Menlo Park Presbyterian Church
950 Santa Cruz Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025 650-323-8600
Series: A World Without Walls
November 15, 2015
“Without Walls”
John Ortberg
I'd like to ask everybody in this room and everybody at every site and even folks watching online, would
you all stand for a moment with me? Everybody just stand up right now. You're all aware of what's been
going on in Paris, France. Over 120 people are now confirmed dead in attacks of just unbelievably brutal
violence.
It just looks like violence and hatred are going to win, but it's looked that way before, at the cross. How
can we not pray? I'm going to ask us to take a moment now, every site, everybody. If you want to and
you're here with some folks you know, if you'd just join hands just kind of in expression of spiritual
solidarity. We're going to pray for our world.
Oh God, how our world needs you. God, we ache for families right now in France who have just been
ripped apart, lives that have been turned upside-down, for tables that will have empty chairs at them, for
anguish and anger. God, we don't understand, and we acknowledge before you we cannot fix this world,
but it's your world. How it needs you.
We all pray, God. We pray for peace. We pray for love and mercy to triumph over hatred and violence.
We pray, God, you would act in this, your world, to bring good out of what seems to be so awful. God,
tell us what we can do. Tell us how we can be a part of help. God, help tear down walls inside our hearts
and all around our world. We ask in Jesus' name. Everybody agreed with this prayer, and everybody said,
"Amen."
Go ahead and have a seat, everybody. You know, there's a whole world of folks who need God. There are
all kinds of folks right in the Bay Area who need God, and we want to help them find God. But it leads to
this question: "What do you think we can do that will commend the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people
all around us?"
What is it? What kind of community can we be, how can we live so people will look at us and say, "You
know, whether or not I believe what they believe, I'm sure glad those people are here. There's something
about their faith, there's something about that God, there's something about this Jesus that I want to check
out"? How can we win the world for Jesus?
I'll tell you what I think. I don't think it's going to happen because we have a lot of smart people who can
out-argue everybody else. I don't think it's going to happen because there are a lot of clever books that get
written. I love to read, but I don't think that's going to do it. I don't think it's going to be because we have a
lot of technology, a lot of resources. I don't think that's going to do it. I'll tell you another thing (just
personal opinion).
Has anybody followed what's been going on, the controversy of how Christians should respond to
Starbucks this week taking snowflakes and reindeer off their red holiday cups? No kidding, one guy
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stirred up a big fuss by saying, "You know, we Christians are being persecuted by Starbucks taking
snowflakes and reindeers off their red cups."
I was trying to imagine what it would be like to stand before God when that row of martyrs is there, and
God is saying, "How were you persecuted?" Jesus was crucified. Stephen was stoned. John the Baptist
was beheaded. Paul was beaten and whipped and shipwrecked and stoned and then crucified. Early
Christians were used as torches by Nero. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was
hung by Nazis on the gallows.
Then God asks me, and I say, "Well, I had to drink Starbucks coffee out of a red cup with no snowflakes
and no reindeer on it." I do not think the gospel of Jesus is going to win the world by our being able to
pressure Starbucks employees into saying, "Merry Christmas" against their will. I don't think Starbucks
ought to proclaim the love of Jesus. I think the church ought to proclaim that. I think that's our job!
I think it will happen when we actually live the way Jesus lived, when we look at people around us and we
see folks in need, and we notice and we actually care when we see there are people who are poor. The
Bible is so full of God's heart for poor people that when we say, "God, we want to be used by you to make
a difference in the lives of folks who are poor," I think that will make a difference.
I think when we see young children who ought to have a whole future in front of them and they have no
hope and they're getting no education and we say, "We're going to do something to help schools so
children get an education…" I think where there are neighborhoods that live with just crime infestations…
Our car last week got broken into. Has anybody ever had your car broken into? Somebody smashed the
window and took some stuff out of it. It just kind of feels like a violation.
I was with somebody last week who said where they live, it is so crime infested that they and their friends
regularly carry two wallets. One of the wallets they'll have a few bills in to hand over to the person who
robs or mugs them, because it happens often enough they know it's going to happen. Where they live, they
said (I'm not making this up) they carry two cell phones because they know they're going to get accosted
and somebody is going to take the cell phone.
In this part of the world, they'll use that cell phone and call whoever is listed as Mom or Dad and say,
"We've kidnapped your kid, and you have to give us money within an hour." They'll keep a spare cell
phone to give to whomever robs them and then use their other cell phone to call and say, "Mom, Dad, it's
okay. I'm okay."
I think when the church says, "Do you know what? Crime is not okay. When little kids grow up in
neighborhoods like that, it's not okay." I think when the church says, "We're going to use our resources
and our education and our connections and our networks and our experiences not primarily to leverage our
own lives and our own assets but to help people who need help," I think that's what's going to commend
the gospel of Jesus Christ to our world.
We're launching into this series called A World Without Walls. At the core of it, the creedal text is words
Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus. Now the huge social and economic revolution in Paul's day involved
relationships between Jewish people and Gentiles. That was the huge wall, the huge gap. Here's what's
really interesting. Nobody planned for this revolution to happen. This was not a human project. No little
group of people got together in a room and white boarded this or strategically planned this.
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In Paul's day (as it has for so long), anti-Semitism was quite common in Gentile pogroms, and persecution
of Jewish people went on. Then if folks were Jewish, they wouldn't have anything to do with Gentiles.
They didn't want to eat with them. They didn't want to talk to them. They wouldn't marry them. They
wouldn't sit at a table together.
If you were Jewish, it was quite common to pray this prayer. In the first century, Paul, when he was a
Pharisee, most likely would have prayed this prayer every morning: "Blessed are you, O God, who made
me male not female, free not slave, an Israelite not a Gentile. Thank God, God, you made me one of us,
not one of them. What an awful thing it would be to be one of them."
Then this same guy, this same Paul, writes to a church in Galatia and says… Notice the categories.
"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all
one in Christ Jesus." Do you understand those categories are not there by accident? Those are the same
words where Paul used to say, "God, thank you I'm one of us and not one of them." Now he says, "There's
no more us and them. Not in Christ Jesus!"
This really happened, and no human being planned it. How did it happen? Somebody died. It's just that
simple. The world got healed, and walls got broken down, and no smart group of people said, "We're
going to figure this one out." Somebody died. This is just historical fact, and this is how he did it. Paul
wrote this: "For he [Jesus] himself is our peace…" God, does our world need peace, with God and with
each other. "…who has made the two groups one…"
Right at the very beginning, God was making human beings male and female, and the two shall become
one. God experiences one in the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit. We break that oneness, and we destroy it,
and we kill each other. But God just won't give up. Now God is at it again in Jesus. He made the two
groups one. He has done it again. He "…has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall…" This is it.
"…the dividing wall of hostility…"
That's our image for this series. He has destroyed the dividing wall. "…by setting aside in his flesh the
law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself…" There's that word
again. "…one new humanity out of the two [groups that hated each other], thus making peace, and in
one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
He came and preached peace to you who were far away…" That's the Gentiles. "…and peace to those
who were near." That's the people of Israel. He has destroyed in his body the dividing wall of hostility.
Our world is a world of walls. A few months ago, Nancy (my wife) and I were in China. We met with a
group of Christians, but while we were there, we went to maybe the most famous wall in the world: the
Great Wall of China. Then there's the Iron Curtain and the Bamboo Curtain and the Berlin Wall and gated
communities and the most inviolable wall in human existence, the wall…it's actually a curtain…on every
airplane that separates people who sit in first class from people who are not first class. They know two
different lives.
If you're sitting in first class, a flight attendant will bring you a moist towelette to refresh your face
without even your asking. If you're in coach, you just sit in facial sweat. If you're in first class, without
even asking, a flight attendant will bring a bowl of nuts to you. If you sit in coach, you can ask for
something, and they'll say, "Nuts to you." It's the strangest thing when you get on a plane.
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Normally, I fly coach. When I do, I'll find myself thinking, you know, "Those arrogant people sitting up
there in first class, they ought to be back here with us. We the people… That's where the action is. That's
where goodness is. They ought to be with us." Every once in a while, something will happen, and I'll end
up flying first class. Then I find myself thinking, "Those poor slobs back there in coach. They must not
function at as high a level. They're probably just not as smart as me and my friends up here in first class."
Here's what I've never seen. I've never seen anybody from first class go to that dividing wall, rip the
curtain in two, and say, "I'm breaking down the dividing wall of hostility. From now on, we will eat the
same food, we will drink from the same cup, for we are all one in Christ Jesus." I've never seen anybody
do that. They'd kill somebody for tearing down that wall.
You have to decide… I was on a flight one time with my wife. It was on a Sunday afternoon. They came
over to us, and they said to me, "Mr. Ortberg, we were way undersold, and we actually have an upgrade
for you. You can go sit in first class." But they only had one…for me. We were coming out of church
where I had been preaching on that passage where Jesus says, "It is more blessed to give than to
receive." I had been talking about the greater blessing, how giving is the greater blessing. Now they came
to me and said, "Good news. We have an upgrade, but just for you."
My wife was sitting there. What do I do? I said to her, "Nancy, would you like my upgrade, or would you
like the greater blessing? Because I don't want to get in the way of that." It's this dividing wall of hostility,
and it might be in your heart with somebody today. You can't make it come down. It's all over the place in
our world. There's a poem I love by a poet named Robert Frost. It's called "Mending Wall." Some of you
will know it.
It's about this farmer. The strangest thing… Every spring he'll walk his farm with his neighbor on the
other side of the wall that separates them, the wall that divides them, and every spring there will be stones
and rocks, bits of the wall that have fallen down. He said, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall…"
As his character in this poem is walking along this wall with his neighbor, he says, "You know, I wonder
maybe we don't need a wall. Why would we need one?"
His neighbor just thoughtlessly said, "Good fences make good neighbors." Then he said, "Spring is the
mischief in me, and I wonder if I could put a notion in his head: 'Why do they make good neighbors? […]
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know what I was walling in or walling out, and to whom I was like to give
offense. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, that wants it down.'"
Paul said that something is the kingdom of God, and that somebody is Jesus. He hates that wall. Paul is
living in a day where he saw it torn down, and nobody planned this, nobody got out a whiteboard, nobody
wrote a SWOT analysis about this. It happened because a guy died. Then as a matter of historical reality,
Paul says he tore down the dividing wall of hostility in his body. In his body! I just want to dwell on this
for a few moments at the start of this series. What does that mean?
Well, when you're hostile toward somebody, you're hostile toward their body. You don't like their body.
You don't like their face. In Jesus' body, he took the hostility of Jews and Gentiles. They put a crown of
thorns on his brow and drew his blood. They whipped his back. They put nails in his hand. They pierced
his side with a sword. They hung his body on a cross. They closed his body in a tomb. Then in his body,
he felt all those temptations you feel and I feel to give in to hostility.
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Just, God, like we feel on a day like this. "I'll clench my fist. I'll grit my teeth. I'll spit in your face. I'll
close my eyes. I'll shake your head." With his body he loved, and with his mouth he said, "Father,
forgive them; for they know not what they do." He destroyed this hostility with his body, and this
actually happens.
Then Paul, who had been the biggest Gentile hater in the world, prided himself on that. He thought that
wall dividing him with them and that hostility was honoring God. Again, this is a matter of historical
reality, however else you want to account for it. Because this man Jesus died and then was raised again
and Paul realized what he said was true and the way he described God is real, Paul (the biggest Gentile
hater, the biggest wall builder) became the biggest wall "tearer downer."
It's very interesting. Some of you will know about Paul's name. In the Bible, numerous times folks' names
get changed because God changes our identities. Generally, there's always a story, and generally it's
always God who makes the change. So Abram became Abraham, the father of many nations. Jacob, the
deceiver, became Israel, one who wrestled, struggled, with God. Simon became Peter (Petras) the rock on
which God is going to build his church.
Saul (he had been named for King Saul, the first king of Israel) became Paul. God didn't change his name.
He changed his name. See, Saul is a Jewish name. Paul (Paulos) is a Gentile name. It's a Greek name. He
says "I'll become one of them. I'll take on their name." Now, guys, we're here to be agents of
reconciliation. We're here because, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall, that wants it down."
That wall of sin that would be between God and me for all eternity, that would condemn me to isolation
and hell and aloneness and ego, death, has been torn down by Jesus Christ in his body. He transcended the
ceremonial law that divided Jews and Gentiles and the moral law that divided sinful people from God.
So that's what we're going over these next few weeks. You and I have become agents of reconciliation,
and we are to bring down the dividing walls of hostility in our world. Next week a guy named Jimmy
Mellado from Compassion International is going to be here. That's going to be terrifically exciting. The
third week…you don't want to miss that one.
Here's what I want to do. In the moments that are left here, I want to talk about one of the primary walls in
our day mainly, and that's the wall between those of us (I include myself on this side) who have quite a lot
and people who have very little, between what the Bible would talk about as the rich (and that would be a
lot of us in this room biblically) and then the poor. This is quite a complex issue, but it's very close to
God's heart. I'll talk actually about three walls around this one.
Religious people will sometimes put up walls. There supposedly is a convent in California that had this
sign in front of the fence: "Keep out. No trespassing. Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the
law. Sisters of Mercy." You wonder what sisters of hostility would say. We don't want to be wall builders.
We want to be bridge builders. I want to talk about three walls when it comes to the poor that we want to
together as a church work to tear down.
1. The wall of shame. It's very interesting when it comes to poverty. There's a terrific book if you're
looking for one to read called When Helping Hurts, and I'll talk about that a little bit in what's left of this
message. The authors talk about how the United Nations' World Bank was trying to define poverty, and
they had a really hard time being able to define it well. So they finally decided to ask the world's foremost
experts on poverty how they would define it.
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Does anybody want to guess who the great experts on poverty are? It's the poor. It's the people who live…
They asked 60,000 people living in poverty. It was so fascinating. Take a look at this. "North American
audiences tend to emphasize a lack of material things such as food, money, clean water, medicine,
housing, etc." (When they're describing poverty.) "Poor people typically talk in terms of shame,
inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness."
People who have stuff typically just talk about material stuff. So then it's, "Well, let's just give you stuff."
Poor people talk in terms of shame, because poverty erodes the spirit. When I was in Guatemala two
weeks ago, it was so interesting. I went on two different days to the homes of two moms who were just
destitute. They have nothing. Tiny little shack. Multiple kids. No furniture. Tin roof.
It's a culture where hospitality is highly, highly valued. There were just a few of us visiting. The mom
would get up to greet us, and in both cases, they looked down at their feet and said, "I want to welcome
you to my humble home." That word humble just killed me. It struck me… Guys, it's almost like poverty
is a force. It's almost like an evil, demonic force, and it says to people, "You don't deserve to have a
dream. You don't deserve to have a hope. You don't deserve to have a future. You're not one of the smart
ones. You're not one of the strong ones. You're not one of the clever ones." It just eats away at the spirit.
How do I respond to that? Well, guys, for most of us (certainly for me) in this room, really the beginning
isn't to go around and help people. It's humble myself. It starts with a recognition of my own brokenness.
Of course, Jesus talked quite a lot about how very often for those of us who have resources, it brings a
kind of spiritual poverty that's really dangerous.
This, again, from that book When Helping Hurts: "…the economically rich often have 'god-complexes,' a
subtle and unconscious sense of superiority in which they believe that they have achieved their wealth
through their own efforts…" Ouch! "…and that they have been anointed to decide what is best for lowincome people, whom they view as inferior to themselves."
This has been going on a long time, and the Bible has a lot to say about this. Again, this is why there's
never been anything like the church, guys. In the first century where there's this community in places like
in ancient Rome that were crazy in pursuit of status and wealth, where poor and rich would just love each
other, it was so unusual. The world kept breaking into the church.
James would say things like, "Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are
poor in the eyes of the world to be rich…?" Nobody else was saying, "The poor are rich." Jesus said that.
"…to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have
dishonored the poor."
The first wall that has to come down is the wall of shame, and it begins when those of us who have
something humble ourselves and just repent, "God, I'm entitled. I think I'm smart. I think I've earned it
somehow." That's that first wall. It has to come down.
2. The wall of isolation. An awful lot of the times, those of us who have something just live more and
more and more in our world in places where we don't see need. We don't want to. It makes us feel badly.
We don't want to look. I've been quite convicted about this just thinking about this series where, if I see
somebody on the streets who is begging…
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You know, it may well not be the best way to help them to give them money. Sometimes I might feel
prompted to do that, but sometimes I'll want not to even look at them or not to talk to them because I don't
want to feel badly. Jesus says, "You know, whatever you do for the least of these it's like you're doing it to
me." This dynamic has been going around a long time. The book of Proverbs says, "Wealth attracts
friends as honey draws flies, but poor people are avoided like a plague." They just are.
How do we respond to this wall (the wall of isolation)? The response here is let's just agree when you see
somebody around… Like, go shopping in an under-resourced neighborhood. If you see somebody on the
streets, just talk to them. Maybe offer to pray for them. Maybe ask them a question. You know, when you
don't have money, people don't ask you questions.
I was very struck. I mentioned this book When Helping Hurts. Brian Fikkert, one of the coauthors of it,
was in a class in his Presbyterian church, and they decided, "We have to get outside the walls. We have to
start tearing down walls." They went into an under-resourced, mostly African-American neighborhood,
and they started asking folks, "What do you do well?" They started doing an asset mapping exercise,
because so often that doesn't happen in under-resourced areas. Not, "How can we help you?" but, "What
are your strengths here?"
This is what he writes: "Each member of the class individually went door-to-door, saying to people,
'Hello, I am from Community Presbyterian Church, the church just around the corner. We are conducting
a survey today to find out what gifts God has placed in this community. What skills and abilities do you
have?'"
Then he writes, "The truth is that I wanted to die. Racial tensions are still very present in our city, so I
knew there would be at least some social discomfort for both the African-American residents of this
housing project and for me. Furthermore, my height can be quite startling and intimidating…" He is
actually 7 feet tall.
"And finally, the words I was supposed to repeat sounded totally hokey to me. 'Hello, I am from
Community Presbyterian Church, the church just…' Yuck! I would rather be selling Girl Scout cookies. I
had a bad attitude about this exercise and wished I had chosen to attend the Sunday school class that was
examining the finer points of Presbyterianism. But alas, I had chosen this class, so off I dutifully marched
and knocked on the first door.
The thirty something African-American woman who cracked open the door slightly was about 5'2", giving
her a wonderful view of my belly. She looked up at me the way one would look at one's first sight of a
Martian. I tried not to flinch and launched into my sales pitch, 'Hello, I am from Community Presbyterian
Church, the church…' She said, 'What?!' looking even more incredulous than before. […] I swallowed
hard and repeated, 'What skills do you have? What are you good at doing?'
She repeated, 'What?!' And then I repeated my questions again, asking God to add jewels to my crown for
going through all of this. …the lady said sheepishly, 'Well, I guess I can cook.' Suddenly, a voice from the
dark unknown behind the lady shouted out, 'She can cook chitlins like there is no tomorrow!' Another
voice yelled, 'Yeah, ain't nobody can cook as good as she can!' Slowly a smile spread across her face and
she said, 'Yes, I think I can cook.'
Next thing I knew, I found myself sitting in the living room with about six African Americans gathered
around. I live in the South. This does not happen easily. Not sure what to do, I reverted to script, 'Hello, I
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am from Community Presbyterian Church…' They took it from there. 'This is Joe, he can fix bikes. […]
And this here is Mac. How is your car running?
If you ever have trouble with your car, bring it right here to Mac.' […] They went on and on, bragging
about one another to me. […] We started a process of empowerment by asking a simple question: what
gifts do you have? When one is feeling marginalized, such a question can be nothing short of
revolutionary."
Just get out there and greet folks. Just talk to people, even if it feels awkward. The statement from Jesus,
"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these…you did for me. […] Whatever you did
not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." We live in a world where it's not just the
economy. The Evil One, if you have resources, will try to separate you, will try to isolate you from people
who don't. Don't look. Don't read. Don't watch. Don't talk. Don't touch. Don't go. "Something there is that
doesn't love a wall…" Then one more wall.
3. The wall of ignorance. See, if we follow Jesus, we have to love people Jesus loves, so we have to
become students of poverty. I know how this is. We'll tend not to want to think about it much because it
just makes us feel badly. But if we love Jesus, then we'll want to know. There are 2.8 billion people now
who live on $2 a day or less. We'll want to know about that. Right here in the Bay Area, we think of it as a
really affluent place. Over 800,000 Bay Area residents live in poverty. Up to maybe 15 percent of the
children in the Bay Area live in poverty.
On this one, on that ignorance, what we want to do is spend ourselves. There's a great verse in Isaiah,
chapter 58. We'll look at it in a couple of weeks. It talks about spend yourselves for the sake of the poor.
You know, part of why we give to the church… We have this tithe challenge deal. If you haven't been
tithing, 10 percent, so we can be generous as a church, so we cultivate the habit of generosity. Part of why
we need folks to lead Life Groups is so groups together can learn and serve the people God loves the most
who aren't being served.
Some of you remember (I was thinking around this message), a US president about 30 years ago, Ronald
Reagan, went to Berlin. In a really famous speech, he said to the then-leader of the Soviet Union, "Mr.
Gorbachev, if you really care about peace…" Do you remember what he said? "…tear down this wall." I
was thinking about all the walls God hates. I don't know if you've seen… I just got this. This is the current
issue of TIME magazine. The cover story is, "What it takes to forgive a killer."
You think about the wall between black people and white people in this country. There's a church that
is… This is about that killing several months ago. There's a little cross in the corner. This killed me. This
is the end of this story. I commend this story to you. You know, the cost of forgiveness of someone who
killed people you love, I cannot even imagine. One of the women who was at the Bible study brought her
son to it. Her son was one of the people shot. She was covered with unspeakable carnage. Apparently the
killer did not know she was still alive, and she survived.
"Felicia Sanders [mom of Tywanza…that's her son who died] asked the FBI for one thing: the return of
two Bibles. The FBI said they were not recoverable. She insisted. So the investigators sent her Bible and
Tywanza's Bible to the Bureau's high-tech labs in Quantico, VA, where they were cleaned as thoroughly
as possible, leaf by leaf. Sanders has them now. The pages are pink with blood that will never wash away.
But she can still make out the words."
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"What will wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What will make me whole again?" What
will make our world whole again? "Nothing but the blood of Jesus." "Something there is that doesn't love
a wall, that wants it down." When people look at my life, I wonder, "Can they read the words?" Let's pray.
God, our world is in such a mess. From Guatemala to the Middle East to Paris, France, to Syria to
Pakistan to all around the Bay Area, to our houses and our hearts, there are walls Jesus died to bring
down. God, help us not to play games with you or each other or your world. Help us to be about your
work. Help us to be followers of Jesus. Make it happen one more time, God. May oneness and peace
through Jesus Christ purchased in his body on his cross be born again in us. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.
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