How should we relate to race discussions today.

<p>How should we relate to race discussions today.</p>

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East Ridge SDA Church

Steven Grabiner

Racism and Me

Our title, you can see, is called Racism and Me, not Racism and You, Racism and Me, because about a year, I'm not sure exactly how long ago, Victor, you remember when that meeting was at Southern, something, almost a year ago, there was a meeting at Southern on racial issues.

And I went to 1 of the afternoon meetings and came away feeling very frustrated and disappointed and perplexed and not what I expected from that presentation.

And so since that time, this has kind of been rolling around in my head.

And so this, what I want to share this morning is part of that journey exploration.

And what I wanna do first of all is kind of explore some biblical foundations and then give you a couple of thinking tools and then talk about racism and then end with something practical, I hope.

So let's start with a clear, obvious truth.

The Bible has been misused to support racism.

And we just need to be upfront and say that, that The Bible has been at times taken out of context.

The text that I put up here, Genesis 9, verse 25, is the story of after the flood, when Noah becomes inebriated and he passes out, his son Ham comes into the tent and sees his father, goes out and tells his 2 older brothers and mocks him.

The 2 older brothers, Shem and Japheth come back.

And then When Noah awakens, he pronounces a curse on Ham and Canaan.

And that Canaan is to be Ham's descendant, is to be a servant.

And that passage has been used periodically throughout history to enforce the idea that certain people groups are cursed and should be slaves of others.

When I was in Africa, there was a friend of mine, her name was Ferris, and she actually believed this.

I don't know if I'm gonna be able to sit down, but I'm gonna try.

Sorry, I'm not sure why that's funny to you, but It's odd to me to sit down.

This is, you know, I like to move around.

So, but Ferris told me that the curse of Ham was on the Africans.

And that's why they felt that whites, Caucasians were superior.

Now that concept, again, it surfaced periodically through time, but in the 1400s and 1500s, it became a reason to support the slave trade.

And it became well known and actually an early Protestant, a Puritan preacher by the name of Cotton Mather, who was very influential, he used this as a justification for slavery.

That the Africans were cursed by him and this is part of God's design.

And so pastors had used this justification.

And there are other misapplications from scripture.

Scripture talks about slavery and that's been something David, Holly and I have been talking about for a while and I've been wrapping my mind around it.

I'm going to have information on that in a little bit, but I wanted to make sure I understood what I was saying before I did.

Let's say this, that biblical slavery is very different than the slavery that took place where people were kidnapped and brought to a different country.

But it's very clear, we need to admit it, that the Bible's been misused.

However, the Bible also lays out the foundation for us that overturns all racist ideas.

Because the scripture starts in this, I've been saying this, it's my third sermon, that we begin with a conviction that everybody bears the image of God.

And when we looked at the passage in the book of Micah, he has shown me, oh man, what is good to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God.

We begin with this foundation, everyone's created in the image of God.

And our founders of the United States, they may not have meant it this way, but they did get it right when they said, everyone is endowed with certain unalienable rights which are given to them by their creator.

And from the Christian perspective, that's where we need to start.

Everybody we see comes from the image of God.

And the Bible brings this out in many places.

In Acts chapter 17, the apostle Paul is talking and he's speaking there in Athens and he says, this is the New American Standard, says, he, God, has made from 1 man every nation of humanity.

The New American, excuse me, the King James, I believe, says, from 1 blood.

Which leads us to a very interesting idea, and that is the separation that we use to classify people is a mirage.

Now it's true, different People have different facial features.

Some have lighter color hair, higher cheekbones.

And the idea of separate race, that there's a biological difference between people because of outside observable physical characteristics, that is a mirage, a social construct that's been developed not for very good purposes.

Now it's true, the Bible talks about, and we'll look at that in a moment, different tribes, nations, and others.

But again, the Bible tells us that there's no difference between Jew and Greek.

And when Paul says Jew and Greek, he means Jews and everybody else.

And that's very clear because Jews obviously were the chosen race and everyone else is outside.

And Paul once again makes this foundation, there is no difference.

Now if we could just get that out to the rest of the world, we'd be good, right?

And then again, our scripture reading, Revelation 7 verses 9 and 10, we're just gonna look at verse 7 here, where it says, there is a great multitude which no 1 can number from every what?

Every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and the lamb.

And they're crying out and they say, salvation to our God and to the Lamb.

Victory, that God has been victorious in the great controversy, it is over.

Amen, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, right?

And so this is the ultimate aim of scripture.

So the scripture begins with, everyone's created in the image of God, and ends with, we're all together around the throne.

And unfortunately, it reveals the history of that fall and the separations that come in and all the other issues that come in.

And clearly, the Bible has been misused, but read as a whole, the Bible places value on every person.

Because as we said last week, the way we interact with people is a demonstration of the gospel we believe and we preach.

And this again I want to underscore, that how we interact with 1 another says a lot about what we believe about the scriptures.

So let me interrupt myself and give you just a brief story that happened just yesterday.

Some of you have said to me that I'm very intimidating.

Some of you have said that I'm intimidating.

I realize that my face can be intimidating at times.

You got the, you know, my mom calls, then she texts.

And so I call the body shop and I have my intimidation voice ready.

And the person I need to talk to is not there.

So hang up, okay, I'm going to call back.

And now my intimidation voice has rised up a notch and then there's that tap on the shoulder.

How we interact with everybody is the gospel we preach.

And so, okay, stop, take a breath, take several deep breaths, and what am I going to say to this person?

Practical application of the gospel when we really try to see that every person is made in the image of God.

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Racism and Me

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