Catching Up with D:Team

Soundtrack to the afternoon: Kermode and Mayo's Film Review (podcast it now and thank me later)

Phee-yew!

As I mentioned in the honey biscuits post, it's been a busy couple of weeks here at Chateau Noonan; nothing particularly dramatic, just a few extra meetings and a holiday club reunion (which was great fun), and all of a sudden I'd been working for about a fortnight straight - whoops!

Hubby is out at work on a dreaded 12-8 shift, so he had lunch at about 11am and might have tea at some point tonight, so it's time to sit down on my day off and process a few things.  I'm armed with a fresh coffee and some winter-spiced biscuits (dunking required - they're pretty crunchy!) and I'm enjoying looking looking back over Ephesians.

I think the last thing I posted about D:Team Ephesians was the blessings of chapter 1 part 1.

***

Chapter 1 part 2 takes us through the who, what, where, why and when of Paul's prayer for the Ephesian Christians.

***

Chapter 2 part 1 is one of my absolute favourites (I know I shouldn't, but there you go...).  It's amazing to first of all be shocked by the depth of the problem that sin is, then that wonderful "But God" of verse 4 as we find out that God works a miracle in people like me, which is exciting and humbling all in one go.

***

Which brings us to Ephesians 2.11-22, which was also the week I unveiled the new D:Team bibles, which have very pretty covers and are made from paper which is thick enough that you're not forced to try and read three pages simultaneously.  Hurrah.

Now, before we get on with the drama, we need to establish that the world can be split into four groups.  To work out where you fall, simply ask yourself two questions:

1. Am I, by genetic and racial heritage, Jewish? (If no, you're a gentile)

2. Am I, today, trusting in Jesus for salvation from my sins? (If yes, you're a Christian)

OK, now find yourself on this graph (oh yes, there's a graph.  I do this for fun, you know):

As you can see, we're really only going to deal with the bottom line: people who, regardless of their racial heritage, are loving and trusting Jesus.

In order to explain some concepts that would be pretty new to most, if not all, of the group, I raided my box of little plastic people.  I have been known to spend so long trying to decide who to have for each person, I've taken to a policy of grabbing the first ones that come to hand and then casting them according to whim.  So now, please welcome to the stage:

Noah, Florence and Doris.

Noah was a shoe-in for the part of God.  Look at that beard!

Florence became the representative of all gentile Christians because most of D:Team are blonde gentiles.

Which left Nurse Doris to represent all Jewish Christians.

Thank you for participating, your cheque is in the post.


OK.  We're getting somewhere now.

Florence and Doris have a problem:

There is a dividing wall separating them.  We didn't go into much detail about this on the night, but suffice it to say that it's more serious than the coaster implies in the picture.

But wait, it gets worse:

Not only is there a dividing wall between Florence and Doris (Jew and Gentile), but all people are separated from God, and that separation is much more serious, hence it is represented here by a much thicker boundary.

But hurrah and huzzah!

Thanks to Jesus' death on the cross, not only is the coaster smashed and removed, but the big old book of regulations and laws has been dealt with too! (Can you tell we've been doing Colossians on a Sunday night?)

So not only have all people who love and trust Jesus (regardless of their racial, religious or ethnic heritage) become one big family together, the family they are in God's and they're not separated from him any more!

Wowee!

Thanks, Noah, Florence and Doris, that was great!

***

If that wasn't enough, we made a start this week on Chapter 3.  We made it as far as verse 6, and it was great.

Paul is writing from prison, and we had a think about what effect that might have had on the Christians in Ephesus, and we found time to have a chat about what life is like for some Christians.  In fact, on Sunday morning, the grown ups will be doing a lot more about it, including watching this video from Barnabus Fund.

We had a look at how Paul's life was turned around when he met Jesus, and how we have ended up with the Bible we have.  It was great.  And so was the mac and cheese.