Come Near


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Ephesians 2:11-22:
BEloved – “Come Near”
               Picture a 4-year-old, standing on their tip toes, peering onto the kitchen counter, and eyeing the cookie jar that lies just beyond their fingertips. Now picture the favorite aunt that comes by and moves the jar just close enough that the child can reach it on their own. She doesn’t just hand the child the cookie but she has removed the barrier. So too, there is no longer anything that separates us from one another or from God. Christ has removed the barrier for us and God calls us to “come near.”

Second Reading: Ephesians 2:11-22

11Remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision”—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands—12remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, 20built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

 


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