At 2 ½ years old, my daughters don’t see differences in people, yet. Young, old, male, female, race, etc… They just don’t see them, and/or have frameworks for them. In some ways this is very cool. They bring the same neutrality and openness to everyone they meet. It reminded me of this passage today from Galatians that we just heard even before it was up on the lectionary.
“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.” Maybe this is a common point between Paul’s writings and Jesus’ teachings encouraging us to be like a child? Hmmm…
Except that I also remember about 10-15 years ago it was very vogue for new-age spiritual teachers to say that they ‘didn’t see race’ etc. either, and I always found that kind of disturbing. These things seem to be such important parts of who we are – our age, gender, ethnicity, etc. Is ‘not seeing them’ really a gift? Or is there something else about how kids are, and how Christ was with what he saw that matters?
Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church and the first woman ever to lead an Anglican province, preached at a Cathedral in England last weekend…
But close observers would have seen there was something missing as she preached - no mitre on her head. (her Bishop’s hat.) So how did that come about? Step forward, Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, interestingly, she could preach but said she could not wear the symbol of her office, or carry a Bishop's crosier, (staff.) It had something to do with women Bishops not yet being allowed in the Church of England. A bit petty, some say, as Bishop Katherine is indeed a Bishop and head of her national church – but in any event, she carried the mitre. And the subject for her sermon: God welcomes everyone, regardless of dress or condition.
When I read this I was amazed & shocked, and incredibly disappointed at his actions and proud of her. Why are the basics of scripture so hard for us to get?!?! I say ‘us,’ intentionally, because I know I am also not immune. The site from which I got this story The Episcopal CafĂ©, shines some light on the under-belly of our church, even as this breach stands in broad- daylight at the highest levels.
This passage from Paul that we just read, it’s one of the most well-known passages in scripture,-“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.” Seems pretty straight forward, doesn’t it? In Christ we are all equal we all have the same value in Christ – No one is better or worse than anyone else… the same, no difference. Simple, yes. Easy, no! All you have to do is look at kids a bit older than mine playing on the playground to see how easily we set up hierarchies, how early we learn to include some and exclude others.
Well, and the early church was not exempt from distinctions, either. That is why Paul addressed the Christians in Galatia so forcefully. He knew that if they were to really live out Christ’s teachings divisions had to stop. And he also knew that his words were very challenging to his listeners. Nevertheless, Jesus had something more expansive in mind, and Paul got that.
So why is it so hard? I think part of it is because our differences are important to us, and part of it is that we like order and even hierarchy. Let’s look at my second story, again. Although I am highlighting the archbishop’s de-valuation of our Presiding Bishop, the fact is that we have
a Presiding Bishop. We have Bishops, priest, and deacons, and are a very hierarchical church. …and I like being a part of a church like that - different roles, responsibilities, and symbolism. It’s powerful and even poetic, I think. So how then is it that we can embrace this passage from Paul with any integrity?
Paul says that in Christ there is neither slave nor free, Jew nor Greek, male and female, but it fact there are all of these. We are very different from one another, and there are many gifts in our differences. The challenge is in honoring difference, valuing it, and knowing we have everything to gain from it, without creating better-worse; without excluding some so others can feel better about themselves.
It’s an especially interesting time to consider this foundation of our faith given all the abuses of power we’ve seen lately in the banking industry, and BP. (It is likely we will always have some among us who would try to claim they are more valuable, are more entitled, than others.)
One of my seminary professors used to say that this was the meaning of the story of the Garden of Eden and our Fall from Grace. It’s not about nakedness or sexuality at all. It’s about seeing the other clearly for who they are, including their differences, and then not being able to let them still be a full equal. We may try, but the temptation is always there to then make oneself or the other better and worse.
The meaning of today’s Epistle, then, is not that there can be or should be no distinctions among us, but that there is no inherent superiority of one over another or exclusion by one of another. As hard as it is, I believe as Christians, we are called to hang on to and consider and re-consider teachings such as this: In preacher Barbara Brown Taylor’s words –
It’s how we bother God
and God bothers us back!!!
Amen!