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. (Galatians 3:28)
You may be familiar with the Apostle’s Creed which begins, “I believe in God, the Father, the Almighty.” Or the Nicene Creed which starts out, “I believe in one God, the Father almighty.” Or even the beginning of the UCC Statement of faith; “We believe in God, the Eternal Spirit, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Father….”
These are all creeds of the church, or statements of what we believe. The first two are very old, dating to the early centuries of the Christian faith, while the latter is more recent (1959). Simply put, the word creed means, “I believe” and we all live by certain creeds of politics, economics, family, whether they are stated or not.
In his book, The Forgotten Creed, New Testament professor Stephen Patterson of Willamette University says that Galatians 3:28 was the first, forgotten creed of the church, likely used in the rite of baptism and copied by Paul into this letter. This verse, he says, reflects the heart of what the early church believed.
In the first and second century world, to be a free, Greek/Roman male put you near the top of the social and economic pyramid. The world at the time was deeply divided by class (slave or free), ethnicity (Jew or Greek/Roman), and gender (male and female). But the early Christian church said no. It rejected these divisions and said we are all “one in Christ Jesus.”
Over time, the church became more concerned with what people believed. Was Jesus the Son of God? Is the bread of communion the physical body of Christ? And ironically, we divided ourselves all over again.
We once again live in a deeply divided world, and those divisions have affected our nations, our churches, and our families. What if we set aside our other creeds? What if we affirmed once again, first and foremost, that we are “one”? What if we could see one another as sisters and brothers and all children of God?
For there is no longer Democrat or Republican, immigrant or citizen, male and female, for all of you are one.
What if?
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