Parish Retreat Session 1: Formed For Identity in Christ

sort of uptick in quality and ambiance here. Are other people feeling that?

It's always great to be back every year and kind of see the incremental changes that happen.

A lot of memories have been made in this room, a lot of great, amazing conversations,

a lot of wonderful times of prayer, a lot of laughter.

Hopefully we'll have some more of that tonight.

But this weekend's very exciting because as this retreat does every year,

this is an opportunity for us as a community to take those central values that define our community

and our vision and really dive into those.

And our values are the values of generous hospitality, spiritual formation,

and then missionary faithfulness, living all of life in reference to the mission of God.

And so that first value, what does it mean to be a community that is generous

and even extravagant in our hospitality?

Our willingness to embrace and to make space for and to welcome into our family all those who God sends us.

And how do we welcome people as we've been welcomed by Jesus Christ?

And so that's why we have the Reverend Dr. Erwin Ince with us.

Erwin is a veteran pastor.

He pastored a church for 10 years in Columbia, Maryland.

He is a father of four, right?

He has a sort of historical connection with our church family.

He was a part of Res and a friend with the people who got Church of the Resurrection started all those years ago,

and a friend of Dan Clare's and now a friend of ours.

And so we're excited to have him because he's come back to D.C. to be a pastor at Grace D.C.

and to start the Institute for Cross-Cultural Ministries that is – well, he'll tell you more about all that they're doing,

but I can tell you that their sort of central statement of vision is this,

that the ICCM is a church-based entity dedicated to equipping churches with the confidence and competence to welcome others the way Jesus welcomes us.

So that's right in line with the kind of thing we want to be talking about.

And as a community, you know, we always want to be in a posture of learning from people who are leading and doing great things in the kingdom.

And so our hope and prayer is that we learn from Erwin.

And so I'm just going to say a brief prayer, and then I'm going to invite him up here.

Lord, we pray for this time.

We pray for all of us who are gathered here.

Lord, we've all been welcomed at one point or another into the kingdom, though we did not deserve it.

We've all been embraced into the arms of Jesus Christ, Lord.

And if there are any people here who have not yet felt that embrace, we know that your arms are wide open for them.

And we pray for Dr. Enz as he speaks this morning.

We pray that he would be an instrument in your hand, Lord, that his voice would be your voice, his word, your word.

We pray that our hearts would be open to receive it.

In your son's name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Good morning, folks.

Yes, good, good morning.

I hope we're all well satisfied in our bellies and well caffeinated.

I am well caffeinated.

And so, Lord willing, we'll be relatively sharp this morning.

So, yeah, we are this weekend talking, as you can see in the booklet and on the screen, about a new we, image, identity, and community in Jesus Christ.

And I will say at the outset, I have far too many slides for our time together.

So, my goal is not to get through every slide that I've got, but to work through this in a way that is enriching for you all.

And I know that we have got some time set aside for discussion with questions, but I invite you through this process to interrupt me if you have a question.

And if it's something that I want to defer to later, I'll say that, but I'm all about dialogue.

All right?

So, let me start off by just kind of talking about what I call my core conviction.

And this comes out of my own story, coming out of a very racialized worldview.

In my college years, I rejected the faith, the Christian faith, during my high school years.

I thought playing football was much more important than Jesus.

And so, but that rejection of the Lord became active as an undergraduate, as I was studying electrical engineering.

And I joined a group that had a very Afrocentric worldview.

It was called the Sons of Africa.

And I, for me, you know, Christianity became the white man's religion.

I was immersing myself in people who had a very black nationalistic worldview.

And so, I mean, I was, I would go to bed during those years.

There was a period of months where I would go to bed watching a Louis Farrakhan speech on video that I had on video.

Like the same speech from 1985 Madison Square Garden speech that I had on video.

And every night, that's what I went to sleep doing, watching that, because I wanted to get that.

Like, I wasn't interested in being a black Muslim.

I just wanted to get that deep into my, into my bones.

And so, when I, when I came to faith and the Lord brought me to himself at a historic African American church in Washington, D.C.,

particular lights began to go off for me.

I began to realize that my true family, my eternal family, were those to whom I was united by faith in Jesus Christ.

From every racial and ethnic background.

And so, the problem that I saw was that, oh, okay, I'm reading the scriptures now, and I'm seeing this is God's plan and God's vision.

But I don't see it in the church.

Like, the church I'm at, we're all black.

There's a church down the road, they're all white.

That one's all Asian, that one's all Latino.

So, I'm not seeing the living out of what I see in the scriptures in any practical way.

And I know that there are valid, actually, reasons, at least in America, for these kinds of divisions within the church.

But that, I wasn't able to kind of shake that.

And it created in me what I call a divine dissatisfaction.

And that's a phrase I borrowed from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

That he would use to describe, saying, what is it that you see, as far as God's standard and God's word,

that you don't see being lived out in the society or in the church.

And it's this divine dissatisfaction.

I have to live into it.

And so, that's a long way of getting around to, did I go backwards?

I did.

All right.

Well, I'll go back to what was on the slide before.

My core conviction, which is that the ministry of reconciliation,

as demonstrated in the local church by the gathering of people from diverse backgrounds,

ethnicities, and cultures, ethnicities, and cultures,

it is the natural outworking of a rich biblical commitment.

If we're committed to God's word,

then what we will be pursuing is the ministry of reconciliation

demonstrated by the gatherer of people in the local church

from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and ethnicities.

And so, this is what I've given my life to in pastoral ministry,

and now as we build this Institute for Cross-Cultural Mission.

And so, here are three things we're going to, in these two sessions,

we're going to try to cover.

Right?

Image, identity, and community in Christ.

We're going to talk about being formed to image God.

We're going to talk about the God that we image,

kind of laying the groundwork, the biblical foundation.

We're going to talk about being formed for identity in Jesus Christ.

We're being formed to have our core sense of who we are,

being rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ.

Not to say that ethnicity is unimportant.

Not to say that we're striving to be colorblind.

No, you see me, you need to see that I'm a black man.

But, my ethnic identity is subordinate to my identity in Jesus Christ.

And then, we're going to talk about being formed for identity in community.

And so, look, let's talk about the God that we image.

I've been just captured probably the past year or so.

I don't know how it happened.

But, just with this notion of beauty.

Right?

To reflect on the beauty of God.

That God is the standard for beauty.

Yes, and beauty is an attribute of God.

He's got lots of attributes, right?

But, I think in this case, it's beneficial, at least it was for me,

for us to study as we consider God's nature.

Who is God?

And, who are we?

If God is beautiful, what does it mean for the humanity that images God?

And so, here's the question.

Like, what is beauty?

Alright, why do I have a picture of camels on the screen?

Well, camels are beautiful, aren't they?

Well, like, earlier this year, January, there was a scandal.

In the camel beauty contest pageant in Saudi Arabia, in January.

There were 12 camels who were disqualified from the pageant.

Why were they disqualified?

Because they had found a veterinarian who had injected them with Botox

to make them more attractive.

Injecting their lips to be fuller.

Their nose.

They had to perform some procedures.

They have the beauty pageant in Saudi Arabia for camels.

They have documents of the standards of camel beauty

that you've got to utilize to make an adjustment.

And, right, it's funny, right?

But, right, this is no laughing matter.

There are, it's, the article said that there's over $31 million in prize money

at these pageants.

So, you know, I mean, I've got to get my camel looking good.

So, that begs the question, right?

Like, what is beauty?

Now, we don't, we're not going to have any camel beauty pageants here

in the good old U.S. of A.

Right?

But we know what it's like to commodify beauty.

Right?

We know what it's like to parade women and men on stages

and make judgments about their physical appearance

and their value based on that appearance

and calling that beauty and calling them beautiful.

And so, really, the question is, what is beauty?

What does it mean to be beautiful?

All right, I'm just going to ask the question.

Y'all tell me.

What, if I, what is beauty?

What does it mean to be beautiful?

Some sort of pleasure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It makes you feel like things are, you know, in a right way.

Yeah.

It's an ideal, like platonic ideal that you see.

Yeah.

Yes, but some kind of pleasure, right?

It's, there's a, there's a light to it.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

I'd say a lot of self-esteem.

Self-esteem, right?

It's connected with beauty.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What else?

Curves.

Curves.

Curves.

All right.

So, I was looking at this, okay, we're all adults in here, right?

There's a, this guy made this video on, he put on Facebook about how he's, it's him as the dad

and all of the old school 1980s music that he's teaching to his child.

Like, you know, they don't make music like they used to.

And so, it's a, this is, this is me, right?

I'm going to show you what real good music is, right?

And there's this, there's this one song by the Gap Band, A Brick House.

Right?

That's the Commodores.

Thank you.

That's not the Gap, thank you.

The Commodores.

She, she's a brick house, right?

And, and, and, uh, and, uh, the dude says, as he's seen the song, right?

I got two brick houses, the one I pay for and your mother.

So, that's me, right?

Right?

Curves are an aspect of beauty, right?

But, question is, right?

Here, so I'm going to borrow, I'm going to borrow from, um, uh, from an old theologian.

Um, you know, beauty, is beauty simply, you know, you know it when you see it?

Right?

Is it, right?

Is it this subjective thing?

Is it only in the eye of the beholder?

Um, is, uh, um, you know, what do we mean, right?

That song, we're marching to Zion.

Beautiful, beautiful Zion.

We're marching onward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.

Um, I, um, uh, I'm going to, I'm going to run through these.

Okay.

Because I know I'm going to, how much time do I have, by the way?

What time are we going to need to be done?

Oh, okay.

All right.

So, I'm running through this.

We're not, we're not going to stop here.

Um, um, uh, but, uh, yeah, I'm going to keep going.

Sorry.

Um, I'm going to, but I'll read that last quote.

This is from, um, a, uh, an art historian, um, who is critiquing notions of beauty.

Um, and, uh, and she says that she's not, she's not a follower of Jesus, but, uh, this is,

she makes this true statement in her critique.

She says, only God can act as origin and end of beauty, incontrovertible enough to stop

the seepage that pollutes the ostensibly close, otherwise pure system of aesthetic judgment.

That we've got to have a standard, in other words, for beauty.

And only God can act as that standard.

Um, uh, yeah, I'm going to skip through this too.

Um, uh, Herman, Herman Bavank, one of my favorite theologians, uh, but, but he's making

the same case that God is supreme, uh, supreme beauty.

Um, so, here we go.

All right.

So, I want to say that beauty is theological in nature.

It is essential to beauty is what we find in the scripture, a grand narrative of the defeat

of the formlessness of chaos, a grand narrative of God bringing order out of chaos.

This is the story of Genesis chapter one.

In the beginning, the, the, the earth was formless and void.

Darkness was, um, was covering the, the, the, the earth.

It is a, a story of, uh, of chaos.

Uh, and that's the pattern of Genesis chapter one.

Uh, the, the six days of creation are God bringing order out of chaos,

forming and filling.

Day one, he forms the light in the parallel day.

Day four, he fills what he has formed with the, the sun and the moon.

Day two, he forms the firmament and the sky.

And day five, he fills it with inhabitants, birds and fish.

Day three, he forms the dry land and vegetation.

And in day six, he fills it with land animals and, of course, with, uh, with people.

This is, uh, essential to beauty.

And so there are three aspects of beauty I want to engage us with.

I get this from, uh, St. Thomas Aquinas, um, where he defines beauty, uh, this way.

He says, species of beauty has a likeness to the property of the sun, S-O-N.

For beauty includes three conditions.

Integrity or perfection.

Proportion or harmony.

And lastly, brightness or, or clarity.

And this is kind of morphed into three Ps, uh, helpfully by a guy named Stephen Guthrie.

Wrote a book called The Creator's, The Creator's Spirit, The Holy Spirit,

and The Art of Becoming Human.

And he puts it in three ways with three Ps.

First, perfection.

All right?

We, beauty, uh, includes perfection.

Uh, the, the reality that in the scriptures we see this, uh, Guthrie says,

To hope for the kingdom of God in its fullness is to hope for beauty.

The psalmist says in Psalm 50,

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

And here's the deal.

By perfection, we don't necessarily mean, there's a mystery there.

Uh, we don't, it's gotta be a perfection that can accommodate scars.

And what I mean by that is, Jesus Christ is beautiful.

He, the risen Christ, the risen, ascended Christ, is glorious, majestic, and beautiful.

Yet he still bears the mark of crucifixion on his body.

He still bears the scars.

And so there's a mystery here.

There's a, that's a perfection that can accommodate scars.

It's not the perfection, Gaff Guthrie says, of, uh, the sheen of the fashion magazine

that has been kind of glossed over so that you've removed anything that, uh, that might, uh, uh, be seen as, as off or, uh, or warped.

The marks of human history, this is Guthrie,

indeed of human sinfulness, depravity, injustice,

he says, are indelibly inscribed upon the flesh of the resurrected Lord,

carried into the life of the new creation by the Spirit and transfigured.

These marks in no way tarnish the glory of the new creation.

Those wounds, as we sing, yet visible above, are in beauty glorified.

And so, it's right, he says, to speak of the new creation, the new heavens and the new earth,

uh, uh, as the work of the Spirit is beautifying it.

By this we mean the perfection of integrity.

The work of the Holy Spirit is to perfect the creation by bringing it to completion,

making humanity in each created thing what it most truly and fully is.

So, there's perfection and there's proportion.

The new creation, Esther Lightcat Meek says in her book, Loving to Know,

the new creation will be beautiful because there will be harmony and right relationship

between God and humanity, among humanity,

and among all that God has made, each thing will be most truly what it is

and what is more amazing.

The utterly distinct character of each being will contribute to the beauty of the whole.

And this reality of proportion and right ordering of harmony is true of God first.

So, there's perfection, there's proportion,

and there's the third P that our brother spoke of already, pleasure.

Simply put, beauty delights.

Esther Lightcat Meek puts it this way.

She says, rather than drawing the beautiful object into the orbit of my concerns,

I'm the one drawn in.

The work captures rather than serves my interests.

To submit to something is to acknowledge its weightier presence,

to treat its presence as weighty.

We find ourselves in the presence of something that's already won our respect,

that's already changed us.

The word in Hebrew for glory that we find in the Old Testament,

as translated as glory, its root means to be weighty, to be substantive.

So, when we're talking about the glory of God,

we are acknowledging his weighty presence.

In the presence of something, someone,

that has already won our respect.

It is characterized by a decentered delight in another.

For perfection, and pleasure.

And I want to say that God's beauty particularly is seen in his Trinitarian life.

I don't remember who I'm quoting here.

I might be quoting Bob Inc.

I might be quoting John Frame.

The fact is that these attributes of love and knowledge,

as well as all the other attributes come alive and become real as a result of the Trinity.

Apart from it, they are mere names, sounds, empty terms.

As attributes of the Triune God, they come alive both to our mind and our heart.

Only by the Trinity do we begin to understand that God, as he is in himself,

hence also apart from the world,

is the independent, eternal, and omniscient, and all-benevolent one,

love, holiness, and glory.

The Trinity reveals God to us as the fullness of being,

the true life, eternal beauty.

This is Bob Inc. here in this second quote.

This is significant.

He says,

In God, too, there is unity and diversity, diversity and unity.

Indeed, this order and this harmony is present in absolutely.

In the case of creatures, we only see a faint analogy of it as,

Among us, unity only exists by attraction,

by the will and the disposition of the will.

It's a moral unity that's fragile and unstable.

He's saying that among humanity,

unity only exists by means of attraction.

We want to be unified with the people we are attracted to,

whether that's my wife or the people who share my same preferences.

That's what drives my desire for unity.

But in God, he says,

both are present, absolute unity as well as absolute diversity.

This is an aspect of who God is, right?

The Father is not the Son.

The Son is not the Father.

The Spirit is not the Father.

And the Son,

this three God,

three Gods,

one God

in three distinct persons,

in mutually loving,

mutually glorifying,

mutually submitting,

mutually honoring,

mutually supporting

community

in eternal beauty.

And so,

I'm going to keep pressing because I'm running.

The beautiful community of the Godhead we see worked out in Scripture.

We see it in Deuteronomy 6,

Hero Israel, right?

The Shema,

the Lord our God,

the Lord is one.

We see it in Christ's baptism in the Gospels in Matthew 3,

where Jesus is baptized.

And Matthew says,

immediately,

when he went up from the water,

the heavens were opened to him.

Spirit of God descends on him like a dove and comes to rest.

And the Father speaks,

this is my beloved Son,

with whom I am well pleased.

Peter,

in his opening of his epistle,

he talks about this work of Father,

Son,

and Holy Spirit,

when he writes to the elect exiles,

who are elect according to the foreknowledge of God,

the Father,

in the sanctification of the Spirit,

for obedience to Jesus Christ,

and for the sprinkling with his blood.

The testimony throughout Scripture

is that God is one,

and at the same time,

without contradiction,

the Scriptures give us the mystery of three persons who are God.

The reality is that the confession of the Trinity

is at the heartbeat of our faith,

is at the heartbeat of the Christian religion.

And this beauty and glory of our triune God

is seen in the mutual glorification of his communal life

as Father,

Son,

and Spirit.

I'm going to skip that too,

because I've got to get to

what I'm saying.

The implications of this.

I've been going at light speed,

but this has implications

for what we think of ourselves.

The God that we image

is beautiful,

and his beauty is seen

most profoundly

in his Trinitarian life together

as Father,

Son,

and Holy Spirit.

And we are formed

to image him.

We are formed

as his image.

The first thing

that we find

the Bible saying

about us

is that we are made

in the image of God.

God declares,

let us make man

in our image

according

to our likeness.

And what does this

declaration of image mean?

Yes, in a sense

it means that we're beautiful,

we're going to get to that

a little bit later.

It means,

first of all,

that we have

individually

an unassailable

individual dignity

as creatures

made in the image of God.

we have

a unique place

in the world.

Wait,

I won't pass that.

We have a unique place

in the world.

In his book,

Designed for Dignity,

Richard Pratt

at a certain point

talk about dignity.

He says,

look,

I want you

to put down my book

and the next person

that you see,

I want you to shake

their hand

and say,

hello,

your majesty.

That's how much

value

and worth

it is a royal dignity

that the Bible

is declaring

of humanity

in Genesis

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1

and verses 26

and 27.

Nona Verna Harrison

in her book,

God's Many Splendored Image,

says that this royalty

involves dignity

and splendor,

a legitimate sovereignty

rooted

in one's very being

because everyone

is made in the image

of God

and because the image

defines what it means

to be human.

People are fundamentally

equal regardless

of differences

in wealth

and education

and social status

and the church,

she says,

preached this

countercultural message

in the ancient world

and still preaches it now.

That this is,

this was the countercultural

message

of the church

in the ancient world

that every single

human being

from prince

to pauper

is an image bearer

and has royal dignity.

Martin Luther King Jr.

put it this way,

he says,

the whole concept

of the Imago Dei

is the idea

that all men

have something

within them

that God injected,

not that they have

substantial unity

with God,

but that every man

has the capacity

to have fellowship

with God

and this gives him

a uniqueness,

it gives him worth,

it gives him dignity

and we must never

forget this

as a nation,

there are no gradations

in the image of God.

Every man

from a treble

white

to a base black

is significant

on God's keyboard

precisely because

every man

is made

in the image of God.

he said,

one day

we will learn that.

We will know

one day

that God

made us

to live together

as brothers

and to respect

the dignity

and worth

of every man.

This is

unassailable,

it's undeniable,

and yet

it is

extraordinarily

difficult

for us

to live

into it.

Here's

what I want

to say

biblically.

Second commandment,

God forbids

the worship

of idols.

He says

to Israel,

you shall not

make for yourself

a carved image

of anything

that's in the heavens

above

or the earth

beneath

or waters

under the earth.

You shall not

bow down to it

or worship it

for I,

the Lord,

your God

am a jealous

God.

And we think

there's a sense

in which,

right,

this is about

idolatry,

right,

this is about

bowing down

to something

other

than God.

And God's glory

is at the heart

of the commandment,

but the reality

of

individual

human dignity

is also

at the heart

of this

second commandment.

Why do I say

that?

Because

God forbids

the making

of images

that we

would make

images of him

for worship.

And the declaration

in the second

commandment

essentially is

I've already

made my image

in the earth.

I've already

declared what

my image is.

And so,

literally speaking,

to bow down

to an idol

is to worship

something less

than yourself.

To bow down

to an idol

is to demean

your humanity.

No,

we're not God,

but God

is the one

who says

this is my image.

this is

I've made

my reflection

in the earth.

And it's you.

Why would you

devalue yourself

by bowing down

to something

you made?

And so,

this is

just the

immeasurable

value

and dignity

that every

person has

because

we are

the image

of God.

And so,

I just did

about three

slides in

those

two statements

because I've

got to get

to this.

I've got to

get to this

aspect of

identity

and formation

because that

becomes the

question,

who are we?

Who do we

believe ourselves

to be?

What does

it mean

for us

to embrace

the reality

of being

image bearers

of immeasurable

value

and worth

and dignity?

What does it

say?

What do we

think about

our identity?

I'm not going

to show this

clip because I

don't have

time.

But maybe we

see.

This is,

so,

Sterling Brown

won an Oscar

earlier this

year for his

role in the

TV series

This Is Us.

And he

essentially,

in his

speech,

he sent

the writer

of the show,

he said,

I have been

used to

colorblind

casting.

And he

wasn't making

a,

that wasn't a

positive statement.

He was saying,

I've been

used to

colorblind

casting.

Oh,

we need

some diversity

here,

so let's

throw a

black man

in this

role.

And he

gave credit

to the

writer.

He said,

but you

wrote a

role that

could only

be played

by a

black man.

You

wrote a

character

that could

only be

played by

somebody who

looked like

me.

He said,

and that

speaks not

just to me,

but to

everybody who

looks like

me.

And it

makes it

far more

difficult to

dismiss me.

This aspect

of a need

for an

identity

that conforms

to dignity,

a self-identification

that conforms

to an

internal

sense,

self-identification

that accords

with dignity.

That's what

every human

being desires.

We try to go

about it

different ways,

but at the

heart,

we desire

a self-

identification

that accords

with dignity.

Identity,

for definition,

is a person's

understanding

of who he

or she is

based on

socially

constructed,

meaningful

categories that

people use

to describe

themselves.

And what

makes for

a self-

identification

that accords

with dignity?

There are

various ways

in which we

try to go

about it

in our

fallen

condition.

In his book,

Sources of the

Self,

The Making of

Modern Identity,

Charles Taylor

lists these

four things.

Here's how we

try to get at

our sense of

self-worth,

an identity

that conforms

to dignity.

We want a

sense of

power,

or we want

a sense of

dominating

public space,

or we want

some sense

of invulnerability

to power,

or any kind

of self-sufficiency.

He says,

the very way

we walk,

move,

gesture,

speak,

is shaped

from the

earliest moments

by our

awareness that

we appear

before others,

that we stand

in public space,

and that this

space is

potentially one

of respect,

or contempt,

of pride,

or shame.

We become aware

of this at an

early age,

that our life

is lived before

others,

and we want

dignity,

but we become

aware that this

space that we

occupy is

potentially one

of respect,

or contempt,

pride,

or shame,

and we want

the respect.

And we go about

it in different

ways.

I don't have

time to go

through the

implications of

this,

but this is

the 1968

sanitation workers

strike in

Memphis,

Tennessee,

where they

made these

protest signs.

It's just a

declaration of

dignity.

The sign

simply said,

I am a

man.

The protest

march,

right,

is to carry

signs that

declare,

their dignity.

I am a

man.

Look at

me.

See me.

We are

aware of

this need,

and we

live in a

world that

just tears

away in our

sense of

dignity in

very, very

real ways.

I'm going to

take three

more minutes

and just

say this.

This is how

it came to

be.

Genesis

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

chapter 11,

the Tower

of Babel.

I refer to

this as the

ghettoization of

humanity.

Rodney King,

you know,

Rodney King

in 1991,

1992,

after his

brutal beating

of the police

in L.A.,

he made a

statement for

which he's

become infamous.

He said,

can't we all

just get

along?

Can't we all

just get

along?

Well,

Genesis

Genesis 11:1

chapter 11,

verse 1,

records the

last time

humanity all

just got

along.

It says

that the

whole earth

had one

language and

spoke the

same words.

Right?

Humanity was

one big

happy family.

But humanity

was one big

happy family

in our

rejection and

rebellion against

God.

Our unity

was union

in our

sinfulness.

Genesis 11,

Genesis chapter

Genesis 10 · chapter mention

10,

is the table

of nations.

So Genesis

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6,

to verse 9,

is the flood

narrative,

is the

recreation

story.

God covers

the earth

with a flood

because humanity

is so

depraved,

right?

And he

promises,

he covenants

in Genesis

Genesis 9 · chapter mention

chapter 9,

I'm never

going to

destroy the

earth again

with a flood

the way I've

done,

even though

man's heart

is set only

on evil

from his

youth.

And then

you get

Noah's

sons in

Genesis chapter

Genesis 9 · chapter mention

9,

and Genesis

Genesis 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10

is the table

of nations.

How all

these nations,

God reissues

the creation

mandate in

Genesis 9,

10,

he says,

be fruitful

and multiply,

fill the

earth.

And in

Genesis 10,

it seems like

humanity has

done it,

the table

of nations.

Here's all

of the nations

and all of

the people

over the

earth.

Genesis

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

chapter 11

takes a

look back

at how

those nations

got spread

over all

of the

earth.

God said,

be fruitful

and multiply,

fill the

earth.

Humanity

said,

we don't

want to

do that.

It says,

they found

a plain

in the

land of

Shinar

and they

settled

there.

And they

said,

let's

build for

us a

city and

a tower

with its

top

extending

to the

heavens.

They

said,

lest

we be

dispersed

from here

over the

face of

all the

earth.

God,

we know

what you

said,

but we're

not into

that.

We just

want to

do our

thing right

here.

And God

comes down

in mercy

and judgment

and it

says,

God says,

this is only

the beginning

of what

they'll be

able to

do.

If I

let this

go on,

this is

only the

beginning.

So,

the Lord

says,

let's go

down and

confuse

their

language.

And it

says,

in Genesis

11,

it says,

so the

Lord came

down,

he confused

their

language so

that they

may not

understand

one another's

speech.

And it

says,

the Lord

dispersed

them from

there over

the face of

all the

earth.

That the

Lord forced

their hand.

He confused

their language

so that they

couldn't

understand one

another.

And so they

had to do

what he

commanded.

Why am I

going through

this?

The point

is,

this is the

connection

point to

see why

is it that

we have

such a

hard time

valuing

or recognizing

the worth

and the

value,

the immeasurable

dignity of

people who are

different than

we are.

because I

get my

sense of

dignity,

value,

and worth

from my

tribe.

I get my

affirmation

from my

people.

That's what I

rooted in.

I rooted in,

oh, we're the,

this is how,

this is what it

means to be

human.

This is what it

means to be

worthy.

This is what it

means to be

worthwhile.

And y'all over

there, y'all are

different.

Y'all do things

differently.

Y'all speak

differently.

Y'all act

differently.

You know, y'all

are not really as

human as we

are.

That's why,

right, the

story of

humanity in

many respects is

a story of

oppression.

Because I don't

value you.

So I can

demean you.

God would

not,

all right, I

said three

minutes, I've

already taken

five, so I'm

skipping.

Skipping what

the sociologists

say and what

the theologians

say about

identity, to

say only this,

the last slide,

is that it's

not an accident

that Genesis

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12

comes after

Genesis chapter

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

11.

Not simply

because 12

follows 11.

But God,

the Lord

dispersed them

from there over

the surface of

all the earth.

what is Genesis

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12

about?

God calls

Abraham,

right?

The end of

chapter 11,

God says to

Abraham, go out.

Abraham was a

pagan.

He wasn't

worshiping the

Lord, right?

The Lord calls

Abraham and says,

leave your

father's house and

land and go to

a place where I

will show you,

right?

I am going to

make you a

great nation.

I am going,

in you,

all the

nations of

the world

will be

blessed.

In you.

Well, what is

that blessing?

What's the

blessing?

Yes, right?

It's the promise

of Jesus Christ.

But it's like,

right?

Genesis 10,

again, the

table of nations.

Genesis 12,

right?

Genesis 11,

the scattering and

the division of

the nations.

Genesis 12,

in you,

all the nations

of the earth

are going to be

blessed,

right?

I am going

to do the

work of

reunification.

I'm going to

do the work

of reuniting

humanity.

And the

next time,

they're not

going to be

one big happy

family in

rebellion against

me.

They're going

to be one

big happy

family under

my lordship.

That's the

promise of

Genesis chapter

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

12.

And that is

what we see,

right?

That's what

Christ came

to do.

God's response

is restoration

and reunification.

See, I didn't

get through a lot

of slides to get

there.

And so,

here it is,

right?

In this,

the cry

and the call

is

not to find

our primary

sense

of identity

in our tribe,

whatever our

tribe is.

Our

ethnic tribe,

our academic

tribe,

our socioeconomic

tribe,

right?

By, you

know, my

Brooklynite tribe,

you know,

you're from

Brooklyn, you're

probably a little

bit better than

other places.

Anyway,

the lords were

still working on

me with that.

Right?

But this call

because,

and I'm going

to get to a

quote later on,

but this,

because

this,

the work

of the Lord

is restoration

and reunification,

under

Jesus Christ,

the call

is to

root

our sense

of who we

are primarily

in Him

as image

bearers,

as those

who have

an immeasurable

dignity,

value,

and worth

that doesn't

come from

my association

to other

black people.

It comes

because God

has said it.

Because He

declared it.

And so it

does not

matter my

ability,

it does not

matter my

height,

my weight,

it does not

matter.

I am of

invaluable

worth because

God has

said so.

That's the

source of

our sense

of dignity

and value

and worth.

Alright,

I'm going to

stop there.

I said a lot,

but I'll

turn it over.

What are we