The sermon opens with a recent news story: two nurses in Sydney were secretly filmed making hateful remarks about Israelis, and the fallout instantly destroyed their careers. The preacher uses this as a window into how deep and destructive hostility runs in the world today — the Israel-Gaza war, Russia and Ukraine, ethnic tension even within the Indonesian diaspora between different regional and cultural groups. Such enmity, the sermon argues, is not new; it is the oldest problem in the human story, and Ephesians 2:13-18 shows both its root and its only cure.

The sermon locates the text's original hostility in the wall between Jews and Gentiles — those who were circumcised versus the uncircumcised, "those far off" and "those near." Peter's hesitation to enter Cornelius's house (Acts 10:28) and Jesus deliberately walking through Samaria to speak with the Samaritan woman at the well both illustrate how entrenched this division was: Jews would take a longer route rather than defile themselves by passing through Samaritan territory. Yet Ephesians declares that in Christ, those who were far off have been brought near by his blood; the dividing wall of hostility has been torn down, and the two have been made one new humanity, reconciled to God in one body through the cross.

The sermon distinguishes this true peace (shalom) from mere ceasefires. It points to the recent tense Oval Office exchange between Trump and Zelensky over a forced "peace deal" with Russia, arguing that even if a treaty is signed, that is not the shalom Scripture describes — a wholeness marked by mutual love, not just an absence of shooting. Real, lasting peace between hostile parties is, the sermon insists, nearly impossible to manufacture — and only possible in Christ.

The argument then goes to the root of all human enmity: humanity's enmity with God, beginning at the Fall. Before sin entered, Adam and Eve enjoyed unashamed intimacy with each other and unbroken fellowship with God. Genesis 3 shatters this — fear replaces joy, blame replaces intimacy ("the woman you gave me"), and the marriage relationship itself becomes a site of domination and conflict, culminating in Cain's murder of Abel. By Genesis 6, God is described as grieved to the point of regretting having made humanity — not because God erred, but, the sermon explains through the analogy of a mother devastated by what her child has become, because of the depth of human violence and evil. All human hostility, whether ethnic, marital, or national, traces back to this root: humanity became God's enemy.

Christ's death is presented as God's solution precisely at the root. Romans 5 is invoked: God demonstrates his love in that Christ died for us while we were still sinners, still enemies of God. The repeated emphasis in Ephesians 2 on "blood" and "cross" underscores that reconciliation with God is costly and singular — achieved only through Christ's death, not through generic goodwill or humanistic calls for tolerance (which even liberal churches can affirm without dealing with the root problem of sin against God).

To illustrate this, the sermon retells the story from the documentary "Peace Child," about missionary Don Richardson among the Sawi people of Papua (then Irian Jaya), a culture that literally celebrated treachery — the Sawi regarded Judas Iscariot as a hero for his skill in betrayal, leaving Richardson unable to communicate the gospel meaningfully. Only when prolonged tribal warfare pushed two warring clans to the brink of mutual annihilation did they discover a peacemaking custom native to their culture: each chief would hand over his own infant son to the enemy chief. As long as that "peace child" lived, the two tribes were bound to peace. This became Richardson's bridge to the gospel: Jesus is the true and greater Peace Child, one who died and yet lives forever, whose life secures peace eternally rather than merely until a child might die.

The sermon then unpacks the two dimensions of the reconciliation Christ achieves: becoming "one new man" and becoming "one body." "One new man" stresses union and identity — believers are so united with Christ (a real, mystical union, not mere external agreement) that Paul can say "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me," and one true believer cannot rightly be hostile to another, since Christ cannot be divided against himself. "One body," drawn out further from Ephesians 3:6 and 4:15-16, stresses that this unity does not erase diversity — believers remain culturally, linguistically, and personally distinct (the sermon notes the congregation's own members from Taiwan, India, New Zealand, Japan, and even the Czech Republic), the way a body's many parts differ in function while remaining bound together by shared ligaments and the same blood.

The sermon closes with application: since the church is one body knit together by Christ's blood and the Holy Spirit, every member must function — no one is meant to be a mere spectator. Believers are called to "speak the truth in love," which means both genuine mutual care and honest correction of sin, and to actively serve according to their gifts, however small the task, trusting that as each part does its work the whole body grows up into Christ, its head, and grows in love.

Bible Verses Used

• Ephesians 2:13-18: The sermon's main text — Christ's blood and cross abolish the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile, reconciling both to God in one body and giving both access to the Father through one Spirit.

• Ephesians 2:11: Cited to establish the historical hostility between the circumcised and uncircumcised as the concrete backdrop for the reconciliation described later in the chapter.

• Acts 10:28: Peter's words to Cornelius illustrate the strict Jewish prohibition on associating with Gentiles, showing how deep the pre-Christ hostility ran.

• Genesis 2: Referenced to depict the original, unashamed intimacy and peace between Adam and Eve and with God before the Fall.

• Genesis 3: Marks the entrance of sin and the root of all human enmity — fear, blame, and broken relationship following Adam and Eve's disobedience.

• Genesis 6: God's grief over human violence is used to show the depth of humanity's corruption apart from Christ, likened to a mother devastated by her child's evil.

• Romans 5: Quoted to show that God demonstrates his love toward us in that Christ died for us while we were still sinners and enemies of God.

• Galatians 2:20 (echoed, "it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me"): Used to explain the believer's mystical union with Christ underlying the "one new man."

• Ephesians 3:6: Cited to show Gentiles becoming fellow heirs and members of the same body through the gospel.

• Ephesians 4:15-16: Used to explain the "one body" image — speaking the truth in love, with every member's function building up the body as it grows into Christ the head.