BREAKING BORDERS

The great mystery of our faith is that God overcame the difference between God and human beings. God became one with us. 

It seems impossible. The difference is too great. After all, God isn't just more powerful and greater than we are. God is in a totally different category. God is beyond all categories. God is not just "larger" than we are. God is unlimited. How can the limitless God become a human being? But God did.

At Christmas, we celebrated this great and wonderful truth.

But it doesn't stop with overcoming that difference. Once one with us, the God-made-flesh overcame all the barriers within the human race. For example, for the Jewish people, every other person in the world was an outsider. No matter what part of the world you came from, near or far, you were a "Gentile," and all Gentiles were outsiders.

So what do we see happen after Jesus is born? Gentiles from the distant east come and do him homage, and give him gifts. God is crossing the gaps between human beings. 

In the Letter to the Ephesians, today, it is stated as clearly as could be: The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus. And at the very end of the Gospel of Matthew, the risen Christ says to his disciples, Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.

In Jesus, God broke the barriers between human beings and the Divine, and within the human race. Perhaps, we are most like God when we break down the walls that separate us, into "us' and "them", whether in our minds, our religions, our politics, or at the border.

That is what we celebrate on this feast of Epiphany.

Let’s see graphically how Christ continues to cross the boundaries between human beings.

Today we celebrate the Festival of Nations, with delicious food from all the nations represented in our parish. Picture, if you will, individuals from all over the world standing in a great circle around our altar, receiving Holy Communion - the Body of Christ. Picture someone who is...Chinese, Mexican, German, Estonian, Iranian, English, Turkish, Brazilian, Russian, Nigerian, Japanese, French, Filipino, Irish, Colombian, Italian, Korean, Polish... 

We could go on and on. And we could add age differences too, from the very old to the very young. But it takes no stretch of the imagination to think of all of them receiving Communion together. There they are, the Body of Christ - for Christ has crossed all the boundaries between human beings. Our God is everyone's God. Our Lord is brother to everyone. 

That is what we celebrate on this feast of Epiphany.

When we picture all those different kinds of people standing around the altar receiving Communion, and taking place right here in our own parish church, it warms our hearts. It's really what, down deep, we want.

We've become a smaller world, and, in that respect, a better world. Travel and communications have brought us closer together. Despite what some may say, the days of isolationism are gone. This is one world, and we want it to be a loving family - God's family. 

What we want is a family that overcomes the barriers that have been there for thousands of years.

That is what we celebrate on this feast of Epiphany.

Keep in mind that we've been called to be disciples of this man, Jesus, who not only bridged the gap between God and human beings, but who bridged the gap between human beings themselves. We've been called - as Peter, James, John, Mary Magdalene, Mary his Mother were called - to be part of what Christ is doing to make this happen.

How do we do that? I have a suggestion. It involves two steps.

The first step may be a little painful. Let’s think about who the "outsiders" are in our life. There's no need to define "outsider". It's simply anyone we don't feel connected to...and don't want to be connected to. We may not want to accept the fact that there's a gap between us, and for sure we don't want to bridge that gap.

Who are those people, or kinds of people, in our life? We've all got them. They're part of our...family, acquaintances, neighborhood, workplace, parish, country, world. (By the way, if you don't have any, then you don't have to take the second step. But in my life, I have never met anyone, including myself, who didn't have some.)

The second step is simply this. Pick out some of those people, or kinds of people, and say a prayer for them. Just a little prayer, asking God to care for them and help them, and bless them - just as we would pray for someone we love and who is perhaps in some kind of trouble.

It's not hard. As a matter of fact, it's quite easy, and it even makes us feel better. 

You might say, Is that all? Yes. That's all. But...I guarantee you, it will have effects - good effects - on you and on those people. Things will happen. I guarantee you, things will happen.

Do it every day this week - and get in that habit of doing it for anyone who ever comes to mind that you've categorized as an "outsider."

When we do that, God, who is watching, says: I knew it. I knew that if I crossed the great, impassable gap between myself and human beings...and if my Son crossed the gap between all human beings of every time and place...I knew they'd catch on.

That is what we celebrate on this feast of Epiphany.