23 Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. 24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. - Galatians 3: 23-24
A friend of mine once gave me a documentary to watch about fans of the TV show, Star Trek. It was called Trekkies. The last 10 minutes of the film is filled with people talking all about how Star Trek has been the one place in their lives that they have felt included, accepted, embraced, and even loved for who they were. To a person, they talk about how as goofy as they can be, or as rejected by their family, or for all of their quirks and faults or mistakes, they have always found acceptance and inclusion as a Trekkie. That’s why they do what they do and why they are as fanatical as they are. It’s why they dress in full uniform and try to live by the ideals of Star Fleet. It’s why they go to conventions. It’s why they call each other by rank at their club meetings as they’re making their fan-films. One cast member of Star Trek: The Next Generation actually said in the documentary, “The reality is that Star Trek fans devote more energy and finance and loyalty to the object of their affection than just about any other group of people I’ve ever seen.” If you’re in the church, or you’re a Christian… I mean… does that sound a little bit familiar? Why is that?
Maybe it’s because it reminds us how how far we’ve gone for the same things. How far would you go to be included in community with other people at a deep level and find a sense of friendship and purpose just as you are? How far have you gone?
It’s been my experience that’s something people will go to extremes for.
People will stay in bad relationships for that. They will continue unhealthy habits and behave in ways that might seem strange to have that experience. They will engage in activities that are inappropriate or ill-advised – even unhealthy. They will even dress up in uniform and go to conventions. They will have surgeries to alter themselves, make lifestyle decisions they know are unhealthy and unbalanced; all for the sake of finding someone, somewhere that will accept them and include them in community just as they are.
In the early church, this was a point of huge debate from the very beginning – who’s in the club, and who’s out of it? Who are God’s people, and who aren’t? How do we know? Is THE CHURCH a Jewish-only club? Is it open to Gentiles – people not of Jewish decent? Can women be in the club? Can slaves be in the club? How far does this Jesus group really go? What’s the uniform we should be wearing? How should people be dressing? If you dress like THIS or THAT are you in or out? This is one of the very first controversies in the early church –
And then along comes Paul in the book of Galatians, and he says – IN CHRIST there is neither Jew, nor Gentile, slave nor free, male or female. Jesus said, “For God SO LOVED THE WORLD that He gave His only son…” In other words, we’re talking today about the fact that God loves His people, and yet one of the first questions Christians tend to get hung up on is: WHO ARE GOD’S PEOPLE? To which Jesus and Paul both say, “There are no people who are not God’s people. Everybody is God’s people…” And that’s something a lot of people have a really hard time with.
Can I tell you a secret you might not know about yourself if you’re a Christian?
You can laugh all you want about Star Trek fans, a.k.a. “Trekkies,” calling themselves by their rank as they go to a convention or attend a club meeting that’s based on made up space-stories, but here’s the hard truth: The world doesn’t look at the church any different than you look at Trekkies.
“Oh you’re ‘deacon’ on the ‘board of stewards’ at your church?? Ok…”
“…Oh, you’re a part of the ‘tech team’ or the ‘connections team’ at your ‘somebody rose from the dead club’? Rock on, brother…”
“You put art on the walls of your house based on this? You decorate with this stuff? You give it your time, affection, and your money? You go to conventions… Oh, I’m sorry – I mean Christian conferences?”
The world does not see a real distinction between us and Trekkies. They think the story of Jesus is just as silly, just as made up, and just as insane.
And part of the reason they don’t see the difference is that the church hasn’t always done the greatest job of helping them to see the difference. Because they come to church and they feel just as excluded, just as alienated, just as picked on, just as rejected in the church… as they do in the world.
In Galatians, Paul says, for a long time, we lived under the law – and that’s what the law did. It placed access to God under guard. It put God’s people into a kind of protective custody – the law said, “These ones are my people, and these ones are not…” And Paul says that we needed that until the way of faith came – until Jesus. It was important that we have that until Jesus came – and when Jesus comes on the scene, He makes a new way for us to have a relationship with God, which is through faith in Him, not the law – not the stuff that was rule-based. Inclusion now isn’t based on rules, looks, cosmetics, or even the law – it’s based on a relationship with Jesus, who fulfilled the law when we couldn’t. So, Paul says that the fact that you’re still trying to define who’s in the club and who isn’t is really kind of a YOU problem. You think we’re still under law and not under grace, and as a result, you’re excluding people, you’re overlooking people, you’re dismissing people you shouldn’t.
Now… I don’t know if you’re feeling it while you’re reading this… But even in using the words inclusion and exclusion – I know some of us might be getting a little tightly wound right now. The reason is that these are trigger-words in the culture we live in right now. When I’m not at church on Sundays, I teach in the public school system where the idea of inclusion, tolerance, celebration of differences – these are real buzz words that can have very strange applications. What you’re feeling is the is the tension we live in – Who is the gospel for? Who is Jesus for? Who’s allowed to be one of God’s people that John says He loved so much that He gave His only son for? We live in a day and a time when people are D E S P E R A T E to belong to something. Desperate to feel included. Desperate to feel seen. Some people make up clubs based on space stories. Other people make up clubs about people who think they’re cats. Other people think they follow someone who rose from the dead 2,000 years ago – what’s the difference. …I need to belong somewhere… to something… to somebody… I need community – I need connection…
The number one most common question I get about my church from people, often times before they will even attend a service at our church, is some version of, “Will your church accept someone like ME?” And then they’ll go on to describe the circumstance that’s left them feeling excluded from the church. It could be something they’ve done, a preference, a belief, could be something else entirely.
But what Paul reminds us of in this passage is that this whole idea of feeling excluded, on the outside, feeling out of the club – this is a very old hurt. It’s a very old feeling that a lot of people have. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that’s the number one question people want to know: “Your church – is that a place I will feel loved? Will I feel accepted? Will I be embraced for who I am just as I am? Is this going to be a community that I can find relationships in? And be loved in?” This isn’t new to 2024 America – we didn’t invent exclusion. People have felt this for a long time. And it’s why they love things like Star Trek. Because feeling excluded is a real old hurt for people. Even the Bible says, “It is not good for man to be alone…” Everybody needs a place to connect, and most of the time we have a really hard time finding it.
So Paul reminds the church that yeah – there was a time when we defined ourselves by who was in and who was out, and we had a way of doing that called the law. As a church, as a people, as a club, as a group, we’ve had some pretty severe ways of reminding each other of that through the centuries. But now we have something better. We have grace. We have the way of faith through Jesus. And because of that, we know that all people are God’s people – and THEY ARE!!! BUT – before everyone starts jumping up and down saying, “THAT’S AWESOME! The church is all about grace! I can be a part of the church and do whatever I want!” We need to understand a few things about grace. More on that in my next post…