The world is full of divisions. Every sort of difference and distinction you can imagine has been magnified. Who of us knew anything a few years ago about six or more different ethnic groups in Yugoslavia!? About all I knew about Yugoslavia was that they made a little car called a Yugo, which should have been called a Nogo! We thought it was one people, one nation; but it turned out to be six peoples and six nations. Division.
Which of us thought about the Soviet Union being made up of scores of tribal and racial groups? Once they were given the chance, they split up into not less than fifteen different countries, most of which I, for one, have not even learned to locate on the map, and whose names I cannot pronounce once I find them. One people, one nation? Not on your life! Fifteen peoples, fifteen nations, and more on the way. Division. Division and discord.
You would have to have been deaf and blind and living on a desert island for the last thirty years not to have realized that we too live in a divided land. The people of this nation are divided in about as many ways as it is possible to imagine. Culturally, racially, socially, economically, religiously, politically ... choose any criterion you want and you will confess that in many ways we make a mockery of the name, "United States". We are not so much united as we are thrown together by the circumstances of history. We are not so much united as we are diverse personalities who must find ways to live and work together.
On this Martin Luther King Day, I am remembering the Kerner Commission, appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to discern the causes behind the scores of disturbances in the late 1960’s. The Kerner Commission warned that America was fast becoming, "two societies, one black, one white -separate and unequal". Nearly thirty years ago, someone saw that we were two peoples attempting, very unsuccessfully, to live in one nation. "Two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal." The truth hurt then, and it still stings.
It still stings because we still have not solved the deeper issues related to race. It still stings because so much that has gone on has not penetrated to the spiritual issues. There are some very human attitudes that wreak havoc in our society.
Let me try to illustrate. Many of you, I know, live with the suspicion that beneath nearly every white skin there lurks a racist. He may be a subtle racist, but a racist nonetheless, who will not say what he thinks out loud because he knows it is not politically correct to do so. Many of you, I suspect, have experienced enough to feel that just beneath the surface of white society there are many who dismiss black life and black people. Just the other day my wife and I felt deep shock and disappointment, because someone we care about just dumped a small mountain of anti-black sentiment on us. We were shocked not only by what she felt, but also that she would think we would be willing to hear it. The assumption was that race is stronger than humanity, that ultimately everyone is loyal to his own kind of people. You see, the spiritual issues are not resolved.
I want to speak with you this morning about that spiritual struggle. The legal issues, the equal opportunity concerns, all of those things are important. Our society will continue to deal with them, and should. But the more difficult thing is the entrenched spiritual blindness and bitterness that keeps us from functioning as two peoples in one nation.
In the days of Hosea, prophet of Israel, things were much the same. In that eighth century before Christ, there were two peoples who had been one nation, but whose differences became so bitter that they split apart into two separate nations. God’s people had become the twin nations of Israel and Judah, and they were often bitter rivals.
The peoples of these two nations shared a great deal. They shared a common language, they worshipped the same Lord, their histories were intertwined. They had been brought together under the prophets; they had been held together under the kings Saul, David, and Solomon. But by Hosea’s time they had split apart. However, Hosea, I believe, gives us some clues about how these two peoples might come together again as one nation.
I
Let’s begin this morning with some possibility thinking. Let’s not talk first about what went wrong. Let’s think first about what ought to be, what could be. Can I ask you to see with me that when two peoples are divided, it is God’s will that they come together under His leadership? God is a reconciling God. And He wants His children to come together. In fact, when they do so, there is something for everybody. Everybody wins.
Listen to Hosea’s word of hope, laid out near the beginning of his prophecy: "The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head; and they shall take possession of the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel."
We need to be sure this morning that we are in agreement on this one thing before we go any further. We need to be sure that we want what God wants. We need to be sure that we agree that black Americans and white Americans, indeed Americans of all descriptions, most especially Christians of all descriptions, are called of God to develop together, not separately. Do you agree to that?
Do you agree that different and distinct though we may be, black and white, we are called to develop together, under His lordship? And that when we share with one another the riches of our heritages and the resources of our common faith, then we will all achieve what God has desired for us?
I can only share with you my own conviction, built on the word of God. What does Hosea say? "The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head; and they shall take possession of the land ... " I begin with the premise that we do need each other. Each of us is less than we can be and should be if we do not learn from the other. As I know my own heart, that does not threaten me. I hope, for your spiritual health, that the idea of black and white learning from each other does not threaten you.
If I learn from African-American people great truths about faith and prayer, that does not suggest that there is anything wrong with being white, nor does it suggest that I am unworthy as a white man. It only means that I am enriching my store of knowledge and of experience.
If you learn from me and my European-American brothers and sisters some particular skill in communication or in organization, that does not mean that there is something wrong or inadequate about you. That does not mean that any person in this room should indulge in self-hatred or should wallow in low self-esteem. It only means that you too can enrich your store of knowledge and of experience.
The sooner we come to see that we need each other, the sooner we will achieve what God wants for us. The sooner that we become equal partners in building and in building the church, the sooner He will be able to bless us.
Two peoples, one nation. "The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head; and they shall take possession of the land...” Are we agreed?
II
If we agree to that, then let’s learn a lesson from history, in the light of the Scriptures. The lesson we must learn is that the sins of one group infect the life of the other group. The mistakes of one people are visited in one way or another on the life of the other people. And thus both become subject to God’s judgment.
If you read very carefully through Hosea’s prophecy and you find all those passages where both Israel and Judah are mentioned, you discover a very interesting thing. You discover that in some of those passages, Israel’s sins are condemned, but Judah is held out as a standard of righteousness. In several places, Israel is described as full of sin, but right next to her is Judah, living in accord with God’s will. All right.
But then if you keep on reading you discover something else. You discover that the tone changes. You find out that Judah begins to share in the sin of Israel. Judah is infected by the spiritual disease of Israel.
Here is a good passage to help you grasp what I am saying: "Ephraim [or Israel] has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One." Sounds real good for Judah, right? Except listen to the very next verses: "Ephraim multiplies falsehood and violence ... The Lord has an indictment against Judah, and will punish [him] according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds." Do you see? The sin of one people infects the other people.
There are other passages I could read. When two peoples exist side by side in one nation, it is very easy for the sin of one to pull down the other, and both will be judged. Instead of what God wants, as we said we all agreed, that the two should learn from each other under His leadership and be blessed, it is also true that two peoples in one nation can draw each other down and share in God’s judgment.
On this I know I have the right to speak only from one side. I would not risk offending or being misunderstood by attempting to suggest that the sins of black America threaten to infect whites. But let me come at this from the other side. Let me warn you of some vicious diseases. I may not be an immunologist, but I’d like to inoculate you against the infectious diseases out there.
Some of us in the European-American community do suffer from racism. Big surprise, huh!? As if you didn’t know. Racism means the dismissal of persons not like ourselves. Racism means that we suspect them, we fear them, we avoid them. That’s racism. It’s out there. But oh, let not black America indulge in reverse racism that imagines that behind every white face or every Asian face there is an enemy. Do not be drawn into the web of suspicion where you just decide to be uncomfortable with another person, because he or she is different. Racism is an infectious disease.
Another infectious disease. Some of us in the white community have become very secular. We don’t especially need God, we think. For many of us, religion is a thing which, if you insist on doing it, you do it privately, formally, and abstractly. We may go to church, because church is a good thing for respectable people do, but the idea of living with a personal God is far from the minds of a great many white Americans. That is a deadly infectious disease. Oh, let not black America lose its sense of the personal power and presence of the living God. Let not black America settle for a bloodless, neat, contrived religion, a take-it-or-leave-it worship. Be who you are, unashamedly. A faith that is not felt intensely is just a front, and it is an infectious disease.
Still another infection. Racism, respectable religion, and irresponsibility. Some of us in white America have became very self-centered, self-indulgent, irresponsible. We want what we want when we want it. And we have forgotten how to share, we have forgotten how to give, we don’t even want to remember how to make do. We are infected with self-indulgence. Oh, let not black America, as she succeeds, get caught up in the accumulation of status symbols. Let not black America forget where she has come from. Let not black America forget to extend a helping hand to those who have not yet arrived.
Men and women, do not be seduced by what may look superficially like successful, happy people. All is not gold that glitters, and all is not pure that is white!
"Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee; lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee."
The prophet Hosea shows us that when two peoples live side by side, trying to become one nation, the danger is that one will drag down the other to its level. And God, who wants to bless them both, will have to judge them both.
III
How then shall we achieve two peoples living in one nation? What does our God call us to be and to do? Once again Hosea, it seems to me, provides a direction.
Hosea’s answer is that each people must work on its own issues. Each people must turn to its own problems and deal with them, and together these two great peoples must discover new dimensions of justice.
"I will make Ephraim [that is, Israel] break the ground; [and also] Judah must plow; Jacob must harrow for himself. Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, that He may rain righteousness upon you."
The way to join together is to work on the Issues right around us, not on somebody else’s, but our own. The crying need in this hour is that every people, every person, take responsibility for making a difference wherever we live. Ephraim must break new ground, where he lives in the inner city. Judah must plow, where he lives in the outer suburbs. Ephraim must think beyond blaming somebody else for his problems. Judah must stop running farther and farther away. Sow for yourselves righteousness.
That speaks to me. That tells me that what you and I can do as a people of God in this community is of supreme importance.
We can invest ourselves in the needs of this community and all of its peoples, without blaming anybody, without excluding anybody. I still have a dream that we shall take seriously the human needs that are all around us and make a difference.
We can evangelize this community, all of its people, without sorting out those we think would not fit in or would challenge our equilibrium. We can take the risk of ministering to all persons, of all races and cultures, even though we know some of them will upset our pretty little apple-cart.
We can minister, we can evangelize, and most of all we in this church can determine to love one another. Very simple, very straightforward, to love one another. We can decide that we will believe the best of one another, that we will care deeply for one another’s feelings, that we will embrace one another’s histories, that we will love to the fullest. If we will determine to love one another, no matter what mistakes some of us may make, we will make a life-changing witness to the world.
Let Ephraim break new ground, and Judah plow also. Sow for yourselves righteousness, and seek the Lord, that He may rain down righteousness.
Just a few days ago columnist Donna Britt wrote about forgiveness. She spoke of forgiving the sin of racism, and more. She wrote that forgiveness is a miracle. That forgiveness is "seeing life through someone else’s eyes. It is focusing less on whose crimes are worse and more on ensuring that they are never repeated .... It is finding God in every face. Impossible? But as a people, as a nation, as souls for whom miracles are still possible, we need to go there."
Two peoples, one nation. In Christ, two people, loving one another, one nation.
