Slavery, Race, and Unjust Suffering

All right, good morning.

Today, as we continue our preaching series in the book of 1 Peter, we come to a passage

where Peter gives instruction to Christian slaves on how they are to live as Christians

under unjust masters.

The passage surfaces important issues for our church to look at with clear eyes and

humble hearts, issues of slavery and freedom, issues of suffering and injustice, of power

and authority, and it shows us how Peter points us to the gospel in the midst of these discussions.

This is not an easy topic.

I was talking with Katie last night, and she gave me permission to share her comment.

She said, wow, must be pretty controversial to be worse than telling Americans to submit

to the government.

If you were here last week, that's what we preached on.

That was meant to be funny, lighten the load a little bit.

Okay, here we go.

So, I have two things to say as we begin this.

One, I want to acknowledge I'm a white male who has been born in a world and in a life

where I have not been the recipient of any hatred or discrimination because of the color

of my skin.

And I have enjoyed material blessings and advantage that others have not had.

And so, I come to you this morning in some ways feeling deeply unqualified to preach about

the topic of suffering and slavery.

Secondly, I want to acknowledge that we as a church are affiliated with the Southern Baptist

Church, have been for the entire history of this church.

The Southern Baptist denomination was founded in the 1850s by men who were slave owners and

who defended as Christians the institution of slavery.

And the history of the SBC is that since its beginning, it has accommodated or promoted racism

in many ways.

While there has been recently a recognition of and statements of repentance from this sin,

this history still has effects in our present.

I want to humbly acknowledge that this morning.

So, how do we approach a text like this given these things?

Well, with humble hearts, with repentant hearts, with a recognition of unworthiness, but also

a hope.

A hope that as we have always done here at Trinity, as we come to the Bible, as we come to see

what God's Word has to say to us, that with compassion and courage, with humility and conviction,

that God might use me to direct you to the truth of God's Word this morning.

With that, let's pray.

God, our Father, the Father of every family on earth, and Jesus, our Savior, who came to

redeem sinners from every tongue and tribe and nation, have mercy on us this morning.

May we sit under your Word this morning with humility.

May you open our ears.

You give us a soft heart.

And may you, by your Spirit, show us your truth this morning.

Lord, call us to a life that reflects that truth.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So, with that, we're going to go ahead and read the passage.

We're in 1 Peter chapter 2.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

That's page 954 in your Pew Bible, if you're reading along in the Pew Bible.

1 Peter chapter 2, starting in verse 18, is where we're going to start this morning.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

So, let's read the passage, and then we're going to dive in with what we're going to talk

about this morning.

So, let's read this together.

Servants, which could be also translated slaves.

The ESV often uses bond servant.

Be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to

the unjust.

For this is a gracious thing, when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering

unjustly.

For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?

But if, when you do good and suffer for it, you endure?

This is a gracious thing in the sight of God.

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example

so that you might follow in his steps.

He committed no sin.

Neither was deceit found in his mouth.

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges

justly.

He himself bore our sin in his body on the tree.

need to address some issues. There are broader issues that may affect how we think about and how

we come to this text. So as with last week, this week's sermon is going to be slightly more topical.

We're going to get to the text, but as opposed to last week, we're going to have the text at the end

of our message. We're going to try to clear our way so that we can think clearly about what this

passage says by talking about some of the bigger issues that probably are raising in your mind as

they do in mine as I read this. So we're going to spend a few minutes talking about things we don't

usually talk about. We're going to be talking about slavery and race in the United States,

and we're going to be talking about slavery and race in the Bible, and then we're going to come

back to this passage and seek to address it. So that's where we're going. Hang in there,

buckle your seatbelts, as I've told you a couple times. Here we go. First of all, we need to

recognize that the issue of slavery in U.S. history is a particularly fraught and difficult

one. And I recognize because of our church, not all of you are U.S. citizens or come from the U.S.,

and this is foreign to you. This is outside of your experience. But we need to be able to speak

the truth about these things. And I am not an expert here by any means. But we need to acknowledge

these things publicly because often they have been hidden or they have been diminished and made small.

And I also want to say this is also not the whole history of the American country, but this is a

particular history of how slavery has been a part of it. So let's look at that together. In 1819, the

first ships that brought slaves from Africa arrived in the United States. The nature of slavery in America

has been race-based chattel slavery. Race-based, that is, Africans, because of their black skin,

were taken from Africa and brought over here. And then them and their descendants were held as slaves.

And they were chattel slaves, which means that they were property of their owners. They were not

treated as people. They were treated as commodities. In 1776, America became a nation. And yet, even during

that time, many founding fathers were slave owners. Some of them were even Christian slave owners.

And slavery continued to be supported by the law and grew increasingly as central to the economy of

our nation, particularly in the South. This led to, ultimately, a crisis in 1861. The Civil War was fought

primarily, although not exclusively, over the issue of slavery. In 1863, President Lincoln passed the

Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves. And in 1865, the 13th Amendment was added to the Constitution.

And yet, even when the legal support of slavery ended, during the period that followed Reconstruction,

the establishment of principles in our country, whereby Jim Crow laws that supported a separate but

equal legal standing in our society continued for the next 100 years. The Civil Rights Movement in

1954 to 1968, led by Martin Luther King and others, sought to address this in a new way. The Civil Rights

Act was passed in 1865, seeking to abolish those separate but equal laws and creating a platform for

legal equality in new ways. And yet, the problems of race relations and racism continue in our world.

Hasn't taken a lot to see this in the last five years, whether it be the death of George Floyd at the

hands of police, whether it be sociological studies that show the ongoing ways in which racial profiling

and disparity of application of law continues to be an issue. Now, I say this, and I want to

acknowledge something else that's really important here. The conversation of race in America has

primarily been on the axis of black and white. But there are a lot of other axes upon which people

have discriminated against others from Asian, from Latin American, and Native American backgrounds.

So we want to recognize this isn't just this, but this has been the primary narrative, one of the primary

forces in American society that we need to focus on and we need to recognize.

We need to see that this has been a part of our American society for a long time.

And lest you think that I'm sitting here saying, what a terrible society we live in, thank God that the church

is different. It's not. The history of defending, or at least accepting, or being passive in the face of slavery,

has been a hallmark of the American church since the beginning. In early days, slaves were often forbidden

to attend church. They were not allowed to by their masters. This created a clandestine black church that

slaves would meet in secret hiding places in the middle of the night, and created a culture that

developed a black church tradition with spirituals and hymns. And we need to recognize that many

theologians and slave owners use the very passage that we are looking at this morning to defend the

institution of slavery, preaching that their slaves were bound to obey them based on this passage.

Furthermore, many, even abolitionist Christians, that is, those who fought against the institution of

slavery, say in the 1850s and 1860s, did not actually support an integrated church.

Northern churches did not welcome blacks into their white churches in the Civil War and post-Civil War era.

If you haven't read Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter, famous letter, the letter from a Birmingham jail,

you ought to read it. He laments the lack of support for civil rights among

white pastors. And while there have been counter examples along the way, and this is not the whole story of the church,

this is broadly and predominantly the reality and the history.

And so we come to our present moment today. And friends, I was heartbroken as I spent time exploring and reading

and thinking, preparing for this sermon, as I heard some of my black brothers and sisters express the pain

and the frustration

that they feel

even today,

even within the church, even with people that I know and trust and respect,

seeing them torn apart because of these issues that continue to feel unaddressed.

Tensions and divisions and factionalism are growing in it.

And my fear is that this issue will tear us apart as a church if we don't grow in how we respond to it.

We have to recognize this history because it shapes our presuppositions and our values and the questions that we bring as we come to a text like this.

And this is normal.

Everyone brings their cultural perspective to a text.

Everyone brings questions that are going to come out of how they have lived and what they've experienced.

We need to be honest about our past.

We need to recognize the reality about our present

and see how it might affect us.

And then we need to go and listen to one another

who come from different perspectives and different backgrounds.

Not because any perspective has a privilege or more right perspective,

but so that we might refine one another in our understanding of the Bible.

So we might listen to one another so that we can ultimately get closer

to a clear understanding of the truth of God's Word.

So if that's the backdrop of our cultural moment,

let's then look at the Bible broadly to see what does it say about slavery and race.

I'm going to start with race.

We're going to go fast.

Daniel's going to try to keep up and put some slides up

so you can see some texts.

This is going to be kind of like last week.

We're going to go through it quickly.

First of all, principle, the dignity and worth of every human life

is affirmed as being made in God's image.

So Genesis 1, 27 says God created man in his image.

In the image of God, he created them, male and female.

He created them.

And every human being is descended from Adam and Eve.

And all of us have this image of God.

And so we see even after the fall and after the flood and the judgment on the Word,

in God's interaction with Noah in Genesis 9, 6,

God reminds Noah this,

whoever sheds the blood of man,

by man shall his blood be shed,

for God made man in his own image.

He reaffirmed this principle.

But then we see in the Bible storyline,

the second principle,

which is that we live in a world where division over race and culture is a part of the fall.

In Genesis 11,

the Tower of Babel talks about how God scattered the people

and diversified them in their race and in their culture.

And the racial part there is not exceedingly clear,

but what it seems is that from there,

from a unified humanity,

there's then a diaspora,

which then creates this mosaic of human cultures.

Every tribe and tongue and nation is the language the Bible uses for it.

Right?

We often read the Bible through the lens of the culture we've come from,

through a monoculture.

We need to recognize there's this diversity of culture

that God allowed to happen and in fact meant to happen

because as we keep going,

we see that God's redemptive purpose has been for all people,

always.

As we shift from the Old Testament to the New Testament,

we see that in the Old Testament,

there were certain people who were brought into the nation of Israel.

But as we get to the New Testament church,

the New Testament church becomes a transnational reality

of people not based on anything except for a single criteria,

faith in Jesus Christ.

And in Acts 2,

we see the day of Pentecost,

the Holy Spirit poured out on people

from at least nine different nationalities and ethnicities,

spoke different languages,

and God called them to faith in Christ that day.

And so we see the principle laid out

in a place like Galatians chapter 3 verse 28,

Galatians 3:28

for as many of you were baptized into Christ,

have put on Christ,

there is neither Jew nor Greek,

neither slave nor free.

There is no male nor female,

for you are all one in Christ.

And in Ephesians 2,

Paul even breaks this down even more.

He's talking about the division between Jew and Gentile,

which was a racial and religious division.

And he says this,

for he Christ himself is our peace,

who has made us both one

and has broken down in his flesh

the dividing wall of hostility

by abolishing the law of commandments

expressed in ordinances

that he might create in himself

one new man in the place of two,

so making peace

and might reconcile us both to God

in one body through the cross,

thereby killing the hostility.

And friends,

all of this is headed towards a future glory

that we see in the book of Revelation,

Revelation 7:9

chapter 7 verses 9 and 10,

where the apostle John talks about this vision

of the throne room of heaven.

He says this,

after this I looked and behold,

a great multitude that no one could number,

from every nation,

from all tribes and peoples and languages,

standing before the throne

and before the lamb,

clothed in white robes

with palm branches in their hands

and crying out with a loud voice,

salvation belongs to our God

who sits on the throne

and to the lamb.

So friends,

this is the sweep of God's perspective

that even as God created

the diversity of peoples in the world,

including racial diversity,

his desire is to bring people together

through the person of Christ

so that there might be a unity of worship

with this amazing diversity

that gives greater glory to Christ,

that gives greater glory to God.

And this is the,

so if this is the purpose that God has,

for us to treat others differently

based on race

or on the privilege of my own race

and culture

denies God's creative and saving purposes.

To the extent that the church has done this,

to the extent that the church has been racist,

we must repent of it.

We must call it wrong.

We must say there's no excuse.

We must find a way forward.

The Bible calls us to forsake it

and to celebrate racial diversity

in the body of Christ

as an expression of God's glory.

So if that's what the Bible says about slavery,

or race,

then what does the Bible say about slavery?

Well, slavery in the Bible

is referred to in a wide range.

I'm really thankful.

We have an early Christianity scholar,

Tom, who's on our eldership.

He gave me some great help in this,

thinking through this.

There was a lot of different kinds of slavery

that were expressed in the Bible.

Some of it was similar to what we talked about

in American slavery,

race-based chattel slavery.

But there were also indentured servants.

There were prisoners of war who became slaves.

There were household servants, right?

And it was a wide range of people.

The Old Testament law seems,

in the law in particular,

seems to address mostly indentured servanthood

or household servants,

rather than the more harsh forms.

But it doesn't mean that it was true freedom.

It was still slavery.

There was real issues there.

In the New Testament,

we're now under Roman law,

and we see that there's a Roman slavery

that was pretty hard.

Often slaves were the spoils of war.

They were the result of kidnapping.

Some were born into slavery.

And there was a provision or a way

that people could sell themselves.

This is indentured servanthood.

Sell themselves into slavery.

And there was some opportunity

to buy yourself out of slavery,

particularly if that was the case.

So first century slavery,

though typically not race-based,

was still pretty brutal.

As one New Testament scholar says,

ancient slavery was not more humane

than modern slavery.

So we don't want to make a huge distinction,

but we do want to say,

let's think a little bit

with a little bit of nuance about it.

So what does the Bible say

about slavery as an institution?

There are places where the slavery

is referred to as an institution.

So in Exodus 20,

in the Ten Commandments,

it talks about households.

It talks about you and your children

and your servants or slaves.

We see this as well in the New Testament

in these what are called household codes.

First Peter 2 is one of them.

We also see them in Colossians 3,

22 through 4, 1,

and Ephesians 6, 5 through 9,

where it refers to the relationship

between slaves and masters.

Now while these are references

to the institution,

there is not a strong support of

or command to be involved in this.

And in fact,

the overwhelming pattern of the Bible

runs the other direction.

It runs away from slavery.

And so even as in Exodus,

God reveals himself in the Ten Commandments

and explains and refers to slavery,

he starts with this,

Exodus 20, verse 2.

Exodus 20:2

I am the Lord your God

who brought you out of the land of Egypt,

out of the house of slavery.

And the Exodus is this monumental theme

in the Old Testament.

This was the greatest work of God's redemption

to free people from slavery.

And we see other places

in the Old Testament law,

in the Old Testament,

where we have senses of this.

So Deuteronomy 25, 15 and 16

says that if an escaped slave comes to you,

don't turn him back to your master.

Let him live freely with you.

So we see in Leviticus 25, 50 and following

that there's this pattern of jubilee freedom

where people weren't going to be slaves forever,

that within the kingdom of God,

they were meant to be set free

during the jubilee,

which almost never happened.

No, it never happened

in the Old Testament time.

Isaiah 61,

a vision of a future playing,

a servant who will come,

who will bring good news to the poor

and declare freedom for the captives

to break the rod of the oppressor.

And then we come to the New Testament.

We come to a passage,

maybe most clearly,

1 Corinthians 7, 21 through 24,

where Paul is talking to the Corinthian church.

It's thinking about how they live

in lots of different ways.

And he says this,

were you a slave when called?

Don't be concerned about it.

But if you can gain your freedom,

avail yourself of the opportunity.

For he who was called in the Lord

as a slave is a freed man of the Lord.

Likewise, he who is free when called

is a slave of Christ.

I've retranslated the ESV

to put slave rather than bond servant

just so you all know what the word is.

You were bought with a price.

Do not become slaves of men.

So brothers,

in whatever condition each was called,

let him there remain with God.

Now, some people read this text

and they think,

well, Paul's saying you should stay.

But he doesn't.

He says generally the principle is stay.

If you're single, stay single.

If you're married, stay married.

But if you're a slave

and you can get your freedom, take it.

And then we have the book of Philemon,

which probably isn't on your top 10 books

of Bible books.

But the whole story is that

Paul is returning a slave

who'd run away to his master.

So Onesimus is returning to his master

with this letter.

And Paul encourages Philemon, the master,

receive Onesimus,

as he says in verse 16,

no longer as a slave,

but more than a slave,

as a beloved brother.

So with all of these patterns,

we see this strong pattern

of moving away from slavery,

that slavery is antithetical

to the gospel

and to the path of redemption

that God is doing in the world.

And yet,

we also need to see,

and we saw this in 1 Corinthians 7,

that Jesus

and Paul

and Peter

all call themselves

slaves.

Slaves of God.

So we need to recognize

this is the big picture

of what the Bible says.

So what does it mean?

A few final thoughts

as we think about this.

So what this means broadly is

there is a strong biblical place

for us to seek to overturn slavery,

to bring societal transformation

such that slavery does not happen,

such that racism and racial inequality

does not happen.

These are good things

that are consistent

with the overall picture of Scripture.

and we're thankful

for large pictures.

If you don't know

the work of John Perkins,

you should read about John Perkins

and the work that he has done.

Locally,

some of you I know

have been involved in this.

There are places like Borden House.

Some of you

have engaged in foster parenting

for the sake of overturning

some of these structures

and coming alongside of it.

Bridges of Hope

seeks to bring churches together

across what would normally be divides.

As we think about these things

and as we think about engagement,

we need to be careful

to be gracious for one another.

Not to demand

that this is the way

you must respond

or this is the way

you must respond

to a particular situation

or a particular thing

or this is the way

that all Christians

ought to be active

in this pattern.

There are various means

and some are more public

and some are less so.

And what we need to do

is to be gracious

and encouraging

to one another

rather than critical

and divisive

about how we go about

being a part of what God

wants to do in this world.

Racial reconciliation,

I believe,

is a necessary part

of the gospel

because of what it says

in Ephesians 2.

That God has made one person

and we need to work

towards reconciliation

as we have opportunity to.

We need to pursue this

and there's a lot

to be said there.

That's a different sermon

for a different day.

But I hope you see

that the biblical pattern,

there's strong support

for us to be engaged with it.

But just as we saw

with politics last week,

with government last week,

as we see the biblical picture,

it embraces two different principles.

One is we work

to transform our society

that we live in

towards righteousness.

But the second one is

how do we live

with Christian character

in a fallen world

under fallen authorities?

And both of these things

are in play.

And right now,

our cultural wave

and our cultural moment

is very strongly

on the second.

We want to fight for justice.

We want to see

the world changed.

And amen,

may God do it.

May God change this world

to be a better one.

But in 1 Peter 2,

he addresses more of the first.

How is it that we live

with Christian character

even when we face

unjust suffering?

He addresses people

within the institution of slavery.

He's speaking to those

that he knows.

And he knows this

because he himself,

right,

he understands

what it's like

to live under authority

of others.

Though it's not clear

that he was ever

actually a slave,

he understands

and knows what it's like

to be a slave of Christ.

And he writes to people

who he's called already

sojourners

and exiles.

And he's calling them

to figure out

how can they live

distinctly as Christians

in their context.

Peter has,

therefore,

two points.

Let's finally close

by looking at our text

and seeing what it has

to say to us

this morning.

1 Peter 2,

1 Peter 2:18

verse 18.

Verse 18 through 20.

The message is very clear.

Submit to your masters

even if you suffer

unjustly

for doing right.

Peter says

you're supposed

to serve them

even if they're,

what's the word he uses

in verse 18?

Also to the unjust.

It's a great word.

It's scolioi.

Like scoliosis,

you know,

you have like a curved,

a bent spine.

He's saying these people

have bent morals.

They have bent character.

And you are called

to submit to them

even when they are like that.

How are we supposed

to do that?

He says you're supposed

to do it respectfully,

not coweringly,

not belligerently,

but with dignity.

You're also supposed

to do it mindful of God,

not because they intrinsically

deserve your submission

because of their character

or goodness.

Clearly,

that's not true.

But because you are

mindful of God

who is the ultimate master

and who is the ultimate Lord

over all of us,

because of him you submit.

And recognize that this includes

enduring sorrow.

That word includes

both emotional pain,

physical pain,

grief,

and trouble.

But Peter says,

to do this is grace

in the sight of God

when you endure these sorrows.

God looks upon this

and he's pleased

with the way

that you bear up

under unjust suffering.

When you look to God

and you seek his praise

and when you depend

on his grace

as being greater

than the evil

that you are enduring

in this moment.

Why did Peter

give this command?

Well,

in the flow

of the context

of the book,

he gave it because

his concern

was for Christian witness.

How would Christians

respond even to injustice?

If they sinned,

if they did evil

in response to injustice,

then what credit

do they have

when they get punished

for it?

None.

But he says,

if you,

for doing good,

suffer unjustly,

this is grace.

Peter is looking

into our hearts

and he knows,

he knows that

in our hearts

when we suffer injustice,

our greatest

and our most human response

is to strike out

in return

and to sin

in word

and deed

in an attitude

of bitterness,

rage,

and spite.

I'm going to say

one thing

really briefly.

This does not mean

that if you're

in an abusive marriage,

you must stay in that.

Nick's going to deal

with that next week,

so I'm just going

to put that in place.

However,

Peter's looking

into our hearts

and he knows

how difficult it is

for us to follow

in the words

of Jesus

to turn the other cheek

when we suffer unjustly.

Martin Luther King

in his sermon

on love,

law,

and civil disobedience

wrote this.

Three ways

that oppressed people

have generally

dealt with their oppression.

One way

is the method

of acquiescence,

the method

of surrender.

That is,

individuals will somehow

adjust themselves

to the oppression,

they adjust themselves

to the discrimination,

to segregation,

or colonialism,

or what have you.

The other method

that has been used

in history

is that of rising up

against the oppressor

with corroding hatred

and physical violence.

Now, of course,

we know about this method

in Western civilization

because, in a sense,

it has been the hallmark

of its grandeur.

And the inseparable twin

of Western materialism.

But there is another way,

namely,

the way

of nonviolent resistance.

Martin Luther King

saw clearly

how easy it is

for our hearts

to be turned

and twisted

either into accepting evil

or rising up

in bitterness

and anger against it.

And he says,

there is a third way.

There is a third way

to respond

which is right

and good.

When you think

about this,

suffering unjustly,

how does your heart run?

does it run

to despair

and slavish self-abandonment?

Do you seek

desperately

to please

the one

who's oppressing you

so that you might

somehow

appease them

so that they will

no longer

cause you suffering?

Do you allow

anger, bitterness,

and rage

and desire

for retaliation

and revenge

to consume your heart?

Peter knows

this is the way

we are

and yet he calls

us to something else.

He calls us

to follow

in this pathway

of submitting

and I would say

in love

reading lots

of Martin Luther King

this week.

One of the things

that he saw

so clearly

was that

the desire

to love

in the midst

of suffering

is one of the hardest

but one of the most

Christian things

that we can do

and how do we know that?

Because it's following

in the footsteps

of Jesus.

We're not creating

a new path.

This third way

is not new.

In fact,

it's very old.

It's the paradigm

that Jesus gave us

and this is the last part.

This is the second half

of what this passage

tells us this morning.

We are to do this

as we follow

the example of Christ

who suffered

for us.

Peter begins

by saying

to this

you've been called.

You,

slaves,

have been called

to follow

in the footsteps

of Christ.

That actually

gave them

great dignity

and worth

in their culture.

Peter saw them

as being important

members of God's kingdom.

But as he's calling

them to this

he's saying

unjust suffering

is not a mistake

in God's kingdom

for even as Jesus

said in John 15, 8

if the world

hates you

know that it

has hated me

before it hates you.

Peter says

to this

God has called

you to be

his

in following

in the footsteps

of Jesus.

Following his

example

in verses 22

and 23

what was Jesus'

example?

These are a bunch

of images

that are translated

and kind of

jumbled a little bit

from Isaiah 53

that we read

earlier in a passage

he did it

without sin.

He did not

revile

he did not

threaten

he did not

take it into

his own hands

to condemn

or retaliate

or bring justice

but instead

as it says

in verse 23

he entrusted

himself

he entrusted

himself to

God who

judges

justly.

Peter's already

reminded

his audience

that this is

what we need

to remember

that we have

a father

in heaven

who is the

God who

judges

justly

the world

on earth

and this is

where final

justice comes

in the midst

of suffering

and trial

by trusting

the one

who will

ultimately

bring

all judgment.

This is the

example

par excellence

look to

Jesus

Pastor Micah

Edmondson

of the

Koinonia Church

in Nashville

Tennessee

wrote this

about Jesus

there was

no greater

atrocity

in all

the world

than when

Jesus Christ

the innocent

righteous

perfect

sinless

light of

the world

who only

spoke truth

and always

loved people

was set up

falsely

accused

tried

in a sham

trial

and tortured

his death

on the cross

was a lynching

and God

allowed it

and Jesus

Christ

trusted

that through

his choice

to lay down

his life

God would

bring about

redemptive

good

whenever

Jesus

talked about

his coming

death

he also

always

talked about

his resurrection

he is the

ultimate example

of how God

is able to

bring about

redemptive

good

through

engagement

with

unearned

suffering

friends

this is the

good news

of the

gospel

that Christ

took upon

himself

our sin

he unjustly

suffered

the punishment

of God

against our

sin

as he hung

on the cross

for us

this is his

substitution

for us

his atoning

of God's

wrath

against sin

and Jesus

did this

so that we

might have

healing

so that we

who wandered

away

from God

might be

brought back

into his

household

and be

called

his people

and he

is the one

who is the

shepherd

and the

overseer

of our

souls

and as

God

redeems

us

in this

work of

Christ

through this

work of

unjust

suffering

he calls

us then

to die

to sin

and to

live for

righteousness

so that we

might know

the power

of forgiveness

in our

own lives

so that we

might forgive

those who

sin against

us

so that we

might have

the refining

power of

the Holy

Spirit

to burn

out the

sin that

resides in

our heart

so that we

might love

one another

purely

Jesus died

for our

sins so that

we might have

in us a

new life

with enabling

power

to persevere

and endure

even unjust

suffering

for the

sake of

Christ

as I've

thought about

how to

apply this

to our

church

I've

thought a

lot about

how the

black church

in America

in the last

300 years

has responded

to unjust

suffering

Martin Luther

King

wrote this

in 1960

my personal

trials have

taught me

the value

of unmerited

suffering

as my

sufferings

have mounted

I soon

realized that

there were

two ways

I could

respond to

my situation

either react

with bitterness

or to seek

to transform

the suffering

into a

creative force

I have

decided to

follow the

latter course

recognizing the

necessity

for suffering

I have tried

to make it

a virtue

if only to

save myself

from bitterness

I have

attempted to

see my

personal

ordeals

as an

opportunity

to transform

myself

and heal

the people

involved in

their tragic

situations

I have

lived these

past few

years with

the conviction

that unearned

suffering is

redemptive

friends this is

what I have

seen as I've

talked and read

in the past

we who are not

a part of the

black church and

don't have this

history have so

much to learn

from our

brothers and

sisters about

how to endure

how to persevere

in hope through

centuries of

subjugation and

discrimination and

injustice not

forsaking their

hope in God or

their inheritance in

the kingdom but

with that also

having the ability

to work for

change to see

injustice and to

confront it and

to work in

godly ways for

transformation

to not only

change their

society for the

better but even

to redeem the

souls of those

who are trapped

in sins of

racism and

prejudice

and friends

what I see is

that if we

can't have both

of those things

the ultimate

hope of God

and the work

now we will

lose our faith

because we will

see that the

injustice of the

world is

unbearable and

we will either

try to enforce

it through other

means or we

will despair of

it and we will

lose the hope of

the gospel

and look

the day is

coming when

all Christians

will suffer

unjustly

we will find

ourselves in

positions where

those who have

authority over us

will treat us

unjustly because of

our faith in

Christ as our

culture moves

further away from

some overlay of

Christian values and

morals as the

church becomes more

distinct from the

culture we live in

we will suffer

unjustly and we

need to be prepared

for that and we

need to learn from

our brothers and

sisters how they

have walked in

fellowship with

Christ so that we

may know the

strength and power

that they have had

so that together we

might work walk with

them through what is

to come

God's purpose for us

is that we may know

the fellowship of

Christ and his

sufferings

even being even

dying with him so

that we might be

raised with him to

new life

for God's glory for

our good and for the

salvation of others in

the world let's

pray Lord we thank

you for this word

and we pray that you

would help us to

receive it to hear

it and respond to it

as you would call us

to we pray this in

Jesus name amen

an amen

you

in

you

you

you

you

you

you