SermonStudio

Through Christ, God has solved the problem of conflict between races.

The description of God's saving work that we find in the Bible is much broader and more comprehensive than the description we find in today's popular piety. Yes, it does have to do with God saving us from guilt and death so that we can live with God eternally after we die. But it also has to do with God saving us from those things that keep us from living lives that are full and good and loving here and now. And, it has to do with God saving human society as a whole from those things that are hurtful and destructive and contrary to God's loving purpose for us.

Racial conflict is one of the things from which we need to be saved. That was as true in the days in which the letter to the Ephesians was written as it is today. Jews and Gentiles, that is the non--Jews of the Greco--Roman society, had no use for each other. They had grievances against one another and hostilities toward each other. These animosities were probably made worse by their recent history. This letter was probably written near the time when Jewish nationalists rebelled for the last time against the Roman empire and were defeated by the Roman legions. The Romans marched into Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple which was the center of Jewish life and worship. After that, a small band of Jewish Zealots took refuge in the mountaintop fortress of Masada in the Judean wilderness. They were besieged by the Roman army until, when the fortress seemed destined to fall, the Jews committed mass suicide rather than be captured by their hated enemy. The bitterness that had grown up between the two groups must have been terrible.

But the writer of the book of Ephesians says, "For he [Christ] is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it" (Ephesians 2:14--16). Christ has broken down the wall. As a part of God's saving work, Christ has put an end to hostility between races.

When we hear that, most of us feel compelled to say, "Hey, wait a minute! Something must have gone wrong. Christ is supposed to have put an end to hostility but we can clearly see that the hostility and the dividing walls are still very much with us." If this saving work has been accomplished by God through Christ, then it must be, like so many other saving works, something that our world has yet to appropriate. It must be another of those gifts of God that we still need to grow into.

Racial conflicts are still very much with us. Our newspapers keep bringing us reports of violent conflicts between ethnic groups on every continent on earth. And in America, the structure of racial conflict has grown even more complex. It has to do, not only with conflicts between Black and White Americans, but also between Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans and Native Americans and Arab Americans and other groups with the rest of American society. The conflict that usually comes to mind first, because it has received so much attention in recent years, is the conflict between African Americans and others in American society.

With regard to that conflict, many of us have a reaction similar to the reaction we have to the idea that God has put an end to racial conflict through Christ. We think, "That conflict was supposed to have been over by now." But it isn't.

Many of us remember the Civil Rights movement of the '60s. We remember Martin Luther King, Jr., sharing his dream of an America in which Black and White people would live together in mutual respect and justice. That movement brought about significant changes in the legal and institutional structures of our country. Schools were integrated. Discrimination on the basis of race was made illegal. Changes took place in the social structures of our land. Most of our churches did away with the formal structures of segregation and began to work intentionally at rooting out residual discrimination.

Some of us remember the trauma of that time of change. Some of us remember how costly it could be to participate in a demonstration. Some of us remember the great convulsions of anger and hatred that took place in response to those demonstrations. Some of us remember how it felt from one side and some of us remember how it felt from the other side. Some of us remember the riots that erupted in some places when well--ordered, intentional actions got lost in a turmoil of frustration and fear. Many pastors can remember how frightening and how lonely it could be to speak out in favor of racial brotherhood during those days. But all of that is behind us now and everything is supposed to be different.

Some things are different. There are no more lynchings. There are no more "White Only" restrooms or water fountains or restaurants. Now people no longer make loud racist speeches in all kinds of social settings and claim - and feel - that they are speaking for the majority. Public opinion has shifted in favor of racial justice - at least in the abstract form. Some things are different.

But some things that we thought would be different are not. Some of us thought that, by now, there would be no more White and Black churches, and that young people in public schools would have forgotten who is White and who is Black, and that we would no longer have to rely on quotas to ensure equitable employment opportunities, and that everyone could count on equal treatment by law enforcement officials. Not all of those things have happened. Some have felt that there is a need to retain Black churches and social groups to preserve the values of Black culture and to give support to people who feel vulnerable in a society they have not yet learned to trust. There may be good reasons for making some modifications to Dr. King's dream. But that is not the real problem. The real problem is that the dividing walls are still there. They may not be there in terms of physical or legal or social structures, but they are there in other forms - and the hostility is still there, too.

The hostility is there on both sides of the racial lines. White people and Black people have hurt each other and they can't forget it. Everyone knows the terrible ways in which White people have hurt Black people in the history of this country. The injuries and the injustices have been massive. But there is also a history of the ways in which Black people have hurt White people. It is much less massive - but to those who have experienced it, it is real. There is nothing to be gained by reciting a catalogue of inflammatory grievances. But if I were to tell you the things that White people have told me they have suffered from Black people, I believe that people of both races would have to say, "Yes, that was wrong." The hurts have accumulated on both sides and so have the frustrations and the bitterness - and the hostility. The fact that we don't talk about it only makes it worse. The hostility is there in both groups. And any proposal for solving our racial problems that suggests that one group or the other will have to do all of the changing will not serve our needs. We all share this problem. We will all have to work together to solve it.

There is a neighborhood that has integrated. We once thought that would be the solution to all of our country's problems. This neighborhood of pleasant small homes was built right after the Second World War. Young White families moved in because they believed it would be a happy place to live and a good place to raise their children. They thought they would never want to live anywhere else. Community life was active and good. Then, when things began to change in our country, Black families began to move in. They, too, wanted to live in a nice neighborhood where community life would be good and they could find a good place to raise their children. The Whites did not immediately leave. Many stayed. Both groups hoped that the neighborhood would still be a good place to live. But it hasn't worked out that way.

Some friendships were formed across racial lines. But it was not easy for the Black people to forget their bitter past. They had experienced racial insults and discrimination - and those things have not stopped. They do not believe that they have equal opportunities - and they are sorely tempted to explain all of their failures and frustrations by blaming them on discrimination. They do not believe that they receive equal treatment from law enforcement people. When one of their own gets into trouble with the law, they tend to rally to the support of that person rather than asking if the person was indeed guilty of breaking the law. A grievance may trigger a potentially volatile reaction. There is much disappointment and frustration and hostility. They do not find their neighborhood a happy place to live.

And the White people who remained, who thought they would never want to live anywhere else, live in fear. They put burglar bars on the doors and windows of their houses and they don't go out after dark. One elderly man who is crippled, sits day after day facing the door of his little house with a loaded shotgun within reach because he fully believes that he will one day have to use it to protect himself and his wife against one of his neighbors who will come to do them harm.

Yes, there are a few who have formed interracial friendships. Yes, there are some who are working to build a better community. But, for the most part, the quality of relationships in the community is one of fear and hostility - on both sides. The dividing walls are there. And here is the worst part. No one is talking about it. As the prophet Jeremiah once said, "They have treated the wounds of my people carelessly saying, 'Peace, peace' when there is no peace" (Jeremiah 6:14). Because no one will talk about the problems, no one sees any hope that they will get better. The frustrations increase - and with them the hostilities - and with that, the possibility that some violence will eventually erupt that will devastate all of their lives.

That community is probably not a unique one.

What happened to that saving work of God through which the dividing walls of hostility were supposed to have been broken down? If that is a salvation that still has to be appropriated, how can we do that?

How did it happen in the community to which the letter to the Ephesians was first written? It started by leading people into a new understanding of who they were and how they were related to reality as a whole. It was an understanding that did not depend either upon the Jewish religious laws or upon the Greco--Roman cultural heritage that they had once counted on to make their lives work. It depended rather upon the belief that they were the beloved children of the eternal God who created all things. When they found their ways into that relationship, they were set free to let go of the things they once depended upon - the things that made them anxious about anyone who did not share those things and that set them against all who were different. When Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians found that they had the most important thing in their lives in common, a community grew up that included them all. The walls were broken down. To be sure, they were still just a small community of reconciled people in a larger community that was still divided by hostilities. But they were an example that showed the world a new possibility. And we can imagine that, as they went about trying to reconcile others with God, they also tried to help them make peace with one another.

Where can we start if we want to appropriate that kind of salvation? We have to start by taking our Christian understanding of who we are into the center of our being and by letting that shape our lives instead of all of the other things that have been shaping us. We have to let go of all of the bitterness and anger and fear - or all of the pretensions either of righteousness or of superiority - that we have allowed to tell us who we are. Instead, we must insist on simply knowing ourselves as children of God and on living out of that self--understanding. Until we can do that, we will not be free to move ahead.

But what do we do next? The biblical model seems to depend upon the person on the other side of the wall making the same discovery. We cannot do that for another. But we can attribute to the other - and to all others - the same status of children of God that we have claimed for ourselves. That will enable us to approach others with a kind of respect that they may not understand at first. Maybe they will eventually learn to understand it, and to trust it, and maybe even to choose it for themselves.

Then we have to take the courageous and audacious step of talking with each other. No, it is not enough just to make polite conversation and to say the little right things that we know we are supposed to say in interracial dialogues. We have to dare to share with the others the things we have experienced and to tell them how we have felt about it. Then we have to invite the others to tell us how they feel and listen deeply and appreciatively to them. It will not be easy. We may have to find our ways into conversation slowly and laboriously. And it may not be a pleasant experience. But it will be constructive. It will be a start toward breaking down the walls.

There is a church in another city that was built out of the merger of two older congregations, one White and one Black. The pastor who led the church through its merger said that the most important thing they did was to get the members of the two churches together and let them talk and talk and talk. Now the merged congregation carries on a vital congregational life that is a witness to the possibility that dividing walls of hostility can be broken down.

We should start having these conversations in our churches. There is already supposed to be some community there. Maybe there will still be White churches and Black churches but we can intentionally get together to talk about the things that are important to us. Churches used to go through the motions of doing that now and then. We need to do it some more - and do it better. Then, as opportunities present themselves - or, as we are able to create opportunities - we need to talk with others outside of the church, person to person, group to group, about the things that are tearing us up inside and threatening to tear up our world if we don't do something about them. Just talk for starters. But really talk. We may be surprised where that will take us.

We may be surprised to find that the risen Christ can again work through our interactions to break down the walls of hostility, and to make us one, and to give us peace.