A Rabbi sat down with his disciples and asked them, “How can you tell when night has ended and the day has begun?” One student offered, “It is when, at a distance, you can tell a sheep from a goat.” “No,” the Rabbi replied. Another student answered, “It is when, at a distance, you can tell a date tree from a palm tree.” Again the Rabbi replied, “No.” Another student asked the Rabbi, “How can you tell when night has ended and the day has begun?” The Rabbi answered, “It is when, at a distance, you can look into the face of another and see a brother or sister. Until then, it is night.”
These short verses from Galatians reveal to us what Christianity looks like by the light of day. “There is no Jew or Greek, no slave or free, no male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” It is the cornerstone of Paul’s understanding of the Gospel. While Paul was writing, the Church was in the midst of a crisis. Should you or should you not be circumcised in order to become a Christian. It would be scandalous, or at least a bit silly, when someone comes forward to be baptized for me to ask if he had been circumcised. What a peculiar ritual our baptismal liturgy would be if we performed circumcision in the sanctuary between the children’s moment and the scripture reading. I imagine it would hinder church growth. Of course, we know the answer to this question in today’s church, in the contemporary context, but I’m not sure if we’ve fully realized what Paul was teaching.
It’s like our United Methodist slogan, for lack of a better term, “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors, the People of The United Methodist Church.” Of course our hearts and minds and doors are open, but that doesn’t mean that we as a United Methodist body of Christ are where we need to be in terms of hospitality and reconciliation. “Open Heart, Open Minds, Open Doors,” isn’t necessarily a statement about the way things are; rather it is a statement about the way we hope to be. It isn’t yet who we are, but we are working toward this sacred goal. We might chuckle at the circumcision debate, but as the body of Christ, we are still working on all being one.
This does not mean that we are called to be the same. As Irene Zimmerman writes: “In Bethlehem a baby’s cry shatters barriers. Women, men of every creed, culture, race, gaze across the rubbled walls in wonder, finding every face luminous with godliness!” We are to look across the rubbled walls which we had erected to find each face reflecting the image of God. Paul is writing to a community which built a wall between Jew and Greek. You were either Jew or “other.” Once Paul began sharing the Gospel in the Gentile community, new, “other” people were claiming to be heirs of Abraham’s promise. Several Jewish Christians were claiming that in order to be Christian, you must first be Jewish, and this was something Paul vigorously fought. These Jewish Christians had it backwards. Paul says, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” Paul acknowledges differences.
He doesn’t say, “There are no Jews. There are no Greeks.” He says, “There is no longer Jew or Greek,” meaning that you are Jewish, and you are a Greek, but there is no longer a divide between you. In other words, the goal of Christianity is not to color the world gray; rather we are called to see the beauty of red and blue and heliotrope. It’s not that red is better than blue, or blue is more deserving than red, or that salvation means that red must become blue or both need to be purple. God created red and God created blue. There is no longer red or blue, but through baptism all colors are heir to the promise.
In the year 2000, J. Louis Martyn presented his Anchor Bible Commentary on Galatians at the Society of Biblical Literature. One of the scholars at the meeting said that she understood how the Jew/Greek divide pertained to the context of the letter to the Galatians, but she found it difficult to understand how the rest of Galatians 3:28 (slave or free, male and female) fit into Paul’s context. She asked what Paul meant by adding slave or free, male and female to this baptismal formula. Martyn replied, “I don’t know.” So, for matters which confuse even the commentary writers, with your blessing, I’m going to table talking about the “slave or free, male and female,” aspects of this verse for another sermon on another day. There’s enough in this verse for a sermon series in and of itself.
“One life, one blood, one life you’ve got to do what you should. One life with each other, sister, brother. One life, but we’re not the same, we get to carry each other. One.” Bono sings about this “oneness” in Christ as a mutual burden we are to share. Even more provocative is that he sings of it as a privilege. “We get to carry each other,” he sings. And what a privilege it is! How thankful I am that life in Christ is not about survival of the fittest. How thankful I am that baptism isn’t reserved for only the wealthy or self sufficient or sane. How thankful I am that we are called to carry each other because I know there have been times in my life when I’ve needed to be carried. 
Jean Vanier, founder of the L’Arche community writes:
“God seems pleased to call together in Christian communities people who, humanly speaking, are very different . . . The most beautiful communities are created from just this diversity of people and temperaments. This means that each person must love the others with all their differences, and work with them for the community. These people would never have chosen to live with each other. Humanly speaking, it seems an impossible challenge. But it is precisely because it is impossible that they believe that God has chosen them to live in this community. So then the impossible becomes possible. They no longer rely on their own human abilities, but on their Father who has called them to live together. He will give them a new heart and spirit which will enable them all to become witnesses to love. In fact, the more impossible it is . . . the more of a sign it is that their love comes from God and that Jesus is living. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
How can you tell when night has ended and the day has begun? When you can look at another and see the face of a brother or sister. Until then, it is night. This table around which we gather is where day begins. We gather around the one table as the one body of Christ. We are not the same. We are blue and red, rich and poor, married and single . . . the list goes on, but this table is the only place in the entire world where your past, your failures, your successes, your victories or defeats, don’t matter. You are a child of God and this is the supper which your Heavenly Father has prepared. One bread. One body. One people. Different, but beautiful. Come and experience the light of day. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!