Racial Healing

So, this, let me open with this prayer from the Book of Common Prayer.

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus, your Son.

Look with compassion on the whole human family.

Take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts.

Break down the walls that separate us, unite us in bonds of love,

and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth.

That in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

So, this is the fourth sermon in this summer miniseries on the Holy Spirit

and what would happen if we had more of the Holy Spirit.

So, just a quick recap.

First sermon, I talked about the Holy Spirit himself

and that's a great way to learn who the Holy Spirit is and what he is like

is to look at the connection between Jesus and the Holy Spirit

and the connection between Scripture and the Holy Spirit.

The second sermon, I talked about inner healing or emotional healing

and I pointed to the ways that Jesus is tender and compassionate towards us,

any of us who have experienced wounding,

and I gave some examples of what inner healing can look like.

And last week, the third sermon was on physical healing

and where it was in Jesus' ministry and the early church

and what it might look like today.

And we prayed for each other during the time of the prayers of the people

and two people have reported since then that they experienced some healing.

So, I just want to say to all of you,

for those of you who put your hands up for prayer,

for those of you who prayed where you were

or whether you came over to someone and prayed,

I just want to say thank you and look what God can do in an Anglican service.

So, today's sermon is on racial healing.

And this topic is not an intuitive or obvious topic

that people connect with healing or even with the Holy Spirit.

And so, today's sermon, I want to go through a couple scriptures that talk about race

and then I want to look at some instances in the book of Acts

where the early church struggled with race and racial inclusion.

So, where in the Bible does it talk about race?

Where does it come from?

So, when I was preparing this,

I was surprised to find that two stray thoughts floated through my head.

And they're not thoughts from God,

they were just thoughts that my brain regurgitated in answer to the question.

These are not things I believe,

but I remember it was my brain saying,

if I was to answer the question,

where does race come from?

Here are two answers that I've heard in my lifetime as a Christian.

So, the first was from a sermon I heard a long time ago

where the pastor was working through the book of Genesis.

And he came to Genesis 9 and 10,

where after the flood,

Noah had kids,

he had three sons,

and these three sons were described as the origins of races

in the sermon,

not in the scriptures.

And this pastor went on to explain that

Noah's three sons,

Shem,

became the people that populated Asia,

that Japheth became the people who populated the Middle East

and eventually Europe,

and from Ham came the people who populated Africa.

And, you know,

the story in Genesis goes on to say that

Noah had too much to drink,

Ham looked at him while he was sleeping,

inebriated,

and he cursed Ham

and said that Ham would be the servant of the other two brothers.

Now, I only learned years later,

so this was a sermon I heard from a pastor in a church in Ontario.

And I only learned years later that these scriptures

and this line of thinking was used by enslavers to justify slavery.

They were saying that enslaving black people

was the fulfillment of this scripture.

But I didn't know that at the time,

but this pastor had preached this sermon about where race comes from,

and he had referenced this scripture.

And the other place that I've heard it referenced

was the story of the Tower of Babel.

And just for those of you who want to know the commonwealth

and correct pronunciation of Babel,

it's Babel.

So if you come to Canada,

don't say Babel.

They'll think you're going ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.

Say Babel,

and people will know what you're talking about.

So we're all familiar with this story,

but the upshot is that the people in that region were building a tower,

and this was made possible by the fact that they all spoke the same language.

And so this project, this building project,

came to an end when God confused their languages,

and they weren't able to work together anymore.

And as a result,

people then were not able to talk to each other,

and it says they spread out over the earth.

And I've heard in other sermons as well

that this is also one of the origin stories of race from the Scriptures.

Now, just to say,

this is flawed.

Both of these approaches are flawed.

And for lots of reasons.

You just can't read into the Scriptures

and the story of Noah and his sons

that the three sons were the founders of different races.

And you can't also say that you can reduce races

to three different characters or people in the Noah account.

And you can't also,

and it's very problematic to say that one of these people,

and therefore all their descendants, are cursed.

It establishes a hierarchy of human value

that other parts of the Scripture simply reject.

It's also not true to say that the diversity in languages

comes from an act of judgment by God.

But when Pentecost came,

one of the first things the Holy Spirit did

was give people the ability to speak in other languages

that they don't know.

And you'd think if diversity of language was a problem,

the Holy Spirit would have reversed it.

And he didn't.

So that doesn't work.

So what are the true origins?

The true origins of race in the Scriptures

are actually with Adam and Eve.

And whether you believe that there was a literal, exact Adam and Eve

to people who are literally called Adam and Eve,

or not,

what Genesis does do is identify

that the very first people God created

don't have a race.

Nothing's mentioned about that.

It just simply tells us that

all of humankind started with Adam and Eve

and extended from Adam and Eve.

And therefore, like Adam and Eve,

everybody is made in the image of God.

They resemble God,

and they're of God.

And they share in God's mandate

as creator,

and the assignment God gave them

to steward the creation.

Nobody's left out.

People are called to join in the work of creation

as co-creators with God.

But it also means that all those who are image bearers

are of infinite worth and dignity.

But there's a further point,

a further theological point,

to this creation story.

The image of God is a revelation of God,

of who or what God is like.

That humanity is racially diverse

is a part of this revelation of God.

And to not have one or another racial group

is for the revelation of God to be incomplete.

To suppress, eliminate, or diminish

any one racial group

is to resist God's revelation of himself.

We need each other.

We need each other to know about God.

And we should marvel,

and we should wonder at each other,

and at our differences,

and pay close attention to what we learn

from other image bearers around us,

what we learn from them about God.

As we go on through the rest of the Old Testament,

I'm not going to do that here,

but if you read the story of Israel,

it's a story of Israel being formed

by bringing people

who are of different ethnicities together.

Israel is not ethnically or racially homogenous.

Now, contemporary fields of study,

genetics in particular,

have shown that race is a construct,

and people are genetically the same,

regardless of skin color.

Race is not a matter of three or four different groups.

It's far more complex than that.

And skin color actually exists

on a spectrum of light to dark,

and not in color groupings.

And yet, in real life,

historically and even now,

there are lots of people

who still make race-based judgments

about people who are racially different from them.

And this shows up even in scriptures.

Scriptures talk about this.

In Jesus' day,

the Jews and the Samaritans hated each other

with violence,

and Jews looked down on Gentiles.

And so while the scriptures speak

of all people being made in the image of God,

by the time Jesus arrived on the scene,

Israel and Jewish ethnic identity

was well-formed as distinct

and separate from other ethnic identities

and contained, in that contrast,

a sense of the other ethnic identities

being not as good.

So how did that happen?

How did we go from

everyone's made in the image of God

to a well-formed, distinct ethnic identity?

So, to cover a lot of ground,

to sum up,

when Israel became a kingdom

with a royal family

as one kingdom

among all the other kingdoms of the world,

it gelled the 12 tribes

into a bigger identity

than just being a member

of one of the 12 tribes.

And then, later,

when they went into exile,

Israelites were dispersed

among other parts

of the ancient Near East,

and this meant that Jewish identity

was a minority identity

among a bigger majority Gentile culture,

and retaining the practices

and life of Judaism,

retaining a pure faith in God,

and even retaining your home language

was very difficult.

And so one of the effects

of that experience,

especially as people came back into Israel,

was to double down

on what it means to be Jewish,

to double down

on the practice of Judaism

out of fear

that the exile would happen again.

And this got an extra boost

when Alexander the Great

swept through

and started Hellenizing

that part of the world.

So all these experiences,

through these experiences,

the practice of faithful Judaism

came to be defined

by an elaborate set of laws

and customs

that emphasized

being separate

from what was unclean.

And so,

what did this mean

for Jewish attitudes

towards Gentiles?

Well,

we see from Scripture,

because it talks about it,

but even other contemporary writers

like Josephus and Philo,

that Gentiles were viewed as pagan.

They participated in religious

and moral or immoral practices

that made them spiritually defined,

and to come into contact

with a Gentile

had a contaminating effect.

So you had to stay away from them.

And the expectation,

long term,

was that God would come

and reward

faithful

practicers of Judaism

and bring down judgment

on Gentiles

who were doing evil.

So this understanding

was deeply,

deeply ingrained

in a lot of,

in part of the Jewish identity

at the time.

So,

why is it important

to talk about this?

Because,

to understand all of this

helps us understand

a couple things

that were happening

in the book of Acts

in the early church.

So most of us

read the book of Acts

because we want to read

about healings

and miracles

or see how

trace Paul

and his journey

around the region

to plant churches,

but we don't often see

that the Holy Spirit

was involved

in this issue

of racial healing.

So the early church,

the very first followers

of Jesus

after his resurrection

were largely Jewish

and at that,

largely Hebrew Jews

rather than,

say,

Hellenistic Jews.

So what's the difference?

Hebrew Jews

were the ones

who grew up

and born and raised

around Jerusalem

and the region

and Hellenistic Jews

were the ones

born and raised

outside in the broader world.

They were very Greek

and they spoke Greek

and their customs

and their mode of living

was very Greek.

So I'm going to walk us

through a couple episodes

in Acts

where these racial tensions

emerge

and look at what happened.

So,

first friction point,

Acts 6.

In this chapter,

we read that

the community

of early believers

believers,

and in particular,

the Hellenistic Jews,

complained

that their widows

were being neglected

in the daily food distribution.

This was a big deal.

Those who were being neglected

were vulnerable

and they depended

on this food

for their survival.

You have to ask

why this happened.

The apostles

who were in charge

of the whole thing

were Hebrew Jews,

but they lived closely

with Jesus

for three years.

They knew

that Jesus' ethic

was love others

as yourself.

And yet,

they somehow

didn't notice

that a whole part

of their community

was being neglected

in the distribution

of food.

This was an inequity.

And it was causing

tension.

So it doesn't explain

what the mechanical

breakdown was,

but that chapter

in Acts

is very clear

that this issue

fell along identity lines.

It was Hellenistic Jews

who were complaining.

And their reaction

and their sensitivity

is very clear.

The word that we used

in our translation

is complained,

but other translations

use murmuring.

And this kind of gets

more clearly

at the tension

that existed.

Murmuring,

as some scholars

have said,

suggests that

this was a complaint

that came out

of long-held grievances

from the tensions

that existed

between them.

Hebrew Jews

looked down

on Hellenistic Jews

as not being

Jewish enough.

And Hellenistic Jews

would have looked down

on Hebrew Jews

for not being polished

and cosmopolitan enough.

So resentment

always brewed

under the surface.

And it would have been

easy for the Hellenistic Jews

to feel that this was

not just a mistake

or accidental,

but maybe

a little bit more.

So it's very striking

to me

from this passage

that a group of people

can know Jesus

very intimately,

have incredible

spiritual experiences

as followers

of Jesus,

even watch the Lord

work miracles

through them,

and still not notice

that a group

of believers

with a different

identity from them

is being overlooked

in something like

food distribution.

So we don't see,

it doesn't mention

in this passage

that the Holy Spirit

intervened to change things,

but the apostles

took some steps.

They acted

to preserve

the unity

of the body

by creating

a team of leaders

that they drew

from the community

that had the grievance.

And they gave

authority and responsibility

away to them.

They opened up

new leadership roles

to members

of the Hellenistic

Jewish group,

giving them voice

and real power

over this critical asset,

food.

And so most people

see the phrase

the apostles used,

serving the word

versus serving tables,

and they think

that it's the apostles

belittling the work.

And if you know

Anglicanism at all,

this is one of these places

where your bishop

will tell you,

well, this is where

we get deacons from.

The priests

do the work

of the apostles,

they minister

to the word,

and the deacons

served at tables.

So I was told

when I was a deacon.

Yep.

So I said,

but what's interesting

is that these roles

were clearly

not just a practical

leadership role

created to solve

a short-term

logistical problem.

This was a new cohort

of leaders

in the community.

And most of the

seven leaders

that were commissioned,

all of them

Hellenistic Jews,

you read in later

parts of Acts

that they all went out

moving in the

power of the spirit,

doing what the

apostles did,

evangelizing,

praying for people,

prophesying,

healing people.

They're a fully

authorized group

of leaders.

And the apostles

created this group

and gave power

away to them.

And what the Lord

did with this

is noteworthy.

If it wasn't

for this crisis

and the way

the apostles

handled it,

no new leadership

rules would have

been created.

And without

those new

leadership roles

and Hellenistic

Jews in those

roles,

there would have

been no evangelism

to Gentiles

later in Acts 11.

This was an

unintended consequence,

but a good one,

and one that the

Lord was clearly in.

Next episode,

this is a good one.

Peter and Cornelius,

Acts 10.

So in this one,

it's very instructive

for us.

Here you see the

Holy Spirit actively

at work to break

down racial barriers.

So a couple key

points in this story.

Cornelius is a

God-fearing Gentile,

and he's told by an

angel to go get

Peter and bring

Peter to his house.

So messengers from

Cornelius are on

their way.

Meanwhile,

Peter's praying,

and he has a vision

where God tells

Peter to not call

anything unclean

that God has made

clean.

And as the vision

ends, the

messengers,

timing is amazing,

the messengers show

up and say,

we're looking for

Peter and here's

why we've come.

And then the

Spirit says to

Peter,

verses 19 and 20,

go with them

without hesitation.

So on that basis,

Peter goes with

the messengers

to Cornelius'

house.

He shares the

gospel.

And while he's

doing so,

the Holy Spirit

falls spontaneously

on Cornelius and

all the Gentiles

gathered there,

just as the

Hebrew Jews had

experienced at

Pentecost.

So a couple

observations.

First of all,

Peter's entirely

blown away by

this whole experience.

And when he goes

in the next

chapter to tell

the Jewish

leadership,

the Hebrew

Jewish leadership

back in Jerusalem

what happened,

they're also

amazed.

It was so far

off their grid,

so outside of

their frame of

understanding things.

Second, it's

important to

understand something

about what the

functioning of the

Holy Spirit is in

this.

For the early

church, the

signal mark of

becoming a

Christian was not

water baptism,

but receiving the

Holy Spirit.

And let me be

clear, I'm not

talking about

speaking in

tongues, I'm

not saying that

you have to

speak in

tongues in

order to be a

genuine Christian,

not that at

all.

Leslie Newbigin,

who was a

bishop in the

Church of India,

and he wrote in

one of his books

that the parallel

experience in early

church to

circumcision was

not water baptism,

but receiving the

gift of the Holy

Spirit.

We are baptized by

Christ into,

baptized by the

Spirit into Christ,

we're made members

of his body by

the Spirit.

And so for the

Spirit to pour out

like he did on

the Gentiles sent a

shockwave through the

Hebrew Jewish

Christians.

They didn't think it

was possible for

Gentiles to be

saved.

And they certainly

didn't expect them to

become followers of

Jesus on equal

footing with

themselves.

It was just not

possible for them

that people who

were so unclean

could become like

them.

And it was this

falling of the

Spirit on the

Gentiles that

convinced Peter and

the Hebrew Jews

with him that the

Gentiles were in

fact saved.

Third, Peter had

the witness of

Scripture that

spoke to him of

the Messiah being a

light to the

Gentiles.

And he heard Jesus

tell him and the

others that they

would be his

witnesses to Judea,

Samaria, and to

the ends of the

earth.

He was there at

Pentecost.

He and his friends

spoke in other

languages about the

Lord.

And yet, his

understanding of

what it means to

be a Hebrew Jew

ran so deep in

him that he still

held the conviction

that Gentiles

couldn't be

included.

It took a vision,

not just one time,

but a vision that

God gave three times

in a row for good

measure, to shake

Peter past his, I'm

going to use this

word, unconscious

bias towards Gentiles.

Now, if you want to

talk, you want to

question what do I

mean by that?

Am I alluding to

this or that?

Am I getting into a

dogfight over critical

race theory or

something?

Come talk to me

after.

I can guarantee you

wherever you fall on

these issues, my

answer is not going

to make you happy.

If you love it or

you don't love it,

you're not going to

be happy with what I

have to say.

So, just come talk

to me, but just be

warned.

So, one of the

things that I find so

interesting is that to

have more of the

Holy Spirit is for

the Holy Spirit to

work to break down

some of our deepest

beliefs and opinions

about people who are

racially different from

us.

When Paul says in

Ephesians 2 that the

dividing wall of

hostility between Jews

and Gentiles is broken

down, and then in

Galatians and Colossians

that in Christ there's

neither Jew nor Greek,

he's not talking about

getting rid of racial

identity or differences

or colorblindness.

He's talking about a

unity in Christ between

people who retain all

their created differences

as image bearers of

God.

So, we come to

Galatians 2, Peter and

Paul.

Peter and Paul.

So, even though when

Paul recounted this, or

when Peter, sorry,

recounted his experience

with Cornelius to the

leaders in Jerusalem, it

didn't quite, it was

initially embraced, but

it clearly didn't stick.

Because later we read, in

Galatians 2, we read

about a confrontation

between Peter and Paul.

It's not recorded in the

book of Acts.

Most scholars think that

it happened during the

timeline of Acts and

before Acts 15.

Just to reference one

person, N.T. Wright, go

argue with N.T. Wright, he

thinks that it happened

before Acts 15.

So, if N.T. Wright says

it, it's probably true.

So, this was a

confrontation that

happened because Paul and

Peter are hanging out in

Galatia.

They're with Gentile

believers.

And then it says that

some people from the

group of James came from

Jerusalem, and when they

show up, Peter, out of

fear of what they'll think

of him, recuses himself

and stops hanging out

with them.

He stops eating with

them and associating with

them.

And even, as Paul says,

even Barnabas.

Now, this is quite a big

deal.

James was the leader of

the Jerusalem church, but

he was Jesus' half-brother.

He sort of looked like

Jesus.

He carried a lot of

authority.

He was said to be a

person of deep prayer, who

knew the scriptures very

deeply.

So, if people said, we've

come on behalf of James, and

we think that you have to be

circumcised and follow the

law, it was a big deal.

So, this whole thing makes

Paul mad.

And he calls out Peter.

And now, Paul wrote

Galatians.

He didn't transcribe this.

He just wrote his side of

things.

And he says, I called out

Peter.

I don't know what Peter said

back to him.

We don't even know how the

whole thing ended.

But Paul just kind of says, I

called out Peter, and he was

wrong, and so it is.

And he goes on to all his

arguments in the rest of

Galatians.

Now, most of us have probably

read the book of Galatians as

an argument about faith versus

works of the law.

And that's right.

That is true.

But the implication here is

for the salvation of Gentiles

and their inclusion in the

family of God.

And Paul doesn't make a

distinction.

Unlike us, he doesn't

separate a theological

argument from an

ecclesiastic or sociological

reality.

For him, they're all joined

up.

So, Paul is clear that

salvation is by faith and

not by works.

But this should lead to a

new family, a new people of

God, and the Gentiles are

part of this.

And so, this is why he

opposed Peter and those who

came from James.

And so, this is something that

Paul brings up in almost all

his letters.

It's something that dogged his

ministry and the rest of his

life.

He fights against this for the

rest of his ministry.

He fights for the Gentiles for

the rest of his ministry.

So, there are a couple things

that we should understand about

this group that comes from

James.

Paul sometimes calls them the

circumcision group.

So, these are majority

culture Hebrew Jews.

And for them, the thinking is

something like, well, great

that the Gentiles are saved,

but they have to become

Jewish to inherit the

promises of salvation.

It was barely conceivable,

as mentioned, that the

Gentiles could become the

people of God simply by faith.

And even if they did receive

the Holy Spirit, they still

needed to assimilate.

And they needed to be

circumcised and keep the law.

And if not, then they need

to segregate.

So, Jewish identity for these

people from James is

normative, right, and even

holy.

And the instinct to assimilate

or segregate is something

that simply accompanies

beliefs of racial superiority.

So, this thinking stuck with

the church down through the

ages.

In the early church, it was

how can you be a Christian

and not a Jew?

Couldn't understand how you

could do that.

And then later, when

Christianity became the

official religion of the

empire, it was how can you

be a Christian and not a

Roman?

Again, the possibility that

you could be a Christian

and not a Roman citizen

was hard to square.

And then later, when

missionaries went around

the world, it was how could

you be a Christian and not

a European?

And this thinking continues

on.

How can you be a Christian

and not also Canadian,

American, white?

I mean, fill in the blank.

We all have our thing that

we go to.

I don't recognize, I don't

see how the thing that

you've got in your identity

squares with my sense of

God.

We should be on guard

against that.

The Jerusalem Council.

This is Acts 15.

We read about that this

morning.

This is the crescendo.

This is the first church

council.

It's convened around this

exact issue of racial

identity.

There's no creedal formula

that emerges, but more

like a communique that

clarifies the church's

unified position on Gentile

believers.

So it's a showdown.

Paul and Barnabas were

fighting with a group from

James and they said, you

know what?

We're not getting anywhere.

Let's pop this up a level.

We're going to Jerusalem.

Let's have it out right at

the top and settle this.

And everybody said, fine.

So everybody gathered in

Jerusalem.

Long, heated debate we read

in our passage.

And then at some point,

Peter comes back in and he

tells his story again about

Cornelius, the one that I

just talked about.

And then Paul and Barnabas

start telling their stories

of how the Gentiles came to

faith and how they saw this

in their ministry.

But in the end, it was

James, the main leader,

who connects Peter and

Paul's experiences with the

scriptures.

He could have picked from

lots of places.

But the one he picked from

specifically was this idea

that the son of David, the

Messiah, would rebuild the

tent of David so that the

Gentiles who are called by the

name of the Lord could seek

the Lord.

And this settles it.

And they write up a

communique.

It was probably a

compromised document, but it

was a big win for Paul.

It was a big win for letting

Gentiles be followers of

Jesus without having to

change their racial identity,

without having to become

Jewish.

So a couple things strike me

about this too.

A spirit-filled, miracle-

and healing, gifted community

can persistently struggle with

this issue.

Peter had a powerful

experience as he did in Acts

10, and still later on when

he was in Galatia, under the

right or maybe wrong

circumstances, could slip back

into his old, deep thinking

when people from Jerusalem

showed up.

The Spirit used the strong

disagreement and the

confrontation between Peter

and Paul, two Spirit-filled

people, to make progress on

this issue.

And the Holy Spirit can also

use councils and meetings

linking experiences to

Scripture.

So I want to close with some

thoughts.

I'm hoping that I've painted

a picture here.

You can have the Holy Spirit

and move in the gifts of the

Spirit, but still have deep

and stubborn thinking

patterns.

I'm going to tell you a story.

I was trying to decide, do I

tell you this story?

It's about me.

When I was a kid, so I grew up

in Ontario.

When I was a kid, there was a

part of the town south of us

called Brampton.

And Brampton was nicknamed by

people around me.

It was called a reference, it was

called Bramaladesh because it was

thought that there were people from

South Asia who lived there.

And I grew up hearing this term

used.

And so years later, years later, I'm

here in D.C.

And a friend of mine who's not from

Canada says, oh, I was talking to a

friend and he said that he's going to

go to Brampton.

And out of my mouth pops, oh,

Bramaladesh.

And I froze.

And I thought to myself, where did that

come from?

I mean, I had been, I was so shocked.

This stuff, this word popped out of the

deep parts of my brain and popped out

just like that.

And I wish, I wish, I couldn't believe

I said it.

I was so embarrassed.

I immediately apologized to him.

He had no idea.

He was so confused.

He sort of stood there and watched me

go through this whole thing.

I'm agonizing.

I'm, you know, beating myself up and

very embarrassed.

And I thought, do I explain to him

what this is, why this is such an

awful term?

And do I, and do it so that he

understands what I'm going through?

I didn't.

I just simply said, sorry, that's not a

right term for it.

It's Brampton.

And that's, you know, and I, but I

basically took it away as, you know

what, you just, you just can't ever

underestimate how deep stuff like this

can be.

And if you'd asked me, if you'd started

earlier and said, Rob, what do you

think of calling Brampton Bramladesh?

I would have said, that's terrible.

What a terrible, you know, that's so

wrong.

You can't, you just don't, don't do

that.

And there it was, without even

thinking, it just popped out.

I think what's also really striking

to me about all of this is that in

the, when the Holy Spirit came at

Pentecost, he didn't just come to do

miracles and healings among new

believers, but he worked among them to

break down racial prejudice.

This was part of the package.

He could use crises like food

distribution for Hellenistic Jews.

He could work through supernatural

revelations, visions, and speaking

quietly to Peter.

He could work through hard

conversations and even church

conventions.

The Holy Spirit is definitely active on

this issue in the book of Acts.

And it's a work of the Spirit that we

still need.

I've been doing some reading on the

history of revival in the U.S.

It's fascinating.

When the Spirit of God pours out and is

poured out in moments of revival, people

were coming to Christ.

And during camp meetings and tent meetings,

white and black people were converted

under the same roof and they would

start sitting beside each other,

preaching to each other, prophesying

over each other, praying for each other,

standing up and sharing testimony.

But at some point in every single one of

these revivals, whether it's one of the

Great Awakenings, whether it's the Azusa

Street Revival, white clergy decided this

integration stuff was no longer okay.

And even though the Spirit of God was

falling on everyone without distinction,

they would reinstate the exclusionary

and separate worship spaces.

And when people were pushed out,

when black people were pushed out of

these revival meetings, revival would

fizzle.

We can grieve the Holy Spirit with

immoral choices like drunkenness, and we

can grieve the Holy Spirit with refusals to

confront racism in ourselves or our churches

or elsewhere.

I've also had a number of conversations,

probably like others, with black pastors of

different denominations, in part asking

about their experiences with the Holy Spirit

and charismatic Christianity.

And they've said to me something very

interesting.

They've said to me about white charismatic

leaders.

If they have the Holy Spirit the way they

say they do and seem to, because miracles

operate through them, why are they so tone-deaf

to issues of racism?

Why are cries for revival always about

personal salvation and miracles and

healings and not a cry for the end of

racism?

I think to have more of the Holy Spirit is

to partner with God's heart to heal us, to

heal all our wounds, including the wounds

of racism.

And the way I would say that we should seek

the Lord for inner healing and physical

healing and to have more of the Holy Spirit,

to see more of the gifts and power of the

Spirit operate, we should seek the Holy Spirit

for more of racial healing.

In the same way that God's self-revelation

is incomplete without all the racial

differences that he created, God's redemption

and making of all things new is incomplete

when the wounds of racism are not healed.

Let me close us in prayer.

Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, I thank you that you are

willing to go with us to the hard places,

into the hard places of pain in our lives,

to the places where it feels like our faith

is stretched thin.

You're willing to go with us into the places

of our deepest need.

And I pray, Lord, that you help us also be aware

of the places of need in the lives of others around us,

even when those places of need are not familiar to us,

when they don't fit into our grid.

Sensitize our hearts and help us follow your prompting,

the promptings of the Holy Spirit,

to follow you into the fullness of healing,

the full package of healing you have for us.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.