This Sunday Ernie Thigpen of Central Church of Christ in Spartanburg, SC, preached a sermon titled “God-Empowered Acceptance,” the fourth part of his series called “1 Spirit: How God the Holy Spirit Shapes and Strengthens Us.” The sermon presented a biblical view of various forms of prejudice in light of the Christian imperative of unity.
His main text was Acts 10. Peter was a law-abiding citizen who knew not to associate with non-Jews, but God opened Peter’s eyes to a new reality in which God welcomes all people into the body of Christ (i.e., the church).
Replaying the sermon in my mind, I think of Ephesians 1, which identifies God’s mysterious will as one of reconciliation in Christ (verses 9-10). The next chapter extends the idea, stating that Jesus Christ is our “peace” who has broken down “the diving wall of hostility” (2:14). We can see from the context surrounding that verse that “the dividing wall of hostility” is one of racism between Jews and Gentiles in early Christianity and the society in which it existed.
Although Christ abolished that “dividing wall,” communities of faith have not always lived out that reality. We have sometimes acted like we’ve forgotten these words of scripture: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28, ESV).
I don’t need to remind you of horrific horrors of history performed in the name of Christ against people because of ethnic, gender, socioeconomic, and other forms of prejudice. I also don’t need to detail the countless ways in which “the dividing wall of hostility” still plagues our culture(s) and the church.
What I can emphasize here is that Christ calls us to a higher standard than what we see in cultural trends around us. The mission of the people of God is to live out the mission of God, and God’s mission is reconciliation in, through, and because of Jesus Christ.
However, Christians can experience difficulty in accepting that blessing of reconciliation. Sunday night Tamara and I joined a few other Christians for a small group discussion about this topic. I was pleased that such a group in the South, where we still see personal and systemic continuances of historic racism, could openly talk and listen to each other in such a potentially volatile conversation.
Even with this openness and willingness to discuss the challenge of prejudice and the blessing of reconciliation, we still struggle to implement the unity of Christ in practical ways. I perceive at least two reasons for that struggle. First, we live in a culture that suffers from generations of deeply ingrained racism and other prejudices.
My response is that we can arise above the human tendency to let the culture lead the church. We followers of Christ in his communities of faith must step up and lead the culture in embodying the reconciliation at the heart of the gospel. In the power of God’s Holy Spirit, we can grow beyond the status quo in which Sunday morning remains even more segregated than other times in occupational, residential, recreational, and educational settings. Not only can we work for peace and unity across cultural boundaries in the church, we can act as the body of Christ in ways that penetrate our surrounding culture and that invite God to work through us in transforming societal systems of injustice.
A second reason for our difficulty in living out biblical reconciliation is that change happens slowly. I know this fact from my experience in studying and teaching organizational communication. Healthy organizations, including churches, have leaders who implement changes carefully and, usually, slowly. Quick changes that occur in the absence of prayer, study, and careful planning often lead to unnecessary divisions in the body of Christ.
My response to this second reason is that, while church leaders should be prayerful and careful in implementing changes, we also must be faithful and responsible in living out the church’s mission (i.e., God’s mission of reconciliation) in the midst of contrary influences coming from the culture in which we live. While we are wise to introduce organizational changes slowly, we must not act so slowly that we allow the culture to lead the church in matters of prejudice and reconciliation. We must pray for God to give us compassion, guidance, wisdom, and courage in our efforts to participate in God’s great mission.
As you can probably guess, in our group last night, I was a young whippersnapper dreaming of an ideal. I appreciate and respect the views of all the other group members, and I’m still pondering a question that one member asked me: “What can we do?”
What we can do as individuals depends on where we live, work, and interact with people in various ways. I cannot answer the question for every person, but I encourage each of us to look for opportunities, both in interpersonal relationships and in social engagement, where we can serve as instruments of God’s peace.
What we can do as congregations of Christ’s followers also depends largely on our contexts. Again, we can pray for opportunities to enact God’s reconciliation and search for our location-specific roles to let that mission transform the church and the culture.
A debate has engaged many thoughtful church leaders and scholars in recent decades. Should the church seek to integrate ethnic and other groups of people in worship and service, as recommended in Loventrice Farrow’s insightful article in the December issue of The Christian Chronicle (p. 35)? Or should congregations operate in culturally comfortable means of segregation, allowing various people groups to worship and serve in ways most natural to them?
I minister in South Carolina, and I’ve discussed church segregation with people of two ethic groups in my city. People in both groups prefer homogeneous congregations, but I’m hearing a biblical call in the other direction.
Let me end with three questions soliciting your input.
First, what do you think about this?
Second, what do you think I should do?
Third, what will you do?
