Readings for January 22, 2012 Black History Sunday

This week we take a break from the lectionary readings and explore references or perspectives on race in the Bible. To centre ourselves, we begin with a quotation from Nelson Mandela's Inauguration Speech as President of South Africa:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant,

gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you NOT to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that others won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

What follows is a long list of scripture passages that make reference to issues of ethnicity, national identity or universality. As you read through them, you will notice that there are two streams:

(1) Readings that affirm God's universal blessing to peoples of every nation and location, colour and status, gender and age group; or that affirm the worth of an outsider entering into our understanding of God's people, bringing with them diversity, richness, perspective.

(2) The second stream are readings that challenge the "people of God" to shore up their identity, reject outside influence, even destroy the outsider.

Both streams are visible in scripture of every era, often contradicting each other. What does this contradiction teach us about the authority and interpretation of scripture?

Genesis 1:26-27 - God's original, universal blessing to all the children of the world.

Genesis 21:8-13 - Abraham chooses between his wife Sarah and her child, of the same ethnic background as he, and Hagar, the Egyptian concubine, and her child Ishmael.

Exodus 1:8-14 - Pharoah makes the people of Israel slaves, fears their growing strength.

Deuteronomy 10:17-19 - The Israelites are reminded how harshly they were treated as "foreigners" in Egypt and are told to respect the outsiders they encounter.

Joshua 10:40-43 - Joshua takes "the promised land" back from the Canaanites - God fights on the side of Israel!

Ruth 4:2-12 - A Moabite (foreign) widow is rejected, then welcomed and contributes to the enriching of God's people.

Isaiah 49:6 and Psalm 67 - God's people are all people to the ends of the earth.

Malachi 3:10-12 and Nehemiah 13:23-27 - After the exile, those who intermarry with other nationalities are condemned by prophet and leader.

Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-29 - The story of the woman who challenged Jesus' understanding of who would be God's people.

Acts 11:1-18 and Acts 15:1-11 - Both Peter and Paul are called up on the carpet to explain why they would share the gospel and baptism with "outsiders" and the "uncircumcized".

Galations 3:6-9; 6:26-29 - Paul's theology that all who believe in Christ are descendants of Abraham and Sarah - not by biology, but by faith.

Revelation 21:22-26 - Ultimately, a vision of God's kingdom - all kinds of people and nationalities are present, based on faithful living.

Closing Prayer:

Coretta Scott King: "A Public Prayer for Divine Perspective"

Eternal and everlasting God, who art the Father of all mankind,
as we turn aside from the hurly-burly of everyday living,

may our hearts and souls, yea our very spirits,

be lifted upward to Thee,

for it is from Thee that all blessing cometh.

Keep us ever mindful of our dependence upon Thee,

for without Thee our efforts are but naught.

We pray for Thy divine guidance as we travel the highways of life.

We pray for more courage.

We pray for more faith and above all we pray for more love.
May we somehow come to understand the true meaning

of Thy love as revealed to us in the life, death and resurrection

of Thy son and our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.

May the Cross ever remind us of Thy great love,

for greater love no man hath given.
This is our supreme example, O God.

May we be constrained to follow

in the name and spirit of Jesus, we pray.