They had a problem with Judaizers in the Orthodox parish of Galatia.  Some of the Christians there were so proud of their Jewishness that they only wanted to accept people who were like them into their community.   But in so doing, they had shown their lack of commitment to Christ and Orthodoxy and turned their parish from a place of joyful worship of God and celebration of salvation through Him into a place of self-righteous worship of themselves [i.e. their heritage] that offered only the “salvation” of worldly adoration.

To their credit, they at least allowed outsiders to join their parish, but in order to do so, Gentiles had to become Jewish – even in the matter of circumcision (they wanted to “boast in the flesh” of converts)!  Compare that to the terrible forms of segregation that stain our own history in America, and you realize that the method of biblical interpretation that I have often shared with you (i.e. “we are the Jews”) rings true: we have their sins in spades.  But it’s much worse, because as Christians who have two thousand years of Christian Tradition to guide us we should know better.

Christians cannot boast in anything but the cross of Christ.

The cross destroys divisions.  How?  [many ways, but let’s focus on one]  Sacrificial love.  What does God have in common with us?  He is utterly unlike us.  [Yes,] We were made in His image, designed by Him to grow in His likeness; but He remains infinite and uncreated while we are limited and created.  The first bond that we share is not one of kinship or ethnicity, but of love***.  And this charity that He has for us is so real that He did not cling to His Glory, but became man, suffered, and died for us.  Do you see the power of His love?   He lowered Himself (emptied Himself) – through His Incarnation and Terrible Passion - for no other reason than that we might grow in His glory.  This gift of His sacrificial love is the only thing worthy of our boasting – and our selfless emulation of it the only act worthy of praise.

This [embrace and emulation] is what St. Paul is referring to when he writes of his own crucifixion: through the Cross of Christ, he says that the world has been crucified to him, and him to the world.  He went to the cross a Jew – and one of the most devout, proud, and divisive of the Jews – and through his crucifixion was transformed into a Christian.  Of course, he remained in outer appearance as a Jew – this is a matter of birth – but it no longer bound him or limited his love for others.  His Judaism became a blessing rather than a curse to himself and those around him.  The world may have still recognized his ethnicity, but the artificial divisions and sinful bigotry of the world and of his own heart no longer divided him from others.  Whereas before, he kept only to those like him in worldly terms (and even considered being with others to be a stain… a cause of uncleanness!); in becoming a Christian he recognized that all of us are the same in every way that matters.  [Like Christ, he even deigned to eat and worship with those who were not like him.]

St. Paul goes on to proclaim a fundamental truth of Orthodoxy: “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.”    Christ allows for an end to all divisions: remember how [before His passion] He prayed to the Father that “they may be one as We are One.”  There is no real “other” in Orthodoxy; everyone is worthy of your concern and sacrifice.  If you do not love even your worst enemies, then Christ tells us that He is not in you, and that your faith is a lie. 

Christianity and the Cross are about a specific kind of love… a specific attitude towards every single person you meet, regardless of their merit, regardless of how much they like you, regardless of whether they have the same color skin as you, regardless of whether they speak the same language as you, and regardless of how far your ancestors lived from one another.  What is this attitude you are to have to everyone you meet?  Nothing other than the selfless, sacrificial love that Christ has for every single one of you.  With Him and in Him, there are no strangers and there are no enemies.  How could there possible be division and enmity when your attitudes and relationships are based on love?!  Love and division are completely incompatible.

Of course you cannot help but notice all the divisions that surround us - how is this kind of selfless compassion and unity possible?  It is possible because the Crucified and Risen Christ transforms and binds us. In Him there is No Jew or Greek, but (as St. Paul says today;) “a new creation”.

Paul was not upset that people wanted to hold onto their Jewishness (it is clear from all his letters that he understood the historical importance of the Jews): he was upset that they loved their Jewishness so much that they excluded others who were not Jewish from their local Christian community and from their love. 

Let me reiterate this truth: in Christ there can be no divisions.  As their pastor, St. Paul knew that the Galatian Judaizers were not only keeping out others in need of God’s grace; their heard-heartedness actually kept themselves from experiencing it themselves.  He knew they had to change their hearts for both the health of their community and for the redemption of their souls.

It might be tempting to think of the Judaizing problem St. Paul confronted in Galatia as a historical incident that was settled long ago (after all, I don’t think we can even find Galatia on the map – Galitisia?  Yes; Galatia – not so much).  If this is true, then I have just wasted your time.  But there is nothing new under the sun and I have not wasted your time.  Christians continue to be tempted to turn their communities and their churches away from Christ by excluding others from their love.  I grew up in Georgia; a bastion of segregation.  A place where restaurants, cities, bathrooms, water fountains, schools, and churches had been segregated based on skin color.    Nowadays, no one doubts that this segregation was wicked.  No one doubts the wisdom of Brown vs. Board of Education: separate is not equal.  [Decisions like this one and those made directly to the US Constitution were only a start – necessary, but only the start.  The real challenge is to end all the institutional, cultural, and psychological remnants that continue to perpetuate this great sin.  Like I said, I grew up there: much has been done, but it will take generations to heal the wound.  It is hard, but it must be done in order for our nation to grow.  But changing the Constitution and its interpretation was a necessary part of that process].

If “separate” is “not equal” when it comes to schools and secular institutions, it is even more true of the Church; because in the Body of Christ, there can be no separation at all.  If you try to divide the Body of Christ into parts, then the Body itself will endure – after all, it CANNOT REALLY BE DIVIDED (it is perfect and eternal) - but the part you have willfully cut off will become separate from it, and being separate will have become nothing more than putrifying meat.

This message was so important that St. Paul wrote it with his “own hand”.  He loved the community at Galatia –many of whom probably disliked his message and considered him a race-traitor for diminishing the importance of their shared Jewish heritage – [but he loved them so much] that he pointed out the danger of their pride to them.  Moreover, he loved them so much and so selflessly that (like Christ) he was willing to be martyred for them … and by them.  They were wrong and he was right.  Would that we were all traitors to the bigotry of this world in favor of the Cross of Christ!

And so let us end this lesson on St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians as he ended the letter itself; “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.   From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.  Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.”

*** Note: God’s kenosis and Incarnation are a gift of love – this gift provides a more tangible salvific and sanctifying commonality.  It is Christ as the God-man that makes our perfection possible.  By saying that God’s first relationship with us is one of love, I am emphasizing how little we are like Him... and how He does not use this difference  (or His infinite perfection) as a reason to exclude us from Him.  Quite the opposite: He creates commonality so that we might become members of His Body!