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!”
It’s so difficult to leave everything up to Jesus! Certainly, there’s something WE must have to do as well! It’s faith in Jesus Christ…AND following God’s law, right? Those people who don’t live like good Christian folk, certainly they’re not right with God! Why, they haven’t been to church since they were confirmed – not even on Christmas!
It’s so hard for us to embrace that Christ has accomplished everything to reconcile us with God. Isn’t there something, some little thing that we have to do? Surely there is!
This was precisely the problem with the early Christian church, and it’s still our problem today. Before the Jewish followers of Jesus had become Christians, the Law of God, the Torah, had been the center of their religious devotion. It was everything!
But for Paul, Christ is the perfection of the Law. He is God’s Torah made flesh in our midst. And through his life and death and resurrection, he has fulfilled and completed God’s law. He has completely lived out God’s good intentions for humanity. He has absolutely perfected it! For the Law manifests God’s will. It shows us all the life and all the goodness of God. And Jesus, in his living, and especially in his perfect dying, Jesus has absolutized all the life and goodness of God.
He has paved the way. He has perfected all things. He has gathered and brought all things into harmony with God! We are righteous because he is righteous. We have life because he is life! We are made perfect because he has perfected God’s good law.
And so to say that there is ONE MORE THING, one more little thing that’s necessary…that completely denies all that Christ is and has done. That one little thing, no matter what it is, carries more weight than Christ.
It cannot be, says Paul! It’s Christ and only Christ, or it’s not the Gospel! And Gentiles in Galatia, if anyone tells you that you need one more thing, they are misleading you!
This new life in Christ has completely reorganized everything. The old distinctions that once separated us have disappeared like the morning’s dew. Jew and Greek – no longer relevant. Slave or free – that distinction doesn’t apply under Christ. And male and female? Even here, we are one in Christ. These old categories that once separated us, they have faded into nothingness. There is no longer Us and Them!
Aiden Wilson Tozer was a 20th Century minister and author. He wrote an inspirational book entitled "The Pursuit of God." In it he reflected on how being one with Christ automatically unites us with one another. He writes:
“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”
Friends, Christ makes us one! We are one in Christ Jesus! Our faith in Christ attunes us into him, the living Torah of God.
• Faith unites us with Christ and so makes us of one mind with Christ.
• Faith allows us to see with the eyes of Christ.
• Our hearts beat with the compassion of Christ.
• Our arms reach out with the strength of Christ.
Through Christ Jesus we are united. One in faith, one in baptism, one through Christ our Lord. Amen.
