In an interview, Billy Graham was asked to pinpoint the world’s greatest social problem. Drawing from his 40-year experience of ministering in more than 100 countries around the world, Dr. Graham replied that the greatest social problem without question, is racism…. the unhealed wounds of racial injustice and animosity.
Indeed, neither lines nor legislation drawn up long ago, are proving an answer to the deep pain and prejudice felt in the heart of men and women throughout our world.
From Belfast to Bosnia,
From South Africa to Sri Lanka,
From Russia to Rwanda,
From Mexico to the Middle East…our settled world is proving very unsettled.
Needless to say, those of us living in this city need few reminders of how deep and wide this unhealed wound is. If America was indeed to be a melting pot of cultures, as it once envisioned itself to be, we as Los Angles would indeed be the prize pot of stew. But the vision has proved simplistic and the world is anxiously waiting for a new vision…a vision of hope.
The world is longing for a vision prepared to celebrate both our unity and diversity.
· A vision able to replace apprehension with appreciation.
· A vision that is more inspired than imposed.
· A vision that is more personal than political.
· A vision more redemptive than rhetorical.
Indeed this world is longing for the KINGDOM OF GOD …where every tongue, tribe, and nation would be as one before God. The GOOD NEWS is that Jesus didn’t come to impart the Kingdom of God as merely a new vision, but as a new reality.
…let us hear his prayer in John 17:
“I will remain in the world not longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name the name you gave me so that they may be one as we are one…. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
John 17:11, 20-21
Jesus prayed forth the very will of God; that all who would believe would be one; all who would forever be drawn to God’s revelation of new life through Christ…what He knew would include the unparalleled diversity of today. And what kind of oneness are we to discover?
> THE ONENESS HE HAS WITH THE FATHER;
A ONENESS IN WHICH WE LIKE THEM ARE UNITED YET UNIQUE; EQUAL YET DISTINCT. JESUS PRAYED, THAT IN ALL OUR DIVERSITY WE WOULD BE EQUAL AND UNITED BEFORE GOD.
The first thing this captures for us is:
1. THE POWER OF PENTECOST…which is the GLORY OF OUR UNITY.
In Pentecost we find that Jesus’ prayer for all to be united was set in motion by the Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit first comes to empower and fill the church, (which is known as Pentecost and recorded in chapter 2 of the Book of Acts), it says that it drew a crowd who represented every nation on earth and under heaven… and as the disciples were filled with the Spirit they began to speak in every language so that those from every nation could understand.
Later Paul described to the Corinthians that this type of gift of tongues was a “sign”. WHY A SIGN? BECAUSE IT REVEALS WHAT WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO BE AND ULTIMATELY WILL BE....PEOPLE FROM EVERY NATION UNITED IN GOD.
The Spirit has set in motion what God had first created.
God’s Word in Genesis establishes the very foundation of our unity. We have the same parents; though culturally diverse our lineage is the same. We are by God’s decree and biological fact ONE BLOOD, ONE PEOPLE, and ONE HUMAN RACE
Here is where SECULAR THOUGHT HAS SOWN A DEHUMANIZING TREND…not by recognizing a process of evolution, but by devaluing our common origin, and emphasizing our “survival of the fittest” development as progressive. Such secular thought provides the basis for nothing more than the acceptance of our animal-like animosities.
But God’s Word, in contrast, describes our animosities as resulting from the Fall…from our separation from our common Creator. Immediately after the depiction of the fall of Adam and Eve we are told of CAIN RISING UP AGAINST HIS BROTHER ABEL. Immediately there is the loss of a bothers care for brother…of sibling rivalry, and it spreads like wildflower until today.
IT IS PRECISELY THIS SEPARATION FROM GOD AND SUBSEQUENT SEPARATION FROM ONE ANOTHER THAT JESUS CAME FROM HEAVEN TO DESTROY.
As Jesus declared in Mark 11:7: “My Fathers house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.” The Greek word translated “nations” = “ethnos” = all ethnic groups.
This is a reality he made possible. As Colossians 1 describes:
“He is before all things and in Him all things hold together, for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (17,19,20)
Thus the apostle Paul says in Galatians 3:26. “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for YOU ARE ALL ONE IN CHRIST.
Inherent in our new life in Christ is the fulfillment of the vision of eternity given in Revelation, when every tongue, tribe, and nation will be united before God. Every “nation,” every ethnos…every ethnic group.
God is glorified when every ethnic group are again as one, BECAUSE ONLY TOGETHER ARE WE THE FULLNESS OF THE HUMAN RACE WHICH GOD CREATED TO BE IN RELATIONSHIP WITH AND TO BE GLORIFIED THROUGH. ONLY IN THE FULLNESS OF OUR DIVERSITY WILL GOD BE FULLY GLORIFIED.
That is why Jesus said he would not return and bring the consummation of human history, as we know it, until the Good News of eternal life in Him reached every nation, every distinct culture, and people.
We can understand then, that when he prayed that “all would be one” even all who would eventually receive the good news, he meant every ethnic group would be one.
AND THAT IS WHAT THE SPIRIT SET IN MOTION AT PENTECOST…THE GLORY OF OUR UNITY.
The power and passion of Pentecost allows us to understand the second point.
2. THE PAIN OF OUR PAST…the wounds left open.
As we realize the Spirit of God is at work to declare the great value of every tongue, tribe, and nation, we can understand the significance of what lies in our heritage. Most of us know more than enough of our history as a nation to know that alongside that which was most honorable there lay the wounds of great dishonor as well. It’s truly a startling entanglement of righteous and unrighteous roots. Every step and every charter established declared with great conviction that this was a COVENANT PROCESS, a covenant confessing God as the sovereign provider, and declaring that only such honor to him would prove a blessing…But the competing ideals of serving and conquest rose together quickly.
This led to the eventual posture taken towards the NATIVE AMERICANS, whose possession of the land was stripped by the sins of superiority and deceit. While judging the Indians for their worship of idols, it was the idolatry of the European Americans for land and possessions that was being bowed down to. Our covenant before God was broken as we conquered and cheated our neighbor, forged unprovoked massacres on women and children, broke 400 treaties and eventually broke the spirit of a people whose suicide and alcohol related deaths are now six times the national average.
And if our deepest wounds lie in Native Americans, our widest wounds lie with those of African descent. Bought, shipped, and sold to produce profits. Beaten, murdered, raped for the pleasure of those privileged by their European descent. Families pulled apart so that no bonds would be known but those of slave and owner…a legacy still proving tragic in the experience of Black families today.
…And of course there is the experience of SO MANY IMMIGRANTS WHO FOLLOWED those of Irish, Jewish, Japanese, Asian, and Hispanic descent to name a few; many being degraded, devalued, and demeaned as second class.
WHY BRING THIS UP…ESPECIALLY THE PART THAT IS IN THE PAST? Because much of it fills this room…lying in the hearts of our brothers and sisters, as well as the world around us. In many respects it is A WOUND LEFT OPEN. America found a semblance of conviction, but fell short of its confession. We have tried to provide recognition without repentance…and we can never honor our covenant with God and one another without the deeper work of recognition that comes with repentance and confession.
Many of you may remember my sharing a couple of months back that our dog Trooper had a problem with his leg that required surgery…after which he came home with one of those “stately” plastic cones around his head…It was all we could do to endure his awkward limping and bumping…and we were elated when it was over. Well, a few weeks back we discovered it wasn’t over. The wound hadn’t been dressed and stitched in such a way as to allow healing…and so the wound grew infected and inflamed…and vulnerable; in need of being tended to properly.
In the same way, I believe we live amidst the unhealed wounds of racial injustice and separation; wounds to which we must return to and reckon with if God’s healing hand is to finish its course and be glorified.
It’s as if two of us had been friends in years past knowing Christ…I had stolen your car…. and we tried to live in trusting fellowship…community… without dealing with the violation.
..which leads to the final point on your outline
3. THE POTENTIAL OF OUR PART…confessing the sin.
Being the very individual society we are today, it is difficult for many of us to grasp the corporate nature of sin…and to understand the significance of sins we feel we were not part of. But sin is a spiritual power, and God reveals that cultural sins are passed down from generation to generation until men and women humble themselves and repent…even for the sins they have inherited from their fathers as part of their heritage.
· We see this in the prophet Daniel who stood in the gap and confessed the sins of the fathers.
· Nehemiah-first alone (Neh. 1:6) then corporately in Neh. 9:2 “The descendents of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the sins of their fathers.”
· We see this in the life of David… “During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, “It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.” After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land.” (2 Samuel 21:1, 14)
We ARE a COVENANT PEOPLE, a nation founded upon covenants made before God to honor him and honor one another. Whenever we have allowed a particular people to be deceived, degraded, or culturally destroyed…any true restoration and reconciliation awaits our repentance.
God is showing us that we indeed have some unfinished business, some wounds left open.
The Spirit of God is moving today. He is fulfilling what Christ prayed and provided for…that all would be one…and He is stirring His people to RECKON WITH OUR RACIAL DIVISION ….to confess the wounds of our heritage.
God is not calling us to reject our heritage as a nation, but to RENEW OUR HERITAGE. We are not to focus on our failures. That just leaves us spiritually depressed. Rather we are to recognize them so that we are no longer spiritually repressed. Through recognition and repentance there is freedom; healing for us all.
And in that healing we can RESTORE OUR DIGNITY AND HONOR both as individuals and as a nation.
The Lord has called me to publicly confess my sin this morning in way he never has before. I want to invite up a brother whom I’ve known for years… to represent those to whom I must confess the heritage I share.
“I have shared in a great sin against you. I am a part of a heritage of slavery and injustice. For the pain in your heritage – the humiliation, murder, rape, family estrangement… I ask for your forgiveness.
For the social discrimination and personal doubts you have had to fight…I ask for your forgiveness.
For the posture of superiority, both in my heritage and in my person… I ask for your forgiveness.
For having left a need for you to speak out on your feelings as an African American, rather than pursuing them with the heart of Christ, I ask you to forgive me; knowing nothing I say or do takes away the injustice of the sin I share in.
I ask you now to share in the bread and cup of communion with me.”
With whatever confession God may place in your heart, I invite you to receive the elements of communion… the bread and juice that represent the body and blood of Christ… by which we are restored to our common humanity.
Supplemental quote from a book which has captured the heart of Christian leaders across the country, entitled “Healing America’s Wounds” by John Dawson.
“I believe that God has always wanted to make a prophetic statement through the American Church in the midst of a world hopelessly stuck in ancient animosities. I believe that the dream in the heart of Jesus is to demonstrate a prototype of what has been considered impossible: All the cultures of the world reconciled to each other and serving one another with their gifts.
This is why racial injustice and rioting brings such humiliation to America in front of a watching world. It is not that we are worse than other nations, it is that we are violating our own redemptive purpose, thus releasing a wave of despair throughout all humanity.
America’s cities are now the greatest gatherings of ethnic and cultural diversity the world has even seen. We have inherited the wounds of the world, the clash of ancient rivalries, and we have our own unfinished business, particularly with Native Americans and Afro-Americans.
If we have broken our covenants with God and violated our relationships with one another, the path to reconciliation must begin with the act of confession. The greatest wounds in human history, the greatest injustices, have not happened through the acts of some individual perpetrator, rather through the institutions, systems, philosophies, cultures, religions and governments of mankind. Because of this, we, as individuals, are tempted to absolve ourselves of all individual responsibility.
Unless somebody identifies themselves with corporate entitles, such as the nation of our citizenship, or the subculture of our ancestors, the act of honest confession will never take place. This leaves us in a world of injury and offense in which no corporate sin is ever acknowledged, reconciliation never begins and old hatreds deepen.
The followers of Jesus are to step into this Impasse as agents of healing. Within our ranks are representatives of every category of humanity. Trembling in our heavenly Father’s presence, we see clearly the sins of humankind and have no inclination to cover them up. Thus, we are called to live out the biblical practice of identificational repentance, a neglected truth that opens the floodgates of revival and brings healing to the nations....” John Dawson, from "Healing America’s Wounds".
