For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus;

for as many of you who have been baptized have put on Christ;

there is no Jew or Greek;

there is no slave or free;

there is no male and female;

for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Paul’s Letter to the Galatians 3:36-38.

We think of this passage as the source of our Communion hymn, “One Bread, One Body,” but many Biblical scholars see it as an early – possibly the first – creed of early Jesus followers. Paul, who wrote in the mid-First Century (10-30 years after Jesus’ death), was not the author; it does not fit his writing style. Paul probably took this beautiful idea from an even earlier baptismal ritual.

Notice that this creed addresses three main sources of division: Jew or Greek (race/ethnicity), slave or free (status), male and female (gender.) Sound familiar? We are still dealing with those divisions today. Paul uses this very early creed to maintain that those traditional social divisions do not exist among Jesus’ followers who are all recognized as God’s children.

To take this one step further; if this is a baptismal creed, then baptisms, including our own, are rituals of adoption into God’s family, making Jesus our brother, and all other baptized Christians our brothers and sisters. Singing “One Bread, One Body” is a reaffirmation of this relationship.

I like it that the FFC considers itself a “creed-less church,” but if we needed a creed, I would choose this one.

Lyn Pickhover, Adoptee