Advent Thoughts, Week 2 - The Light of the World

I have been reading a very rich and timely book over the past week. Thabiti Anyabwile (http://purechurch.blogspot.com/), a brother I had opportunity to meet and speak with a couple of times this year, has written The Decline of African American Theology, From Biblical Faith to Cultural Captivity. I don’t think that there’s another work out there like it.

In the chapter on African American Anthropology titled, “Ain’t I a Man?”, Thatbiti quotes from Dr. Francis J. Grimké (1850-1937). Dr. Grimké was a former slave who ended up studying at Lincoln and Howard Universities as well as Princeton Theological Seminary. In a 1910 address Grimké lamented the existence of “white churches” and “black churches.” Here’s what he asked,

"Why should there be churches made up of white Christians, and churches made up of colored Christians in the same community, and, where all speak the same language; why should white Christians and colored Christians not feel perfectly at home with each other in the same religious gatherings, if they are all Christians, if they all believe in the Fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man, id doing by others as they would be done by, in loving each other as they love themselves, in their oneness in Christ Jesus, and if the same Holy Spirit dwells alike in all their hearts?"

Wow. This pastor of 15^th Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, during a period of pervasive overt racism in our land, was bold to assert that if white Christians wanted to continue to embrace race prejudice, it would be better for them to renounce Christianity and embrace race prejudice with integrity.

When Mary and Joseph brought baby Jesus into the temple, Luke tells us the words of old man Simeon in chapter 2:29-32,

Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.

Here in the Temple, the center of Israel’s world, God discloses through Simeon that salvation for Israel includes salvation for the nations (meaning the ethnic groups of the world). This is the unfolded mystery of God’s plan for redemption. Paul says in Colossians 1 that this mystery was hidden for ages and generations, but is now revealed to his saints. To them, Paul says, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. That’s what Simeon is revealing here in his song, CHRIST FOR THE NATIONS.

This is why the church I serve, City of Hope, is driven by what we believe to be a gospel imperative:

We will boldly pursue racial, cultural, gender, socioeconomic and generational reconciliation. For it is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we are thoroughly reconciled with God and with one another. Therefore, we will prioritize and invest our very lives to reconciliation that is empowered by the Gospel of Jesus Christ who has come to break down the dividing walls of all kinds of tensions and divisions.

All because Jesus is the Light of the World.

In Christ's Love,

Pastor Irwyn Ince