The Beauty of a New Bloodline
May 12, 2024
Preached by Tony Pitts
Scripture Reading
Ephesians 2:11-22
11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Good morning, my name is Tony Pitts. I’m one of the pastors here at Community. I want start out by acknowledging Mother’s Day.
Let’s pray and get into today’s message.
This is our fifth week in a seven-week series titled “Awake O Sleeper, Living as Children of Light in a World Darkened by Lies”. We’ve looked at identity, purpose, sexuality, and the importance of community. We’ve looked at what the world says about these topics and compared it to what God’s word says.
Today we’re going to look at racial division in God’s church.
As the preaching team started to think about the topics in our culture where the lies of the world have made their way into the church. Views on racial division and how to deal with it, seemed to be one of these issues. Why is the world like this, and what can be done about it? I actually believe that I know the answer and if you’ll give me your attention for a few minutes I’m going to share it with you.
For those of you that don’t know me I have a black mom, and a white dad. I was raised by my mom. In the early years of my life, I grew up in a mostly black neighborhood. And most of the kids there thought that my skin was too light for them to consider me black. So, to them I was a white boy or sometimes just half-breed. And these were my friends. This was the late 60s early 70s. Things were racially very tense in America. When I was eleven my family moved to a mostly white suburb and suddenly, I was too dark to be white and so to most of the kids there I was black, or again sometimes half-breed or maybe Mexican or “what are you?”. I started to wonder why the color of my skin mattered so much to people, and if I would ever really fit in to a world that was divided into black and white. I started to wonder why God made me the way that he made me.
I met three Asian brothers from Taiwan shortly after moving to this new neighborhood. We became good friends. I was at their house so much their parents called me their 4th son. Looking back I think they may have been dropping a hint. Go home.
At some point, I realized I was too black and too white to be Asian. Would I ever fit in? This not fitting in, really started to hurt. I tried to numb it with alcohol, drugs. The drugs and alcohol didn’t make me fit in, they just allowed me to escape the pain of not fitting in, briefly. But they always wore off. And the drugs and alcohol created all new problems of their own.
Now fast forward a few years. I’ve quit the drugs and alcohol. I’ve started to attend a church where I hear that when you become a Christian, you are born again into God’s family. God is your father and Christians all over the world are your brothers and sisters. Black, white, Asian, and every combination thereof. Awesome! I was baptized and couldn’t wait to experience this new feeling of belonging. I go to a men’s breakfast at the church. We put on our name tags and begin to mingle. A guy approaches me and sees my name tag. Tony! Paisano! He thought I was Italian. When I told him I wasn’t, I could see that he was disappointed. It seemed that being brothers in Christ wasn’t nearly as important as being Italian.
I had come to hate the whole idea of race. Where did it come from? Is it in the Bible? Why does it matter so much to so many people?
I’ve noticed for some people any discussion of race triggers an automatic panic, or defensiveness. Oh no, we’re going “woke”. Are you going to scold me for my white privilege? Are you going to make me apologize for slavery, because I wasn’t there, I swear! I don’t want to scold you. I’m just going to share my experience with you and follow that up with the peace God has given me in the solution He has provided. A peace that the world’s solutions will never provide.
What I’ve seen offered up from the world is to provide a laundry list of past wrongs, and then tell people to act sorry for things they didn’t do, and somehow that will make things better in the present. I’ve seen endless articles with titles like, Ten things you should never ask a black person, written by a 20 year old white person that probably doesn’t even know any black people. 50 micro aggressions that should offend you if you are a person of color. In my experience these things have served to make white people terrified that they will say or do the wrong thing when interacting with someone who isn’t white. And that the safest thing to do would be to just avoid it altogether. That way you’ll never get caught doing a racism. It has served to cultivate resentment among people who aren’t white. Who are being taught to believe that to be patient and gracious with people’s racial insensitivity somehow makes you a sellout. In short, the world’s solution to racial division is to police speech, behavior, gestures and catch each other being racist, and then punish it. This will bring us together, right? How’s it working out? I’ll tell you, not well. In the past few years the church has become more divided racially, not less. The do this don’t do that approach of anti racism and the let’s just be color blind approaches share the same result, they don’t work.
I know what people mean when they say they don’t see color, and I think it’s a kind sentiment. But let’s be honest. Our skin is the largest part of our body. Surely you see it, and unless you have problems with your eyesight, you notice what color it is.
Something I’d like us as a church to be more aware of is this. When people come into our church and they don’t look like everyone else, it could be harder for them to feel like they belong. And being aware of that could make us a church that is more welcoming. I think if we’re honest about it, we have a mold. And if you fit into that mold, you are welcomed more warmly than if you don’t. Part of that mold is racial. If you don’t believe it just look around the sanctuary. Is this what our community looks like?
I’ve noticed that the way our culture has come to talk about racism is in a very simplistic, all or nothing way. You’re either a white supremacist Klan member, or a perfectly pure, never had a racist thought in my life. Sin doesn’t work like that. We’re not either selfish all the time or never selfish ever. The truth is we all have a mold that we prefer, and it looks just like us. I am most comfortable around people that are just like me. People that think like me, look like me, they are my kind. It’s only natural. And the question that always comes up around this is, “what’s wrong with wanting to be comfortable?” What’s wrong with having a mold? Nothing, there’s nothing wrong with having a mold, if the mold looks like Jesus. If it looks like anyone else, what you have is not a mold, it’s an idol. And that’s what’s wrong with racism. At it’s core, it’s idolatry. We are to have one standard. His name is Jesus. When we ask the question, does this person belong at our church? The next question should be, Do they want to follow Jesus? If the answer is yes, they should belong. And we should help them to.
And what if they make me uncomfortable? Didn’t you just say it’s natural? I did. And I think it’s really important to understand. God isn’t calling us to do something unnatural, He’s calling us to do something supernatural. I’ll repeat that. God isn’t calling us to do something unnatural, he’s calling us to do something supernatural. And by this the world will know, that we are His disciples. Do we come together to feel comfortable or to be conformed to the image of Christ? And where did we get the idea that denying ourselves and taking up our cross would be comfortable? And I’m speaking to the new person too, trying to figure out if you belong. Don’t make comfort your highest aim. Forgiving people that fail to love you perfectly is very uncomfortable. But forgiving others wrongs is what Jesus tells us to do. And he tells us to do it over and over and over.
But how? I told you at the start I would share the solution. This solution doesn’t just bridge the racial divide. It bridges the divide between sinful people and a holy God. The divide between rich and poor, smart and not so smart, and all the other sin that separates us.
Let’s look at these sentences from Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus.
This is Ephesians chapter 2. Paul starts out in the first 10 verses reminding us that we were spiritually dead in our sin. And that, as an act of divine love God made us alive. He saved us by His grace. Not by some work that we did, but by his grace. In the same way that you had nothing to do with the first time you were born, you had nothing to do with the second.
Paul then goes on and tells us to do something. He tells us to remember:
11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Paul is calling them to remember. He’s calling us to remember. Remember being an outsider. Remember when you didn’t fit the mold. Remember when there was only hostility between you and God. Only hostility between you and God’s people. And remember how God brought peace. By having his body broken and his blood poured out. Your adoption has come at a high price. God’s hospitality is costly. May we be willing show costly hospitality ourselves, even when it is uncomfortable. This is what we remember each time we celebrate communion. We remember not just that we were saved, but how. And not just our own reconciliation but that of our brothers and sisters.
My tendency is to see my own lack of hospitality as merely being rude, simply discourteous. But it’s actually far worse than discourteous. It’s disgraceful. When I am not kind to people who are made in the image of God, it shows that I have forgotten. Forgotten the grace that was shown to me.
The grace that gave me new life. The grace that gave me new family. The grace that gave me a new future. The grace that gave me Jesus Christ.
Forgetting that hurts people. People wanting to experience that belonging. Forgetting how we were saved disrespects God. God has put the desire to belong in us. His church should be where that desire is satisfied. He has purchased for us with his blood, a reconciliation that was possible no other way. And given us a hope and future that is bright, bright with the light of Christ. We have been reconciled! Now, we just have to act like it.
I will close with this picture of Heaven the apostle John painted in Revelation.
Revelation 5:9-10
9 And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
I want you to realize this isn’t a picture of the closing ceremonies at the Olympics. Each nation carrying a different standard. No, this is a picture of a people different and yet united under one standard. That standard being the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Heaven, we won’t be taking our medals back to our home countries, we will be laying them at Jesus feet! Amen? God’s solution to racism and all of man’s sin.
Jesus Christ, our Lord!
Let’s pray.
Sermon Discussion Questions
Do you find it easier to love people that are just like you?
What helps you to go beyond this?
What kind of diversity do you have in the group of friends you associate with? Age, education, income, ethnicity, skin color?
What value do you see in building relationships with people that are different from you?