The reading today from the second chapter of St Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians begins with the firm statement that Christ “is our peace, who has made us both [that is, Greeks and Jews] one, and has broken down the diving wall of hostility.” The magnificent fourth century theologian and preacher, St John Chrysostom, Bishop of Antioch and of Constantinople, has written of this Biblical text: “Some say that the wall between them is that of the Jews against the Greeks, because it does not allow them to mix. I do not think so. Rather I think that the wall between them is common with both. It is the hostility proceeding within the flesh. . . .As the prophet [Isaiah] says [in chapter 59, verse 2], Do not your sins stand in the midst between you and me?” [end of quote]. In other words, rather than focus on how different Jews and Greeks are, St John Chrysostom says simply, “Look, we are all sinners. It is sin that creates hostility between different cultures and different people. Let us each remove sin from our own lives; and then Christ will truly be our peace.”

Now, you might well say to yourself, as I sometimes do: “It’s all very well for a great preacher and teacher and saint like John Chrysostom to urge me not to sin, but how am I going to do it?” A lesser known fourth century Church leader, an African, Marius Victorinus, was not a saint, but a person who turned his back on worldly honour and influenced St Augustine to do the same. Marius wrote of this text from Ephesians, chapter 2: “[Paul] says, ‘Christ is our peace.’ Elsewhere Paul calls Him mediator. [Christ] interposed himself of His own accord between divided realms” [end of quote].

Now, mediators are people who place themselves between two warring parties in order to reconcile them—in order to get those people to agree. Some years ago down in London, I was a mediator, in a way that impressed three of my grandchildren. I was peacefully driving along when all the traffic stopped, because two men were in the middle of the road fighting each other with their fists, really angry. I thought, “This is ridiculous. Someone should stop this fight, instead of just watching it!” Now, I don’t recommend that you do this, but what I did was get out of the car, walk up to the two men and start talking to them. I was not stupid enough to get between them; and my talking did not stop their fighting. One of the men said, “I going to prosecute you. You are a terrible driver. I’m going to get you.” I took that as my opportunity. I said to him, “You’ll need his name and address. Why don’t you go to your car and get a pencil and paper?” And he did. Of course, he couldn’t fight while he was walking to his car; and the other man—who was losing the fight—ran off. My grandchildren were so impressed, that on arriving at their home they excitedly told their parents what I had done, but their parents were not so impressed.

Back to Marius Victorinus. He is clarifying how Christ breaks down the wall of alienation and sin between humanity and God. Marius preached, and I quote: “Christ by His own mystery, His Cross, His passion and His way of life destroyed this wall [of sin within us]. [Christ Himself] overcame sin and taught that [we too] could overcome . . . the wall [of sin that separates us from Him].” Marius Victorinus continues with this important advice “The work is not ours. We are not called to set ourselves free.” I have taken his phrase—“we are not called to set ourselves free”—as the title of this sermon. Marius Victorinus continued, “Faith in Christ is our only salvation …. [Christ] has established [Himself in us as] … a new person … [a] spiritual person” [end of quote].

St John Chrysostom preached about this new person: “Don’t you see? The Greek does not have to become a Jew. Rather both [Jew and Greek] enter into a new condition. [Christ’s] aim is not to bring Greek believers into being as different kinds of Jews but rather to create both anew. Rightly,” preached St John Chrysostom, Paul “uses the term ‘create’ rather than ‘change’ to point out the great effect of what God has done. Even though the creation [of faith in Christ within us] is invisible it is no less a creation of its Creator” [end of quote]. Therefore, whatever our earlier beliefs, as St Paul tells us here, we are all now “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, [with] Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together” [end of quote]. Through our baptism, we have each become “joined together” part of this whole structure of faith in Christ, “built upon the foundation of [both] apostles and prophets.”

Sometimes, we do need to take the initiative and ask God to work in us, but at other times, God knows what we need, and He meets that need. In the Gospel today from St Luke, Chapter 13, as soon as Christ sees a woman “who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years [and] was bent over, He called her [to Him] and said to her, ‘Woman you are freed from your infirmity.’ And He laid hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight and praised God.”

That can happen to each of us. Christ sees our personal and private problems and infirmities—our weaknesses and limitations. He can step into our lives and heal those problems and infirmities. We are not called to set ourselves free, but we do need to want to be healed. We do need to praise God for coming into our lives—for joining us to Him and to each other in the Church. As Metropolitan Kallistos pointed out, and I mentioned several weeks ago, “without God’s grace we can do nothing, but without our voluntary co-operation God will do nothing…. What God does [in us] is incomparably the more important,” wrote Metropolitan Kallistos in The Orthodox Way, “but [our] participation is also required.” So let us rejoice with St John Chrysostom and Marius Victorinus and Metropolitan Kallistos, and ask God to come into our lives NOW.