We Are Family

Today we’re starting with a few lines from the Dr. Seuss story, The Sneetches. What you need to know if you’re not familiar with the story is – “Now the Star-Belly Sneetches had bellies with stars. The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars. Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so small You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all. But because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches Would brag, ‘We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.’ With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort ‘We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!’ And whenever they met some, when they were out walking, They’d hike right on past them without even talking.”

The Sneetches were a divided society. Those with stars on their bellies thought they were better than the Plain-Belly Sneetches. They never invited the Plain-Bellies to picnics or parties. Their children wouldn’t play or talk with the other type of Sneetch.


September 21, 2014
Galatians 3:25-29, We Are Family
Doug Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church


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The Plain-Belly Sneetches are sitting around moping and feeling sorry for themselves when Slyvester McMonkey McBean shows up and promises for just $3 each he can solve their problem with a cosmetic change that will give them a star so they look just like the Star-Belly Sneetches. This outrages the former Star-Belly Sneetches who didn’t know whom to look down at anymore in order to feel superior. In no time, for just $10 each sly Slyvester McMonkey McBean has all the Sneetches going endlessly through star on and star off machines until he’s taken all the Sneetches’s money and rides off shaking his head at their ignorance and their inability to learn.

sneetches-2What’s sad about the story is not only did the Star-Belly Sneetches think they were better than the Plain-Bellies, but the Plain-Belly Sneetches thought so too. Even though they didn’t like being shunned and treated differently they let the Star-Belly Sneetches define them and accepted an inferior status. They were looked down upon by the Star-Belly Sneetches, yet they wanted to be accepted by them and to become like them. I know there are times in our life when the approval of other people means a lot to us, but it’s always more important to know who we are in Christ rather than trying to please and be accepted by a certain group of people. It’s so important for our identity to come from Christ and not to yield or give away our sense of identity, or self, or self-worth to other people. That is one of the themes of Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

Paul founded the churches in the region of Galatia (what is now the highlands of central Turkey) during his first missionary journey (see Acts 13-14). After he left the area, apparently some other Jewish Christians arrived who accused Paul of omitting crucial parts of the Gospel. They told the Galatians that they needed to submit to Jewish laws and customs in order to be truly Christian (see Acts 15); to use the language of The Sneetches, they were telling them they needed to have “stars upon thars” to be accepted. Having been raised a devoted Jew, Paul was naturally aware of Jewish sensitivities (Acts 16:3); however, he vehemently opposed the idea that one had to become a Jew in order to be a disciple of Jesus. In fact, all the various ways that Roman society divided itself no longer mattered – being in Christ Jesus is what mattered. He wrote in Galatians 3:25-29,

“But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 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. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”

Do you hear the emphasis on Christ in these verses? Through faith in Christ Jesus, we’re all children of God. We’re baptized into Christ and clothe ourselves with Christ, are one in Christ, and belong to Christ. That is who we are, that is what defines us that also greatly enlarges our family and our world. To use a mathematical image (not something I do very often) up to the coming of Jesus, people were mostly about division – how we divide ourselves from other people and all the walls we put up; walls of religion, nationality, ethnicity, race, economic and social status, gender, language, you name it. With the coming of Jesus, people moved (at least we’re supposed to) from division to multiplication – all the barriers and walls people built don’t matter compared to being in Christ and the number of children who belong to God and with whom we’re related to by faith as sisters and brothers increases exponentially. We are with Christ on the largest ship in the world, the fellowship of the church.

It is hard to imagine how stunning these words from Galatians were to those who first heard them, although maybe not, because they’re still pretty radical today because Christians and the church haven’t lived up to them. Can you imagine sitting in a house with a group of people in the first century in Galatia and hearing that both Jews and Gentiles have experienced a dramatic change thanks to God’s sending and raising of the Messiah, and as a result Jews and Gentiles are now one? The division is over. In fact, the most basic divisions of the Greco-Roman world, at least from a Jewish point of view, have ended, at least in terms of whom God loves and saves. All, whether they have “stars upon thars” or not, from the most deeply pagan to the most abject slaves to the most ignored women are welcome through faith in Christ as children of God, the offspring of Abraham and heirs of all that God has promised (verse 29). Amazing. The fact that God’s word said this 1900 years ago in Turkey about slaves, women, and race sounds more incredible when we consider that there was still slavery in the United States of America less 150 years ago. Women didn’t have the right to vote in the United States of America until less than 100 years ago (August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote). The US military slowly began racial integration less than 70 years ago. As Christians and as human beings we’ve been way too slow to get with what God has been trying to do in and through Christ for centuries.

This point of people being equal before God is tremendously important to Paul. He insists that the Lord’s Supper be enjoyed among all equally, that worship and prayer belong to all those claimed by God as heirs. This move is very subversive of normal Greco-Roman law and experience and it would have been shocking and likely very hard for some people to accept. But it is Paul’s claim about God, based on scripture and the lives of women and men claimed by the Holy Spirit.

In first century Roman culture, among the Sneetches, and in our time we can often focus more on how we’re different rather than on what we have in common. We can look down on and judge others as a way to feel better about ourselves. We can stereotype people who look, act, think or believe in ways that are different from us. We can allow others to establish our self-worth rather than living in the truth of the incredibly high value God has placed on each and every human life. In a world in which nations seem to keep fracturing into smaller and smaller units I found it interesting this week that the people of Scotland came out to vote in overwhelming numbers and the majority decided to stay a part of the United Kingdom. I wonder what William Wallace would have thought about that? As Christians, we’re part of a United Kingdom that’s called to model unity for the world, even if Christians so often have failed and fail miserably to do so. If movies like Independence Day, The Day the Earth Stood Still, or Close Encounters, are any indication, the only thing that will unite the endlessly divided human race is if the earth is reached by aliens, other than that, Jesus is our best hope.

As Christians, we can begin with the truth that our differences don’t matter as much as what we have in common –our oneness in Christ and our shared humanity. It’s cool to be in a church where you rub elbows with and meet people who you’d otherwise never know. It isn’t good if we live in smaller and smaller bubbles only getting our news from sources we agree with and only associating with people who think the same way we do. One of the great values of being a part of the church of Jesus Christ and going on mission trips and having missionaries come here is to see the oneness we can have in Christ with people who in some worldly terms may seem to be very different from ourselves.

Thirty-five years ago the Pittsburgh Pirates came back from a three games to one deficit and won the World Series over the Baltimore Orioles. That season, the Pirates adopted “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge, as their theme song and beside being a great song to dance to it expressed the truth that a team that had quite a mix of personalities with black, white, and Hispanic players from the US, Panama, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic could unite around a common purpose and have a good time together doing it. They did what the church is supposed to do. We value differences but those differences should create interest and help us do great things for God rather than divide us.

We who are Christians can recognize and appreciate the family traits that unite us: Creation. We’re all created by God and are part of God’s larger creation which God said was, “Good” that we are to care for as God would. Calling. There is purpose in life for each and every one of us that we are to discover and strive with all our ability, courage, faith, and perseverance to fulfill. Sin. All of us have fallen short of what God requires; we all have our flaws, faults, and failings. Christ. We share in the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. God loves us despite our failings. This is the most important basis for our unity. All this means we can’t separate our love for God from love for one another. What we have in common is far more important than any trivial differences. This is a lesson that both people and Sneetches need to learn.

Once he had taken all of the Sneetches’s money, Slyvester McMonkey McBean “laughed as drove in his car up the beach, “They never will learn. No. You can’t teach a Sneetch!”

“But Mc Bean was quite wrong. I’m quite happy to say

That the Sneetches got really quite smart on that day,

The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches

And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches.

That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars

And whether they had one, or not, upon thars.”

No kind of Christian is the best Christian in the church or the world. There are no Star-Belly Christians. We are family. We are one in Jesus Christ.

Questions for Reflection or Discussion:

  1. The Galatians to whom Paul wrote in the first century and the Sneetches in the story by Dr. Seuss lived in divided societies, so do we. What are some of the boundary lines by which people divide or define themselves as opposed to other people?

 

  1. In Galatians 3 Paul offers a new basis for our identity as people. Three times he says, “There is no longer…” Why do you think it’s important how we identify ourselves and others?

 

 

  1. Why is labeling one’s self or others with broad terms such as “liberal or conservative, native or wash ashore, longtime member or newcomer” not necessarily helpful for building understanding or relationships or even healthy communication?

 

  1. In the first century those in the church called one another “brother” or “sister” a tradition that still exists in some churches today. Why might that be a healthy custom to carry on? How is the church like a family?

 

 

  1. What “family” traits unite those of us who are Christians?

 

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