Tuesday: A New Race Made Up of All Races
WEEK 20
TUESDAY
A NEW RACE MADE UP OF ALL RACES
Colossians 3:10-11
We have been noting the characteristic marks of the New Testament church as seen in the church at Antioch. We now come to the next mark: the church was without race and class—a raceless and classless society. “The church at Antioch included prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon (nicknamed Niger), Lucius from Cyrene, Manaen (a childhood friend of Herod the ruler), and Saul” (Acts 13:1). Note the composition of that group: (1) Barnabas, from the island of Cyprus; (2) Simeon—probably identical with Simon of Cyrene (Mark 15:21)—a native of Africa, called Niger, literally the Black; (3) Lucius of Cyrene, also from North Africa, probably an African; (4) Manaen, a foster brother of Herod, the ruler, probably a Roman; (5) Saul, a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia. In the group there were two Jews, two Africans, and a Roman.
This church was a church beyond race. A new race was emerging, made up of all races. We can see how far we’ve come from that original church when I remind you that in Jaffna, Ceylon, in the early days, there was a mission church with two pulpits: a higher pulpit from which the white man preached and a lower pulpit from which the Ceylonese preached, and there was no interchange. A daughter of a missionary was married in that church, and a cord separated the races, the white people coming in one door and the Ceylonese another. A burgher (mixed blood) wanted to enter the ministry; but since he was not “white,” he would have had to speak from the lower pulpit. He refused to accept this position, gave up the idea of the ministry, and became attorney general for all Ceylon.
Now there is one pulpit in that church from which I have spoken. But the picture of the two pulpits is a symbol of the divided gospel we have been preaching on race. In the early church there was no division on the line of race—a person was a person, one for whom Christ died. They had the kingdom of God, and we have the kingdom of Race.
A religion that is identified with the superiority or the supremacy of one race is a backward eddy in the stream of history where people of all races and all colors flow toward oneness in community.
O Lord, we thank you that you have made of one blood all nations. What you have made, help us not to try to unmake, lest we unmake ourselves in the process. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I belong to the kingdom of God; therefore Irenounce the kingdom of Race.