Yesterday I mentioned that I would be talking about walls today. I have been thinking a lot about walls (I still have a wall in one of the rooms in our house I built a while back and I’ve never finished – hmm, maybe I’ll do that this weekend). Walls have one main purpose – to separate or divide. I can’t imagine living with three boys all in one big room, I don’t care how big the room.
Walls also provide a perceived safety, keeping us safe on the inside from the evils and danger on the outside.
While Jesus was a carpenter, he was not a wall builder in the spiritual sense. In fact, he was notorious for smashing walls down – walls between organized religion and the common folks of the day.
In our society, much work has been done to build walls in the religious circles – the taller and stronger the better. But as I stated yesterday, maybe we need to stop focusing on our differences and start concentrating on our similarities.
What would our world be like if we took the bricks we have used to build walls and made patios instead? A brick wall separates, a brick patio invites. A brick wall keeps me in and you out, a brick patio provides a place for community and dialogue.
I truly believe that we can hold on to our distinctions and still work together – after all, we are all on the same team.
I don’t know about you but I think I want to live on the patio and not behind a wall. Come on over and we’ll sit on the patio and share life together – might even throw a few steaks on the grill and really enjoy being together.
Clay in the Hands 
There are 168 hours in a week. A lot of us have different preferences or traditions on Sunday mornings that last about 2 hours. That leaves about 166 hours out of the week for Christians to be united and work for a common goal. Why do we let 2 hours ruin 166 hours. I don’t know the answer, but I think it would be fun to let God help us take down a few walls and build a patio or even a front porch.
I love Dave’s comment…LOVE IT!!! So true about the walls…no matter where we go to church or what denomination we perfer, we are all ONE BODY and we are all brothers and sisters in Christ.
That is one thing I LOVE about the Emmaus Community (and Kairos)…every denomination, every age, every color, every socio-economic status coming together as a COMMUNITY to serve God and FURTHER His Kingdom. You can just feel The Spirit of God when they meet together as if He is saying “This is how I planned it to be all along!!!”
Praying your teaching falls like fresh rain on new grass on Sunday Brian. May God’s Spirit speak through, and not one leave without EXPERIENCING GOD Sunday.
Brian,
I loved this! And amen to Dave and Dawn’s comments. We are all one in Christ. We should not be “all religious and spiritual” on Sunday morning and then the rest of the week just one of the crowd.