One in Christ
Betty Stroud
Year C 2025 Pentecost 2
As the Uniting Church in Australia, we value grace-filled inclusiveness. We reject divisive and judgemental stances. Here, at South Sydney, we pride ourselves on being inclusive. The statement at the top of our newsletter and our web page says: ‘We are a welcoming and diverse group of people from South Sydney and beyond.’ This congregation, along with any other number of congregations with the Uniting Church, strives to live in a way that accepts people for who they are – regardless of sex, race, colour, and so on.
And yet we know we don’t always get it right! When I first entered full-time ministry in 1998, the congregation to which I was called had two couples leave because I was a female minister. In my second congregation, people left over the issue of people, who identified as gay, being allowed to be ordained ministers.
Still – there are congregations where same sex marriages are not conducted.
And I know of some congregations who would find it difficult to welcome some of the people who are welcomed by this congregation.
We haven’t yet – in many places, attained the vision of the church that Paul expresses here. A vision of harmony and unity. Here, Paul sees great change happening within the community of faith because of who Jesus was. Jesus – who stood up for the poor, the dispossessed and outcast. Jesus – who accepted people regardless of who they were or where they came from.
The vision Paul had was of communities that would bring together opposites
In these communities, the religious differences of Jew and Gentile would matter no more; the different levels of social status, of people living in freedom and those serving as slaves, would become irrelevant; and the societal roles and expectations associated with the gender of a person — male or female – would no longer function as dominant.
These three conditions of difference would melt away, within the community of faith, into a cohesive unity of co-operation and interconnection.
As we think about these three key instances of the way in which difference in the church would disappear, we might push it further and ask ourselves:
Is this a vision that pertains just to the Christian church, or might it be one that society as a whole could embrace?
And of course, the answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’.
The vision and the hope which Paul set out in his letter to the Galatians is very pertinent in the world in which we live today – a world that is fractured because of ideologies and race; a world where the division between the haves and the have nots seems to be widening at an increasing pace; a world where women in many places are still subjected to the whims of men; a world where creation itself is fractured because eco systems – so reliant on each other, are falling apart.
“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” –
This unity which was Paul’s vision for the early church could well become a model for harmony within society.
Certainly, that is the way that the church has interpreted this statement in the centuries since Paul wrote it.
In the late first century, the church of the time continued to wrestle with what Paul had brought to the attention of the Galatians. Over time however, Jews and gentiles were equally welcomed within most of the faith communities of the ancient world. Jewish Law – in the Christian church, came to be seen in a new light – very firmly based on Jesus’ law of love.
During the Enlightenment, the church was at the forefront of the movement to abolish slavery which enabled black Africans to live unhindered by white masters seeking to profit from selling them as slaves.
From the second half of the 20th century, the western church has been active – alongside many other community organisations to ensure equal opportunity for women.
In each of these battles, the church at large, has understood Paul’s words to the Galatians to be words for both the church, and for society as a whole.
In so many parts of our world, these words continue to be just a vision. A vision that at times seems to be overwhelmingly snuffed out by hatred, greed, disempowerment, and the lust for power and control.
But whilst this vision might seem to be lacking in any sort of possibility, as people of faith, we are called to hold onto that vision. To work towards the possibilities of hope that it implies.
As people of faith – here at South Sydney Uniting Church, we can’t possibly have any effect on what is happening in Iran, Israel, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar – and countless other places throughout our world.
We can however, uphold those people working towards that vision in those places – and whilst they might seem absent, I have read any number of stories of people being there in those difficult places …… working away to bring people together; working away at dispelling differences and division. And not just in far-away places. If you watched the Compass programme last Sunday, you would have learnt about Jews and Palestinians here, in Sydney, holding conversations about what’s going on in Israel and Gaza and how they might better understand each other.
Closer to home, may Paul’s vision become a reality for us, as we live out his words in this community of faith, and amongst the people of the places where we live, sleep, eat, work, and rest.
‘In Christ there is no Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.’
