The first day of June puts us right between seasons. Around McPherson, we see the signs – graduation ceremonies just finished, swimming pools ready to open, and colorful gardens blooming while farmers watch their crops grow. Many of us feel pulled between wrapping up spring activities and starting summer plans. Think about times in your own life when you’ve been between chapters – maybe finishing school, getting married, or changing jobs. These turning points often show how our sense of who we are changes throughout life.
Under these changing identities, we all feel a basic human tension. We want to belong, but we also want to be unique. We’re proud of what makes us different, yet we long to connect with people who aren’t like us. This push and pull speaks directly to what we’ll talk about today – how faith in the risen Jesus creates community that crosses our divisions without erasing what makes us special. As we continue our “Resurrection People” series, we’ll see how Paul’s bold statement about unity in Christ matters in our divided world.
Throughout this series, we’ve seen how the early church handled big changes by embracing Jesus’ love and following the Spirit’s guidance. We started with Philip’s unexpected trip to meet the Ethiopian official, seeing how God often works through life’s detours. Then we looked at how the Jerusalem leaders decided Gentiles didn’t need to follow Jewish customs, showing how resurrection people choose including others over keeping traditions. Last week, we saw Paul change from someone who attacked Christians to someone who spread the good news, showing how God’s grace can completely change who we are.
Today’s passage from Galatians brings all these ideas together – crossing boundaries, questioning traditions, and transforming identity. When Paul says that in Christ “there is no longer Jew or Greek… slave or free… male and female,” he’s showing what resurrection faith creates: real community across the lines that usually divide us.
When I think about Paul’s words on unity across differences, I remember Ruby Bridges, who has been in the news again recently with her new book, “Ruby Bridges: A Talk With My Teacher.” In 1960, six-year-old Ruby became the first Black child to attend an all-white school in Louisiana. Federal marshals walked with her past angry crowds as she bravely entered William Frantz Elementary School.
What happened next shows exactly the kind of divisions Paul talked about in Galatians. As Ruby told Good Morning America this February, white parents pulled their kids out in protest, and most teachers refused to teach her – except one. Barbara Henry, who came from Boston, taught Ruby alone in an empty classroom for a whole year. “She was my best friend. I didn’t have any friends… She was my only contact,” Ruby said in the interview.
Ruby believes being innocent as a child protected her. Her parents didn’t explain the hatred she would face, which she now thinks was smart. “I think if they had told me what was happening… I don’t think I would have even wanted to go,” Ruby said. “What 6-year-old would want to walk into a situation where everybody hated you?”
Like Paul’s statement in Galatians, Ruby’s story shows us that the walls we build between people – walls of race, class, or status – can come down through courage, kindness, and seeing each other’s humanity. When Barbara Henry chose to teach Ruby despite social pressure, she lived out Paul’s vision of a community where our shared identity in Christ matters more than the divisions others want to keep.
To understand how revolutionary Paul’s words were, we need to see the deeply divided world he lived in. In the first century Roman Empire, society was strictly organized by levels. Your ethnic background determined your rights – being Roman meant privilege, while being Jewish meant restrictions. Economic status was even more rigid – about 90% of people lived in or near poverty, and roughly one-third were slaves. Gender divisions were perhaps most strict – women had very few legal rights, couldn’t get much education, and had little public voice.
The church in Galatia formed in this divided world. But after Paul left, some teachers started saying that non-Jewish believers needed to follow Jewish practices like circumcision to fully belong in God’s family. This pressure to keep ethnic divisions threatened the radical inclusion Paul had sought to help develop.
Paul’s answer focuses on our identity in baptism. In verse 27, he writes:
“27 All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
This clothing image meant a lot in Paul’s world – in Roman times, your clothes showed everyone exactly where you stood in society. By saying everyone is “clothed with Christ,” Paul was basically saying, “You all wear the same uniform now.”
When Paul writes “there is no longer Jew or Greek,” he’s not saying these differences don’t matter much – he’s saying these categories don’t define who we are anymore. This connects with justice themes throughout the Bible. From the Exodus story about freeing slaves, to prophets demanding fair treatment for everyone, to Jesus crossing boundaries others wouldn’t cross – the Bible consistently shows God breaking down unfair divisions.
Paul wasn’t saying these social categories disappeared in the outside world. He was saying that in the church, a new kind of community was forming where traditional power differences shouldn’t exist. The revolutionary idea is that God creates communities where everyone truly belongs, and things like wealth, background, or status don’t determine someone’s value or voice.
This passage connects strongly with Methodist beliefs about how faith shapes community. John Wesley lived these principles by taking his ministry to people on society’s margins. While the official church mainly served the wealthy, Wesley preached to coal miners and factory workers, creating groups where people from different social levels met as equals.
Wesley’s idea of “social holiness” comes straight from this Galatians understanding of unity in Christ. Wesley taught that becoming holy isn’t something you do alone – it happens in community with different kinds of people. His strong opposition to slavery came from this belief that all people have equal worth before God.
Paul’s vision of a community without dividing walls speaks directly to our current struggles with division. One of the most persistent issues related to this passage is the ongoing separation in our communities and churches – what Martin Luther King Jr. called “the most segregated hour in America.”
This separation didn’t just happen. Throughout the 1900s, practices like redlining, unfair lending, and restrictive housing rules legally kept people of different races from living in the same neighborhoods. Though these official policies ended decades ago, their effects continue today. A 2023 study found that 81% of white Americans attend mostly white churches, while 66% of Black Americans worship in mostly Black churches.
When Paul said “neither Jew nor Greek,” he challenged systems that kept people physically and socially separated based on identity. Today, this principle speaks to how we organize our neighborhoods, schools, and churches. Do our spaces reflect the diverse family Paul describes?
We see these patterns in everyday settings too. At work, people often group together with others like themselves during breaks. In schools, cafeteria tables often divide by race, interests, or social groups. Even in our church, unspoken patterns might create invisible barriers between longtime members and newcomers.
While these systems shape us, we also shape them through our daily choices. We decide where to live, which schools to support, and whether to cross social boundaries to build relationships. Following Paul’s vision isn’t just about believing the right things – it’s about creating real practices of inclusion that make God’s diverse family visible.
The good news is that God not only imagines a world without dividing walls but actively works to create it. When Paul declares:
“28 There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
he’s not just describing a nice ideal – he’s announcing what God has already accomplished through Christ’s death and resurrection. The barriers we think are permanent, God has already torn down.
Throughout scripture, we see this pattern of God breaking through human-made divisions. From the tower of Babel where God created diversity, to Pentecost where God enabled communication across languages, to Jesus consistently crossing boundaries – God works through history to restore relationships broken by human sin.
In Galatians, Paul reveals that our baptismal identity completely changes how community functions. We don’t achieve unity by erasing our differences or by one group becoming like the other. Instead, Christ creates a new garment we all wear together – one that honors both what makes us unique and what connects us.
The Holy Spirit gives us power to live this reality now, not just someday in the future. At Pentecost, which we’ll celebrate next week, the Spirit created understanding across differences without eliminating those differences. This same Spirit helps us recognize Christ in people who don’t look, think, or vote like us.
This means God is already working in your neighborhood, workplace, and school – wherever dividing walls still stand. Christ stays with those who feel left out and gives strength to those building bridges. Every time we cross a boundary with love, we join God’s ongoing work of making all things new.
This week, you can participate in God’s boundary-crossing work through simple steps:
First, learn about divisions in our community and country. Read “Divided by Faith” by Emerson and Smith or watch “Segregated by Design” online to understand how neighborhood patterns developed. Or simply have coffee with someone from a different generation or background and listen to their story.
Second, notice who’s missing from your circles. Introduce yourself to someone at church you don’t already know, especially someone different from you. Or invite a neighbor you haven’t connected with for coffee or a meal at your home.
Finally, pray daily for solidarity, asking God to help you see others as beloved children clothed in Christ, regardless of differences that might divide. Remember – small steps of boundary-crossing love create ripples that spread far beyond what we can see.
As we prepare for Pentecost next week, Paul’s revolutionary message reminds us that resurrection faith creates communities where differences enrich rather than divide. Like Ruby Bridges and her teacher finding connection across deep social barriers, we too can experience the power of seeing beyond categories to our shared identity in Christ. When we truly understand that we are “clothed with Christ,” we start living as people no longer divided but beautifully connected – resurrection people bringing unity where others keep divisions. This is the miracle of resurrection life: we are truly no longer divided when we recognize Christ in each of our neighbors.
Will you pray with me?
God who breaks down dividing walls, clothe us in Christ so completely that we see each other as family rather than strangers. Give us courage to cross boundaries with love, building bridges where others create barriers. Amen.
In crafting today’s sermon, I employed AI assistants like Claude and Apple Intelligence, yet the ultimate responsibility for its content rests with me. These tools offered valuable perspectives, but the most influential sermon preparation hinges on biblical study, theological insight, personal reflection, and divine guidance. I see AI as a supportive aid to enrich the sermon process while ensuring my own voice in proclaiming the Word of God.
Rev. Andrew Conard 