Beyond Us And Them

June 23, 2019

Hope Lutheran Church

Pastor Mary Erickson

Galatians 3:23-29

Beyond Us and Them

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

The poet Allan Ahlberg wrote a poem called “Picking Teams.” Here it is:

When we pick teams in the playground,

Whatever the game might be,

There’s always somebody left till last

And usually it’s me.

I stand there looking hopeful

And tapping myself on the chest,

But the captains pick the others first,

Starting, of course, with the best.

Maybe if teams were sometimes picked

Starting with the worst,

Once in his life a boy / girl like me

Could end up being first!

We’ve all experienced the playground selection process from childhood. But being sorted into categories doesn’t stop when the recess bell rings. As children, we’re sorted according to our academic ability, our grade level and into school districts. And after graduation, society sorts us into umpteen categories: according to race and ethnicity, according to gender, according to age, socioeconomic status, our political leanings, if we’re Packer or Vikings fans.

Our reading today from Galatians captures a sorting process that confronted the first-generation Christian Church. What should they do with the Gentile believers? The fledgling church found its origins within Judaism. The very first believers had all been Jewish. But as Christianity spread geographically, it experienced more and more converts from Gentile backgrounds.

A great divide separated Jews from Gentiles. Devout Jews followed a holiness code. It kept them ritually clean before God. This included kosher laws and Sabbath laws and most especially circumcision for men. Circumcision was the defining ritual for a Jewish man. It was THE central mark of their identity as a Jew.

These holiness laws were deeply cherished by Jews. And in transitioning to become Jewish followers of Jesus, they took their Jewish holiness customs with them. It was just a natural thing and they didn’t even think about it. It was just who they were and how they lived in the world.

But then, the Gentiles started showing up! Their presence posed a crisis for the church. Do “we” let “them” in? And if “we” do let “them” in, do “they” have to become like “us?” There was a strong voice insisting that the Gentiles did need to adopt Jewish customs, especially circumcision. These Jewish customs were so central to their core identity, they couldn’t distinguish between these customs and their new identity as Christians.

This old separation between Jew and Gentile was hard for some to overcome. The lifestyle of the Gentile was completely abhorrent to them. They couldn’t imagine that such a lack of holiness could be deemed acceptable. If they were going to become Christians, then they first had to give up their Gentile lifestyle and live like Jews.

Earlier in his letter to the Galatians, Paul describes a situation that occurred in the city of Antioch. Antioch was located in what’s now Syria. It was Paul’s home congregation. Peter had come from Jerusalem to visit the congregation. When it came time to eat, Peter ate with everyone gathered, both Jews and Gentiles.

But later on, some more visitors arrived from Jerusalem. They were from the more conservative camp who held closely to their Jewish traditions. Dinnertime came around. But now Peter no longer sat down to eat among the Gentile Christians. He separated himself and ate only with the Jewish Christians. Us and them.

Paul had started many mission sites in cities throughout the region of Galatia. Ancient Galatia was located in what’s modern day Turkey. The church there was predominantly made up of Gentile believers. But then some Jewish Christians began asserting that the Gentile converts all needed to adopt Jewish ways, especially circumcision. Without this practice, they could not be Christians. It created an atmosphere of confusion and anxiety. And it separated the community into Us and Them. Paul writes this letter expressly to address this situation head on.

For Paul, this is no peripheral issue. This gets at the core of our Christian identity! Where is our hope located? Where do we find salvation? For Paul, it’s located in one thing and one thing only: the life and power of Jesus Christ our Savior! To place our hope in anything else is to let this mighty gift slip through our fingers.

Paul writes boldly to the Galatians. He doesn’t soften his tone even slightly. For him, everything precious about our faith rides on this issue. To let this go is to lose everything. He writes: “If anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that person be accursed!”

Where do we place our hope? Is the center-focus of our faith in the saving actions of our Lord Jesus Christ? It’s surprising how other things can creep in to dilute that faith! “Well…yes…Jesus is important…BUT…it’s also important to be a good person!”