Galatians 3:23-29
Listen to Sermon
Pastor Tom Johnson, June 23, 2019
Jesus gets in trouble with both Jews and Gentiles in our Gospel reading today. He crosses all sorts of boundaries—beginning with the border between the country of the Gerasenes, a Gentile people, and Galilee, part of the Jewish nation. Jesus violates the ceremonial law of the Old Covenant by entering a graveyard and interacting with a demoniac and people who raise ritually unclean animals—swine. As Jesus sends the man healed to go out and tell what God has done for him, the local Gentile community tell him to leave their territory. Jesus’ actions challenges both Jewish and Gentile cultural norms. The old order of tribalism, prejudice, sexism, and class warfare is pushed behind. A new vision of who we are is ushered in. The good news of Jesus Christ not only crosses borders but brings people together as one people of God.
Six years ago, I received a phone call from the founder and president of Concordia University in Irvine California, Pastor Charles Manske. He was coming to Chicago and wanted to meet me and visit First Saint Paul’s. He came here in 1955 to do his vicarage or internship as part of his training to become a pastor. Later he would write his dissertation on city ministry using our church as a study. He showed me his hand-drawn maps of the neighborhood surrounding us from over 60 years ago. The red-light district was just blocks away. There was a large Puerto Rican community at our doorstep. Just a generation before, this had been a much more German community. 60 years before that in the late 1800s, we were a mostly German immigrant congregation. And in 1910 we moved up from Ohio and LaSalle to Goethe and LaSalle following the neighborhood changes at that time. We have always had to learn to do ministry in an ever-changing neighborhood and city. All this to say that sometimes God changes our borders without our seeking or asking. Jesus takes his disciples on a journey into the unknown to challenge their long held assumptions and prejudices. So Jesus continues to take us on a journey that will challenge us to broaden our minds and enlarge our hearts toward others.
That is why Paul so boldly says, “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.” There are no longer ethnic, gender, or class distinctions in the Gospel. It does not matter to God if you or I were born into high society, have a certain genetic inheritance, or the right gender identity. You are accepted. You are valued. You are loved. And if these distinctions are not relevant to God, then these same distinctions should no longer be relevant to us. In fact, our differences should be celebrated just as the healed demoniac went into his home country to tell everyone about all the good things God had done in his life.
I am so thankful that he is not a god who requires that we speak a certain language to understand him—that we must have the right genealogy—or that we matter more if we are a boy or a girl. I am so thankful that we serve a God who has a universal appeal. He has a global mindset and mission. He is radically inclusive of the human race. Rather than the Church becoming more uniform, we are growing in our diversity.
We believe that Jesus died on the Cross for the world—with all its sin, brokenness, and rivalry. In Christ our sin is forgiven. Our brokenness and wounds are healed. And our rivalry is transformed into reconciliation. We are not merely citizens of an earthly nation. We are citizens of God’s heavenly Kingdom. And so we as God’s people should not settle for stagnancy, isolationism, tribalism, genealogical pride, sexism, prejudice, or racism. That is not who we are reborn to be. We may have been born one ethnicity or another, male or female, high or low social class. But in Christ we are reborn a new people. In his rising from the dead we are now a royal priesthood and a holy nation. Our changing neighborhoods, city, state, and nation are not just challenges. They are opportunities. Jesus leads the charge forward to bring all humanity under one banner—to make us all one in Christ.
Rise, shine, you people! Christ the Lord has entered
Our human story; God in Him is centered.
He comes to us, by death and sin surrounded,
With grace unbounded.
Come, celebrate, your banners high unfurling,
Your songs and prayers against the darkness hurling.
To all the world go out and tell the story
Of Jesus’ glory. (LSB 825 “Rise, Shine, You People” vv. 1 & 3)
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