Galatians 3:23-29
23 Before the coming of this faith,[a] 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.
Well, unless you're still half asleep, you know that today is the 4th of July. And whether you're a history buff or slept through history classes…you definitely have a basic understanding of what Independence Day is. In part, it's a celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Here's a fun fact. There's only one clergy person to sign the Declaration of Independence. Do you know who that was? John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister. Hooray for us! He was, also, at the time the sixth president of Princeton University.
It's hard to talk about Independence Day without also talking about freedom, but they're not the same. Sadly, the Declaration of Independence, although designed and written to proclaim independence from Britain, it did not offer “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” for all people in the thirteen colonies. Indigenous peoples and slaves were excluded from this new declaration of liberty--a problem that continues to exist, even though a hundred years after that, there was the Emancipation Proclamation.
These historical and, immensely important documents, define what was and is intended for us as Americans, but they fall woefully short of defining who we are as people…as Tekna Theou.
Having or claiming independence from something, someone, or some entity is only part of what it means to be human. To be independent means we have within us the ability, the power, the authority to choose, to determine for ourselves. Merriam-Webster uses synonyms of “self-reliance, self-sufficiency, self-dependence”. Oxford dictionary adds “self-rule”. All of these definitions sound great; because in our own minds and in our own choices and actions, we have the power to do ‘whatever we want’. Freedom, defined by Merriam-Webster, is very close to independence. It's the “power or right to act or speak without hindrance or restraint”. Another definition from Oxford says, “It's the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.”
Interesting. This is exactly what Paul was getting at when he wrote to the hearers in Galatia. Scholars are unclear who and where exactly this population was, but only that they identified as Jewish Christians. This means that they were new to Christianity and Christ, but they still also valued deeply and revered Mosaic law. Paul is eager to get them out from underneath that very law and all of its purity codes. Observing the law, the Mishnah and the Levitical codes, were almost impossible to follow, because there are over 800 of these purity codes to observe. Yet it still gave and gives the Jews something to lean on and proclaim as descendants of Abraham.
What Paul is saying in Galatians is that the law is not what gives and provides identity. Rather it is the union with Christ that gives us identity. Identity for them (and for us) is because of Christ, in Christ, and we are engrafted into that. Not the law, but the unending, unconditional love of God through Christ Jesus.
There's no longer a need for us to continue to speak and talk about ceremonies, awards, promotions or even special titles that we like to attach to ourselves. No, they and we are all made whole and freed up from those things in and because of Christ through our baptism. We no longer need to seek keep seeking approval and accolades. We no longer need to keep finding identity through role, title, pedigree. We no longer need to start explaining our actions, our choices, even our family lineage or the fact that this is a designer blazer that I got for six dollars on the Macy's “Final, Final, Final Sale”. Six dollars!
The reason why is because we are clothed with Christ; and, if we are grounded and rooted in Christ, then we all already have the freedom that we need. We already have the freedom and the independence that we want. We no longer need to worry about what people say or their efforts to control us or to win the debate or the argument over how many dishes you can stack into the dishwasher before you turn it on (which is a chronic debate in my parents’ house).
We no longer have to fight for what we think we deserve, fight for what is ours or fight to get back the things we fear we've lost. No, friends, we are now uniquely independent from all that seeks to imprison and destroy. But we forget this--it's like we have amnesia to this gift. It's like, I mean I know most of us, (besides Marilyn Ward), probably don't remember our baptisms, because we were infants. Marilyn was lucky enough to be a Baptist at the time and I think she was immersed fully in water around age 13 (or something like that). Maybe some others here were too? Pat?? You too??
I mean I'd love to have that experience, but it's too late. God knows I'm not going to fit in that! (Pointing to the Baptismal font). But we have amnesia to the fact that we are freed and in Christ because of our baptisms. We forget this gift. We forget the honor. We forget the privilege and then we find ourselves imprisoned by the things of the world by our own harsh judgments of self and others and that covers over the preciousness of being a Tekna Theou.
Howard Thurman was an African-American man born in 1899. He was a preacher, he was a teacher, and he was the founder of a church in San Francisco called The Fellowship for All Peoples. He's the grandson of a slave and he was known for his philosophical teachings on finding common ground. He eventually went on to become the Dean of the Chapel of Boston University and he was a mentor to Martin Luther King, among others. In his 1980 commencement address to Spellman College--an all women all black liberal arts college in Atlanta--he said this, and I cannot do justice to it so I encourage you to listen to him speak his speech, but I will try my level best:
“There is…in every person… something that waits and listens for: the sound of the ‘genuine’…in themselves… and in others. There is something in you… that is waiting and listening…for the sound of the ‘genuine’, in yourself.” “Nobody like you has ever been born. No one like you will ever be born again. It is for what you are searching….” “And… if you cannot hear the sound of the ‘genuine’… in yourself… you will… all of your life… spend your days… on the ends of strings… that someone else pulls.”
My friend, the sound of the “genuine” is here. It is Christ. And we keep falling deaf to that sound, searching for freedom and independence that we already have [in here] (pointing to the heart) and no one can ever take that away from us. Thanks be to God. Amen.