28 October 2024 Ephesians 2:19-22

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Please read the passage before reading the commentary.

I am reflecting on the apostles of Jesus as they went out throughout the world.  Their task was to make Jesus known to all the peoples of the world.  Even after the death of all the apostles, the Church still goes out to proclaim Christ to the world.

It is also true that pagans could rightfully feel like second class people hearing the Jews and the Christian explain their chosen statue in God’s eyes.  This was true of the pagans who turned to Christ in Paul’s day.  Writing also for uncircumcised believers of pagan ancestry, Paul explains that even without green cards, they are already citizens of heaven, members of God’s holy people, part of the very building that houses God in heaven and on earth.

I wonder if the Church is persecuted or not liked because we seem to look down on the unbaptized or those not baptized in the right Church.  This reading is a call to everybody that citizenship with God is possible and in extremely wanted by God for all people.  Rather than calling people sinners or bad people we should be calling out to them that God wants them in God’s kingdom and life.

Unlike national policies that require green cards and make citizenship difficult, God’s offer of citizenship is generous, open and welcoming.  God sent Jesus into the world to save the world.  Jesus continues his mission of saving through the Church.  The mission of the apostles continues through us.  It is we who have to proclaim God’s welcoming to all so that all become citizens with all the other fellow citizens in God’s household.  To all the world we should be shouting, “Come join us, all you who wish to find salvation, and together we shall become coheirs with Christ and be citizens of God’s kingdom.”