Saint Paul wrote to the Church in Galatia and said, “Pantes gar uioi Theou este dia tes pisteos en Xristo Iesou.”  In the Latin Bible Saint Paul’s words were translated to read, “Omnes enim filii Dei esti, per fidem in Christo Iesu,” . . . or as you have heard this morning, “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”  . . . One of the effects of privatizing prayer and Holy Scripture in the United States by banning their public use during the second half of the twentieth century so that they now have no place in civic discourse; . . . one of the effects of privatizing prayer and Holy Scripture has been to create a void in public manners.  . . . No longer can a public school educator, for instance, forbid lying because God forbids it; . . . the proscription for deceit has to have some other footing.  Very gradually, this void in public manners has been overcome by replacing sacred morals with political correctness. Unfortunately, this change in cultural perspective has made the happy sayings of Holy Scripture unintelligible and even offensive to many people.  Saint Paul’s triumphant declaration, which I have quoted to you in three different languages, is an example of this tragic development in the history of Western Civilization.  The words of Paul which I have read to you have inspired Christian souls of diverse cultures and languages for centuries . . . until now, when a great many people, rather than being encouraged by Paul, are plain offended by him.  They consider the Apostle’s thinking to be hostile; . . . they consider it hostile because it is sexist and un-inclusive in its reference.  Or, as the current trend in political rectitude would have it:  Saint Paul’s image of our relationship with God lacks diversity.

    To accommodate this perceived exclusion which cultural shifts have provoked, a number of new translations of Holy Scripture have been concocted for the Western Church in order to suit the tastes of the profane culture in which She lives.  So, for instance, the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible translates Saint Paul to have said, “in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.”  But that has done nothing to make the meaning of the text clear to anyone.  In fact, it’s a very inaccurate and plain bad translation of an essential tenant of the Faith.  . . . I guess, if the word “sons” is not diverse enough for the prickly sensitivities of profane persons, the better translation of what Saint Paul is trying to say would be, “in Christ Jesus you are all the adult children of God through faith.”  . . . Because the thing which Saint Paul is trying to convey to us in his use of the phrase that we are all “sons of God” is that in Christ each one of you is no longer a spiritually irresponsible child; . . . in Christ you have come into your majority.  But more than that, in Christ you have attained to your majority and are legally competent (by Heaven’s standards) . . . you are legally competent to inherit property and privileges which are rightfully yours; . . . property and privileges which God has been keeping in trust for you.  In Christ Jesus we are all sons of God; . . . we are all God’s adult children.

    In other words, Saint Paul is saying that God gave the Law to Moses during the minority of humanity.  God gave the Law to Moses when we were awkward and unskilled in the divine life.  . . . But everyone who is Baptized into Christ . . . has come to the threshold of adulthood!  For, being in Christ, we are in the presence of God.  In Christ God is in our minds and upon our lips and in our hearts (as we silently recite at the announcement of the Gospel).  In Christ we are in the presence of the mature judgement and discretion of the Incarnate Word; . . . being in Christ, we have understanding of the mind of God and comprehension of the Divine Wisdom Whose heart is unconditional love.  Therefore, in Christ we do not need all the distinctions of the Law.  In Christ

there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; straight nor gay; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

We are all one in Christ Jesus because we are united in the one towering truth which Saint Paul articulated to us last Sunday:  “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.”  . . . All of us -- black or white; male or female; straight or gay -- . . . all of us have one life in the flesh, . . . and that is a life of simplicity and chastity with faith in the Son of God.

    Because, you see, when Jesus tells us, “whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it”, . . . He isn’t saying that we shouldn’t aspire to become who we think we are meant to be; . . . He isn’t saying that God doesn’t value the things that really matter to you.  But when Jesus says, “whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it”, . . . He is telling us that our lives amount to more than we might first imagine; . . . He is telling us that our lives certainly amount to more than profane society imagines they do; . . . our lives are more than what Dr. Ruth tells us.  . . . Our lives encompass more than financial security; . . . our lives encompass more than physical well-being; . . . our lives encompass more than sexual fulfillment.  Our lives encompass more than these things because we are sons of God(!); . . . we are the Heavenly Father’s adult children; . . . the life of each one of us is the image of God’s Life!  And so, in Christ the promise of God through the prophet Zechariah has been fulfilled; . . . for, at your Baptism, the Lord God Almighty has poured out upon you a spirit of compassion and supplication . . . so that you might look upon Him who has been pierced and plead for everyone whose disordered affections continue to make them captives of sin; . . . so that, looking upon Jesus Whom our sins have pierced, . . . it is no longer we who live, but the compassion and supplication of Christ who lives in us . . . with simplicity, chastity, and faith.   . . . And so, Jesus says to us

If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

    I remember being told, from the time I was a child, that we each have some sorrow or difficulty or temptation to struggle with in this life and that this is our cross which has been given to us by God to bear; and the example we have for the proper bearing of our cross is Jesus.  . . . But while some may find that a charming thought, . . . it is not the Gospel!  It is not the Gospel that you should fix your attention upon sin.  It is not the Gospel that you should maunder over your injuries.  The Gospel -- the Good News -- of our Lord Jesus Christ is that the focus of our lives is upon Jesus!

    Do you remember Saint Luke’s account of our Lord’s Passion which was read on Palm Sunday?  We read there that “as they led [Jesus] away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus.”  . . . The course of poor Simon’s life takes a sudden turn; . . . as Simon is coming in from the country with all sorts of plans for his day, the course of his life takes a sudden turn so that he must trudge along with the weight of the Cross on his shoulder and the bloody lash cuts on the back of Jesus before his eyes.  Poor Simon trudges along with the weight of the Cross on his shoulder until it is taken from him so that Jesus can be nailed to it.  This is what it means to carry one’s cross and to follow Jesus!  The cross isn’t yours; it’s Christ’s!

    What I am trying to suggest to you is that, in the matter of sin, you are, each of you, like the innocent Simon of Cyrene:  minding your own business, when someone who is still in their spiritual infancy suddenly surprises you with a burden of sin; . . . it might be a sin against you; . . . it might be a sin against someone else, … but there it is looking like a big, ugly Cross.  . . . Self-protective petulance, pouting, or self-indulgent rages in response to sin are not appropriate to the Christian Life; . . . they are not appropriate to the sons of God; . . . they are not appropriate to those of us who have attained to our spiritual majority in Christ Jesus.  . . . Jesus didn’t say you couldn’t punch stinkers in the nose, but He did suggest that in doing so you will bloody your own.  . . . No, when sin is shoved at you, you must remember that your life is a witness not to yourself; . . . your life is a witness to the mercy and love of God in Christ Jesus.  And so, like Simon of Cyrene, the Christian Life is to bear the burden of Jesus and patiently follow behind Him with compassion for those who are still in their spiritual infancy and with supplications to God on their behalf.

    Today I want you to take the Body of your Lord Jesus into your own; . . . I want you to take His Blood . . . His Life upon your lips, . . . and I want you to keep your attention and your belief fixed on Him.  Keep your attention and belief fixed on Jesus every waking minute and in every circumstance into which your life brings you, . . . taking up your true life -- the Cross of Christ -- daily in order to participate in its compassion and supplication; in order to participate in its mercy and forgiveness.  Because in Christ Jesus, Son of the Living God, we are sons of God; . . . we are the adult children of our Father in heaven.  And as such, we bear the privilege to do the work of a Son, . . . to live simply and chastely, and, with faith, to obediently follow the example and teaching of the Firstborn Son, Who is Jesus.