Scripture Reading | Galatians 3:23-29
23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Faith of our Fathers – The Apostle Paul
Pastor Thanael Certa-Werner
Today, along with celebrating World Communion Sunday, we are also beginning our new sermon series, Faith of our Fathers. Over the next five weeks, we’re going to be looking at four men of the past who have helped to shape the Christian faith of today and how the changes that happened to them because of faith can also change us. Before we get started, I invite you to take out your bulletin. One of the things we do at Bethany-Calvary is we work on a memory verse throughout the duration of a sermon series. So, let’s turn to the bulletin and begin to practice our new one.
Memory Verse: Turn your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding. -Proverbs 2:2 (NIV)
How many of you have siblings? Raise your hands. I have three sisters and growing up was a lot of fun. We jumped on trampolines, swam in our pool, played lots and lots – I MEANT A LOT – of barbies. To be fair, I was often out voted on what we got to play. My favorite was playing cars and once in a while, my parents would take pity on me and would make everyone go to the basement and play cars. Looking back now, we had a lot of fun growing up together – and still do as we continue to grow. But anyone with siblings knows that it’s not fun and games all the time.
I can remember many car rides when we each had to look out our own window, say nothing, and not cross the middle of the car because we had been fighting with each other for the last 20 minutes. Or the angst of my sisters fighting over who gets what barbie, or who gets to wear the princess dress, or have the magic wand. Growing up with siblings often means growing up with a lot of disagreement – to put it lightly. Even as we grow older and more mature, the arguments we have as siblings aren’t focused on toys or playtime anymore, but on life decisions and ways of doing things.
At the very beginning of the Church, an argument was also brewing. Jesus had died and rose again and people were beginning to follow and believe in the Good News of His life. But then the questions began to arise, what makes a Christian a Christian? Who gets to be a part of the Church and what do they have to do in order to become a part of it? The twelve disciples who, are now called apostles, are Jewish and to become Jewish, people have to go through many rituals and tasks to cleanse themselves and to make themselves holy. Many of the early church leaders believed that people should first become Jewish in order to become Christian.
On the other side, is it possible for people to become Christian as something different than Judaism all together? Can more than just Jews be Christian? The champion of this argument would come from the oddest of places. A man, who was named Saul, was known throughout the Jewish world. He was a Pharisee of the highest order. What we know about Saul is that he was dedicated to the faith and was ready to help accomplish the goal of the Pharisees. Now, remember that the Pharisees believed that in order for the Messiah to come and establish a new kingdom in Jerusalem, people would have to begin to follow the Law, or the Torah, perfectly. So it was their mission to go throughout the land of Israel and to every place where there were Jews to teach and educate them how to live out the laws of the Torah so that the messiah would come.
As the Pharisees are working towards this and getting people to follow the law to the letter, a new group of Jews arose which proved to be a bit of a problem. These followers of the Christ, or Christians are violating the law and claiming that a man was the Son of God. Remember, if every Jew must follow the Law in order that the Messiah might come, these Christians have to be gotten rid of. Either they must give up this false belief, or they must die. So, the most zealous of the Pharisees, the one who believed the most in the faith, went from town to town seeking out Christians and getting rid of them. One of these men was Saul.
This backstory is important because it makes it even more incredible that Saul, who would be called by Jesus Himself to help lead the Church, would be its biggest advocate for moving away from the Jewish rituals and rites. Paul, as he was later called by God, went into the world and started congregations of believers which were made up of Jewish people and gentiles – or those who were not Jewish. This man, who was once the Pharisee of Pharisees, who loved ritual, who loved the Law now writes to one of his congregations in Galatians that the Law is not the end all of end alls. He says, “Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.”
In other words, the Law is important because it nurtured us and took care of us until our parent could return to us and take care of us. But now that our Parent has returned – now that Jesus has given us new life and new instruction, we are under His care and if we are under Jesus’ care, then whether we have become Jewish under the rules given by the Law no longer matters. He says, “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Because of Christ and what He has done, we are no longer divided by Jew or Gentile. Christ’s act of love and sacrifice has clothed us and made us completely new. No longer are we Jew. No longer are we Gentile. No longer are we slave, nor free, nor man, nor woman. It’s no longer a matter of if you were born into the right family. It’s no longer a matter of if you did the right rituals. If you claim Christ for your life, you are a part of the family of God. This is what we celebrate at baptism and what we celebrate today. That we are all made into one family of people because of what God has done.
Today, there are 2.4 billion Christians around the world. There is no country Christians have not been touched, there is no people that have not been welcomed into the Church. Today, we celebrate what Jesus started all those years ago and what Paul confirmed – that the Church has been opened to people of all nations, backgrounds, families, histories, problems, and strengths. That the Church is for everyone and that together we are the family of Christ.
Paul made many trips in his lifetime and helped to start many churches which would grow into the Church of today. There were others who also started churches and spread the Gospel, but Paul’s greatest gift to the Christians of today is that he helped us to see God’s call for inclusion and diversity. These are incredibly loaded terms, especially in the United States and especially right now. But we cannot allow for people’s misuse of these words cloud the real meaning of these words. Christ’s call for His church is that it be open to Democrats and Republicans. That there be a place for those who have been in the Church their whole lives and those who have been in the church building for five minutes.
Christ’s call is for there to be room for sinners, for people who make mistakes, for young people, for old people, for new ideas and old ideas, for people from Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, North America, Australia, the Antarctic, and even the moon. In Paul’s day, the biggest danger to the Church was that its leaders wanted to fill it with people who thought and acted like themselves and often, we are in danger of this too. The beauty of our Church is that it is for one kind of people – those who love Christ and want to serve Him. That’s our only requirement. At the end of the day, when you strip back all of the buildings, and rituals and traditions – when you get to the core of the Church, you find love of Christ. That’s the mission of the Church and that’s what we celebrate here.
We celebrate that we are, in fact, a part of a church which is on every continent of this earth. That even the people who society doesn’t want, even the rejects of this world, are welcomed. As we celebrate communion today, we celebrate it with the other 2.4 billion family members who are remembering today why we’re here together – because of what Christ has done.