Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. with messages from pastors that echo the message he shared
MLK also once wrote:
In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: 'Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern.' And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.
Sadly, I have heard and read the same rhetoric from others I've known. But I'm thankful today to share three messages from two white pastors, and one African American pastor, who do MLK proud by how they are helping to lead their churches in Dallas, Texas, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Atlanta, Georgia: Pastor Matt Chandler's sermon on "Racial Reconciliation," Pastor Josh Kouri's sermon on "The Gospel and Racism," and Pastor Leonce Crump's discussion on "How Do You Engage White Privilege." Last year, I also shared Pastor Matt Adair's sermon on "Becoming a Network of Radically Diverse Churches." I know that there are many African American, Latin American, Asian American and other pastors who have been preaching gospel implications in relation to race for much longer than many of their white brothers and sisters, so I rejoice that all of the pastors above are from the network of church planting churches that Emmaus City is part of. They are helping to share with the North American church how we can confront our deep and troublingly current history of racism with the good news that Jesus has come to save, redeem, reconcile, restore, and transform our idea of what it means to be His multi-ethnic church.
Below are links to Chandler's, Kouri's, and Crump's messages along with a few quotes from the sermons themselves. I encourage you to take a listen
Racial Reconciliation Sermon by Pastor Matt Chandler
55:46 minutes
(video about the Village Church's multi-ethnic journey begins plays from 35:09-47:30)
Texts: Acts 10; Galatians 2:1-14; Ephesians 2:11-22
"This is not just an Anglo issue, this is not just a white-black issue, or a white-Latino, or a white-Asian issue. Let me also say this. The reality of predominant majority cultural privilege – let me use this word because it will be helpful, 'white privilege' – is a reality. There are doors open to Anglos that we did not need to kick open that were just normative to us, so normative that we don't even know they exist and we'll get offended if someone brings up white privilege. 'I worked hard!' Well, sure you did. But listen to me, there are a whole slew of people who worked hard and didn't get the opportunities you got to outwork that hard work or to work out that hard work. So white privilege is a reality and by the gospel of Jesus Christ we must seek to deconstruct it and reconstruct in its place the supreme value of every human being, regardless of skin color, background, socioeconomic status, whatever. This is what the gospel does."
"This is not just an Anglo issue. Here's the reality of the human heart: All of us, regardless of color, are drawn toward homogenous units. We're drawn towards those like us because to embrace diversity is to lean into uncomfortable conversations, risk being misunderstood, and it takes longer to get from Point A to Point B in diverse settings. ... You enter into diversity and the rules change. It's harder work. Things start getting exposed. See the dirty secret about sanctification that no one wants to talk about is that it hurts. To be matured by God is a painful process, or you're doing it wrong. It's the constant, constant exposing of the wickedness in our hearts before a holy God to be confessed and repented of. That's how we grow. That's how we're sanctified. And that's what we must do around this issue if we've got any real hope of becoming the picture of God's people that most magnifies the beauty of His name."
"God has taken what was many and He has created what is one so that what He has is 'a people.' He has a people. ... One of the first things that will be created in the hearts of those who walk in diverse relationships is a heart of humility."
The Gospel and Racism Sermon by Pastor Josh Kouri
56:54 minutes
(for example, statistics about some of the brokenness in our country are from 15:13-22:26)
Texts: Isaiah 9:6; Galatians 3:26-29
"I'm here to lead today, but I'm also here as a learner. ... I've got a lot of learning to do. And so I'm humbly asking for help from my black friends, from my Latino friends, from our Native friends, from my Asian friends. If I just say something stupid today, would you just love me enough to sit me down and talk me through it because I don't have all this figured out. Amen? As we lean into greater diversity as a church, that means as friends, we've got to step into the tension and not be afraid to have some awkward conversations."
"Why take a Sunday and talk about race? ... Three reasons:
(1) The gospel of Jesus Christ speaks to the most painful and difficult issues that the world faces. The gospel of Jesus doesn't skirt the reality of a broken world. The gospel of Jesus invades the brokenness of our world with hope, beauty, and truth. ... The gospel of Jesus Christ is the central issue as we talk about race. The gospel is news to be believed ... but the gospel also frames the way that we act and engage as human beings. It's truth to be believed, but then it builds the framework for how we engage with one another between Sundays. ... The gospel is not justice, or racial reconciliation, but those are things that come through the gospel. ... Because Jesus died and brought us back into relationship with the Father, we actually have hope to relate to one another not based on our rebellion, and sin, and fractured relationships, and brokenness, but based on grace, based on mercy, based on love. ... If you're part of the majority culture, you need Jesus. And if you're part of the minority culture, you need Jesus. ... If you're a racist, you need Jesus. ... If you're ignorant, you need Jesus. The focus of this talk is not 'let's just try harder' or 'let's have this faux external relationship with each other that's skin deep,' it's actually 'let's talk about what Jesus did on the cross to bring us to the Father and bring us to one another as the Church.'
(2) Racism is real in hearts and it's real in systems and Jesus is the only hope. ... I'm thankful that there's been traction, that there's been progress, but I think in a lot of ways that those of us in the majority culture are like hoarders in a house that's been filthy for a really long time. ... We've gone through and cleaned out twenty to thirty trash bags. ... We look at the house and say, 'It's clean!' ... And then a guest shows up and says, 'What is that smell? It stinks.' ... We have to talk about the reality of where the system is broken.
(3) Passivity in the Church is unacceptable. The Church of Jesus Christ is to the be mouthpiece of God that preaches the good news of Jesus, tells people the great news of His cross and resurrection, but the Church of Jesus Christ is also to be the hands and feet of Jesus that work out the implications of the gospel in relationship. ... MLK's greatest frustration was with white moderate Christians. He says this:
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the strive toward freedom is ... the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to the positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, 'I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action'; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time; and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a 'more convenient season'; shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute understanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
The Church of Jesus Christ, historically, has just been on the wrong side of this issue in the West. We've just missed this. From bad theology ... to Christian institutions that trained leaders who refused black students ... it's time that we stop missing it. It's time that we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and work out the implications of that gospel in messy and real relationships. We can't be passive. We've got to engage together."
Christ is all,
How Do You Engage White Privilege? Sermon by Pastor Leonce Crump
15:54 minutes
"We engage white privilege head on because it's a reality.
We engage it relationally and conversationally."
We engage it relationally and conversationally."
"We need to get people to a place where it's not an indictment, but a realization that they have benefitted from generations of systemic injustice. We need others to acknowledge it because if we're going to be family, now my burden is your burden."
"We need people to understand the American narrative. We were property. Property. My children, if they were big enough, strong enough, healthy enough, would have been taken to pay off a debt that one slave owner would have with another. My wife, if the slave owner fancied her, could be taken sexually at will. Getting people into that conversation has to happen winsomely, but truthfully."
"We've got to share the stories and bring the truth home. We've experienced issues in our own church where some people have said they can't understand me, but can understand our white pastors. How is it that they can understand other pastors better, but not their lead pastor? It's fascinating. It's being willing to wade into these waters with courage, knowing that what you lose is worth having what you will gain in these conversations. You've got to be bold and unafraid."
"You know what black brothers and sisters fear? That we will wear out our sympathetic white brothers and sisters in telling them everything we've experienced and are feeling. "I don't want to tell them too much because then they're not going to want to hear anymore. They're not going to want to change." We have to get up the emotional strength together just to continue to have this conversation. I'm so tired of having this conversation because it's so obvious what's happening in the world. But if I'm filled with the Gospel, if I'm filled with the Spirit, if I believe that the accomplishments of Christ are greater than what I feel, which is what we preach every week – "Don't trust your feelings. Trust your faith. Trust the Word." – then I've got to be committed to the same."
For more posts on God's multiethnic church and His transcultural Kingdom:
Kainos Movement 2015 Conference
God Gets His Family Back | Christians Joining God for Change | A Lion and Lambs Club |Okay, So Now What? | The Transforming Power of God's Love | Disentangling Race, Ethnicity, and Culture | Let's Make Diversity a Verb | Listening to All the Voices | The Witness of Jesus' Church | Pursuing Multi-Ethnic Leadership | High-Definition Leadership | Transcultural and Multi-Ethnic Worship in Song | Recommended Readings for Seeking Racial Understanding, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation
Unveiling the Transcultural Kingdom 2015 Conference
God's Design for the Transcultural Kingdom | The Winsome Mission of a Transcultural Community | Planting and Leading Jesus' Multicultural Church | Leading a Church Through the Change of Becoming Multicultural | Transculturalism in the Bible: God's Beautiful Vision for Reconciling His Multi-Ethnic Family
Multi-Ethnic Church and Reconciliation Songs, Books, Videos, and Posts
Christ is all,
No comments:
Post a Comment