There is a wonderful phrase used by the apostle Paul in Galatians 3:28 that is awesome. He speaks there to the church and says, "You are all one in Christ Jesus." The story of every believer is unique because people come from all sorts of backgrounds. In Galatians Paul speaks of the backgrounds of Jewish faith and of Gentiles ~~ You can't get much different than this. Jews came out of a very defined religious structure while many gentiles came out of no faith at all. Now, in the church they connect up as brothers and sisters.

Paul goes further. He says in verse 28, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female…" In Christ Jesus we "are all one."

In the church every one is invited into the place of equality, equality rooted in the life of Jesus. No one is superior and no one is inferior. We are ONE. Wealth doesn't buy power in the church and poverty does not keep one away from the place of authority and influence. We are ONE. Healthy or ill, we are ONE. Red, yellow, black or white, we are ONE. Jesus died for the world and when people step out of the world into the community of Jesus they become "Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise" (vs. 29).

In Christ strangers become friends and enemies become colleagues. Differences become blurred in the church as the life of Jesus blends into and permeates everything. In Christ we become sons and daughter of God. So it is that we become brothers and sisters; we become family. In a grace that will most likely never be fully understood Jesus stepped into our story one day and invited us into a new way of doing and being. He lifted us out of the ways of the world that seem to be so divisive and tribal and hurtful, and cleared a place at His table so that with the family we could draw near to God and find a fellowship that is awesome.

Sound too good to be true? Probably; but it is true. Welcome home.