Last Thursday afternoon our family left for a long weekend away at my dad’s cabin in Tioga county. It’s so far north, it’s about a stone’s throw from the New York State line. If you want to unplug, that’s the place to go, where there’s no internet and only sporadic one-bar cell phone reception. So, imagine my dismay as we regained cell phone coverage and my phone began to explode with notifications from CNN, Fox, Facebook and the like, as details emerged about the tragic death of George Floyd right on the heels of the slaying of Ahmaud Arbery and the ongoing civil unrest that has followed.

Then as I was sifting through my accumulated email, one of our church members sent me an email asking, in light of recent events, where I stood on a biblical awareness of racism. That’s a fair question for a pastor who is new to a church, so I thought that I’d take a shot at addressing this.  Of course, this is a very inflammatory topic on which volumes has been written, and I only have 1000 words, so read with an open mind and hopefully I can make a small contribution to an ongoing discussion that often produces more heat than light.

In short, I believe that biblically, because of sin, we are all racists- every one, in every culture, of every color- all of us. How could we not be?  The last time I checked everyone in our world was still a sinner (Romans 3:23). Saying, I’m not a racist” is like saying “I’ve never lusted (the Bible says, an adulterer)” or “I’m not a liar.”  Of course, you are!  Jesus made it crystal clear that these attitudes universally spring from the fallen heart of man (Matthew 5:23).  So, when it comes to racism, every one of us is in need of repentance and the grace of God. We are all prone to “think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think” (Romans 12:3) both individually and as a culture. We are racist because we are naturally suspect of people that don’t look like us or talk like us or think like us or have our life experiences.  We intuitively think our way/culture is superior to others.  No culture is immune to this, but for people from Western or European cultures, I think this is particularly so, because it is the dominant culture that has shaped our world.  And in the US, we are emerging from the horrible legacy of colonialism (over which we revolted) and African slavery (which we perpetuated). Recognizing that racism is not ‘a problem’ or ‘their problem’, but ‘my problem’ enables me to enter into a conversation humbly and without defensiveness.  It creates space for all of us to truly listen and consider… and repent. I am a fellow-struggler, and so are you.

Because I believe in the depravity of the human race (theological speak for ‘everyone is a sinner’), and therefore everyone struggles with racism, I have no problem accepting that there are systems of injustice or systemic racism within all cultures…  including ours.  How could there not be?  The systems that humans create are inherently unfair, even against our best intentions.  Left unchecked, we advantage the majority over the minority, rich over poor, powerful over weak… white over black, sometimes purposefully and maliciously, but many times not. Because of sin, those in power have blind spots and prejudices that inevitably maintain the status quo. God’s major complaint against his people Israel in the Old Testament was that they were exploiting and oppressing the disadvantaged.  Has so much changed in our world in the last 3,000 years? Are we so much better than they?

Which brings us to our current situation. The tragic killing of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery has re-opened wounds in the United States that have never fully healed and continue to be ripped open. Racism exists in our world and we are eating the bitter fruit. Some are seeing it afresh or for the first time, and some have experienced it all along. Add to this, the COVID-19 pandemic and the world’s economic turmoil and our society is a powder keg ready to blow. We are in desperate need for some Good News. We are in desperate need for the mercy of God. What are we to do?

While the world has many answers to that question, I believe there is an opportunity here for the church of Jesus Christ to humbly and gently step into this fractured space with the healing and reconciling message of the gospel. This is and has been our mission all along: To herald the Good News. Through His death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus has made a way for people to be restored to God and to each other.  The gospel proclaims to broken, hurt and divided people that no matter what they’ve done or what has been done to them… if they turn to Jesus, they can be made brand new and filled with the love of God.  By faith in Him, they can receive a new identity- a child of God where ^“there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For [we] are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:23) That is who we are and that is what the church is called to be.

So, how do we begin?

We can begin by listening, Scripture tells us that doers of the Word are to be “quick to hear, slow to speak” (James 1:19) so a good place to start is to listen to others. Listening before speaking enables us to be humble and learn what we don’t know. Things often look different from the top than they do from the bottom.

We can begin by mourning. In Romans, Paul tells us to “mourn with those who mourn” (12:15).  As we read our news feed, there is much to mourn in our culture.  Our nation is far from God and evil abounds. Recent incidents stir deep pain, sadness, frustration, and fear in many of us but particularly in our brothers and sisters of color. Let’s acknowledge this without defensiveness and mourn together.

And we can begin by praying.  Let the condition of our world, and the things that we feel drive us to our knees in prayer. As Tim Keller says, we pray our tears. Let’s cry out to God for things to change, for His kingdom to come (Matthew 6:10), for oppression to end (Isaiah 58:6) and for justice to prevail (Amos 5:24) in our communities, country and the world.

These things are a start… not the end.  But I believe that after we have done these things, then God will reveal to the Church, and more specifically to each local church how they can be an instrument of reconciliation in their community. Let’s follow where the Spirit leads.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 1 Corinthians 5:17-19