Ekklesia - March 29th, 2015 sermon

By Pastor Greg

This is Sujata. She lives in India and is a Dalit. She is not a criminal but is treated as one. Her only crime is that she was born to the wrong parents. And when they died she became the orphan of an “Untouchable.”

In the Hindu Caste system, there are over 160 million people living in India just like Sujata. They have been born into the lowest class - the “Dalits”. Unlike America, where people might work themselves out of a lower class, these Dalits carry that label the rest of their lives. For the rest of their life they may not eat with people of a higher caste, they may not drink from the same well, they may not attend the same temple, and they may not wear their shoes in the presence of an Upper Caste individual. But most of all, they may not be touched. Touch a Dalit, and you become defiled, which is why in India today, a Dalit fears for their life. They run the risk of being publically humiliated, beaten, raped, and paraded naked through the streets. Even the local police simply watch and laugh. These are your outcasts, your dregs of society in the Hindu culture.

Sujata longs to be touched and longs to be held. However, she is forced to sleep in a room apart from the rest. Oh sure, she has long black hair like the other girls. Like the others, she gets hungry and thirsty, yet she is forced to wait for whatever scraps might be left once the rest have their fill. Even then, she cannot eat with them, drink with them, or sit with them. She is cast aside and separated from the rest of society.

Can you image living like this? Where might this person find joy? Where might they find a place that they belong? Tossed away or cast away by their society, will this person ever find hope or love? Probably not, unless, of course, a local Christian assembly that is truly obedient to the teachings of Jesus reaches out to them and makes them a part of the Ekklesia; the Body of Christ.

Accepting outsiders was a big issue in the early church. It was difficult for the Jewish Christians and it was difficult for the Gentile Christians. In the Corinthian Church, there was a division. People segregated themselves by how wealthy they were, by whose teaching they followed, whether they were single or married, and even by ethnicity. Throughout his ministry, the Apostle Paul continued to remind these early Christians that there is oneness and unity in Christ. Turn to Ephesians Chapter 2 and look how he attempts to draw the people together regardless of any former segregation or division.

11 Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. 12 In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. 13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.

14 For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. 15 He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. 16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.

17 He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. 18 Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.

19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22 Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:11-22).

In another letter, Paul says, “all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you” (Galatians 3:27-29).

The early church struggled with segregation. Today’s church struggles with segregation as well. The church today builds barriers instead of bridges. We separate ourselves into little groups, proud of our theology or our ethnicity or our station in life. What concerned Paul, and what should concern us, is that when we segregate we sacrifice relationships with people who are different from us. We exclude rather than include. Those who are different are cast aside and possibly lost. This is not how it should be.

Picture, if you can, young Sujata as she is brought into the church. She is loved, not abused. She is welcomed with open arms, not thrust aside. She is treated with honor and dignity, not despised and rejected. Picture, if you can her first meal with the Body of Christ, this Ekklesia. Bread is shared; cups are passed. She sits at a table with the rest of these Christians who passionately follow the teachings of Jesus. She is embraced. At this Agape meal, this “Love Feast”, she sits in her seat while these people, people unlike any she has ever encountered, kneel before her, remove her shoes, and touch the feet of a girl whom society has called untouchable. To her, this “Love Feast” is unlike anything she has ever imagined.

For those people who have been cast aside by our society, the Body of Christ is unlike anything they have ever imagined. What society would throw away, the Ekklesia treats as valuable. What society finds repulsive, the local assembly of Christians embraces with loving arms. And nothing demonstrates this so thoroughly as the Agape Meal; the Love Feast. It is a time when all of us are united because of the sacrificial death of Jesus; united because His blood paid the penalty for our sin and because the Holy Spirit shows no bias. It is a time when the barriers of race, gender, social status, Spiritual gifts, and most of all Spiritual maturity are laid aside. In God’s kingdom, all are welcome at His table regardless of where they live, what they look like, their social status, their gender, how long they have been a Christian, or even what they do for His kingdom. The Ekklesia, this local assembly of Christians, is unlike anything else seen on earth.

It is important that the Church remember who we are. It’s important we remember, “God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right” (Acts 10:24-25). We need to stop dividing ourselves and instead look for ways to become united. We need to act like the Body of Christ -the Ekklesia of the Lord. What better way than to gather for our own “Agape Meal”; to kneel before someone and demonstrate with our hands that although our society calls you an outcast, in our eyes you are a part of this family; this Body of Christ.