The Painted Door Church - Chicago
The Painted Door Church is church family that gathers in Chicago, IL. We are a people who share the same story; we are sinner, saved by grace. We draw our name from the Exodus account in the Hebrew Scriptures, when God spared his people from judgement, passing over all homes that had the blood of a spotless lamb painted across their doorways. Jesus is the new spotless lamb, his death on a Roman cross sparing the people of God from judgment once for all. He reconnects us to our Maker and to each other and invites us to participate in his grand work of restoring all things.
The Painted Door Church - Chicago
Dividing Walls: Jews and Gentiles / Ephesians 2:11-22
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Pastor Mark Bergin
Political movements, like all human efforts to solve problems, can achieve only two possible outcomes: punishment or pardon. Historically, those movements primarily concerned with punishment are deemed right wing, while those movements primarily concerned with pardon are deemed left wing. Trouble is, neither punishment nor pardon can truly solve the world’s problems. And when either right wing or left wing movements get their way, totalitarianism or chaos invariably follows. So what then? Should Christians sit out of the political morass since our hope is not of this world? May it never be. It is precisely because our hope is not of this world that Christians can dive into the messy political sphere with open ears and open hands. When we are not compelled to hope in a particular political ideology, we can learn to see both its strengths and weaknesses. And when our fears and pains find comfort in a heavenly kingdom, we can endure the fears and pains of any earthly kingdom. It is those with nothing to lose and nothing to gain who are most free to hear truth, even from the mouths of their opponents. And to discern lies, even from the mouths of their allies.