No Longer Strangers: Aliens Brought Near

In a divided nation, we could do worse than spending some time with the early church in Asia Minor under the rule of the Roman Empire. Roman emperors were perceived as vessels of the Divine and thus the originators of peace. To say that “Christ is our peace” was akin to denying the political power and authority, specifically, the divinity of the emperor and the legitimacy of the empire. Ephesians declares peace on new terms, a peace forged not by the “lords” of empire in its manifold forms, but in the blood and bone of the crucified. The cross undermines the wall dividing Jew and non-Jew, but that is only the beginning. This is only the beginning of a revolution of love that radicalizes all notions of peace, community, and church.