The wall demolished

 

Ephesians 2

¹¹ Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— ¹² remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 

 

The wall demolished

We are the bearded ones hammering on the gates of the inner temple.

Not allowed a seat on the bus.

A policeman’s boot across my throat

“I cannot breathe”, even the clouds of tear gas that smother me.

 

All my hope dashed and trampled, by the little mark on my chromosomes

that make me, “outsider”, the cockroach worthy to be crushed.

My life imperilled in a flimsy storm-tossed boat,

a rubber dinghy of hope sinking in a raging sea  

Like Jonah entombed at the bottom of the sea.

 

I sink, but at the last moment a strong hand grasps me

The man once in a grave far deeper than mine,

But now unleashed upon this stricken earth,

Triumphant, risen, to bring His new life.

To unite the two warring rivals into His one body of love.

Ian Hempshall 07/10/20