You Belong
Text: Galatians 3:23-29
One of the laments I heard periodically in a previous pastoral charge was that “We haven’t had enough baptisms lately. We haven’t had people join the church. We should be doing more to get new members on our church rolls. Maybe we should make things easier to join.”
I found myself disagreeing with them… In part because I think one of the hardest things to do is to join the church… Sure… the ceremonies seem easy… We’d have people stand up and declare their intention to become part of the congregation. At first, the congregation seemed willing enough to have new people join… quite enthusiastically actually. Everyone would smile and seems pleased to these new people in their midst.
But then weeks later, after repeated attempts, the new member has not really become a member. No group was found that adopted her. She made no real friends, despite repeated attempts. A few months later, someone asks, “Whatever happened to that nice young woman who joined the church last April?”
It can be difficult to join a church. Getting your name on the membership role is easy. Belonging to the church is something altogether different… and much more difficult.
This is what a colleague of mine calls “the problem of the backdoor” in churches. We do fine when it comes to recruiting new members, sharing with prospects about the program and life of the church. They join, coming in the front door. But then, a few months later, some quietly exit out the back door. They joined, but they never belonged. Perhaps nobody ever joins a church. Perhaps the only way to get into a church, to belong to a church is to be adopted.
Perhaps the only way to be a child of God is to be adopted. Paul says as much in his letter to the church at Galatia: “Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law. . . . But now that faith has come…in Jesus Christ you are all children of God through faith… 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. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Gal 3:23-29).
The Galatians were a church of Greek-speaking Christians who had recently come into contact with others who believed that in order to be Christian, one had to become Jewish first. Whether or not they were Jewish Christians we don’t fully know, but it created problems because it started making divisions between those who were Jewish, and those who were Gentiles. As a Jew himself, Paul speaks about how the Jewish tradition had the Law. They had the Law, with its lists of requirements and demands. That was the way they related to God, through the Law. “But now that faith has come” Jews like Paul have discovered that in Christ, something new has happened. There is an opportunity for a very different relationship with God. No longer are they subject to the judgment and discipline of the Law. They are “all children of God through faith.” Those who once obeyed as if they were hired hands, servants, are now children of God.
What’s even more surprising is that Paul says to the Gentile Christians that they are now “Abraham’s offspring.” Abraham was the father of the Jewish people, the source of the whole family of Israel. Through faith in Christ, even these outsiders, these Gentiles have become children of God, members of the family, inheritors of all that God has so graciously promised Israel. They have all been adopted into the family. God has taken that circle and drawn it wide.
Paul contrasts “faith in Christ” and “the law.” The law, as Paul sees it, is a human effort to get into God’s good graces, to get right with God, to belong. How on earth could sinners like us expect to do that? You can’t work hard to become someone’s child. Imagine someone showing up on your front door saying, “I’ve observed your family at work and play and think that you are a nice group of people. I want to know what I need to do to work hard to get into your family.” You can’t do that. The only way to join a family is by being adopted. The only way to be beloved children in the family of God is through the adoptive expansive love of God in Christ.
Paul says that, after what has happened in the cross and resurrection of Jesus, “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” (v. 28). Paul has listed some of the most ancient and deepest distinctions that we make between one persona and another. Think of all the human sadness and human difficulty, all the injustice and heartache that have occurred in human history because there are groups of people who say, “I am a master over you and you are my slave,” or “I am a man and I am superior to you, a woman.”
Paul does not say that these distinctions no longer exist. Of course, even after Christ, there are males and there are females. What he says is that these distinctions as a means of distinguishing ourselves, as the primary mode of saying who we are and what we’re worth, that these distinctions no longer matter in the way they did. The main distinction we have now that faith in Christ has come is that we are all adopted. By an amazing act of God’s grace, we - Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, males and females - have been brought into one family.
I’ve been a Christian for as long as I can remember. I was brought to church as a babe in arms. Yet even if you just joined this church and became a Christian this morning, I have nothing over you. Both of us are adopted. Neither of us have any claim, on our own, through our natural endowments or racial, gender, class characteristics, on the love of God. All we have is our adoption. We belong, not on the basis of who we are or what we have done, but on the basis of God’s embrace of us. As Jesus said to his disciples on one occasion, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”
Some of you may know that my wife Sarah is adopted. Her parents often reminded her, “Some children are just born into a family. You are different. You are special. We chose you. You are adopted!” I share this story, not because I think she’s more special than anyone else, but rather because something very much like that happened to all of us on a Friday afternoon on a lonely hill outside Jerusalem. We who acted like nobodies became somebodies. We were adopted. Jesus stretched out his arms and embraced us, all of us. I’m special only for that reason. I was adopted, made part of the family. And you’re special too, for that very reason, and I ought to treat you as special. You have been adopted. None of us has any special distinction, when it comes to God or to one another, other than that we’ve been adopted.
Paul mentions baptism to the Galatians. He reminds us that all of us have been “baptized into Christ” (v. 27). You can’t baptize yourself. Even if you are baptized as a grown up rather than as a little baby, you can’t baptize yourself. It is something done to you and for you rather than something done by you.
No wonder baptism is the sign of the Christian faith, a sign of our salvation in Christ. God does not anywhere say to us, “Now if you do this and do that, then I will love you, save you, bring you home.” Rather, in Jesus Christ, God says to us, “I have come to you, have sought you out, have found you, so that I might bring you home, might make a place for you in my house, might set a place for you at my family’s table.”
Maybe as the church, we need to realize that… and start putting it into practice. Like the members who join the church, but never really feel that they belong… maybe we need to be a bit more conscious of adopting, genuinely adopting those who come into our midst so that they’re a real part of our family. It’s an effort, to be sure, but it may give an insight as to how God reaches out to all of us. This is the great mystery of faith, the great good news. We’re all home. We’re all adopted. We all belong.
Thanks be to God! Amen.
Note:
Original text by the Rev. Sarah Fanning
Developed for context at Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church by the Rev. John Crowdis
One of the laments I heard periodically in a previous pastoral charge was that “We haven’t had enough baptisms lately. We haven’t had people join the church. We should be doing more to get new members on our church rolls. Maybe we should make things easier to join.”
I found myself disagreeing with them… In part because I think one of the hardest things to do is to join the church… Sure… the ceremonies seem easy… We’d have people stand up and declare their intention to become part of the congregation. At first, the congregation seemed willing enough to have new people join… quite enthusiastically actually. Everyone would smile and seems pleased to these new people in their midst.
But then weeks later, after repeated attempts, the new member has not really become a member. No group was found that adopted her. She made no real friends, despite repeated attempts. A few months later, someone asks, “Whatever happened to that nice young woman who joined the church last April?”
It can be difficult to join a church. Getting your name on the membership role is easy. Belonging to the church is something altogether different… and much more difficult.
This is what a colleague of mine calls “the problem of the backdoor” in churches. We do fine when it comes to recruiting new members, sharing with prospects about the program and life of the church. They join, coming in the front door. But then, a few months later, some quietly exit out the back door. They joined, but they never belonged. Perhaps nobody ever joins a church. Perhaps the only way to get into a church, to belong to a church is to be adopted.
Perhaps the only way to be a child of God is to be adopted. Paul says as much in his letter to the church at Galatia: “Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law. . . . But now that faith has come…in Jesus Christ you are all children of God through faith… 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. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Gal 3:23-29).
The Galatians were a church of Greek-speaking Christians who had recently come into contact with others who believed that in order to be Christian, one had to become Jewish first. Whether or not they were Jewish Christians we don’t fully know, but it created problems because it started making divisions between those who were Jewish, and those who were Gentiles. As a Jew himself, Paul speaks about how the Jewish tradition had the Law. They had the Law, with its lists of requirements and demands. That was the way they related to God, through the Law. “But now that faith has come” Jews like Paul have discovered that in Christ, something new has happened. There is an opportunity for a very different relationship with God. No longer are they subject to the judgment and discipline of the Law. They are “all children of God through faith.” Those who once obeyed as if they were hired hands, servants, are now children of God.
What’s even more surprising is that Paul says to the Gentile Christians that they are now “Abraham’s offspring.” Abraham was the father of the Jewish people, the source of the whole family of Israel. Through faith in Christ, even these outsiders, these Gentiles have become children of God, members of the family, inheritors of all that God has so graciously promised Israel. They have all been adopted into the family. God has taken that circle and drawn it wide.
Paul contrasts “faith in Christ” and “the law.” The law, as Paul sees it, is a human effort to get into God’s good graces, to get right with God, to belong. How on earth could sinners like us expect to do that? You can’t work hard to become someone’s child. Imagine someone showing up on your front door saying, “I’ve observed your family at work and play and think that you are a nice group of people. I want to know what I need to do to work hard to get into your family.” You can’t do that. The only way to join a family is by being adopted. The only way to be beloved children in the family of God is through the adoptive expansive love of God in Christ.
Paul says that, after what has happened in the cross and resurrection of Jesus, “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” (v. 28). Paul has listed some of the most ancient and deepest distinctions that we make between one persona and another. Think of all the human sadness and human difficulty, all the injustice and heartache that have occurred in human history because there are groups of people who say, “I am a master over you and you are my slave,” or “I am a man and I am superior to you, a woman.”
Paul does not say that these distinctions no longer exist. Of course, even after Christ, there are males and there are females. What he says is that these distinctions as a means of distinguishing ourselves, as the primary mode of saying who we are and what we’re worth, that these distinctions no longer matter in the way they did. The main distinction we have now that faith in Christ has come is that we are all adopted. By an amazing act of God’s grace, we - Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, males and females - have been brought into one family.
I’ve been a Christian for as long as I can remember. I was brought to church as a babe in arms. Yet even if you just joined this church and became a Christian this morning, I have nothing over you. Both of us are adopted. Neither of us have any claim, on our own, through our natural endowments or racial, gender, class characteristics, on the love of God. All we have is our adoption. We belong, not on the basis of who we are or what we have done, but on the basis of God’s embrace of us. As Jesus said to his disciples on one occasion, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”
Some of you may know that my wife Sarah is adopted. Her parents often reminded her, “Some children are just born into a family. You are different. You are special. We chose you. You are adopted!” I share this story, not because I think she’s more special than anyone else, but rather because something very much like that happened to all of us on a Friday afternoon on a lonely hill outside Jerusalem. We who acted like nobodies became somebodies. We were adopted. Jesus stretched out his arms and embraced us, all of us. I’m special only for that reason. I was adopted, made part of the family. And you’re special too, for that very reason, and I ought to treat you as special. You have been adopted. None of us has any special distinction, when it comes to God or to one another, other than that we’ve been adopted.
Paul mentions baptism to the Galatians. He reminds us that all of us have been “baptized into Christ” (v. 27). You can’t baptize yourself. Even if you are baptized as a grown up rather than as a little baby, you can’t baptize yourself. It is something done to you and for you rather than something done by you.
No wonder baptism is the sign of the Christian faith, a sign of our salvation in Christ. God does not anywhere say to us, “Now if you do this and do that, then I will love you, save you, bring you home.” Rather, in Jesus Christ, God says to us, “I have come to you, have sought you out, have found you, so that I might bring you home, might make a place for you in my house, might set a place for you at my family’s table.”
Maybe as the church, we need to realize that… and start putting it into practice. Like the members who join the church, but never really feel that they belong… maybe we need to be a bit more conscious of adopting, genuinely adopting those who come into our midst so that they’re a real part of our family. It’s an effort, to be sure, but it may give an insight as to how God reaches out to all of us. This is the great mystery of faith, the great good news. We’re all home. We’re all adopted. We all belong.
Thanks be to God! Amen.
Note:
Original text by the Rev. Sarah Fanning
Developed for context at Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church by the Rev. John Crowdis
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