my own problems. I saw her and her kids at church one Sunday and I was surprised because I didn't know that they were members. She sat alone with her kids and left right in the middle of sacrament. I talked to her about it later and she said that she felt uncomfortable and that's why she left. It made sense because a couple of ward members told me afterward how "inappropriate" it was that she left during the sacrament. I was not pleased, so she was not wrong, she felt judged because she was absolutely being judged. I told her that I would sit by her the next week. The next Sunday rolls around and I see her so I go sit with her and she stays for longer than sacrament, and her kids are doing really well, but they are little and get bored and start playing with their toys and a little bit loudly, and people are giving her dirty looks. I make eye contact with them and stare at them until they look away, because homey don't play that. They need to keep their eyes to themselves. There is another family with some little kids playing a little loudly with their toys a couple of seats over, and so the non-white kids go over and they all start playing together, being a little bit loud, and suddenly the white parents want their kids to stop playing with the brown kids. I honestly don't think it was a conscious racism thing, but more of a "we need to be reverent during church" but that made the brown mom feel like her kids were not welcome and that they were acting inappropriately, etc. I can understand wanting your kids to be reverent during church, but come on, don't just enforce it when the brown kids start coming around to play too. They are kids, this is a pandemic, and their mom is trying really hard to do her best. She's a brown, traumatized woman with an accent sitting alone at church with her four little kids, let's cut her some slack, let's be kind, let's be her friend, honestly, it is not that hard. 2:20-22 - Paul notes that even though the Jews and the gentiles differ in background, they "are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together growth unto an holy temple in the Lord." The IM notes, "the Savior referred to Himself as the stone which the builders had rejected, which had become the 'head of the corner,' or in the words of Paul, the 'chief corner stone.' A cornerstone is a massive stone that is laid at the corner of a foundation to give strength and stability to the entire structure. A cornerstone can also be used to connect two adjoining walls to form a corner. Paul used this imager to explain that Jesus Christ provides strength and stability to the whole Church and that through Jesus Christ, Jewish and Gentile members of the Church are bound together." This is one thing that I absolutely love about the structure of the Church is that it is all uniform. In fact, this is one of the major selling points for me because the doctrine is the same regardless of where you go, the standards are the same, the ordinances are the same. When I was deciding which church was true, of course it went, "is there a God?" "if yes, then which one?" "Ok, it's Jesus, which church is his true church?" And one of the factors that I considered is that if God truly loves everyone, his gospel wouldn't be ministered in some obscure small town somewhere that no one can find. God would do his best to get his gospel message to as many people as he could, and the message would be the same for all people. With that requirement, I decided that it had to come down between Catholicism and Mormonism. These are the only two churches that have a large, worldwide gospel based on Jesus Christ that is consistent across borders and nationalities. I choose the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for various reasons and I have no regrets. The consistency of doctrine as it perpetuates around the world is a very important requirement for me to make sense of the gospel in my brain. Having a united leadership that receives revelation from God directly is very important too. It's also interesting to note that when Paul talks about bring Jew and gentile together in the gospel, he says that Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone, meaning that He is the one who supports both the Jewish line into the gospel and the gentile line into the gospel. It's just an interesting way to visualize this concept.