[Note: This sermonette was given to the United Church of God congregation in The Dalles on Sabbath, July 22, 2023.]

One of the most poignant borders that exists in the world is one that you will not find on very many maps. In the middle of the island nation of Cyprus there is a literal set of walls that divides the small island into two different nations, and there are only a few ways to get between the two sides, two of them reserved for foot traffic in the capital city of Nicosea. While the international community has for more than 40 years considered this land to be one nation when it comes to being admitted into the EU or other international bodies, on the ground the hard facts of the island’s division reveals two nations that are deeply estranged from each other and yet remaining as neighbors on their shared Mediterranean island, with the wall having turned a thriving resort into a ghost town, and to this day being guarded by tens of thousands of soldiers who remind the resident and the visitor alike that there exists a state of hostility between the Turkish Cypriots of Northern Cyprus and the Greek Cypriots of the south of the island, with a small UN force that guards the buffer area between the two.

There is among many people in the world a belief that God is hostile to frontiers. Those who tear down the walls of separation that exist in this world that separate people from God and that separate people from each other believe that they are doing God’s work in removing the formal recognition of division. There is an unwillingness to accept that walls may be an appropriate way of dealing with hostile outsiders and an appropriate defense against the threat of violence. But is this understanding of God as being someone who hates walls and hates boundaries accurate? What is God’s attitude towards borders and towards the separation of people? Obviously this question is far too detailed in the Bible to discuss in detail, but can we see at least briefly the complexity of attitudes that God has towards borders? I think that is the case, so let us now turn to the task of expressing this complexity as briefly and concisely as possible.

At both the beginning and end of the Bible we find the Bible speaking of borders in both this world and in the world to come, and both of them express the same kind of borders that are being rigorously defended by God. Let us turn first to Genesis 3:22-24 to see the attitude of God towards borders at the beginning of the Bible. Genesis 3:22-24 reads: “Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.  So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”

It is hard to imagine a more rigorously defended border than this. Not only do we have mankind being denied entry into the Garden of Eden, which is marked as a forbidden zone, but God guards the tree of life from mankind with angel armed with a flaming sword, making the intent to keep mankind from experiencing eternal life apart from repentance and obedience to God visible and clear. By putting an armed guard to separate mankind from the Tree of Life, God is making it clear that anyone who wants to live forever is going to have to go through Him and to obtain it by Him and under His terms. This could hardly be made more obvious than to prevent trespassers and illegal immigrants into Eden by military force.

It is common for people to view this in a dualistic sense as being the “bad God of the Old Testament,” with Jesus Christ as the merciful God of the New Testament being in opposition to this, but when we look at Revelation we see precisely the same sort of strict separation between those who are rebellious and hostile to God’s ways and the New City of Jerusalem that will be brought to the earth after the millennial rule of Jesus Christ. We find this elegantly expressed in Revelation 22:14-15. Revelation 22:14-15 reads: “ Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.  But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.”

What this verse is telling us is something that we can understand when we look at our own international travel. If we are obedient to God, we have a passport to the New Jerusalem that allows us the right to enter the City of God through its gates like my American passport that granted me the right to enter through the Ledra Street gate between Cyprus and North Cyprus. Yet the Bible, in the very next verse, affirms that those who are hostile towards God and disobedient towards Him lack the right to enter into the New Jerusalem and they are denied entry into the Holy City. From beginning to end in the Bible we find that those who wish to enter into God’s kingdom must do so according to His terms and as a gift from Him.

Yet this is not the only side of God’s attitude towards borders and boundaries that we find in scripture. Those who look at the Bible and see in God a hostile attitude towards what separates us are not seeing something that is not there. Indeed, we can find, especially but not only in the New Testament, a marked hostility towards the things that divide people from God and from each other. A couple answers should suffice, but they are by no means the only places where such a message that is hostile to the identities that separate us from each other and from God can be found. Let us turn first to Psalm 87:1-6, which expresses God’s view of the lack of importance of the origin of believers when it discusses their identity. Psalm 87:1-6 reads: “His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, o city of God! Selah “I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those who know Me; Behold, O Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia: ‘This one was born there.’ ” And of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one were born in her; and the Most High Himself shall establish her.” The Lord will record, when He registers the peoples: “This one was born there.” Selah.”

What we see from this brief psalm is that one of the things that makes Jerusalem so glorious as the city of God is that all those who believe, regardless of their origin, are counted alike as citizens of Jerusalem. Their earthly origins do not isolate them from other believers, nor are they viewed as second class residents, unable to share in the blessings that native-born residents have. All who are counted as part of God’s people share alike an identity of having been born–or born again–as citizens of Jerusalem. Their country or region of origin, be it the sinful areas of Rahab and Babylon, the violent communities of the Philistines, the merchants of Tyre in Lebanon, or even the people of Ethiopia in Africa, is irrelevant to Him. All who are willing to come to God are granted a new identity that removes the walls of separation that divide them from others.

This removal of the wall of separation is by no means merely a metaphorical expression. In Luke 23:44-47, we see the literal veil of the temple, which separated God’s Most Holy Place from believers, being torn, thus opening access into God’s throne to ordinary human believers. Luke 23:44-47 reads: “Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.  Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two.  And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ ” Having said this, He breathed His last. So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying, “Certainly this was a righteous Man!””

Here we see that there is an element of separation and isolation and estrangement that Jesus Christ was hostile to, and that was the way that walls and veils separated people from God and from each other. At the time of Jesus’ death, the temple had an elaborate hierarchy of places that people were allowed to that showed their place within what was viewed to be the divine economy. Furthest from God were the places that were open to both Gentiles and Jews alike. Then, next furthest were those areas accessible to women, then next furthest after that those men who were not priests or Levites, then those priests and Levites who were not the High Priest once a year on the Day of Atonement, who alone were able to approach God in the Most Holy Place at that specific time. In removing the wall of separation that divided people into different classes of believers, Jesus Christ welcomes His brothers and sisters into intimate friendship with Him so that we may all be one with Him and our Father and each other as He and the Father are one.

Where does that leave us, though, in understanding the attitude of God and Jesus Christ towards borders? We live in a world that is full of borders that deny people the right to live and travel freely. Sometimes, walls and borders are necessary to protect us from those who seek our harm, but sometimes, walls and borders merely serve to divide people and isolate people who should be able to live and travel freely but cannot because they do not have the right identity or the right passport. In contrast to the situation we see on the earth now, when we look at God’s own attitudes, it is only those who rebel against His rule and are hostile to His ways who find themselves cut off from entry into His city, while those who obey Him and seek Him will be able to freely travel and be fully united with all other believers of whatever background, without isolation and without discrimination among them. Let us hope that we are all counted among those who are given the passport to the Holy City, that we may be united with God and Jesus Christ and with each other in peace and harmony, in fellowship and joy.