This year has been summed up in one phrase: what else can go wrong?
In the midst of our pandemic despair rises the spectre of racism. I have been profoundly moved recently listening to the stories of pain and suffering from black men and women I know and respect in several different countries. I decided there was more wisdom listening to them than rushing to put forth my own opinions. Letting them speak makes most of what we white folk have to say redundant and unnecessary. For us to listen is the first step. More must then come, of course. And there is no better place to start than with Christians.
Hope originates in God’s people. And the reason is simple. We are called to be peace-makers. We are called to be ambassadors of the One who reconciled this world to God, the One who overcame all racial and cultural barriers to create this magnificent worldwide entity called the body of Christ. And I don’t think I need to remind you that at this point in history whites make up only a small percentage of that body.
There is something magnificently fitting in all this. For the first few centuries, a high proportion of Christian leaders were Africans. It all started in the first multiethnic church at Antioch, where at least two of the five leaders were black. I’ll bet you didn’t know that! Much of the theology of the early church was developed by Africans such as Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, Athanasius, Cyril and perhaps the greatest of them all, Augustine, to whom Luther and Calvin looked in building the foundations of the Protestant church, to which we today are heirs. We are here because in large measure Africans laid the foundations.
One remarkable fact is that there doesn’t seem to have been any issue with racism amongst the early Christians. The only real disputes were between Jewish and Gentile believers, but these divisions were religious, not racial. The reason I say that is because both Jews and Gentiles were multiracial in makeup. What they argued over was the applicability of the law, not their ethnicity.
They set us a great example. In the body of Christ, to paraphrase the apostle Paul, there is no Jew or Gentile, no male or female, no black or white. Of course all those groups still existed in the church, it’s just that who they were mattered less than that together they all belonged to Christ.
In the church at Corinth, the rich and mighty were lording it over the poor. Paul gave the most extraordinary warning. Those guilty of doing this were dying because they had come under God’s judgment.
In the same letter, he also gave us an explicit instruction that those this world honoured least, to him mattered most. There’s no doubt that black people, along with aboriginals in countries like Canada, have been at the bottom of the heap socially and economically. In the body of Christ, they should be lifted to the top.
When we honour them, we honour Christ.
How to do that is something to pray and think about. And then to act.
That we act is critical.
If we don’t, we won’t be able to be the messengers of reconciliation and hope this broken world so desperately needs.
But even more is at stake. For if we don’t, we will have failed the Lord himself.
Let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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