One in Christ Jesus

Galatians 3: 23-29

Key verse
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, CEB)

At Annual Conference a couple of weeks ago, I introduced a resolution that called on United Methodists in North Georgia to work towards full inclusion and justice for people with disabilities. I mentioned that close to 85% of families with a disabled child did not have a church home because they either felt unwelcome or unsafe. That statistic tells me that we have a long way to go in breaking down the barriers that keep some from a place in the church and from getting to know the abundant life in Christ.

Amy Kenny wrote a book called, “My Body Is Not a Prayer Request” in which she implores the reader and those in the church to value disabled people. She writes in the preface that the book is “a call for the church to value disabled people as image-bearers and learn from the prophetic witness of our (the disability community) numerous gifts.” Ability status is another thing that divides us when it comes to our identities.

And that’s what Paul is addressing here – divisions in the community around identities. We love to split people up. We love to categorize people. It’s not a bad thing. It’s how our brains quickly process information. The issue becomes when we become so entrenched in these identities, either ours or others, that we fail to recognize our most basic identity…our relationship to Christ. What disability advocates are asking of the rest of the church is to recognize that a disabled identity is not the only identity, that we are all made in God’s image (regardless of ability status) and that we are all one in Christ Jesus.

Like I said, our brains take shortcuts so that we can process information quickly, often based on ideas about the identity of others. To do that, our brains rely on generalizations and stereotypes to process information and make decisions. While stereotypes may make our processing more efficient, they often lead to bias and inaccurate judgments. And we know that bias and inaccurate judgments can lead to division. And that is the opposite of what it means to be one in Christ Jesus.

What if our default position when encountering someone is not to see them just as Greek or Jew, slave or free, male or female, abled or disabled, but to see their more foundational identity, child of God? I think it would transform the church and transform the world.

Prayer
God of all, train our eyes and hearts to see others as fellow children of God. Help us all to live into our God-given identities as your beloved. Gather us in as your children so that we may all be one in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Rev. Dana Ezell