Race and Cross

From Gospel Translations

Racial Harmony Sunday

Ephesians 2:11-22

Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision " by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands - 12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, 16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. 17 AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR; 18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day. In 1983, the Congressestablished the third Monday of every January as a national holidayin honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and what he stood for. King'sbirthday is January 15 and, if he had not been assassinated in 1968in Memphis, Tennessee, he would have been 71 years old yesterday.Imagine what our recent history might have been had Martin LutherKing lived during the seventies and eighties and nineties andtrumpeted his vision during all those years!

Why do I mark this day with a sermon on racial relations eachyear? - this is the fourth year. There are more reasons than I cantell you. But let me tell you some of them. The main reason is intoday's text, Ephesians 2:11-22 and it has to do with the glory ofthe cross of Christ. I will come to that in a few minutes. Butthere are personal reasons that might help you understand why it issomething I feel a burden to do.

Growing Up White in South Carolina

Start with my growing-up years. I grew up in Greenville, SouthCarolina. You need to know something of the psyche of this statewhere I spent the first eighteen years of my life. The populationof South Carolina in 1860 was about 700,000. Sixty percent of thesewere African Americans (420,000) and all but 9,000 of these wereslaves.1 That's a mere 140 years ago. On December 20, 1860, SouthCarolina was the first state to secede from the Union, largely inprotest over Abraham Lincoln's election as an anti-slaverypresident. And it was in Charleston, South Carolina that the CivilWar began. Ninety-five years later, when I was nine years old inGreenville, the segregation was absolute: drinking fountains,public rest rooms, public schools, bus seating, housing,restaurants, waiting rooms and - worst of all - churches, includingmine.

And I can tell you from the inside that, for all therationalized glosses, it was not "separate but equal," it was notrespectful, and it was not Christian. It was ugly and demeaning. Ihave much to be sorry about, and I feel a burden to work againstthe mindset and the condition of heart that I was so much a part ofin those years. And it goes on. South Carolina today will not givestate workers a holiday tomorrow and many pride themselves onflying the Confederate flag.

Another Little Boy

Across town from where I grew up, in the same city, five yearsolder than I, another little boy was growing up on the other sideof the racial divide. His name was Jesse Jackson. I learned lastsummer that his mother loved the same radio station my mother did:WMUU, the voice of Bob Jones University. But there was a bigdifference. The very school that broadcast all that Bible truthwould not admit blacks. And the large, white Baptist church not farfrom Jesse Jackson's home wouldn't either. This was my hometown.And as an aside I ask, should we be surprised that some of thestrongest black leaders got their theological education at liberalinstitutions (like Chicago Theological Seminary, where Jacksonwent), when our fundamental and evangelical schools, especially inthe south, were committed to segregation?

Waking Up

God had mercy on me. In the year that I started seminary inCalifornia -1968 - Martin Luther King was shot and killed. Thesewere explosive days and I was fortunate to have professors whocared about the issues and were committed to finding the Biblicalperspective on racial relations. One of those professors, PaulJewett, compiled a 200-page syllabus of readings for us called"Readings in Racial Prejudice." These readings were absolutelyshocking. You can't read about the crimes of vicious hatred towardblacks and come away without trembling. The Introduction of thatsyllabus ends like this:

And now let us listen to the groans of Frederick Douglass, feelthe lash with Amy, endure the satire of DuBois, and measure thewrath of Malcolm X; let us contemplate the pathos of blackchildhood and the tragedy of black womanhood. And let us not forgetthat "he who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as hewho helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protestingagainst it is really cooperating with it." And let us also rememberthat if God has given us a revelation of the true nature of man,surely we will render account if we do not live in the light ofthat revelation, and especially so if we are called to the holyoffice of the Christian ministry.2

Those were powerful days in my life. And now, thirty yearslater, by God's amazing grace, I am called to "the holy office ofthe Christian ministry," and God has given us a revelation of thetrue nature of man, and I will render an account of my life andministry to God as to whether I have lived and preached in thelight of that revelation. Hence some of my passion for this weekendand this message.

As secular as the Civil Rights movement was in the sixties,there is no denying the profound Christian impulses that throbbedat the center of it, especially in the life and background ofMartin Luther King, Jr. - as imperfect as he was. One littleglimpse of it can be seen in the way his father responded to King'sreceiving the Nobel Peace prize in 1964. King and other dignitarieswere gathered in Oslo, Sweden, and about to celebrate, when theelder King stepped in and said,

"Wait a minute before you start all your toasts to each other.We better not forget to toast the man who brought us here, andhere's a toast to God." Then in a quavering voice, he told what hisson's prize meant to him. "I always wanted to make a contribution,and all you got to do if you want to contribute, you got to ask theLord, and let him know, and the Lord heard me and, in some specialkind of way I don't even know, he came down through Georgia and helaid his hand on me and my wife and he gave us Martin Luther King,and our prayers were answered."3

Called to Be More than We Are

Well, I want "to make a contribution" too, as Dr. King, Sr.said. So I asked God's help, and he came up through Minnesota - Idon't even know how - and laid his hand on me and Noel, and gave usKarsten and Benjamin and Abraham and Barnabas and Talitha Ruth, andhe gave us a church at the middle of a racially diverse city, andhe gave us a people, and he gave us a fresh mandate four years agofor our church in these words:

Against the rising spirit of indifference, alienation andhostility in our land, we will embrace the supremacy of God's loveto take new steps personally and corporately toward racialreconciliation, expressed visibly in our community and in ourchurch. (Fresh Initiative #3 in Bethlehem's Vision Statementbooklet)

We are called as a church to be something more than we are inliving out a manifest, visible racial harmony at the center of thecity. To help you see this, and to call you to it, I turn with younow to listen to one clear word from God about racial harmony inour church. This is the ultimate reason for preaching on thisissue: God has something to say about it and about how we livetogether as a church.

"No Longer Strangers and Aliens"

First, let's notice how this text begins and ends. In verses11-12 it begins with a description of the alienation between Jewsand Gentiles -specifically Jewish Christians and Gentiles."Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh,who are called "Uncircumcision " by the so-called "Circumcision,"which is performed in the flesh by human hands - remember that youwere at that time separate from Christ, excluded from thecommonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise,having no hope and without God in the world."

Then in verses 19-22 the text ends with a description of thereconciliation between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians."So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellowcitizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having beenbuilt on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ JesusHimselfbeing the corner stone, in whom the whole building, beingfitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whomyou also are being built together into a dwelling of God in theSpirit."

List the changes and the way Paul exults in the change inrelationships. First in verse 19 two negatives and two positives:1) No longer strangers, 2) no longer aliens, 3) fellow citizenswith the saints, 4) part of the same household of God. Then inverse 20 he describes the one common foundation of this new unity:"the foundation of the apostles and prophets" with Christ Jesus asthe cornerstone. Then in verses 21-22 he says that this new unityof Jew and Gentile built on Christ's saving work and his apostles'teachings is a single building built for the unspeakable privilegeof housing God. Verse 21: the church (of reconciled Jew andGentile) is a temple. And what is a temple? Verse 22 tells us: "adwelling of God in the Spirit."

That is what God is aiming at in our salvation: a new people(one new man, verse 15) that is so free from enmity and so unitedin truth and peace that God himself is there for our joy and forhis glory forever. That's the aim of reconciliation: a place forGod to live among us and make himself known and enjoyed forever andever.

Now keep in mind here that the divide between Jews and Gentileswas not small or simple or shallow. It was huge and complex anddeep. It was, first, religious. The Jews knew the one true God, andChristian Jews knew his Son, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Then thedivide was cultural or social with lots of ceremonies and practiceslike circumcision and dietary regulations and rules of cleanlinessand so on. These were all designed to set the Jews apart from thenations for a period of redemptive history to make clear theradical holiness of God. Then the divide was racial. This was abloodline going back to Jacob, not Esau, and Isaac, not Ishmael,and Abraham, not any other father. So the divide here was as big orbigger than any divide that we face today between black and whiteor red and white, or Asian and African-American.

Reconciliation and Unity out of Alienation and Separation

So here is the question: What happened between verses 11-12 thatdescribes the alienation and separation between Jews and Gentiles,and verses 19-22 that describes the full reconciliation andunity?

Here we could preach for days. These verses, 13-18, are so richand thick with doctrine that it would take days to unpack it all.So I will leave many questions unanswered and make one main pointthat I think is the most essential thing.

What happened between the alienation of verses 11-12 and thereconciliation of verses 19-22? The answer is that Jesus Christ,the Son of God died - and he died by design. Yes, he rose and isalive. But the emphasis here falls on his death. Where do we seeit? We see it in the word "blood" in verse 13b: "You who formerlywere far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." We seeit in the word "flesh" in verse 15, ". . . abolishing in His fleshthe enmity." And we see it in the word "cross" in verse 16, ". ..and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross."

The rest of the text is Paul's explanation of how the blood ofChrist - his death in the flesh on the cross - removes the enmitybetween God and Jew, God and Gentile and Jew and Gentile, and,therefore, by implication, between every ethnic group of Christianswho are in Christ who has become our peace. I won't go into that,as profound and wonderful as it is.

A New Creation - One New People
Let me take this one point and draw things to a close with itand apply it to us as a church. The point is that God aims tocreate one new people in Christ who are reconciled to each otheracross racial lines. Not strangers. Not aliens. No enmity. Not faroff. Fellow citizens of one Christian "city of God." One temple fora habitation of God. And he did this at the cost of his Son's life.We love to dwell on our reconciliation with God through the deathof his Son. And well we should. It is precious beyond measure - tohave peace with God (Romans 5:9-10).

But let us also dwell on this: that God ordained the death ofhis Son to reconcile alien people groups to each other in one bodyin Christ. This too was the design of the death of Christ. Think onthis: Christ died to take enmity and anger and disgust and jealousyand self-pity and fear and envy and hatred and malice andindifference away from your heart toward all other persons who arein Christ by faith - whatever the race.

Now here is one concluding implication of this. Paul says inGalatians 6:14 - and I hope we say with him - "May it never be thatI would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Isthis one of the great aims of our church - never to boast save inthe cross of Jesus? Does this not mean, among other things, thatweek in and week out we want the meaning and the worth and thebeauty and the power of the cross of Christ - the death of Christ,the shed blood of Christ - to be seen and loved in this place? Dowe not want that? Is that not why we exist - to spread a passionfor the supremacy of God in the death of his Son?

And if the design of the death of his Son is not only toreconcile us to God, but to reconcile alienated ethnic groups toeach other in Christ, then will we not display and magnify thecross of Christ better by more and deeper and sweeter ethnicdiversity and unity in our worship and life? If Christ died - markthis! DIED - to make the church a reconciled body of Jew andGentile, "red and yellow, black and white" and every shade ofbrown, then to glory in the cross is to glory in the display of thefruit of that cross.

And So . . .
At the risk of sounding trite on such a great theme and a greatgoal, I will give you some very practical exhortations:

1) Welcome newcomers every week. Make a weekly aim to welcomesomeone you don't know. The loneliest place in the week is in thecommons with two hundred bustling people. Talk to the people youdon't know.
2) Invite people of different ethnic backgrounds to church withyou.
3) Be glad when different ethnic elements are used in theservice.
4) Ponder the cross of our Lord Jesus and what it means. 5) Praytoward more wisdom and sensitivity.