Above and Beyond Labels
Saint Paul is not easy to love, though many Christians love him for his hard-nosed attitudes on many subjects. But whether love him or not, we can’t avoid him. I usually avoid him, but here this September we have three consecutive Sundays of Paul at his best, at his most approachable.
- Last Week: This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.
- Today: But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule.
- Next Week: For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
What we see in these readings is Paul rising above his ethnic and religious identities to find his new identity in Christ. Circumcision was what marked the Jewish people, it was what separated them from the rest of ancient humanity. The Jews lived by the Law of Moses. Paul declares himself dead to the Law. It no longer controls his life. He is a new creation. And that is his message to us: To rise above all the many identities, the many masks each of us wears in order to become a new creation. And as a new creation we can say what Paul will tell us next week: “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” It’s amazing how easily we label each other and ourselves. And we become identified with our labels! Those labels become the masks we wear in our lives.
St. Paul in a setting of ancient ruins. (Click this image to properly view all three as a slide show.) 
He gazes across the waters of the Aegean and sees a modern industrial setting. (See Acts 16:9-10) 
This wall painting takes up an entire wall in the Chapel of the Patriarchal Center at Chambesy, Switzerland. It perfectly captures Paul’s universal vision with modern industrial imagery.
A good place to go when you want to rise above your usual self and the masks you wear is to the prologue to John’s Gospel. Surely you know it by now:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it..
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν.
The preposition ἐν can mean ‘among’, which is how this verse is usually translated. But in his voluminous commentary on the Gospel of John, St. Cyril of Alexandria took the preposition to mean ‘in’. So he understood the verse to say, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt in us.” Now Cyril was one of the great Fathers of the Church. He was the key player in the Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in the year 431. He was one of the most important theologians of the church and a native Greek speaker, so obviously someone who could be trusted. Certainly no one is going to drop the translation ’among’ in this verse, but we do well to note that ‘in’ is also a valid and complementary translation.
Today’s Gospel reading also from John: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
Something interesting about last week’s reading from Paul: The Greek says ὃς πάντας ἀνθρώπους θέλει σωθῆναι. Most standard translations, including the RSV which the Archdiocese uses for our readings, give it as “who desires all men [and women, obviously] to be saved”. But the verb θέλει (thelei) is more correctly translated as ‘wants’, even ‘intends’!
So an amazing message emerges in the first three Sundays this September; a message that goes beyond the narrow and restrictive confines that most Christians attribute to the gospel. The message we receive in our Liturgy these weeks of September can be summed up this way: God intends all people to be saved; God gives his Son out of great love for us; Christ lives in us! And who are we? We are the church. Just as Paul rose above his narrow identity so Christ could live in him, so also the church is called to be the church Christ intended – to rise above the confines of our inherited identities to be what Paul so powerfully expresses in:
Eph 1:22-23 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all.
Church is not an institution or a cultural or ethnic relic. It is the fullness of Christ and Christ’s presence in the world. It is here for the life and sanctification of the world, the world that God loves. If you are a Christian, the church is your home. And if you’re not a Christian, this where God will find you and love you!!