*************************************************************************************Getting Through the Tough Stuff
-Prejudice-
James 2:1-4
Tomorrow we as a country recognize Dr. Martin Luther King Day. King had a dream that was grounded in the Word of God that all people and ethnic groups would be treated equally.
Today I want to talk about a subject that is often controversial – prejudice.
There are all kinds of prejudices:
Gender prejudices
Political prejudices
Socio economic prejudices
Race prejudices
Religious prejudices
The dictionary defines prejudice: a noun. 1. An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts. 2. Irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, or religion (class or culture).
Prejudice goes beyond disagreeing with the views of others. Prejudice often progresses into hatred, bitterness and violence. Prejudice can flow both ways. As Christ followers we are to demonstrate love to all without exception.
Dr. Charles Swindall’s book, “Getting Through the Tough Stuff”, was used as the theme for this message. There are Biblical truths to help us get through the tough stuff of prejudice. This morning I want to suggest three truths to help us live a life free of prejudice.
I. Practice the Golden Rule
The first truth is the principle of love found in Luke 6:31. It is a basic rule to help us live beyond prejudice and to love and treat others as we would have others treat us. “Do for others as you would like them to do for you.”
We are not to treat anyone as “Second Class Citizens.” James 2:1-4: We are not to look down on people with limited financial means. The Body of Christ is to reach out in love and compassion to all who are in need. We are not to enable people who refuse to work with handouts, but for people in legitimate need we are to show compassion. We are not to show favoritism to the wealthy. All are to be treated fairly in the Body of Christ. The Cross of Jesus is a great leveler – rich or poor, all are equal and welcome in His sight.
In Luke 10 an expert in religious law asked Jesus what he needed to do to receive eternal life. Jesus asked the man a question: “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?
The man answered: “’You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Luke 10:25-27
Jesus told the man he was right and then added, “Do this and you will live.” “The man wanted to justify his actions so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor.’” He was hoping that Jesus would tell him than he was to love his fellow Jew, but Jesus gave a different answer by telling the story of the Good Samaritan.
Luke 10:30-37 Jesus said that a Jewish Priest and the Levite, a Temple associate, didn’t want to contaminate their religious life by helping a Jewish man who had been robbed and left bleeding by side of the road. They prejudged the man as not worthy of their help. It was a despised Samaritan who came to the aid of the wounded Jew.
Jesus turned to the expert in law and asked him, “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus told the man to go and do the same.
The early history of the Free Methodist church was one of ministering to the poor. “Free” in Free Methodist meant free pews. The Methodist Episcopal Church in 1860 rented pews so only the wealthy could sit inside the church buildings. “Free” also meant freedom from slavery. No Christian should own a slave. “Free” meant freedom in worship with freedom to preach the good news of the Gospel without compromise.
If we all practice the “Golden Rule” taught by Jesus we would love and accept all who are part of other cultures and socio-economic status. Practicing the “Golden Rule” will help us get through the tough stuff of prejudice.
Another truth we should practice is the truth that all people are created equal.
II. All People are Created Equal
Jesus brought a whole new level of ethnic morality when He entered human history. During Old Testament times women were treated as second class citizens. Women were at the mercy of men.
Jesus changed the way people looked at the role of women. Jesus broke all kinds of cultural barriers when he spoke to a woman in Samaria by the well near the city of Sychar. The woman came to the well at noon time because of her life style. She was shunned by other women so she came to draw water when other women were still at home. This woman didn’t have a good reputation in the community because she has moved from one man to another. Jesus didn’t focus on her past when he talked to her, he focused on the present. Jesus dared to talk to a Samaritan who according to Jews was the scum of the earth. He dared to talk to a woman. Macho men did not talk to women in public. He also dared to talk to an unrighteous woman which was against Jewish law for a Rabbi to speak alone to a woman.
Women were a vital part of the ministry of Jesus. At the arrest and conviction of Jesus it was several women who stayed with him while most of the other disciples fled. Who was it that Jesus first appeared to after His resurrection? It was a woman, Mary of Magdala. When Mary told the other disciples she had seen the risen Lord, they would not believe her. Jewish culture considered the testimony of women inferior. Jesus rebuked them for their refusing to believe the testimony of Mary. Mark 16:14, “Still later he appeared to the eleven disciples as they were eating together. He rebuked them for their unbelief – their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.”
Christ followers are committed to practicing the “Golden Rule” and accepting all people as being created equal. Galatians 3:28, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians – you are one in Christ.” NLT
A third truth that helps us get through the tough stuff of prejudice is this:
III. The Love of Christ sets us free from Race Prejudice
Prejudice is at work in all ethnic groups. In Florida I quickly learned that among Latin people certain groups felt superior to other groups – Cubans felt superior to those from the Dominican Republic. People from the Dominican Republic felt superior to people from Haiti.
Race prejudice has caused all kinds of tension, riots, and bloodshed around the world.
In college I did a book review of the book, “Cry-The Beloved Country” by Alan Patton. The story is about a black South African Pastor, Kumalo and a white prosperous South African Rancher.
The Pastor learned that his son, Absalom accidentally killed Arthur Jarvis the son of the wealthy white rancher, James Jarvis. At the funeral both fathers were present. The funeral was the first time Mr. Jarvis attended a service also attended by black people.
Mr. Jarvis later learned that his son had helped develop a boys club for Black South African youth. He read a manuscript written by his son that criticized South Africa a nation that claimed to be Christian but practiced few of the Christian ideals.
Mr. Jarvis had a change of heart and made a donation of $10,000 to the boys club in memory of his son to keep the club in operation.
Circumstances brought Pastor Kumalo and James Jarvis together and Pastor Kumalo confessed that it was his son who had accidentally killed Mr. Jarvis’s son Author Jarvis. A trial was held for Pastor Kumalo’s son and he was convicted and sentenced to hang for his crime.
The day the Pastor’s son was to be executed Pastor Kumalo decided to go up on the mountain to pray. As he started up the mountain Mr. Jarvis met him on the way and spoke words of kindness and compassion to him. He also gave him a check to build a new church for his congregation.
“Cry – The Beloved Country” is a story of two families that suffered heart-ache, one black and one white. As they got to know each other the barriers of prejudice came down.
Prejudice breaks down when you get to personally know people of other cultures. The more you know about a person the less race, nationality or social economic condition become a barrier to a long and caring relationship.
For Christ followers the love of Christ breaks down all walls of prejudice. I John 4:7-8, “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God – for God is love.”
John Howard Griffin wrote about his experiences of prejudices in the book, “Black Like Me.” Through a series of treatments Griffin temporarily changed his skin color from white to black. In 1959 he traveled in Southern states and was subjected to humiliating mistreatment and insults because his skin was black.
Why do we have prejudices? We know that any kind of racial prejudice degrades other people. I want to suggest a couple of reasons why we have prejudices.
1. Prejudice is a learned characteristic. Prejudice is taught from one generation to the next. No one is born with prejudice. If a person grows up in a home where the family accepts the belief that they are superior to other races, children pick up on that and the belief is accepted as truth.
When I was a student at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky I learned how a person can have a prejudice mind set. In the class studying the Gospel of John taught by Dr. George Allan Turner, a Free Methodist Professor, he commented on John chapter 4. He said that Jesus broke many cultural barriers by going through Samaria and talking to the Samaritan woman. He said Jesus broke gender barriers, cultural barriers, traditions and race barriers. Jesus, a teacher and Rabbi, spoke to a woman of the world. Dr. Turner said that God’s Word is clear, “Race prejudice is wrong and evil.”
One of the students from Alabama stood to his feet and with his face turning beet red said he could not accept that interpretation. He would not call a black man his brother. Because of his racial stand and the open stand of the seminary the student dropped out of school rather than change his beliefs.
2. Prejudice is a spiritual problem. Prejudice brings darkness to a person’s soul. Prejudice causes spiritual blindness. Matthew 6:22-23, “Your eye is a lamp for your body. A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul. But an evil eye shuts out the light and plunges you into darkness. If the light you think you have is really darkness, how deep that darkness will be!”
As a local church we want to make all people feel welcome – regardless of culture, color or creed. We want to be just as colorblind as Jesus. Jesus looked at the hearts of people.
One of the religious leaders I have great admiration and respect for is Dr. John Perkins, an African American Pastor and Urban leader. He spoke at an Urban Conference I attended and he told how much pain he had to overcome to lay aside his prejudices against whites.
In 1970 he was put in jail in Mississippi under false pretenses and beaten for no reason at all. In jail he had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. In the hospital he had a lot of time to think He said the Spirit of God talked to him and he saw Jesus hanging on the cross for his sins. Jesus understood his suffering. He read Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But, it you do not forgive men, then your heavenly Father will not forgive your transgressions.”
He came to the conclusion that to receive God’s forgiveness as he says in his book “With Justice for All,” he writes, I was going to have to forgive those who had hurt me. As I prayed, the faces of those who hurt me passed before me and I forgave each one. God healed all those wounds that had kept me from loving whites. How sweet God’s forgiveness and healing was?”
If you have any blind spots or prejudice you can take them to Jesus and find forgiveness. In Christ our minds and attitudes are transformed. Old attitudes pass away and are cleansed by the grace of God. Jesus wants to heal us of any attitudes of prejudice.
The Apostle Peter tells us how Jesus responded to prejudice and injustice in I Peter 2:20-23, “For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it, with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.”
As Christ followers we don’t know what challenges we face in the future. We may experience injustices or persecution for our faith. Whatever happens we can get through the tough stuff of prejudice by
1. Practicing the Golden Rule
2. Affirming that all people are created equal
3. Allowing the Lord of Christ to set us free from Race Prejudice
Closing Prayer
