Loving God, you come to us in grace and mercy, giving us your Spirit and making us your children.  Keep us rooted and grounded in you, uniting us with others who are also rooted and grounded in you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Sometimes when you read Paul’s letters, you need to read it, and then go back and say, “Okay.  What did Paul actually say here?”  And so, I’m going to do that, at least briefly, with the part of Paul’s letter to the Galatians that we heard today.

    As we’ve been hearing the past few weeks, there were some within the early church who were teaching that everybody needed to follow the Jewish law in order to belong to Christ.  However, Paul (and also Peter) were saying that we are saved by faith in Jesus and not by doing everything that the law says (what Paul calls “the works of the law”).  And so, the reading that we heard today begins with Paul asking the Galatians what they did in order to receive the Holy Spirit.  Did they do everything that the law said first, or did God give them the Spirit when they believed what they had heard about Jesus?  The obvious answer, which Paul doesn’t even bother including, is that God gave them the Spirit because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

    Then, as proof of God accepting people based on faith, Paul points to the Scriptures and to the example of Abraham.  In Genesis, when God makes a covenant with Abraham, we read that “he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness” (15:6).  In other words, God declared Abraham to be in a right relationship with God because of his faith.  At the same time, Paul points out how not only Jews, but Gentiles would be blessed through Abraham.  One of God’s promises to Abraham was that “all the nations of the earth [would] be blessed in him” (Gen. 18:18; cf. 12:3).  And so, whether people had previously been Jews or Gentiles, all of them would be both saved and blessed through their faith in Jesus Christ - who is also a descendant of Abraham and the fulfillment of God’s promise.

    Then, in the final part of today’s reading, Paul describes the law as a disciplinarian or custodian or nanny.  The Greek word that Paul uses referred to a slave who had charge of the children and made sure that they went to school.  And so, like a nanny, children outgrew their need for such a person.  In the same way, says Paul, once we have a mature faith in Christ, we no longer need the law that tells us every step of the way what we need to do.  Instead, we live by faith and by the power of the Spirit, which means living as Jesus taught us rather than according to the letter of the law.

    So, just to clarify – this does not mean that once you believe in Jesus you get to do things that are illegal.  The law that Paul speaks of is the Jewish law, which means that we don’t have to follow all of the food laws or have tassels on our robes or marry our brother’s childless wife, or stuff like that.  When we talk about faith and works and salvation, it is more a question of what comes first.  Do we obey all of the rules so that God will save us, or does God save us first based on our faith in Jesus and then we live as children of God are meant to live?... [can you answer that one?]

    So then Paul talks about how we are all children of God by faith, and how we are all baptized into Christ, and how we are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26-28).  He uses the image of clothing ourselves with Christ.  And so, when I look at you, I should see Christ.  And when you look at me, you should see Christ.  This is not to say that we all look like Jesus, but that we act in such a way that others can see Christ in us.  This is also to say that we are to look for Christ in others and treat others as if they are Jesus.

    In fact, when we look at ourselves and others in this way, any dividing lines or distinctions that used to be there melt away.  Paul makes this astonishing statement that “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

    These are all groups of people and divisions that existed within the early church.  Some were Jewish and some were Gentile (which Paul refers to here as Greek).  Some were slaves (like Onesimus) and some were not slaves (like Philemon, who was Onesimus’ master).  Some were men and some were women.  And, we could add, some were rich and some were poor (cf. Jas. 2:1-7).  All of these were distinctions that resulted in some believers being treated differently than others.  This is why Paul emphasizes that all of us have been clothed with Christ.

    As we think today about “no longer Jew or Greek, “ it seems that we have (at least to some extent) gotten past that one.  I don’t know too many people who refer to themselves as Gentile Christians these days.  However, if Paul were writing today, might he say something like, “there is no longer Lutheran or Roman Catholic, no longer Mennonite or Pentecostal, no longer Anglican or Orthodox”?  Do we see ourselves as all one in Christ Jesus?

    And then, “there is no longer slave or free.”  Aren’t all of us both?...  In Martin Luther’s treatise “The Freedom of a Christian” he proposes two apparently contradictory statements and then spends the rest of the treatise explaining them.  He writes, “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.”  At the same time, “A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”  He goes on to explain that because we have been united with Christ, we share in his lordship.  At the same time, just as Jesus came to serve others, so we also are called to be servants.  We have been set free in order to serve our neighbours.

    Finally, there is the statement that “there is no longer male and female.”  While we most obviously are both male and female, God does not define us based on our gender.  Jesus does not say to us, “Well, you’re male, so you should just do this,” or, “you’re female, so you should just do this.”  Instead, God has given gifts to each person according to their ability, and has called each person to do the things that God has equipped them to do.  

    All are equal at the foot of the cross, and all are equally valued by God: male and female; slave or free, Jew or Greek, rich or poor.  Jesus came for every single one of them, and treated each one as a precious child of God.  In the same way, Jesus came for every one of us, and treats us as precious children of God, and invites us to treat others in the same way.  For all “are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Easter 7 (NL 3)                            Galatians 3:1-9, 23-29
May 28, 2017
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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