In our everyday experience, there is on some occasions a very great difference between truth and falsehood; so great that we are easily able to tell the difference. But there are other situations where truth and falsehood sound so similar that one has to look very carefully to see exactly where falsehood deviates from the truth. With religious truth, as with any other, this can be the case; for falsehood is a twisting of the truths of God, and as with a clever liar in a murder trial, untruths about God stick as closely as they can to the truth, deviating only where it is necessary so as to present an appearance of truth or innocence. One of the areas in which this occurs is discrimination.
In today’s world, there is a great concern with discrimination, be it against race, gender, religion, age or any number of other issues. We are powerfully opposed to and kind of discrimination. So, it is clear, is Paul in today’s reading from the letter to the Galatians: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female.” All three pairs of examples were opposing groups in the world of Paul’s day. Paul is denying that they oppose one another. This sentence sounds, in some ways, like much of what is spoken by opponents of discrimination. And yet…
…and yet, how different this statement becomes if we include the phrase which follows it: “…for you are all one in Christ.” The whole meaning is turned on its head. For according to Paul, equality does not depend upon any human philosophy or theory, but upon Divine Revelation. It is because we are made one in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to destroy sin and thus to end our enmities with one other, that we can be made one in him, that the true and permanent end to all discrimination lies. Through salvation in Jesus Christ, we are all made one as nothing else can make us one.
Does this mean that before Jesus came, this divine equality did not exist, that peace and unity between us was not a reality or a possibility? By no means! In the same Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we are told that God “...chose us in Christ, before the foundation of the world…his plan is to unite all things in Christ.” God’s plan, before he even created us, is that we should live together in unity, love and peace. He never intended us to discriminate against each other on any grounds at all. But his plan to unite us all is “in Christ.” There is no other basis on which it can happen, for there is no other way that we can be freed from the sin that sets us apart.
What does this say about the resentments we harbour in our hearts against other peoples; the discriminatory statements made by politicians and others based upon past history and events? How can we, who were destined to be one before ever we were created, hold on to such ideas? To “be one” is what God calls us to; in our Cathedral, in our Church, in our country, in the world. And if we are to be one as Jesus commands, then we must really let go of the past. But we can only do this if we have a more powerful future: and our future, as Pope Benedict XVI told the young people of Germany, “is Christ.” Every single one of us needs to relinquish the past and all its resentments, and boldly to enter the future with the Lord Jesus. He is our only hope, and strong in his power, and in that power alone, will we be able to “love one another as he has loved us.”
Fr Phillip.
