A Paradox - Ephesians 2: 11-22.

There was a story in the news some time ago, 1957 to be precise, about a small band of monks in Bangkok, Thailand, who were told that they must relocate to make room for a new freeway.

Most of the monks meager possessions were packed up and could easily be transported to their new home, except for one item: a huge clay Buddha.

This being the very heart of their spiritual life, there was no way it could be left behind.

A large crane was brought in to lift the Buddha onto a truck fro transportation but as it was

being moved out to the truck a great long crack appeared. The distraught head monk ordered the workers to set it down and cover it with a tarp until he could figure out what to do next.

Before retiring that night he went outside, torch in hand, to inspect his treasure. When he threw back the tarp he was startled to see a bright gleam reflecting through the crack caused by the moving of their precious figure.

Beneath eight inches of clay lay a solid gold Buddha, 8 1/2 feet tall, weighing 2 1/2 tons. Historians believed that it was case with clay 400 years previous to prevent it being carried off by the invading Burmese.

A beautiful gold Buddha, the true Buddha, hidden beneath a shell of clay.

This, for me, is what lies behind Paul's letter to the Ephesians, that triumphant letter in which he proclaims Christ as the ruler of all creation and the church as Christ's body.

The church - God's chosen instrument for the reconciliation of the whole world. The church will bring together the circumsized and the uncircumsized - Jew and Gentile into one common body.

The church will be a colony of heaven on earth, the divine gene pool from which the world will be created n God's image. Christ is our peace. Paul says, in his flesh he has made both groups, Jew and Gentile into one. He has broken down the dividing wall, the hostility, between us.

And like a bolt of God's own lightning he has cracked open the protective clay shell of the law with its commandments and ordinances and exposed the golden truth beneath. The truth, Paul says, that joined together through Christ Jesus you will grow together spiritually into a place where God will live.

I will say, possibly like most of you, I belong to a church that falls somewhat short of Paul's vision.

Maybe you have heard, in the past few years, lines have been drawn in the sand on the issue of blessing same sex marriages.

A practicing gay bishop has been elected in the Episcopal Church in the U. S. A . , which is causing a split r i g h t through the middle of t h e w o r l d w i d e Anglican Communion.

There is still controversy swirling around whether we should be consecrating women as bishops. Even though the appointment of women as bishops by the Church of England was recently voted as being "theologically justified," it seems to be just one more wedge being driven into the split in an already divided church.

Your own list may not as spectacular but I bet you have one. Congregations split over the selection of music prescribed for a certain Sunday. Whether The Book of Common Prayer is more appropriated than the Book of Alternative Services for Sunday Worship and vice versa. How the parish hall should be decorated.

So why are we so surprised when we keep hearing about our church attendance dropping off? While we argue about everything from the hymns we sing on Sunday to the colour of the carpet and who may marry whom, the next generation walks right by our doors without bothering to take a look inside.

If they are looking at all they are looking for a place where the light of Chris is shining through the cracks and all of the protective clay is crumbling away. They are looking for a place where God lives and Christ is present and alive in the people inside.

There are no clear answers as to who is right and who is wrong in any of t h e s e i s s u e s. Pe o p l e on each s i d e claiming theirs is the way of the t r u t h a n d everyone else is w r o n g. You may have heard someone refer to theirs as a "caring parish," implying that any other parish which does not meet their enlightened view is somehow not caring of God's people. That to me is contrary to Paul's vision of a church where God will live.

So how do we live with his paradox between Paul's vision of peoples united in purpose working together under Christ's banner and the ugly truth of what we know about our humanity.

A few years ago I listened to a sermon by Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest and gifted lecturer from a small parish in rural Georgia.

In her sermon she spoke of this paradox between Paul's vision and our own human frailty. She said that the easiest way to live with it would be to decide that Paul was dreaming. It was a glorious dream, but it was still a dream. Or, we could decide that he was right - that the church really is Christ's broker here on earth and the sooner we win over the world the better.

She went on to say: I do not think we can afford either of these options, without betraying our head, Jesus, who was stuck with the same paradox.
      He was ruler
    of the universe
    Born in a barn.
        He was the
  great high priest.
    Despised by the
priesthood of his day.
        He was the
      cosmic Christ
    Hung out to dry
        on a cross.

On what grounds do we, as a body, expect any more clarity than was given him?

The difference is that most of our problems were brought on by ourselves, while Jesus suffered through no fault of his own. What we share with Him, however, is that he is a part of our mixed parentage.

We are children of God through our shared salvation in the blood of Jesus, which he shed for us on the cross.

We are also children of Adam and eve with a hereditary desire for forbidden fruit.

On the one hand we are citizens of heaven with Jesus Christ as our brother. On the other hand we are taxpayers here on earth. It's no excuse for all the problems we cause ourselves, but I believe it does help to explain why we get ourselves into all of life's difficulties.

What Paul asks us to believe is that our twoness have already been healed in our oneness with Jesus.

We are still our same clumsy selves, hobbling along in our plaster cast, bumping into things, knocking things over, stepping on the cat. But when we allow the cast to cracked open and taken off, the golden glow of the truth will shine forth from us all.

The truth that we have been made one in Him who is the way, the truth and the life, a place where God lives.