Today’s Reading: Galatians 3:20-35
You might be wondering why I’ve strayed from my normal daily reading schedule today. Well, the reason has to do with the church I serve. About 15 months ago, the church I serve started setting aside the fifth Sunday of the month for members to share their faith journeys. It’s been an amazing and transformative experience to hear folks in a mainline faith community share so openly about their faith journeys! On this fifth Sunday, a few individuals thought we could accomplish two things: (1) we could continue our tradition of receiving a faith journey, and (2) we could do so by using the lens of a particular aspect of the human experience that has shaped all of our faith journeys – today that lens will be race. In reading Paul’s words, it’s clear that the vision for early Christian communities was one where all human beings were equal (“In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal” – Galatians 3:28 – The Message). In terms of vision, it doesn’t get much clearer than that. And yet 2,000 years later, how have we done living into that bold reality? Sadly, not so well. As Martin Luther King, Jr. observed in a 1963 speech at Western Michigan University, the most segregated hour in America continues to be Sunday mornings at 11:00 AM (the traditional hour for worship). So why is that? Why have even our most liberal or progressive faith communities failed to live into the vision Paul lifted up for us 2,000 years ago? Trying to answer that question for institutional Christianity would be nearly impossible as there are multiple reasons for it. I don’t have many explanations for the problem, but I can offer you one thing: my solution to the problem. My solution is that we cannot wait for institutions to get with the program and become models of inclusivity. The real transformative work must start at the individual level. Take a moment and examine your own life. Visualize your own friends and associates. As you survey the people in your own life, do they reflect the diversities to which Paul alludes (i.e. different racial, economic, social backgrounds) or are the folks in your life located in the same social strata as you? Is the abiding principle that guides your life one of equality or homogeneity? As you wrestle with those answers take heart knowing that the good news is that we don’t have to wait helplessly for another 2,000 years for institutional Christianity to get with the act. Real transformation happens immediately - one heart at a time. May that heart be yours! Til next time…
You might be wondering why I’ve strayed from my normal daily reading schedule today. Well, the reason has to do with the church I serve. About 15 months ago, the church I serve started setting aside the fifth Sunday of the month for members to share their faith journeys. It’s been an amazing and transformative experience to hear folks in a mainline faith community share so openly about their faith journeys! On this fifth Sunday, a few individuals thought we could accomplish two things: (1) we could continue our tradition of receiving a faith journey, and (2) we could do so by using the lens of a particular aspect of the human experience that has shaped all of our faith journeys – today that lens will be race. In reading Paul’s words, it’s clear that the vision for early Christian communities was one where all human beings were equal (“In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal” – Galatians 3:28 – The Message). In terms of vision, it doesn’t get much clearer than that. And yet 2,000 years later, how have we done living into that bold reality? Sadly, not so well. As Martin Luther King, Jr. observed in a 1963 speech at Western Michigan University, the most segregated hour in America continues to be Sunday mornings at 11:00 AM (the traditional hour for worship). So why is that? Why have even our most liberal or progressive faith communities failed to live into the vision Paul lifted up for us 2,000 years ago? Trying to answer that question for institutional Christianity would be nearly impossible as there are multiple reasons for it. I don’t have many explanations for the problem, but I can offer you one thing: my solution to the problem. My solution is that we cannot wait for institutions to get with the program and become models of inclusivity. The real transformative work must start at the individual level. Take a moment and examine your own life. Visualize your own friends and associates. As you survey the people in your own life, do they reflect the diversities to which Paul alludes (i.e. different racial, economic, social backgrounds) or are the folks in your life located in the same social strata as you? Is the abiding principle that guides your life one of equality or homogeneity? As you wrestle with those answers take heart knowing that the good news is that we don’t have to wait helplessly for another 2,000 years for institutional Christianity to get with the act. Real transformation happens immediately - one heart at a time. May that heart be yours! Til next time…
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