Creekside Church Sermon of June 20, 2004 "The Rewards of Belonging " Galatians 3:23-29	Rev. David Bibbee
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Along with the need of food and shelter, we have another basic, primal need-- the need to belong. From early on, we remember the anxiety we felt about fitting in and being included, whether it was choosing sides for a playground baseball game, being accepted by a particular group, or later in life, belonging to a professional peer group.

The hunger for belonging is expressed in different ways. As mentioned last week, some you feisty ladies of the church belong to the Red Hat Society. Some of you are card-carrying members of the AARP and the National Education Association. The Encyclopedia of Associations lists over 19,000 associations in this country, including such diverse groups as: The North American Tiddlywinks Association, the Rockette Alumni Association, the Nineteen Thirty-Two Buick Registry, the Tea Strainer Association, the International Barbed Wire Collectors Historical Society, and the National Button Society. Among the rewards of belonging are really neat things like membership cards, window stickers, embroidered patches, and tee shirts.

I was honored when asked to join the Downtown South Bend Rotary Club. When the guy recruiting me said how much it cost to belong, the honor of the thing wore off in a hurry.

The fact that you are here says that you want to belong, not just to a nice group of like-minded people. You want to belong to a community that believes in God and acts on that belief. You want to belong to people who take living for God seriously in a culture where people are serious about little else than themselves.

Last week we said that being right with God is a thing of God's doing, not ours. Our attempts to belong to God amount to running in place. We generate sweat and strain, but we get nowhere. God's acceptance of us is the key. It is all about grace-a pure gift from God. Faith in what God has done saves us, not rules. Israel had the best set of rules ever devised. But, as Paul said, "If rule keeping had power to create life in us, we would have certainly got it by this time."

I recently spoke with a woman who loves challenges. Given a choice between facing a tough task head on, and circling around it, most people know what they would do. But while some look for the door, she says, "Bring it on." As far back as she can remember, whenever she was told she "couldn't " do something, that was the impetus to do it. In fact, she credits much of what she has accomplished to a Sunday school teacher who told her what she wouldn't be able to do with her life.

What is it about limits that cause us to push them? Why do we break the law? Because its there! When I'm on the highway and read the sign that says: "Fifty-five Means Fifty-five!" I say to myself, "No it doesn't! Fifty-five means sixty-three." I know…I performed the wedding of an Indiana State Patrolman. He told me that they generally give eight miles an hour over the limit.

Without laws and limitations, life would be chaos. Society must have laws, but it presents a paradox. Law is necessary, but Paul said that the mere presence of law causes us to sin! The moment "DON'T DO IT!" is declared, someone will do it. Law creates a bind from which we can't extricate ourselves. God said to Adam and Eve, "You can eat the fruit of every tree in the garden-except one." Then Eve hands the fruit to Adam, "Here-take a bite!" God said, "You shall have no other gods before me." So the Israelites melted their gold coins, jewelry, and tooth-fillings and made a holy cow to dance around. The teacher says, "To pass this course, you must complete all assigned readings, turn in all assignments, write three term papers, and score no lower than 70% on all tests." Immediately some students reason, "I know what he said, but there has to be a way to circumvent the system."

We break the rules. We also abide by rules for the wrong reasons. When in school, I studied hard for tests, not always as an exercise in learning, and not to simply pass, but to keep from flunking.

In our Galatians text, Paul said that before faith came, the law, as imperfect as it was, was all we had to keep us in check. He said the law was our, "custodian" until Christ came and we were justified and adopted into the family of God by faith. Some translations describe the law as our "tutor" that guided us and protected us and made sure we got to where we were going until such a time that faith in Jesus gave us all the direction necessary.

On the outskirts of my hometown is an institution which years ago was called, "The Children's Home." Whenever we drove past it on our way to Columbus, I saw children my age walking around the grounds. They were called "orphans." At the time, the only orphan I knew was "Little Orphan Annie." I wondered how they ended up orphans. Were their parents dead? Did their parents leave and not bother to come back? Did they come from poor families who couldn't afford to keep them? Is the Children's Home the place you go when no one wants you? Maybe they were there because they didn't do what they were told.

At the time, I thought that a kid could end up in the Children's Home for not following rules. At an early age, I already thought that love was conditional. You were loved for who you were, but most of all you were loved for what you did. Belonging was contingent upon good behavior.

We know that this reasoning fosters unhealthy relationships, and yet it continues to overshadow our relationship with God. In a scene from the movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" three chain-gang escapees, Pete, Delmar, and Ulysses are surrounded by people wearing white robes in route to the river singing, "I went down to the river to pray, studying about the good old way, and who shall wear the starry crown, O Lord, show me the way…" They were robed for baptism. Suddenly, Delmar runs into the river and jumps in at the head of the line. The preacher says a few words and plunges him under. Delmar slogged through the water toward his friends, grinning ear-to-ear and said:

"Well, that's it boys. I've been redeemed. The preacher warshed away all my sins and transgressions. It's the straight and narrow from here on out and heaven everlasting's my reward.

Preacher said my sins are warshed away, including that Piggly Wiggly I
knocked off over in Yazoo." Then, Ulysses said, "I though you said you were innocent of those charges."

Well, I was lyin'-and I'm proud to say that that sins been warshed away too! Neither God nor man's got nothin' on me now! Come on in, boys. The water's fine."

Who is the God with whom Delmar was set right? He got a reprieve from the judge. His sins were "warshed away." No one could lay a hand on him, not even God. Baptism was a legal maneuvering. He got "out of," not "into." There was no sense of belong to God or a community.

I sometimes close worship with the benediction that begins, "For freedom, Christ has set you free." We are free from the need of a custodian. Paul says, "Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian, for in Jesus Christ you are all sons and daughters of God through faith."

There is only one way we become sons and daughters of God-- adoption. The Galatians knew the legal processes of adoption practiced in Roman society. Once an adoption had been legally approved, the adopted child enjoyed all the benefits of biological children. There was no distinction between them.

The good news to the Gentiles was that in Jesus, they now belonged. Though not part of the chosen people, when baptized into the faith, they were on common ground. They were joint heirs-- members of the new family Jesus was creating. No distinctions were made between Jews and Greeks, men and women, the dirt poor and filthy rich, the illiterate and PhD's.

Today there is a lot of bickering and battling between the members of Christ's body. Different perspectives aren't tolerated. People who have been made one through faith in Jesus are told that they belong only if they completely accept certain doctrines. Years ago, the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination at sixteen million members, formed the Baptists World Alliance. At this week's Southern Baptist yearly meeting in Indianapolis, they voted to sever ties with the World Alliance because if its liberal leanings in areas such as the inerrancy of the Bible. Faith is Jesus is being used to drive a wedge between the people whom Jesus made one in baptism.

Tom Troeger is a seminary professor who points out that in every church there are difficult people and groups to be dealt with. When someone is stirring a stink, blocking change, and being tough to deal with, Troeger says that instead of seeing him or her as an enemy, they should be treated for what they are-homesick. The person has been cast out of a familiar, comfortable place. Their home has been taken from them, and they will try everything to get it back. In their minds, home is not where they are, and they will do everything they can to make things the way they used to be back home.

He says, "Sometimes, we have to make them at home. We need to give them the sense that they belong and that they matter, so they can discover that home is here."

"Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus you are all sons and daughter of God, through faith." Paul told the Galatians that because they were baptized, they were adopted. The reward of adoption is belonging to God, belonging to Christ, and belonging to a family in which every member is cherished and brought to the home where they are meant to be.

As I look back over the years of my life, the more I realize that one of my primary motivations was to belong. Having friends was part of it, and I have certainly been blessed with good ones, which is something that at one point in my life I didn't think I would every have. But as wonderful as friendship is, my need and your need is for something deeper. You long to belong to a family that will take you in, no matter who you are, and will escorte you into the presence of the One who will show you what you can become. In the family of God, we are brothers and sisters for life, and not just for life, but for eternity.

The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, paid a visit to a man of considerable strength and reputation. Wesley said, "Sir, you wish to serve God and go to heaven. Remember, you cannot serve him alone; you must therefore find companions or make them; the Bible knows nothing of solitary religion."

The good news is that in Jesus, we have an identity. We have a place. We have a home. We all belong.

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