When I came to Caz
Church to serve as pastor, one of the things I wanted to do in my first year
was to just get to know the people. I had the opportunity to sit down with many and hear their story- where they grew up, what their
families were like, and how they came to know Christ. And a story I heard more than
once was about the culture of South Buffalo in generations past. If you were a
good Irish kid, you had certain boundaries in the community that you were
careful not to cross at certain times. If you went beyond that road, or that
bridge, you entered into the Italian section- you had to be careful there- and
the same could be said the other way around, because these two cultures didn’t
always get along
My story isn’t
altogether different, though it was in a place hundreds of miles from Buffalo.
I grew up in middle Tennessee, close to Nashville, a generation after the civil
rights movement, about an hour and a half from the place where the KKK was established.
There were two African-American kids in my grade until I got to high school.
The year before I entered 9th grade, there was a race riot, black
against white at that school, and everyone in the community knew about it. They
had to dismiss school for a time because of the simmering tension.
If you grew up
somewhere else, in a place where there were people who were different than you,
chances are there was some tension between those two different cultures, not
for any other reason than that their
people were different than your
people. No one necessarily had to do anything sinister to anyone else- it was
“us” and “them” just because “we” looked differently than “they” did. Now, we might not have thought about it this way then, but if we
could be perfectly honest with each other today, I think we could say that
racism, or some form of it, was alive and well in those communities we grew up
in.
And we have to
acknowledge that there is still a problem today…Unless we’ve buried our heads
in the sand, we know that, as a country, we’ve not moved past it. In recent
days, we’ve watched the news from Charlottesville, VA, just like we watched the
news in in Ferguson, MO; or Baton Rouge; or Dallas, or Tulsa…and if we think
that it doesn’t exist where we live, we’re kidding ourselves. These tensions
are high, and it’s important on a foundational level, for us to acknowledge
that racism exists, not just nationally, but locally, and that we, as followers
of Jesus need to be a part of the discussion.
Because I’ve used the
word, racism, it’s important that we start with a general definition of what it
is: Racism, at its core, is the mistreatment
of another person (or group of people), based on their ethnicity, or the color
of their skin.
There’s a lot of back
and forth out there about the difference in racism, prejudice, and
discrimination. I’m not getting into all of that, because they all have the
same root…”I see your skin- your culture-
something that makes your people
different than my people- and based
on that, I form a negative judgment in my mind about you that will keep us
separate, maybe even antagonistic, toward one another.” That root can exist
in any culture or race, because it’s ultimately not a skin problem, it’s a sin
problem.
In our country, it was
a sin problem that led white people to enslave blacks, based purely on the
terrible idea that to be born one color was better, or superior, than another.
The same could be said for the laws that then kept these two races separate for
another hundred years after the Civil War. Education and integration may have
given people a better understanding of each other and forced them to live in
community together, but neither of those things in the last 50-60 years has
gotten rid of the problem.
It’s because racism is a Gospel issue- not
just a cultural one, not just American, and not just black and white. This
problem goes back as far as race and culture have existed. When people began to
look different (race) and act different (customs, dress, talk), the sin in the
human heart used those differences to divide, to try to oppress others, and to
justify why that was good. This is why the church needs to be involved in the
discussion., because God made cultures to be different. He
made skin color. In His eyes, the differences are good. They are to be
celebrated, not separated.
We (speaking as a white
American to other white Americans when this message was delivered) need to be
honest with ourselves, to realize that because I come from a particular culture,
I’m blind to the experiences of my black neighbors. We may live in the same
city, even on the same street, but have completely different experiences.
And (again, as a white man, speaking to a predominantly
white congregation), you might have a hard time understanding what you’ve been
seeing on television. You may struggle to relate to all the anger from black
people. You think, or say, “what’s so hard about doing what the police officer
says?” And, “this is what free speech is all about.”…Because you’ve probably never
been pulled over, or questioned, or accused because of your skin color. We need
to acknowledge that being white has given us a different experience of living
in America than what someone of color has had.
I was talking to
another pastor who ministers on the west side of Buffalo, where there is a
large African-American community. There are people in his church who talk about
how they have to worry about being pulled over every day, and then are afraid
of what might happen when they are. He wasn’t telling me that to condemn the
police. This isn’t just a police issue. It’s a cultural issue that black people
experience every day, and people like me don’t. And we don’t help anything by
dismissing it, or trying to rationalize it.
So, when something
larger happens in the culture- like racist groups rallying in Virginia, police
shootings, or other injustices- the collective experience of black people
identifies with Michael Brown, and Terence Crutcher, and Trayvon Martin- and
they see how it’s possible that these men could be them, or their children, and
they want change. Again, as a follower
of Jesus, I don’t think rationalizing or being dismissive is helpful, nor does
it give us an opportunity to have meaningful conversation. The only thing that
will is genuine compassion.
So, we have to
acknowledge the problem. Then, we must look to the Scriptures and the Gospel.
We need correction for wrong, sinful, thinking, and then encouragement to see,
think, and feel more like God does.
The Bible starts out by
telling us that man was made in the image of God. There is something different
about mankind (all people) that separates him from everything else that was
made- He has a likeness to God. Because of that, all men and women are worthy
of honor and respect. We all are made in God’s image, and we all came from the
same two people. So, for anyone to use their whiteness or brownness, their
culture, or nationality to gain superiority over anyone else is non-sensical. This
way of thinking is sinful, divisive, and opposed to the heart of God.
There is evidence of
racism from very early in the biblical account. Jews were enslaved by the
Egyptians by the hundreds of thousands, by the time we get to the second book;
and there was a deep racial divide between Jews & Samaritans and Jews &
Gentiles (anyone not Jewish) before Jesus steps onto the scene. Because these
were such critical issues in the 1st century when the NT was written,
we should expect for the writers to address them with the only thing that
brings lasting, true, reconciliation between races and people groups- and they
do.
I think we can describe
what God has done in the Gospel, especially as we talk about racial division,
in one word- Reconciliation-
the ending of hostility and the making of peace. In Christ, God has brought an
end to the hostility and division that was, first of all, between Him and us.
At the cross, sin was crucified, forgiveness was purchased, wrath was
satisfied- so that we could be reconciled to God; and the effect of that in day
to day life was not only a new ability for anyone from anywhere to love God;
but for anyone from anywhere to love one another. God actively sought to crush
the division between Him and me. He hated that and pursued peace. He gives it
to me through His Son. What does He now expect for me to seek with others?
Hostility? Division? No! The exact thing that the Gospel gives me:
reconciliation & peace.
Put to death therefore
what is earthly in you…seeing that you have put off the old self with its
practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge
after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised
and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in
all.
Put on then,
as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness,
humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a
complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you,
so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds
everything together in perfect harmony.
(Colossians 3:5, 9-14
ESV)
The Gospel is restoring
and re-creating one people into the image of their Creator. And who is their
Creator? Jesus. Our identity in Him gives meaning to everything else that makes
us who we are- Bills fans, Irish background, from the First Ward, etc. These
aren’t the priority now. My new life in Christ defines me, and shapes
everything else.
Yes, I’m white. Yes,
I’m an American. But I have a greater connection with black believers in Nigeria
than I do with white, non-believing, Americans, because our connection in
Christ is more important and eternal. The Gospel ends any hostility we might
have had as we experience the recreating power of the Gospel. You’ve probably
heard the statement that blood is thicker than water…Jesus gives us a new
bloodline that is thicker than race.
…in Christ Jesus
you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized
into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in
Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:25-28 ESV)
And they sang a new
song, saying,
“Worthy are
you to take the scroll
and
to open its seals,
for you were
slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from
every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have
made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and
they shall reign on the earth.”
(Revelation 5:9-10 ESV)
We are being made into
the image of the Son of God. You are not growing into this image if you are
harboring divisive thoughts about people of another race. These thoughts need
to be surrendered to, and crushed by, the Gospel.
As followers of Christ,
we are to engage in racial reconciliation. I could point you to a number of
passages that will support what I say here, but each one of these application
points reflects the flavor of the Gospel. You can judge that for yourself.
1. Be humble and listen
compassionately- Understand from the start that you have been shaped by your
culture just like others have been by theirs, which means you have blind spots.
You might not know what they are…that’s why you’re blind to them. So, it’s
important that you start from a place of humility, not looking to correct
someone else’s thinking, but asking God to use the Gospel, and other people who
are different than you, to shape your thinking.
2. Be patient with one
another- Some of you have been thinking on this issue for a long time. Some of
you haven’t. We’re all in different places. So, those who seem to be really
pressing others to listen must not get impatient or have a judgmental attitude
toward those who aren’t where they are. And those who feel like they’re getting
pressed to do or say something can’t get impatient and judgmental with those
they feel are pushing them to move too fast. Bear with one another in love,
keeping unity in the Spirit in the bond of peace.
3. Expose racism with
the light of the Gospel- Wherever you are with this, don’t let racism, or
prejudicial thinking stay in the darkness. It might mean that you have friends
who talk a certain way about blacks or whites. Engage those people graciously
with the Gospel. It might mean that you work with someone of a different skin
color that you’ve always felt uncomfortable speaking to. Overcome that division
and build bridges to get to know them and hear their experiences.
This content has been modified from a sermon given on October 9, 2016 at Cazenovia Park Baptist Church in Buffalo, NY by Lonnie Atwood. To listen to that message, click here
