Just think about it. Our churches could have Negro day once a month. We could have the scriptures from the electronic Bible with James Earl Jones doing the speaking. Potluck dinners (it might be the only time of the year that we have real pot at the potlucks). Fried chicken collard greens maybe a slab or 12 of ribs. It would atone for our white sins of the past and it would give blacks that sense of unity with the church they attend. Any churches want to sign on?
Sadly this is the feelings of a good many people in our Christian sphere. Even in 2010 some people fail to see the unity we are to have in Christ not just one month a year, but every day. Somehow under the guise of Christianity race relations haven’t progressed a great deal. We have managed to keep 11 0′clock Sunday morning the most segregated hour of the week.
Paul wrote to the Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 2:28). Wow, that was written in the AD 50s. What has happened to us?
Paul wrote, “let us do good to all people” (Galatians 6:10). That is something we struggle to do. We allow skin color, social status and a host of other things to stand in our way. We can’t walk down the street without allowing our prejudices to stand in our way when meet “other” people. Paul went on to write of doing good to all people, “especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10). And, yet almost 2000 years latter we can’t see a person that isn’t our color as the brother in Christ that he is.
We have no trouble sending money to other countries where people are painted up in tribal paint, yet we struggle to accept the people in our communities that are marked up with all types of ink. Of course we send money to aids stricken countries, but when it comes to sharing God’s love with the gay in our country we fail.
Tradition says that when the Apostle John was old he had to be carried into the church. All he could manage to say was, “Love each other.” Isn’t it time we started doing that Everyday not just on appointed days?
Until next time may the good Lord bless and keep you: All Y’all
Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
bobby@bobbycohoon.com
tsquare21
John Kaniecki
bobbycohoon
February 19, 2010
You like freaking me out, don’t you??? LOL
But seriously, I tend to agree. I spent my entire Wednesday night class period talking about exclusion – using Peter’s vision and the saving of Cornelius in Acts 10 as a foundational text.
I think we’re more likely to make headway by pushing for greater partnerships in benevolence / missions / evangelism than by attacking the worship hour head-on. It’s a simple fact that different ethnic groups really do express their hearts to God in different ways, and I don’t think we’ll break out of our comfort zones in worship until we’ve mixed sweat and tears with people at the soup kitchen or building houses or on the mission field.
Unified Lord’s Day worship will follow unified daily worship, not the other way around.