Pastor's blog

A lot of people seem tired of talking about race. There's even a new book out there called Reconciliation Blues . People of many generations and of various colors are experience a sense of fatigue when it comes to the conversation of race, reconciliation, and multi-racial churches. I imagine this fatigue is part of the reason that I've heard, more than once, the question, "Are we talking about race too much?" I think the question really is, "Pastor Peter, why do you bring up the topic of race so often?"

I shared two reasons on Sunday. The first was personal and the second was Biblical. As far as the personal answer is concerned, that requires a little bit of history. Toward the end of my seminary career I took a class that asked us to look back over the course of our life and imagine how our story will effect our ministry in the future. One reading seemed particularly applicable to my life. It highlighted something called Normotic Illness, the pervasive need to be normal. The unfortunate outcome of this "illness" is the lack of individuality and, more so, creativity of the individual. The sole concern is looking, speaking, and thinking like everyone else. That was me.

I think I began recovering from my "illness" during seminary when I first began to hear a discussion about the coming of God's kingdom. The gospel became less about my individual entry into heaven and more about a corporate, heavenly existence on earth. It wasn't something I had remembered hearing in church and it really grabbed me. Following that semester, I spent 10 weeks as an intern in Iowa. I learned that this message wasn't normal, so I hesitated to preach it or teach it. However, I spent a lot of time reading about it.

The book that I remember most is called Ordinary Resurrections by Jonathan Kozol. It followed a small group of children through the home and educational lives. I began to see how much race and class are a part of injustice. It became a calling for me. As far as I can tell, it's not normal. No one I know likes me more because I advocate for racial reconciliation and a multi-racial church. In other words, I speak about race so often because I feel like its a calling and conviction from God. It's the first thing in my life that I'm pursuing, not because I want to fit in with other people, but because I want to be a co-creator with God.

Of course, this personal witness means nothing if it is not backed up by God's witness. If there is no foundation for these ideas, they will eventually crumble and fall away. Acts 11:19-26 and Ephesians 2:1-15 form pieces of that foundation.

In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, we find a very familiar message (normal?). Sin had caused a problem in the world and seduced humans away from God and God's will. Out of God's great mercy and by grace, God sent Jesus Christ to save us from that problem. In him, we have been seated in the heavenly places so that God can continue to shower us with grace and kindness. In response, we are created for a life of good works. Reformed people recognize in those words the normal outline of guilt, grace and gratitude.

What is unfamiliar (abnormal?) for me when it comes to this passage is the idea that we have been seated (past tense) in the heavenly places. Somehow, we have already been seated in heaven, even though we are on earth. It's very mystical. But if we take that seriously we realize that we are already in a multi-racial congregation.

When visions of heaven were revealed to John he saw a great multitude that no one could count; people from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, together worshiping the Lord. What that says to me is that all the work required for us to enter into a multi-racial church has already been taken care of. All we need to do is pull back the veil and have the courage to enter into it. Paul says as much in the rest of the chapter.

All those who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ (v. 13). In his body, Jesus Christ has broken down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile, that is the hostility between us (v. 14). Through the cross, Jesus put to death that hostility so that we might be reconciled and become one new humanity. Lest, you think this idea is reserved for the life after death, we see the same thing happening at the church in Antioch.

It was in Antioch that the message of Jesus Christ was shared with people who were not Jewish. The parent church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to check things out and make sure everything faithful and good. The Bible says that when Barnabas arrived he "saw the grace of God." How does one see God's grace? Most definitely he saw those who had turned the hearts to the Lord. In other words, he saw people who repented. But he also saw Jew and Gentile in one place worshiping the same God. In other words, he saw people who were reconciled.

It is normal for us to consider the power of God's grace to turn hearts to him; to cause people to repent. That's the message we are used to hearing in church. It is not normal for us to hear of the power to God's grace for reconcile groups of people who have been previously hostile to one another. At best, it is reserved for those churches who prefer to worship and serve that way. The passages we read on Sunday show that God's grace is equal parts repentance and reconciliation and that all churches are called to both. Somehow the immeasurable riches of God's grace, the kindness that God longs to extend to us, is tied up in our willingness to turn our hearts to him, but just as much in our willingness to reach across race and class to worship and serve together.

Again, in Christ all the hostility between us is put to rest. In Christ, we have already been seated in a heavenly, multi-racial scene. The only thing that's required for us to experience that reality on earth is faith, is enough trust to walk through the veil between heaven and earth and worship before the throne and before the Lamb. Heaven on earth, it's what we pray for, isn't it?