Who’s Really Number One
2/27/2000 Joshua 5:13-15 John 17:6-18
Why do we celebrate African American History? Because it reveals the workings of God in a group of people whom God has loved and cared for from the beginning. History is important, because it gives us a sense of pride and accomplishment in knowing who we are, where we came from, and what God did for us. History can make us want to chant, God has been on our side and we are number one.
There is an evil dark side to the push to become number one. It’s one thing when a team chants we’re number one and goes to prove it on a basketball court. It’s another thing when a race, or ethnic group begins to chant the same thing. On the basketball court, the players shake hands at the end of the game and everybody goes home. When a race or ethnic group demonstrates it is number one, there are a bunch of dead bodies lying around, unjust laws set up, and a whole group of people made slaves and servants of the group in power.
As African Americans, our history is also as old as the Bible itself. There were Africans throughout the Bible. Nimrod the great hunter was African. Moses’s wife when he left Egypt was African. She was from Ethiopia. When the children of Israel left Egypt, all of them were Africans because if you stay on in a continent for 430 years, you are a child of that continent. When people are close to each other in terms of proximity, they marry each other.
We forget that all the Egyptian Pharoahs were African, and the pictures and statutes they left behind indicate many were Black Africans. . Ebed-Melech was a Cushite, another name for Ethiopian, who was a high official in the royal palace who saved the prophet Jeremiah’s life. It is amazing how history writers stole Egypt out of Africa and put it in the Middle East. It’s not hard to understand why it was done. In one race’s desire to be number one, it attempted to deny the reality of the word of God for another race
We can turn to the New Testament and find that Jesus spent his first few years of life in Africa as a hideout. Simon from North Africa carried the cross of Jesus. Pastor Toby shared with us last week evidence to indicate Paul may have been Black, since he was mistaken for being from Africa when they first arrested him in Jerusalem. In Acts 13:1 in the church at Antioch one of the prophets and teachers was Simeon, also called the Black. And another one was called Lucius of Cyrene which is in North Africa.
It’s important not only for African-Americans to know about God’s choice of Africans in the Bible, but for all people to know it because it shows, that long before racism, there was a God who was free to choose anybody he wanted to choose.
God made us a rainbow of colors simply because He wanted to. It’s amazing how the only part of creation that lets color get in the way is people. We’ve got a little brown dog that we went and got from some people who were white. Not once did the dog indicate, she had been born in a white family’s home and she’s not sure she can adjust to living in an African American situation. After all the food and the music might be different.
When we look at the word of God, we discover that no race or nationality has an exclusive claim on God. Even though God called Israel out of Egypt to take them into the promise land, that did not necessarily place God on their side. You see, God loved the people in the land of Canaan. He had given them 430 years to change their ways, but they would not listen. Therefore God brought the people out of Israel to inflict judgment on them, in the same way he later used the Africans and Babylonians to bring judgment on Israel.
Joshua was feeling real good about being number one when they crossed into the promised land. They had to cross over the Jordan River which was in its flood stage, so it was like the mighty Mississippi River. God told Joshua, let the priest lead the way and as soon as the priest touch the water, the water flowing downstream will stop flowing and stand up in a heap. The priest step in, the water stopped flowing. All the people crossed over on dry ground, while the priest stood in the middle of the River. Nothing had been seen like this since the parting of the Red Sea under Moses. After the people crossed, over, the priest crossed to the other side, and immediately the waters returned to its position.
The Scriptures state, that on that day, the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all the people and they held him in high honor and respect all the days of his life just as they had revered Moses. Now Joshua was feeling real good that day. Hey, whose number 1. All the people probably shouted back we are. Now when Joshua got near to Jericho, which they would have to take in battle, he saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand.
This guy must have looked like a pretty strong warrior, but hey, maybe he had not heard how God had used him to split the waters of the Jordan. So Joshua said, "I say there brother, there’s a battle that’s going to take place, and I want to know who’s side are you on. Are you on our side or the side of our enemies?
The man turned around and said, "Buddy I don’t get involved on taking sides. I’m neither for you or the Cannaanites. You don’t understand who I am, because if you did, you would want to make sure, you were on my side. He said, "I am the commander of the army of the Lord, and I have now come. This was one of the early appearances of Jesus in the Old Testament. Because we are told, Jesus is the commander of the Army of the Lord in the New Testament. Joshua immediately fell on his face in reverence and asked him, "What message does My Lord, have for his servant?" The commander of the Lord’s army replied, "take of f your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy."
Whether we are studying African American History, Chinese History, Caucasian History, Native American History, or whatever, we are often trying to prove that God was on our side in what happened, but that’s not the issue. Everybody’s history has some good to it, and some evil to it.
We have Blacks slaughtering Blacks as we saw in Ruwanda. We have whites slaughtering whites as we see in Bosnia, we have Asians killing Asians as we see in Indonesia. No race and no ethnic group can claim any kind of spiritual superiority or moral righteousness over another. The history or humankind has been one of brutality against people in order to get what we want, because after all we’re number one.
But in the midst of his pride, Joshua ran into the realization that God did not choose sides in the way we think of God choosing. In that verse, for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish, God makes it perfectly clear, Jesus did not come to choose sides. Jesus came to sign up all those who wanted to choose to be with him.
In our Life-Sharing lesson a couple of weeks ago, we dove into John chapter 17. Now whenever you have a real encounter with Jesus, the first thing you do is what Joshua did. You fall down in reverence and ask, "what message does my Lord have for his servant." Jesus gave us his message for us in John chapter 17, when he prayed, "Father just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me."
Jesus is saying, "Father raise up a group of people who are going to be so identified with us, that the world is going to know, something has happened that we have not seen before. The world will say "These people are getting along with each other, care about each other, and love each other in ways we don’t understand. What is the common bond between them. When they discover that it is I, Jesus, they’ll have to believe that I came from you Father."
If you had to describe yourself in three words so that a person could get an understanding of who you are and why you do what you do. What words would you use? Now if your first word was not Christian, you’ve denied the faith. Before I am a man, I’m a Christian. Before I’m an African-American, I’m a Christian. Before I’m anything else, I should be a Christian, otherwise when those other things I am conflict with my call to follow Christ I will be in a dilemma. But if I’m a Christian first, God has already determined my course of action.
What would happen if white Christians rose up and demanded an end to the slaughter of black Christians in Ruwanda? What would happened in Black Christians demanded the end to poverty in Appalachia? What would happen if Asian Christians in this country demanded something be done to help Native American Christians locked in on reservations today. The world would be shocked. It would want to know, why are you concerned about those people? You’ve got enough problems of your own. It would be the perfect platform to talk about the name of Jesus. For no other name is higher than Jesus. But we have de-elevated Jesus, and put some new gods on the throne by using race as the determining factor of whether or not we are going to be moved by the pain and hurt of other people.
You say, but what can I do to make a difference, I’m just one person. How many of you know, all God needs is just one person. Don’t ever forget, you are where you are, so that God can use you to make a difference. How often do you ask Jesus to remove prejudice from your heart. We are constantly given messages to suspect each other, mistrust each other, and dislike each other from the media. In Euclid, when the school suspended youth from having sex on the stairwell, the outcry wasn’t the right moral outcry.
The outcry should have been, where have we gone astray with what’s normal behavior for teens. Instead, the outcry was, they expelled only black guys and no white guys were expelled. Now people overlook the girl involved was white and she was expelled. If they did not expel a single white, I’m not going to lose sleep over it, because I’m hoping that the consequence of having been expelled will help these young black think twice about where they are headed in life. If this incident will get them started in the right direction, then let them learn from the error of their ways.
The death of the young girl in Chester Township was a tragic loss for everybody. But again, because of the races involved it demonstrates the racism which lies all the time underneath in our society. There was a quote in the paper which says "Furious Chester Township officials said yesterday, that they needed to know why Cuyahoga County juveniles with violent histories are "secretly housed in their community." Now doesn’t this put people on alarm in Geauga County when they see a black person to wonder if that’s one of the secretly housed violent persons.
Two township trustees were upset over the mere fact that Cuyahoga County had placed two its children in a foster home in Geauga County. Is this a way of saying, "don’t bring any more black kids into our community", because most of the kids in Cuyahoga Count custody are black. One person running for office labeled the foster home as a "criminal halfway house."
Pastor Toby and I have been involved in foster care for the past 15 years. We made a decision that since we were against abortion, we had to do something to help kids who were already here. Do you know that most of the people who are foster parents in the agencies we have been a part of are Christians. They believe that God has not given up on young people and neither should we. But because, of the race of the people involved, distrust is being sown. The idea floating is that if we get rid of these foster homes with black kids in them, our community would be safe again. It would have been just as tragic if that young lady had been black, and all the killers had been white, and they came from suburban homes in Geauga County. The world is use to exploiting the pain of others, to prove its somehow better than other people.
What if Black, white, Asian, and Hispanic Christians came together in Geagua County at this site, and said, "This is not about race. This is the result of a society which wants to expel God from every facet of life. When this tragedy comes to trial, are you going to be taking sides based on race? In your conversations have you been taking sides based on race? Have you even asked the question, what is the side of Jesus in a situation like this?
I can tell you this, Jesus is grieving for the families and all the people involved. A year ago this time, s friend of mine led the 19 year old to Christ while he was in jail. Once he got out of jail, he left his faith and started to run the streets again. This is where his running has brought him. Now he and the others must and should face whatever punishment awaits them, but it should not cause division in the body of Christ because of race.
We can only fight racism successfully when the Christians in all races speak up when God gives them the chance. When was the last time you laughed at a joke that was based on somebody’s race? When was the last time you told one? When was the last time you thought you should get to go ahead of those people? Are you still talking about Arabs, based on the one bad you know? What about those Puerto Ricans? What terms do you give kids at school who are of Asian background? Are we still talking about niggers and crackers and thinking nothing of it. Do we honestly think we can do these things and be one with each other in Christ and in the Father. When we see others through the eyes of this world, we will always divide ourselves according to things that do not even matter.
The world switches its allegiance so easily. I can remember running track in the county meet. There were some guys I wanted to see lose, and I cheered on other people. But two days laters those guys I had cheered against, I cheered for because it was the sectional meet and I wanted our county to win. And then three days later I cheered again for people I had cheered against because now we were in the state meet and I wanted Section 5 to win the state meet.
In Bosnia, people who had gone to school together turned on each other by looting their homes and killing family members to be number one. In Ruwanda, people who had lived together in neighborhoods as friends, quickly turned on each other in order to be number one. In the body of Christ, we too quickly turn on each other when we allow ourselves to be manipulated by the media.
There’s another division in the body of Christ which becomes equally as strong as racism. It’s classism. It is the belief that once we reach a certain level of income, we should no longer have to deal with certain kinds of people. I here our kids talking about those ghetto kids as though something was different about them. They are talking about the poor inner city kids as though they were some how above them. One of the great struggles we should have as Christians in America is working out a balance between trying to live the good life, without neglecting to minister to the needs of those who are oppressed and downtrodden.
God loves everybody. But God has a special concern for the poor that they have the opportunity to change their circumstances. God’s special concern for the poor does not mean He loves them more than anybody else, but simply He is working more on their behalf. It’s the same as a parent who has 3 kids, will spend more time working with the kid who struggles getting C’s than with the two kids who can get A’s on their own.
If we do what is natural, we will remove the poor from our everyday experience. When we get the money and are able to, we often leave the inner city for the suburbs. We vote for policies that will benefit us the most. We shop in stores where they cannot come or afford to pay. We get comfortable saying, if those people made better choices with their lives, they would not end up on welfare and have all these kids running around on drugs. We know for certain that God is on our side.
Is He really. Was Jesus lying when he said whatever you do for the least of these you do it for the poor? People do put themselves in a cycle of poverty by choosing to drop out of school, getting hooked on drugs, and having children outside of marriage. But even people who make right choices still have things to contend with over which they have little control. Poor people do not bring drugs into their community nor do they buy most of them. More drugs are consumed by people in the suburbs than in the city. Poor people do not move jobs out of the city into the suburbs with special tax considerations for the business. Poor people do not have the influence to get politician’s attention in the same way contributors to campaign funds do.
Justice requires not only that everybody have the same access to the system, it also means adjusting the system to bring back in those who have been excluded. Sometimes that means doing more for others, than you do for some. But we only come to this spot when we recognize God has not called me to be number one. But rather to live my life in such a way that Jesus is number one in all that I say and I do. If we as Christians, would love each other regardless of our race, our nationality, our economic position, whether we are in the suburbs, inner city, rural areas or whatever, the world would have to take note of the fact that Jesus makes a difference. Somebody would say, "wow that Jesus fellow really is number one in their lives, maybe I better ask some more questions about just who He really is."
