8 minute read
Moving Forward: Reconciled to Each Other
Many of us who did not “grow up Christian” experience a honeymoon phase after we initially give our lives to Christ. Those who grew up in a Christian family do so, too, once they consciously make the choice to make the faith of their parents, grandparents, or other caregivers their own. It is a time when the air seems fresher, the colors more vibrant, and all areas of our lives seem strangely infused with life more abundantly.
Such was my experience once I turned from darkness to light, bringing myself in line with the relationship that I had always been designed to have. I learned from Matthew 22:37–40 that, in principle, the Christian walk was rather simple: If I loved God with all my heart, this would naturally lead me to love my neighbor as myself as well.
But, alas, just as each earthly honeymoon must come to an end and the newly forged relationship must weather the storms of everyday life, my newfound faith was soon tested by experiencing what the apostle Paul had written about almost 2,000 years earlier—that “when [we] come together as a church, there are divisions among [us]” (1 Corinthians 11:18 NIV).
Not long after accepting Christ, following the path that my master would have me walk led to a several-monthlong assignment on a continent where, generally speaking, people did not look very much like me, and I stuck out like a sore thumb. One night five months in, feeling alone and isolated, I cried silently because I had repeatedly been reduced simply to the color of my skin by those within the church and those without. On many occasions, people called out after me on the streets solely because I looked different than them. In all of this, it dawned on me that what I had to endure for mere months, these things and worse had to be endured by others for a lifetime. Since then, I have seen the monstrous disease called racism raise its head time and time again against my wife, my children, and my brothers and sisters in Christ.
In all of this, I struggled considerably with the fact that we Christians seemed to be wrestling with these same issues within the walls of our churches. How could this be? Surely, if anyone would have been given the tools to overcome these challenges, it would be us? Eventually, God led me into the role of associate pastor at an international church represented by more than forty different nations, with no nationality forming a clear majority. I became convinced that, for us (the church), it is indeed possible to bridge all ethnic and racial gaps that the world (those who do not know our God) imposes on us. The Bible reminds us, “We were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body— whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:13). Here I had it, written in the very Word of God itself; we can do this! What the world could never achieve— bridging the gap between different ethnicities, skin colors, and other outward things that might be exploited by the enemy to divide us—we could do by the power of his Spirit! I began to understand that the dividing wall had truly been removed because the same Spirit chose to make his home in every person who would confess Christ. I understood that the same Spirit who was in me recognized himself in my brother or sister who might look different than me. If that same Spirit cried out in them, “Abba, Father,” to God, could they be anyone other than my brothers and sisters?
However, it also dawned on me that it was only through the Spirit that these gaps could be bridged. Our Savior told his original disciples as much: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:16–17). Foreshadowing the promise that was fulfilled at Pentecost, Jesus pointed to a time where the Holy Spirit would not only be with his followers, but in them. Glory to God, this promise has been fulfilled as the Spirit has chosen to dwell in people from all ethnic backgrounds over the centuries, as impossible as it might seem that he would choose to dwell in any of us! At the same time, if the Spirit of truth chooses people from all ethnic backgrounds, the Spirit of truth cannot be in me if I do not extend my arms to embrace all my brothers and sisters, regardless of the color of their skin or their national background. After all, if the same Spirit dwells in them, who am I to deny them?
But Christ makes it plain that this Spirit cannot be received by the world. Neither can this world see him or know him. Therefore, it is up to us, his church, to bridge all racial and ethnic gaps. Knowing full well that I have not experienced nearly as much racial discrimination as many of my brothers and sisters around the world, knowing that many of you are tired, worn out and close to giving up hope that we can fix these issues inside the church, I still believe we can do this! We really can! We are the only ones who can. I want to believe this for my sake because I want to see a church united and not divided. I want to believe this for the sake of my wife, who the Lord has mysteriously chosen to make one with me, despite her looking visibly different than me. I want to believe this for my kids, situated somewhere in the middle of an ethnic no-man’s-land, so that they will grow up knowing that it is truly the Spirit of their Creator that makes them who they are called to be. I want to believe this for the sake of the world, so that the world will know that we follow Christ who gives us the love that we have for one another.
We can indeed have peace, since God made a way for us to have peace amongst each other:
". . . His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit." (Ephesians 2:15–18)
All of us are called to be part of this new humanity. What would happen if we started to regard each other as bearers of the Spirit of God? What would happen if we regarded each other, not primarily as representatives of different groups, but with a healthy individualism, knowing that each person is individually known by our God who has numbered the hairs on their heads, no matter what texture that hair might have? What if we were not ignorant of the schemes of the enemy of our souls and instead chose to say, “Even if the world around us tears itself apart along ethnic lines, not so with us!”?
A marvelous mystery would take place right in our midst, just as it has many times in the history of our church. We will be built into a house where the Spirit of God may dwell:
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)
We are these people, his end-time prophets from every ethnic group and tongue. We are those who are not ignorant of the schemes of our enemy. We know that a house divided against itself shall not stand. We are the people of his presence, proclaiming his death until he returns. If we would only guard our unity and reach out with a loving embrace across superficial borders, we would get a glimpse of the eternal throne room of heaven, already present in the here and now. We can do this!
