Last week messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention elected Fred Luter to the presidency. As I previously mentioned, this was an historic moment and an opportunity. It is an opportunity to pursue local churches that are united around the gospel of Jesus Christ and not the color of our skin.
John Piper, a white pastor, in his book, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian, expresses his desire to see a church where blacks and whites consistently find unity in the Lord, Jesus Christ. He ended the book this way:
What I have tried to do in this book is show that the gospel of Jesus Christ--the death and the resurrection of the Son of God for sinners--is the only sufficient power for this effort, and the only power that in the end will bring the bloodlines of race into the single bloodline of the cross. It is the only power to bring about Christ-exalting harmony, which, in the end, is the only kind that matters, because all things were made through him and for him (Col. 1:16). To his grace, and his name, and his Father be glory forever. Amen.
"Christ-exalting harmony" will not come easily. Anthony B. Bradley, an African-American theologian wrote Black and Tired: Essays on Race, Politics, Culture, and International Development. He explains rather bluntly that racism is an effect of the Fall, and so long as there is the need for sanctification, there will be racism:
When African Americans, Latinos, and Asians lament, "It's 2008 and racism still exists in America," the temptation is to shout, "What fairytale were you reading that said racism would ever cease?" An historic tenet of Judeo-Christianity, along with many other religions, is that evil exists in the world. As long as people lack the moral development to escape it, there will always be racism.
So what hope is there for Christ-exalting harmony if there will be racism until the arrival of the new heavens and new earth? After all, until Jesus returns there will always be a lack of "moral development."
The hope is the gospel of God that builds the church. The hope is the reality that in the church we are not united by a common interest, a common class, or a common ethnicity. In the church we are united by the gospel. In a church united around this gospel, divisions (e.g. interests, socio-economic class, ethnicity) become opportunties to prove the Christ-exalting power of the gospel.The gospel makes friends out of employers and employees, men and women, Americans and Germans, blacks and whites. "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 neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:27-28).
I think Bradley is right: racism will not end until the return of our Savior and Judge. But in the meantime there is a fight to be waged. Our weapon is the Word of God. We preach the only Message with the power to reconcile sinners to a holy God and, subsequently, sinners to one another. The more our churches focus on the gospel, the more welcome our congregations will be to men and women of every color.
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