A Quick Recap
Good evening, everyone. Awesome and it’s good to be together, to come and hear from God’s word, to sing praises together. I think the music team did a wonderful job in leading us in song. But likewise, the sound team has done a great job as well. So, thank God for both of them for service. And actually, I want to give one more plug, Molinah who was reading for us just now, is part of the student ministry and most of the people that you see here are from the efforts from her, Oneile and David. And we thank God for the work that he’s doing there, and we pray that he continues to do so. If you’re new, my name is Reggie. We would love to meet you after the service, do not rush off we would love to plug you into one of our smaller communities.
Now, if you’ve been with us for the last few weeks, you would know we have been in a series titled, ‘Absolute or Obsolete Church.’ And this series is really asking the question, ‘Is the church still relevant?’ Is it time to do away with the Church? Now, what I’ll ask you to do is, to go and listen to the talks we’ve done so far so that next week when we do have the Q and A, you’ll be ready to ask us questions and we can have a good discussion from it. The topics we’ve looked at as Blaque has said, we’ve looked at; What is the Church? Why the Church? We’ve looked at sensitive topics as well, such as; Sex and Money. And we’ve also looked at politics. Today is a topic that I think is perhaps a lot more sensitive. We’re talking about isms; Racism, Sexism and Classism. I mean we’ll make a mention of the other ones as well but those will be the top ones. And because it is such a sensitive topic, we need God’s help for it. So, let’s pray;
Our father we pray as we come to your word, that you would help us. Help us to see how far off we were from you before in your grace you saved us. And father help us to see our tendencies to live as the old man- as though we do not have a new identity. And help us by the power of your gospel to desire to change. To change not only for our sake but for the sake of a world that is in desperate need of the gospel. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
We Are All Prejudice
We are all more prejudice than we think. Now that is a brilliant way to start a sermon and a topic this sensitive, isn’t it? Because what I have done is I’ve put all of us on common ground. I’ve probably offended everyone. We’re all on common ground. So let me just say, this sermon isn’t going isn’t going to target one group of people. It’s not going to be a beat down on one group of people. So let me say it again, we are all more prejudice than we think. See we are all in various of varying degrees inclined, or compelled to exclude the other. More so when the other is not like us, when the other is different to us, may never be like us, when the other threatens us, or we see them as a threat. When there’s a history of hostility or when we feel like we are right in excluding them. Now perhaps you’ve seen this, somewhat in kids doing this, you’ve seen this in kids. Kids who exclude another kid from playing with them. And perhaps as I’ve said this you’ve thought of your own childhood stories, when someone excluded you or you were the one that did the excluding. If you’ve got kids, you’ve probably seen this as well. I’ve got three, and I’ve seen it in part.
I think you’ve probably also seen it in movies. There’s a movie called ‘Wonder’ with Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson and a young man called Jacob Tremblay, well he’s no longer young but this movie Jacob plays a character called Auggie. Auggie has a big and disfigured head because of the many surgeries he’s had as a kid. And every kid at school excludes him, makes fun of him. Or perhaps you’ve seen it in ‘Spud’, local is lekker by the way. Spud the movie, where this kid is excluded, he’s actually called spud. He’s excluded because he’s not actually yet hit puberty. Or perhaps the movie ugly dolls which I think is self-explanatory. We’ve seen this, it just seems to be part of the human experience. But I think at its worst in human history we have seen exclusion as elimination. Think here of the Rwandan genocide or the holocaust. We have seen exclusion as domination of the other. Think here of the caste system in India or think of apartheid. We have seen exclusion as disposition. Particular people of this ethnicity are not rightful owners of land in our country. Or certain people need to go back to their homes. we have seen it in so many other ways. We’ve seen it in many ways in front of us. But here’s the thing, this hostility and desire to exclude exists in all of us, it exists in all of us, even though we don’t always act out on it.
Now I may not have you convinced as yet, so let me give you a few examples. I’d like for you to complete these statements for me, I’ll give you a word that describes a people group, and think about it, think just think, don’t say it out loud. Think about it. I mean if I say politicians, I know what most of you will think. But let me give you a few categories. I want you to think about this, what comes to mind when I say; White people are… Black people are… Coloured people are… Indian people are… Men are… Women are… We already know a trend with the other one, right? Rich people are… Poor people are… poor? Which is clear.
But I think, I think, well I have suspicions, that even as I’ve asked some of you to complete those statements in your head, some of us weren’t really honest even though no one could hear us, even though no one could hear us. And I think this is because, the thought that any kind of prejudice or any of these ‘isms’ could be something we struggle with, it is something that terrifies us. We actually find the thought that we could struggle with any of these things abhorrent- we find it disgusting. “Me, Reggie, racist? No, no.” It’s what we think, isn’t it? More of us think this because we tend to think of these isms as being a binary system. It’s either I’m a racist, or I’m a saint. I’m racist or I’m not, I’m sexist or I’m not, I’m classist or I’m not. Which isn’t true, it isn’t true.
Prejudice In The Bible
See, the testimony of the Bible tells us that. See the Bible is filled with stories of people, the people of God who act in ways that exclude others. Who act in ways that prejudice against others. Let me give you two stories from the Old Testament. And then I’ll give you two from the New. Here’s one story in the Old Testament, the first one is Numbers 12. In Numbers 12 we are told of two people Miriam and Aaron. You guys would know these two people, you would know that these are the people that were the leaders of the people of God- the Israelites. They saw God lead them by day, by the cloud and by night, by pillar- fire. And they saw God split the oceans, and they saw God do what? Drown their enemies, they saw God feed them. But look at, listen to what Numbers 12 says, “Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses…” Look at the reason, “…because of the Cushite woman he had married.” Now in case you thought, “No, that’s a mistake.” The passage actually tells you again, “For he had married a Cushite woman.” Because she’s Ethiopian. Our young adults for the last while have been going through Jonah. Jonah is often a Prophet that is called the reluctant Prophet. Actually, when you look at Jonah, before the book that talks about his story, we see already that he’s not really a good character. But God still uses him, he is God’s Prophet. And what do we see about him? He Excludes. He does not want God’s blessing to go to the Ninevites. The leaders of Israel, God’s prophet, prejudice, wanting to exclude others. But somehow, we think we are the exception.
“When we have seen our sin and seen how God takes people of different backgrounds as we are today, and unites us, it magnifies the gospel.”
In the New Testament there are more stories. In Acts 10 there’s a story of a man called Peter. Peter is sent by God even when he did not want to. God convinces him to go to the house of a man called Cornelius. And he gets there, God works wonderfully and powerfully. And then in the next chapter, Acts 11, the leaders of the church, these are people who are called Apostles and brothers. Apostles meaning, they saw Jesus, walked with Jesus and more importantly, they saw the resurrected Jesus. But still, when Peter comes back, do you know what they say to Peter? We heard that you’re in the house of a Gentile, you’re chilling with Gentiles. They criticize him. Leaders of the church, prejudice. And this very man Peter, in another story, he himself at one scene, he’s chilling with Gentiles, he’s got pork ribs right in front of him, and he’s digging his hand in them, and then he hears that there’s a group of Jewish people that have come from James, from Jerusalem and then he decides to move away. Peter, the man Jesus called letlapa, the rock. The man he would build his Church on, this guy, prejudice. And somehow, we think we are the exception.
See, I agree with people who say in one sense, that it is very hard to see the motives of another person. It’s very hard to presume on the motives of another person, I can’t do that. But God’s word can and God’s word is alive and powerful. And this is what God’s word says, it can pierce between the soul and spirit. And it can pierce joints and marrow, it can go straight to the heart what the human heart is thinking and intends to do. So, before God, all of us are naked and bare. So, if we look at this story and we’re to learn anything from it, we can see that you and I are more prejudice than we think.
A while ago a good friend of mine came here and preached to us from Romans. And this is a brilliant quote that he shared with us, this is what he said, he took it from Malcolm Gladwell. Listen to what this quote says about how we relate to people who’ve got different thoughts than us, or people who are different to us. Listen to this quote, “When faced with people whose actions and views we disapprove of, we have many actions. We can be angry at them, we can show concern, we can try and reform them, persuade or reprimand them, but more often than not we choose exclusion without restraint. We banish and cast away.” That’s what we do. One of my favourite writers, his name is John Stott, brilliant guy. This is what he says in a Bible study he has written on Ephesians, on this very passage. This is what he says about the hostility that exists in my and your heart. He says, “Hostility between human beings is not an invention of the 20th century….” Here you can add 21st. “…it has run rampant since the fall of humanity when we chose to be hostile to God. Alienation between individuals, nations, races, and even hostility between Christians is no longer a stranger.” I love what he says next, “…nothing is more dehumanizing than this breakdown of human relationships. We are strangers in a world where we ought to feel at home, aliens instead of citizens. And this is what we ought to see. This isn’t what God intends or has intended for humanity.” If you’ve been with us in the last few weeks, you would have heard that what God wants to do is in Jesus, he wants to reconcile all things to himself. He wants to renew us, and as he renews us, he wants to show us what the real human life looks like. And so, God sends Jesus who lived the life we couldn’t, who shows us what it looks like to be truly human. And God then redeems us through this Jesus so that he could use us as this new humanity, he could use us as this new community to display his manifold or his great wisdom as Ephesians 3:10 says. See, this is why we believe in Jesus. We believe in Jesus to help us to see that we are not what we ought to be, and to help us to become what we ought to be. And as we turn to our passage, this is exactly what we will see.
How We Exclude Others
Now because we have had an extended introduction today, we only have two points. And the two points actually come from one of my favourite books. And here are the two points; You can look up the book after, it’s a brilliant book. The two points are; Exclusion and embrace, exclusion and embrace. Exclusion is the first point and we will look at Ephesians 4:11-13 and Ephesians 4:18 as well. Now I’ll read these passages a little bit later for us. Now I’ve once heard someone say this, that the Church and this new humanity that God has created is like a fruit salad. Now I’m quite sure some of you are not comfortable with being called anything that is related to a salad. I mean, I’ve had meals with some of you and I’ve seen you not eating anything that is related to a fruit salad or any kind of salad. But I think we get the point here. The church has people who come from different backgrounds and the beauty of it is, the gospel actually takes us, the gospel of Jesus takes us and transforms us and gets us to be better than what we can be alone. That’s what the gospel does, that’s the beauty of the gospel. this is what God has done in all of history in the Church. And he has done it in our church and he continues to do that. But that very quote or that very illustration admits or acknowledges that we are different, we are different. We have different ethnicities, we have different races, if you like that word, we have different genders, come from different classes. And these things could be a potential for chaos, they could be a potential for chaos. And as we come to our passage, I’ll point out to us how these things could be a potential for chaos.
Not too long ago Roydon said this when he did a particular series, he said, “As you read through the Bible, what we realize is we are not just different from each other. But we are different for each other.” But I think we live in the former. We tend to live in the, ‘we are different from each other’, and never realize that we have been made different ‘for’ each other. And there are many ways that we will see it in our passage today. I know I’ve found myself struggling with this in so many ways. And it’s not a problem that is new to the church. It’s not a problem that is new. It started when the Church actually started. And so, let’s read Ephesians 2:11-13 and then Ephesians 2:18 to see that. Come to Ephesians 2 let’s read together, “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 in the flesh by hands- remember that you were at one 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. But now in Christ Jesus you who are once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:18, “For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.”
Now in these verses here, Paul primarily talks to a group in the Church that are called Gentiles. Gentiles simply means they are non-Jews. But as he’s talking to them, and he tells them about their past before God brought them in, he actually tags the Jews in what he is saying. He’s actually done it a bit earlier in Ephesians 2:1-4. He talks to the Gentiles and refers to them as ‘you’ but he tags the Gentiles when he says, ‘we’. Now, you will see why Paul tags the Jews here as well in this very status. Now, we’ve seen, we’ve been tagged in a lot of things. You’ve had someone who’s tagged you and 99 other people in the picture that you’re not there, you’re not there when it was taken. And you wonder why are you tagged here. But let me say this, the tag that Paul applies here on the Jews actually does apply to their lives. And you will see that as we come to the passage. Now notice what Paul says about the Jews because this is the very first thing that he… about the Gentiles rather, because that’s the first thing he wants us to see. He says to the Gentiles, “You were called, “the uncircumcised” by those called the circumcision or circumcised.” And then he says to the Gentiles, “You were far from God’s blessings, you were separated from Christ, you were not citizens of God’s kingdom, you were strangers to God’s promises, without hope and without God.” And all these things are true of Gentiles. They are true of Gentiles throughout all of time including us before we came to God. We were outsiders, we were outsiders because God had chosen a particular family- the Israelites. But God chose them for the purpose that he would take his blessing into the rest of the world. That’s the purpose why God chose the Israelites. And so, these signs for the Gentiles, these signs were a reminder that they used to be outsiders before God brought them in. But the signs for the Jews were meant to be a reminder that God chose them, to use them to draw others to himself. But the Jews did not often live like that. They use these wonderful signs that God had given them to show that they are his people, his family that he wants to use to bless the world. They use these to exclude others.
Let me point out a few ways that we will see this. They used this to exclude others. Back to the verse so that we can see that. Here Paul tells us that the Jews called the Gentiles, ‘the uncircumcised’. Now that’s not fact stating and saying you’ve got a particular body part that’s still there. It’s not that, it’s an insult. It’s a derogatory word. It’s a dagger to the heart, the heart of a person. It’s a dagger, it’s saying something about their identity- you are outsiders, you’re far. And here’s the thing, even when Gentiles came to know Jesus, Jews still treated them as though they were outsiders, they excluded them. Reminds me of… Few of you heard me say a bit earlier, I had a chat with someone, I mentioned I’m Xhosa. Some of you know my story, and every time I visit my family especially when one particular uncle is around, he often tends to remind me that, “Hey ndoda, because you went to the hospital and did not go to the mountain, uy’inkwenkwe.” This is what he said to me actually at one point, he said, “You may have a wife, you may have kids, you may have a house, but to me uy’inkwenkwe.” It gets to the heart of a person’s identity, doesn’t it? I mean, I was there, I know he often jokes about it. But I was sitting there thinking, “Oh man, that kind of stabs.” If I’m honest, it does. We had a thing in the house, where everyone was getting a drink. So, he’s going around and passing a drink to everyone. And you know what he does when it gets to me, he skips me and says, “I’m a man, I don’t serve boys.” Exclude, to the heart. But now what we don’t see in the passage, is often the Gentiles actually treated Jews in a very like manner. See, Gentiles often called Jews, “you mutilators of the flesh.” They called them primitive, mutilators of the flesh. “Why are you cutting yourself?” They called them primitive. Now imagine this, this is a sign that God has given you, and your people as a sign that you are his people, and someone calls you primitive.
The Bible Corrects Our Sinfulness
If you read Romans 14, you will realize there that Paul looks at both groups and actually calls both of them out because of how they treat one another. Now I’ll say what Paul says in Romans a little bit later as we go through God’s word. So, the name calling on both sides was an indication of boundaries that had been built. Not just religious boundaries, but ethnic boundaries, and cultural boundaries. If you read most of Paul’s letters, you’ll actually realize that this is a major thing that he talks about. The major thing he talks about, is the inclusion of Gentiles by the Jews. But every now and then he calls on the Gentiles and reminds them, “Don’t forget you were engrafted in, you were brought in. You used to be far.” He speaks to both groups and calls them out. Now needless to say, this kind of relationship wasn’t just on the line of ethnicity or religion but you also saw it along the lines of gender. See, Paul in Ephesians 5 talks about how the husband-and-wife ought to treat each other. And at this time, a patriarchal world and I know a lot of women who probably still say our world is like that. But at this time, to tell a husband to love his wife, shocking. Because husbands often did not treat their wives in that way. And Paul calls them to use their power in love. And wives, who struggled with submission, calls them, he calls them to that. And actually, there’s more, if you go to 1 Corinthians 11, which is a really difficult passage to understand, but one of the things that you see so clearly there, is Paul points out that God has gifted women and he has gift given them gifts that they ought to exercise in the Church and he explains how a women ought to do that. Now, imagine in a world where women are excluded from public discourse, excluded from participating in worship and Paul is clear of how things should be. So as Paul speaks, he’s always speaking to the one group and the next. There’s another example in Ephesians 6, Paul talks about the man who’s free, the master and the person was a slave. And these two often did not have a relationship that was great. An example is a man called Onesimus who runs away, he’s a runaway slave, becomes a Christian. And then Paul writes an entire book in the New Testament to a man named Philemon. And says, “This is how you ought to act to one another now that your brothers.” See, over and again Paul knows our tendency as Christians even as people whom God has saved, to exclude one another, to mistreat others. See Paul is not aloof, he’s not aloof to the fact that we can often use our differences to exclude one another. That in our sinfulness, we are prejudice. He’s not aloof to that. See, what we’ve got to realize is that sin is culture forming. Sin forms a culture and that culture blinds us to our sin.
As a man it’s often so hard to see when women are excluded and mistreated. And often, I do it, as a black person, often don’t see when Indian, white or coloured people are excluded or mistreated. Sin is culture forming. I started seeing one particular group as the group that needs to be careful. But as you read through the Bible you see how Paul goes back and forth and speaks to the Christians in the Church. And I think seeing this, knowing that Paul is aware of our sin, helps us to not have a rosy coloured view of the Church which I think we often do. I think we often do. We forget that the Church is sinful people and often this is what leads to the disappointment for a lot of people. See, we are not the exception and so we need God’s word to open us up so that we are vulnerable, so that we are able to pinpoint our sin. We do not just say, “I am sinful.” But I say, this is how my sin in a particular prejudice shows itself and be honest. I think we need to do that.
And so, I’m going to ask you a few things. Answer these questions for me, just answer them in your head. Can you honestly say today that when you mistreated someone in the last week, the last month, however long it’s been? You’ve mistreated them in word or deed? Can you honestly say it’s not because you’re prejudice towards them? It’s because you tried to other them. Now I’m not asking you to look for an ‘ism’ under every rock, but what I’m asking you to search in your heart is, “Did I mistreat that person because of their ethnicity, or because of their gender, because of their class?” And likewise, I think we need to say this, when someone has mistreated you, are you quick to think, “They’ve treated me like this because I’m black, because of my ethnicity, because of my gender, and because of my class.” See instead of being angry, or showing concern, or wanting to reprimand people, we choose exclusion without restraint. As Paul here will show us in Ephesians 2:1-11, he shows us the ugliness of our sin, in order that we can see the beauty of the gospel. I think very often we are uncomfortable talking about our sin because we think talking about our sin minimizes the gospel but that’s not true. See when we have seen our sin and seen how God takes people of different backgrounds as we are today, and unites us, it magnifies the gospel. It shows us as we are singing how powerful the name of Jesus is. How powerful this name that gets people who would exclude one another, to rather embrace one another.
How We Embrace One Another
That’s our second point, embrace. Let me read for us from Ephesians 2: 14, from 13 actually, we pick it up from Ephesians 2:13 once again onwards. Listen to what Paul says there, second point is, embrace. “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of the commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in the place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So, then you are no longer called strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, on whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” I love what Paul says there, “But now…” My wife often makes fun of me, that some of my favourite words in the bible. and she is right, are these words, ‘but now.’ A bit earlier Paul uses these words, ‘but God’ in Ephesians 2:4. After pointing to the sin of not just the Gentiles, but of the Jews, he says, “But God….” God has intervened for both Jews and Gentiles to bring them into his family. See God intervenes for Jews as well to make them right with him. Because Ephesians 2:4 tells us, Paul says we were dead in our transgression. So, for both Jews and Gentiles to be made right with God, God has to intervene. And then from Ephesians 2:13 onwards we see that God also intervenes to ensure that the Gentiles are brought into the family, and that they’re treated as such. See these two passages show us that the only way anyone can become part of God’s family is through God’s grace. It is through God embracing us. See God embraced both the Jews as a family… the Jews rather as the family he would use to bless the world so that he would embrace the nations, the Gentiles, you and I.
See God did this in Jesus. Jesus became excluded which is what everyone else deserved including the Jews so that we could be included. So that we could be embraced by God and brought into God’s family. And this is what we have been singing about, that’s what God has done for us. Now notice the blessings that Paul says belong to all who belong part of God’s family. He says, because you are all part of God’s family, Jesus is our peace and he brings peace between us. And then he says we all have access to the father, the one father. Before this, the Gentiles if they came into the temple, they were made to sit in the backseat with the wall that divided. There’s actually a sign that said, ‘This far you walk.’ And if you walk in, then you deserved your own death. But this is what Paul says, we have now been included, we have access to the father. And then he says, “You are fellow citizens, you are members of God’s family, you…” And a bit later he says, “You are now the temple, the place of God’s dwelling.” Every Christian is that. You are the place of God’s dwelling. See, this is the blessing that God has longed to give, this is the blessing that God has always wanted to give to mankind. Genesis 1 and 2 is about that, God wanting to dwell with us. And we see that in Jesus and in the Church, God does that for all who put their faith in Jesus. The wall that divided us has come down in Jesus. God has created one new man in the place of two. There is now one body, and one Spirit, one hope to which we belong, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. God has embraced us all to bring us into his family.
The Bible Calls Us To Repentance
But God embraces us if you notice the passage, so that we can embrace each other, that’s the purpose. We’re reconciled to God vertically, so that we could live reconciled lives horizontally. There’s no one without the other. These two are two sides of one coin. If you’re not acting well, if you’re not embracing those around you, ask yourself if you have embraced the grace of God. And when you embrace the grace of God, it is inevitable that you will want to embrace others. You will want to move towards them. But I must say, the Bible does not call us, isn’t calling us to inclusiveness, it’s not. You could say that there is inclusiveness in one sense but that’s not what it’s calling us to. Listen to this author as he says, “The biblical story, or the story of the Bible teaches us that God’s love cannot be reduced to inclusiveness. Authentic love calls us to repent. It calls us to repentance, discipline, sacrifice and transformation. It calls us to repent when we know we have not acted as the people of God. To start learning disciplines, to move towards others sacrificially and it calls to be transformed.”
Jesus became excluded which is what everyone else deserved so that we could be included, so that we could be embraced by God.
So let me ask you this, Jesus has torn down the dividing walls. What walls have you built up? What walls are you building at the moment to exclude others? Do you perhaps need to sing this song, “come tear down every wall I’ve built up, every wall I’ve built up?” See Jesus has torn down the walls, any walls that come thereafter is because we’ve built them up. See we are called to a different kind of life, a sacrificial life. We have a new tribe as the people of God. We have a new tribe, we’re not just different from each other, but we’re different for each other. We’re a community that reflects, embraces, and enjoys our diversity. We do not erase our diversity; we enjoy it but by the power of the gospel, the gospel transcends our diversity and creates one new human. Where even though we celebrate our diversity, we do it under the headship of Jesus as one new family.
Walking It Out
So now you may be asking as we get towards the end, “I’ve heard all of this, I’ve heard you talk about how God has embraced me, how I ought to embrace others. How can I do this? I don’t want to walk away from here struggling with that. I actually want to do this with the people in the church so that I am able to go and do it wherever God has sent me. I want to do it as a Church when we are gathered, so that I’m able to do it as a Church when we are scattered in our workplaces.” Well, let me say to you, our church here- Christ Church Midrand is a multi-ethnic, multicultural, multi-generational, multi-gender, you would have seen, a multi-generational Church. Which is a beauty of the gospel, which is a beauty of how this gospel has taken different people and united them. And because we have all of this beauty, let me give you a few practical ways you can actually begin to move towards embracing others.
Here’s the first one; We have different services in the church; we’ve got an 8:00am, 9:30am, and a 6:00pm service, most of you come to this very service. These services have different styles, but they also have different demographics. What you could do is every now and then take time to visit one of the other services. See, you’re not going to be able to love and embrace those who are not like you if you don’t spend time with them. Join one of the services once in a while. Or, let me pull this up, what you could do is you could join us for one of our Christmas services. I know this seems like a plug but it’s a good one, it’s a good one. Our Christmas music service, family service, is a service where we’ll sing carols together as a family. Carols might not be your thing, but a number of people in the church will come together for that very service. Can I encourage you to think about coming here so that you would meet people who are not like you? If there are some who will be listening online, that perhaps come to the 8:00am and 9:30am service, there’s a carols by candlelight for you that will happen at the 6:00pm service. Won’t you consider joining the people that are here? That’s what we need to do. The other thing you could do is simply go and visit a life group once in a while. Once in a while visit another life group in the church. A life group that you know is probably has a different demographic to what you are used to. I love what The Tribe is thinking of, I love that the tribe has said, we are a tribe within the village, and so every now and then they want the older people in the church, the older Christians to come and join them. So that they build relationships with them. If you’re not part of the tribe, would you consider to join them? For that very purpose. That’s how we can begin to embrace each other when we spend time with each other.
God embraces us so that we can embrace each other, that’s the purpose. We’re reconciled to God vertically, so that we could live reconciled lives horizontally
See we need to be around each other for us to be able to do this. The other thing, can I ask you to go and make amends? If you know you have mistreated someone, you’ve acted towards someone in this way, won’t you move towards them and embrace and ask for forgiveness? But for the person who’s been hurt, can you move towards the other person as well and forgive them and seek to make things, right? Now I’ve often said this, this is something that all of us need to work on, including myself. We could do all of those things. Now let me give you a few formal ways that you can do it, as a church we’ve got different ministries; One, that realizes that our world, or our church is one where people of different ethnicities will struggle. So very soon we will have a ministry called 39:30 where Blaque and some people who work with him will seek to help us to understand, how do we relate with each other, and have the gospel at the centre as people come from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and cultures. We’ve got the care and crisis centre because we realize our world, and our church, is the place where often women are abused, and men are abused as well, but most are women. So, we’ve got a care and crisis centre that is there for that need and we’re actually planning a walk that I’m going to encourage you to be part of so that we are doing this. There’s a friend who wrote an article on TGC and this is what he said about a show called Amabishop, his name is Nkosi Mlambo. Look for the article on TGC Africa. He says, TGC stands for The Gospel Coalition by the way. He says, “The Church should never be an environment where abuse thrives.” And if we’re honest, the Church has often been the place where women are not protected, or empowered. You look at our church though, you will see that; Women being empowered to use their different gifts to serve. Last thing is class, we have a ministry called Love Trust that desires to care for those who are less privileged. Won’t you consider to pray for this ministry as well. And to figure out, go to the website, how can you partner with the church, with our church? As we seek not only to embrace each other but to embrace the world. But as a church, we have not yet arrived. As long as we are on this side of the new creation, we have not yet arrived. And so, if there’s anything, we still have the sign over us that says, ‘under construction.’ So, there’s lots of work to do. There’s lots of work to do and when we’ve failed, we can come back to God and ask for forgiveness. And ask to be empowered by his Spirit so we can try again, so we can try again. But if you don’t do it here in the church, I think you will struggle to do it in your workplace. If you struggle embracing people of a different ethnicity here in the church, you will struggle when it comes to the workplace. So, let’s begin here, let me close with these words from N.T Wright, he says, “When God acted in Jesus the Messiah, he not only revealed himself fully, he revealed fully what’s genuine human life is like. And you know what, it turns out to be deeply sacrificial.” If we want to live this kind of life, as the new humanity, we need to live deeply sacrificial lives and embrace others.
Let me pray; Father by your Spirit help us in areas where we attempted to exclude. Help us by the power of your gospel to see that you have embraced us to embrace others. So would you help us to think through how we can do it in the coming week. In Jesus’ name, amen.