I’m afraid I am on a hobby horse this morning… where we were born, and the nature of our parents does not matter.  What matters is if we are in the congregation of the elect.

For the resurrection is our pesach, our ordinance. For Christ is our prophet and king. And as only those circumcised in the flesh can approach and eat the lamb of passover, only those who Christ has baptized, circumcising their soul, can approach the table of our Lord.

Exodus 12:40-49

⁴⁰The time that the Israelites had lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years. ⁴¹At the end of four hundred thirty years, on that very day, all the companies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. ⁴²That was for the LORD a night of vigil, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That same night is a vigil to be kept for the LORD by all the Israelites throughout their generations.

⁴³The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: This is the ordinance for the passover: no foreigner shall eat of it, ⁴⁴but any slave who has been purchased may eat of it after he has been circumcised; ⁴⁵no bound or hired servant may eat of it. ⁴⁶It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the animal outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. ⁴⁷The whole congregation of Israel shall celebrate it. ⁴⁸If an alien who resides with you wants to celebrate the passover to the LORD, all his males shall be circumcised; then he may draw near to celebrate it; he shall be regarded as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it; ⁴⁹there shall be one law for the native and for the alien who resides among you.

Matthew 28:1-16

¹After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. ²And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. ⁴For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. ⁵But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. ⁶He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. ⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” ⁸So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. ¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

This is the great division: this is the great area of choice.

• Gender does not matter. Christ appeared to women first, and told them to seek the apostles and tell them. Women have been honoured in the Church from the beginning. Their place is secure. Moreover, to lead is to serve and be a slave to all. The current war between the sexes is thus a grievous error: for men and women are different, with different goals and ministries.
• Race or tribe does not matter. The love of your nation and tribe is not wrong: but saying it is sweet and noble to die for one’s country is correctly called “the old lie“

… in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud(12)
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest(13)
To children ardent(14) for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

• In a similar way the race or ethnic group you belong to does not matter. There are differences between groups: one’s race matters, for instance, when choosing anti-hypertensives, and the culture you are born in matters when it comes to reactions under stress, particularly on matters of honour.  But in Christ we are all equal.
• We divide our society along lines of talent and merit. We functionally stream people: towards the older university courses, the skilled trades, or honest labour according to intelligence. But worship of intelligence, again, or health matters little. For we are all dumb and children before God. And the labourer in the pew next to me (who was tested last week, and missed out on getting care from intellectual disablity because his IQ was five points above cutoff) is probably a better Christian than I am.

What matters is that Christ has risen. Let us instead praise him, and keep the oldest command, to Love the LORD with all our will, intelligence, power and strength.