How many of you were picked first? How many of you were picked last?  and incredibly reluctantly?  As the captain looked around in vain to pick ANYBODY but you?  Like maybe Willie Mays was hiding behind a bush and if that captain just squinted hard enough, she’d see him and not be stuck with you? I was in that last category.  And thus I learned to hate that whole team-picking scenario.  I hated the sports, too, mostly, because I wasn’t very good at them.  But that whole being stared at, as if you were never ever going to measure up….yuck.  Who needs that?  More than 50 years later and I remember that feeling so well. In this morning’s reading, Paul is writing to the early churches in Galatia about what exactly they are being called to.  Evidently there were other Jewish-Christian believers spreading the ideas that in order to follow Jesus, first you had to become Jewish.  You had to be circumcised if you were a man; you needed to follow the rules about food, and you needed to celebrate the proper festivals and seasons; and then, you could follow Jesus’ teachings.  What these other believers appear to have said was that you couldn’t follow Jesus without first following Jewish law.  And Paul didn’t agree with that. Remember, Paul is the one who wrote that, in Christ  “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  (Galatians 3:28)   And so Paul wrote to these churches, “While we were minors” – youths in our spiritual journeys – “we were enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world.”  (v.3)  Those “elemental spirits,” according to my Study Bible’s wrestling with the Greek, could refer to either the basic principles of the Jewish faith, or it could refer to spiritual powers that can oppress humankind.  In other words, in our spiritual immaturity, we were in a sense held captive by either the Law, or by those spirits in the world that hemmed us in.  We were like kids, without the abilities to make our own way. But God sent us Jesus, God’s own child, to redeem us.  All of us, no matter who we are or who we were born to.  All of us thus become God’s children – not due to anything we DO, but because of who Jesus IS. And to help us along, God sends the Spirit into our hearts, “crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” So we have encouragement outside of us, in Jesus; and we have encouragement inside of us, in Jesus; to realize that we are children of God. We belong. We are all on the team. This message is especially poignant for anyone who has ever been told they are NOT on the team.  That they aren’t somehow good enough, or that they don’t fit the model somehow: because they’re not straight, or not cis-gendered (meaning that one’s body matches one’s sense of oneself.)  That they don’t pursue the right kind of work.  That they don’t fit in.  That they’ve made a mistake or mistakes in their lives and that somehow disqualifies them from God’s love. Our society sends a lot of messages to us about what we need to do to fit in, to be acceptable, to be on society’s team. God doesn’t.  God says, “Welcome.  Come as you are.”  And to back it up, God sends us Jesus, to teach us and lead us by word and by example. Of course, this does not mean “anything goes.”  There are some behaviors that are not acceptable on Jesus’ team.  Hating on the other guys, that’s not okay.  Rejoicing in someone else’s failure, that is not okay.  Doing anything that tears down another person, that is not okay. Because remember?  We’re all on the team. We are all on the same team. A week ago last Friday, I watched part of an interview with Rachel Maddow.  She was talking about her latest book, which describes the US’s flirtation with fascism in the 1930’s.  As the hour was winding up, the interviewer asked her if she had any hopes or advice for the times we are facing.  I couldn’t find a recording of it on the internet to get it verbatim, but here is what I remember she said: “Regardless of how the 2024 election comes out, we are in for some tough times in America.  My biggest hope, and what my advice is, is that we reach out to our neighbors.  We tend to stay in our own groups, with the people who think like we do…but I think it is important that we reach out to one another; and build connections with one another; so that when times get tough; when things get more strained and more difficult; we will have these connections and we can reach out to one another and know one another.  We’re going to have to rely on one another.  We need to build those connections now.” My apologies to Ms. Maddow if I got that wrong in any way….but what I took from her words – in a Christian spin that she probably did not intend – we need to realize that we are all on the same team. God loves all of us. God has made children of us all, whether we as individuals recognize that relationship or acknowledge it at all. We need to make a way forward that includes all of our family.  We can’t throw out those who disagree with us or make claims we find utterly preposterous.  We can’t write them off.  We have to hold onto the possibility, the probability, that they are worried for their kids, like we are.  They are worried about what the future will hold, like we are.  The difference between us is that they may be choosing a solution, a path, that we think is wrong.  A path that seems achingly familiar to anyone who has paid attention to history and to how fascism gets its start in a nation. But….that which drives us, at bottom, is very similar.  Those fears about the future, about earning enough to make a living, about how our kids will fare, those are very similar. We are on the same team. We just have been encouraged and coached to forget that. I’m not saying we should overlook our disagreements.  I’m not saying we should throw in the towel in combating injustice or inhumanity or prejudice.  I’m not saying, “Oh, let’s just all get along, think whatever you want to think or do, whatever.”  No.  I am saying, we have to remember that we are all on the same team, at our very bedrock. For everyone who was hoping for a sweet, friendly, easy Christmas sermon: my apologies. We do not live in sweet, easy or even very friendly times.  And that scares me. I am absolutely scared of what 2024 may hold for us and for our nation. BUT….I am also absolutely convinced that God will be with us through it all.  And,   I am absolutely convinced that it is in our connections, our relationships, that we may find a way to walk forward together. We have to remember: we are all on the team.