Racism and Church

David Hayward @nakedpastor (https://nakedpastor.com/)

❖ Video

❖ Audio (Message)

(Matthew 25:31-46 and others)

Mari Ikeda

Today I would like to speak specially on the subject of “Racism and Church”. I will tell you later why I decided to do so. First, I would like to begin by reading the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 25:31-46.

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. ” (Matthew 25:31-46)

A. Racism in this church

I was recently counseled by someone that they were being racially discriminated against by certain people in this church. They said that they were used to receiving racist treatment in Japan and thought they were probably over thinking it, but since it had happened several times and these people were discriminatory toward foreigners other than themselves, they thought this was not good and consulted me about it. I was completely unaware of this until they consulted me, but after listening to them, I assumed it was true.
Also, even before I was consulted by that person, I myself had felt that there seemed to be a distance between Japanese and non-Japanese people in Your Church these days. I felt that this was a problem on the part of the Japanese, including myself, who are the majority in terms of the number of people in this church. The language barrier is inevitable, but the Japanese who are the majority can be alone and not have to make the effort to get to know foreigners who are the minority. But if more and more people take that stance, more and more foreigners will have no choice but to be only foreigners. I do not intend to blame you one way but rather to say that this is my own problem as well. Although I had the privilege of studying in Canada for four years, I have always avoided speaking English on my own because of my pride in not wanting to embarrass myself. I also used my introverted personality as an excuse for not being friendly to the foreign members of Your Church, even after I became a pastor. I really want to apologize for that. Also, I have never thought of myself as racist, but if you sense it from me, please let me know.
Racism exists in all countries, but I believe that Japanese people often do not realize that they are being racist. Just as Japan invaded Asian countries in the past, there are those who still feel as if the Japanese are the best race in Asia. There are also those who think that Japanese people are only those who look like us and speak Japanese. Even in our daily lives, we sometimes hear people say things like “foreigners don’t follow the rules. When we begin to say so, we are applying the stereotype of the person as a “foreigner” and stop trying to understand them personally. This kind of prejudice and discrimination is, of course, a mistake that not only Japanese but people from any country fall into. In fact, racism and church have a deep connection. Racism was the first problem the church had to overcome. And for the church to be the church and for the gospel to be the gospel, the church has had to overcome racism. I think the most important thing is to humbly change our attitudes, realizing that sometimes what we think we are doing right or unconsciously judging is racist. We who have come to know the love of Jesus should and must be able to do that. That is the responsibility of the people of God’s Kingdom, and in Jesus’ words, that is what it means to be His friends. Let us read Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John chapter 15.

B. We are not Jesus’ friends, if we don’t love each other. （John15:12-17, 1John 3,4）

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit —fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other. (John 15:12-17)

Jesus did not give his life for us because we are good people. He taught us that each of us is valuable just as we are, including our weaknesses, lacks, and mistakes. All he asks of us is, “Love each other as I have loved you.”
Let’s read the words of the first letter of John in two places.

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. (1John3:16-18)   
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (1John4:19-21)

As John says, loving each other is not an abstract ideal, but a very concrete action. It might be sharing what you have or putting in the time and effort to meet the concrete needs of someone specific. It might be striving to understand someone whose background is different from our own in many ways. In other words, it means being more pleased to serve others than to have our own needs met. Jesus’ friends, the people of God’s Kingdom, are people who can truly delight in putting the interests of others above their own in that way.
Therefore, we cannot say that we are people of God’s Kingdom unless we try to understand each other and rejoice and accept each other’s differences, without being bound by the culture and language to which each of us is accustomed. Each difference is merely a difference, and to assign superiority or inferiority to them is discrimination. Everyone tends to think that what they are used to is the best. For example, a Japanese person may feel comfortable with Japanese politeness and reservedness, but these are not the things that are most valued in God’s Kingdom. The culture that is most valued in God’s Kingdom is, I repeat, a culture that takes pleasure in serving others rather than in satisfying its own needs.  

That this is really difficult to do in practice is evident from the fact that this was the first problem that Jesus’ disciples faced as they built up the church. Jesus and they were all Jews, and their faith in Jesus was initially only a branch of Judaism. The church was established as they went beyond the confines of Judaism and welcomed people of non-Jewish ethnicity. The New Testament, from the Acts of the Apostles onward, makes it clear that this was a difficult process. 
The Jews had difficulty treating people of other ethnic groups than the Jews, whom they called Gentiles, as equals. This was because they originally thought that the Jews were a people who valued bloodline and the Law, and that this meant serving God faithfully. Therefore, they thought that if they came to have the same faith as they did, the Gentiles should also follow the culture of the Jews.
They mistakenly thought that their culture was the culture of God’s Kingdom.  The same mistake was repeated by Western missionaries when they confused colonial rule with missionary work. They mistakenly believed that Western culture was the culture of God’s Kingdom, and looked down on and denied the indigenous peoples and the cultures of the peoples of the countries that were colonized.
Now let’s read some specific Bible verses. First, let’s look at Acts 10.

C. Church was not born, if it didn’t overcome racism

1. The initial change (Acts 10,11）

24 The following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25 As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. 26 But Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.” 27 While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. 28 He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. 29 So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. (Acts 10:24-29a)

To explain this scene a little, Cornelius is the commander of the Roman army, not a Jew. Peter had had a strange vision just prior to this, and through that vision he had begun to think that his discrimination against the Gentiles might be against God’s will. As a result of their encounter, Cornelius and many other Gentiles heard about Jesus from Peter, the Holy Spirit fell on them, and they joined the family of believers in Jesus.
This event shocked the Jewish believers. Let’s read chapter 11, omitting the middle of the chapter.

1 The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.” 4 Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story: …18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.” (Acts11)

The Jewish believers changed their minds after hearing Peter’s report. From this point on, the ministry of spreading the gospel of Jesus began to extend to Gentiles as well. Although still very Jewish-centered, this was the event that brought about the first change for the church to become established as a church.

But even after this, churches in various places continued to have internal conflicts. I think it was Paul who was most concerned about reconciliation between Jewish and Gentile believers. From many of Paul’s letters, we can see that there was tension between Jewish believers and Gentile believers in most of the churches with which Paul was involved. Here we read Paul’s words in Galatians 2:11-14. Cephas here refers to Peter.

2. Paul condemns Peter’s racism (Galatians 2:11-14）

11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? (Galatians 2:11-14)

Peter was supposed to have stopped discriminating against Gentiles through his encounter with Cornelius, but he seemed to still be unsure about it. Paul condemned him head-on.
The central issue here is about Jews and Gentiles sharing a meal together. Sharing a meal is a very basic and important part of getting to know someone, then and now. Jesus also shared meals with his disciples and people. (So, I encourage everyone to invite each other to share a meal with each other.) However, since the Jewish law had a food code, eating with Gentiles, who did not have such a code, often became a source of conflict. Some Jewish believers looked down on Gentiles because they thought their food was unclean and tried to force Gentile believers to follow Jewish rules. That was wrong, of course. But habits that have been taught since childhood are hard to break, and I believe that we, like Peter, have acted shallowly for the sake of self-preservation, and as a result, have hurt others.
Finally, let me share with you Paul’s words in Philippians 3.

3. Paul’s self-admonition (Philippians3）

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. 7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. …20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Philippians3)

Paul never regrets that he was a zealous Jew and boasts that he has kept the Law perfectly. This pride of Paul is also seen in other passages. Paul had nothing against Jews having pride as Jews or Gentiles having pride as Gentiles. However, he said that it is wrong for that pride to become a sense of superiority over other peoples or arrogance in looking down on others. And further, in the passage we just read, he says that ultimately, pride based on one’s own race or one’s own diligence, though not bad in itself, is like garbage compared to the joy of knowing Jesus. I am sure you are familiar with Paul’s words in verse 20, but I urge you to take them to heart again today. “Our citizenship is in heaven.” I believe that embodying this in our own lives is the key to overcoming all kinds of discrimination. No one is free from the influence of the environment in which they were born and raised and the education they received. The temptation to think we are better than others is there at any age. No one can be perfect as long as they live on this earth. But, as Paul says, we, too, “press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of (us),” so that we can be worthy of belonging to God’s Kingdom. Jesus transforms us so that we can be a little closer to Him and love each other. Remember also Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit —fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

D. Treat all people as we would treat Jesus (Matthew 25:31-46)

Today we first read Jesus’ words from the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus said that at the end of the world he will judge all people and divide them into those who will be blessed and those who will be punished. I believe that Jesus spoke this not to scare us, but because he wanted us to realize what we should and can do right now. That is to respect, value, and serve all people as we treat Jesus. Jesus said to the righteous people, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” And He said to the wicked, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” Let me close by quoting again the words of John. “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

(Prayer) Lord Jesus, please search our hearts by the light of your Spirit. Do we not look down on people based on their race or nationality? Have we abandoned our efforts to understand each other without making an effort to get to know each other personally? Please lower and humble us before You. May we care for each and every one of Your loved ones as You care for us. Lead us to know more of the joy of serving others, rather than only seeking our own comfort and the fulfillment of our needs. Transform us in this church so that we may rejoice in our differences and support one another as members of your family. Lord Jesus, we pray in your name. Amen.

Summary

We are often unaware that we are being racist. There are racist words and actions in this church as well. We cannot be Jesus’ friends, if we don’t love each other. In the first place, the church was started by Jews overcoming discrimination against gentiles. The church would be the church and the gospel would cease to be the gospel, without us overcoming racism. We are called to respect and value all people, regardless of nationality or race, as we do for Jesus.

For Discussion

How do you think about your racism?
Have you felt a wall between Japanese and foreigners in this church? How can we overcome it?