This past Sunday we had our third combined worship service with the N. 10th and Treadaway congregation. Treadaway is a predominately Black congregation and Minter Lane is a predominately White congregation. The service was, as were the previous two, led by members from each congregation. This time, however, Edward Robinson, the preacher for N. 10th and Treadaway, and I preached together from Philippians 2. I preached for 10 minutes, then he preached for 10 minutes, then I preached for 10 minutes, then he preached for 10 minutes. Afterward the service the two churches had a meal together. This continues to be a highlight for our church. A local news station did a brief story on it. Someone commented, "It will be great when something like this is not a news story."
At some point we have got to stop merely talking about racial reconciliation, and stop merely having conferences on it, and actually do it. I must say I am concerned that the church is not leading the way in this area. I hope future generations can show us what the Gospel does to create the new community of God. Below is two brief pieces from my part of the sermon:
The moment the cool air of the delivery room engulfs the newborn baby’s body for the first time the world, or at least those in the room, are informed that this arrangement is not going to work. With the blood-curdling cry that only a newborn can muster we are told, “This is not what I want. I did not choose this.” And, even though some warm milk and a heat lamp and a warm blanket calms matters somewhat, the shock of the first sponge bath and the first wet diaper and the first hunger pains generates yet again the complaint, “This is not what I want. I did not choose to come into this world cold, hungry, and naked before God and everybody. So, fix it.” And, so begins the human journey. It isn’t long before the toddlers begin to jockey for position and attention. Siblings demand privileges equal to or greater than the other. Adolescents clamor for the clothes they want, and to watch the movies they want and to do the things they want to do. Teenagers can do anything adults can do, they are self-sufficient—all they need is the parent’s money. Just give me the money and I can take care of myself. Adults seek the highest paying jobs, the most powerful positions, and the brightest futures and are willing to go to considerable trouble to achieve these ends. Often, Churches and Christian organizations make decisions based on what is best for the advancement or even the maintenance of the institution rather than the advancement of the kingdom of God. So, from birth, what begins as a survival instinct quickly turns to self-centeredness. And self interest. And self-advancement.
We conclude…It’s hard to be church. It’s hard to become “The New Community of God.” The Minter Lane Church of Christ and the N 10th and Treadaway Church of Christ are communities of people from various backgrounds, some related by blood and marriage, but mostly not, a potpourri of young, middle age, old, black, brown, white, various histories, a new community of God that he began. But, you know, it’s hard to be the new community God. Yes, we know this is our calling. We know this is what is required of us. But the powers at work in our hearts and minds and the powers at work in this world call for something else. Philippians calls us to be a different kind of community. “The New Community of God.” A community of friendship. A new community of friends trying to resocialize into the community of God sharing in the gospel, being of one mind and spirit, sharing in each other’s sufferings, looking not to our own interests, but the interests of others. Our call is to have the mind of Christ who gave up privilege for the sake of others.
If we will follow Christ’s example then this community, the new community of God, will shine like stars in the universe. The darkness of the humble cross and the life modeled by it will bring forth the light of the world. It is the emptying of self that shines like stars in the universe. When we can shine like this, when we can prove the sociologists wrong who say, “this meeting together of two different church cultures will never work,” when we can prove the church growth experts wrong who say we’ve got to be “homogeneous” churches who are “like in kind” to be “successful churches,” when we prove this wrong, then we will shine like stars in the universe. When we can live out in the flesh and blood what we say we value and believe, that is, there is neither Jew not Greek, Slave nor Free, Male nor Female, Black nor White nor Hispanic, when we start living what we talk about and have conferences about then we will shine like stars in the universe, then we are lights of the world, and a light of what God is doing in the world to bring reconciliation to all people.
