Becoming Us: Galatians 3:1-9, 23-29 - Seventh Sunday of Easter

One of our nearby pastors blessed our weekly bible study by bringing a fresh box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. 

I can’t tell you the last time I ate one, and while it was good, it wasn’t nearly as good as I remember.

When I was in college, a whole bunch of us piled into my friend’s minivan and traveled down to Cranberry for the grand opening of the Krispy Kreme doughnut shop, and we waited nearly two hours. As we got closer, we could see the big donut machine which formed, fried, and frosted the doughnuts, and when we finally got ours, they were still hot. From the first bite, I knew why people were waiting in line. 

Yet for as quickly as Krispy Kreme doughnut shops were popping up nearly everywhere, they quickly began to close. One reason was the Atkins low-carbohydrate diet craze. The other reason was that the company grew too fast, and practically everyone was selling their doughnuts. 

Image by Scheidt from Pixabay

You wouldn’t think it, but rapid growth can prove every bit as problematic for a church. Since the Day of Pentecost, massive numbers of Gentiles (or Non-Jews) were becoming part of a Christian community which had been made up exclusively of Christ-believing Jews. There was a strong faction within the church which asserted that Old Testament rites and regulations were binding on all Christians.

But Jewishness consisted of more than just rituals and beliefs. It was an identity. Being Jewish meant being children of Abraham and Sarah. It meant that you belonged to a nation and a race which God had chosen to be his own over two thousand years ago.

But since the day of Pentecost, you had two distinct identities within the church: those who were Jewish, and those who were not. Naturally, this served to make non-Jewish Christians as second-class members. And yet they, having just come to Christ, now stand to inherit everything that God had promised to the children of Abraham and Sarah. In other words, these non-Jews were getting for free what the children of Abraham and Sarah spent two thousand years struggling and striving for. 

Consider it this way: suppose our congregation underwent rapid growth (which is something we should be striving for). That would be great, but whose church would it be? We have members of this church who are descendants of its founders. We also have members who’ve selflessly given time, talent, and treasure for many years. But then, you have all these new people who give, who volunteer, and who lead, and soon, it doesn’t feel like the same church. I believe this is why congregations don’t grow. They don’t want to lose their identity. They don’t want to lose what they see as theirs. 

The lesson the Galatians had to learn was that the Church was not theirs. It didn’t belong to Jews, and it didn’t belong to Gentiles. It’s Christ’s Church. When you hear the Gospel and are drawn to ne new life, when you are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit, your identity is rooted in Jesus. You are his possession. All other identities are rendered moot for the sake of belonging to each other in Christ.

What makes the Church so special is in what it means to belong. You don’t belong because of your race, your family of origin, because of what you’ve accomplished in life or how much money you have in the bank. It’s Jesus blood that sets you free to be people of God. 

Paul reminds those who object to the unconditional inclusion of non-Jewish converts that Abraham and Sarah once were strangers to God. It was God who took the initiative; it was God who chose them as God’s own. Their identity was not something they’d earned; it was a gift. Like the Gentiles who came to faith in Christ, they became righteous before God and inherited all the promises of God by trusting God and by obeying God. 

Like the Christians at Galatia, we are all still growing into their new identity in Christ. Yet we cannot be true to who we are until we get over ourselves. An important part of that growth is recognizing God’s works in each other’s lives. 

For a Christian who can trace their ancestry back to Abraham and Sarah, they are blessed that they and the generations before them have belonged to the people of God. And yet, they will learn more about who their God is through the stories of how the Holy Spirit had drawn someone in who had not been part of the people of God. And as far as those Christians are concerned, what a blessing it is for them to know that they had indeed belonged to God since the beginning of time, and now they, and their children, and their children’s children will live in the promise. 

Growth in faith, growth in discipleship, and growth in mission are not without pains. One of the biggest growing pains is giving up the identities we cling to which give us power and control make us feel important. It means something in the world to claim certain identities, because they give you privilege and prestige. On the other hand, there are identities which devalue people. Either way, all these identities get washed away in the waters of baptism. In Christ, they mean nothing, for without him, there is one identity we all would share: condemned.  But thanks be to God, the identity we claim is beloved Children of God. It’s who you are and who we are, and not by choice, by merit, or birthright, but by God’s amazing grace.