"All Are One... Abraham's Offspring"

I ask for the grace to pray and meditate faithfully.  I ask for patience, tolerance, compassion, and empathy.  I ask to abstain from anger, anxiety, compulsive behaviour, discouragement, and self-interest.  I ask to know and follow Christ more closely, seeking justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly.


Galatians 3:23- 29
23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. ²⁴Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, ²⁶for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. ²⁷As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There 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. ²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.


1) "...before faith came;" "...until faith would be revealed;" "...justified by faith;" "...you are all children of God through faith;" "...clothed yourselves with Christ;" "...all of you are one in Christ Jesus;" "...Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise;" "...faith came;" "...faith would be revealed;" "...Christ came;" "...justified by faith;" "...faith has come;" "...all children of God;" "...offspring."


2) so... "offspring" not "offsprings".  Now he uses offspring as a collective noun to include the whole community, not must Christ Jesus as he did above.  In reading the above, one needs to do it in light of these last two paragraphs.  All of it is to make the point that in Christ Jesus the categories we use to separate and rank people no longer have a place.  "Jew or Greek... slave or free... male and female."  "All are one in Christ Jesus." This is a favourite passage of mine.  I appreciate "All are one in Christ Jesus."  But to get here, we go through some really difficult could be read as anti-Semitic material. I dread the thought of what folk might do with my writings out of context.


3) What is the invitation in all this? Humility.  To bear in mind that an injury to another is a wound to an extension of my own body through Christ.


"Holy One, help us to experience oneness in you.  May we have the courage to bear the suffering and the joy that is yours in this broken, beautiful world."


Breathprayer: "All Are One... Abraham's Offspring."