TCC Flash - Weekly News

Would that every moral issue was so clear and unambiguous. “Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” (1 John 4:20)

Racism is a sin. White nationalism is idolatry. Hatred is evil. There are no “two sides” about that. There is no debate about people’s rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They are self-evident, or used to seem so. As the prophet Isaiah put it, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20)

We all watched with horror the violent, white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, VA. They came heavily armed with night sticks and fire arms carrying lit torches chanting “Black Lives Don’t Matter,” “"You will not replace us" and "Jews will not replace us." There were also neo-Nazi chants of "blood and soil" and "one people, one nation, end immigration". One eyewitness vividly described how alt-Right members encircled a group of clergy who were kneeling in prayer, waving their AK47 rifles and shouting all manner of abuse at them. And if that wasn’t enough, in an act of domestic terrorism, a young man only 20 years old, plowed into a crowd killing a young woman and injuring 19.

I worry deeply about the soul of our nation when such hatred and vitriol is on display, particularly when so many of them are young white men in their 20s and 30s. I also worry about an appropriate response. Many of us are deeply angry, but is it the anger of an “eye for an eye” or a righteous anger that springs from the Gospel?

Jesus rarely got angry, but when he did, watch out. The angriest he ever got was when he grabbed a whip and drove the money-changers out of the Temple. What prompted such an outburst? He told us why. “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” (Mark 11:17)

This is a quote from Isaiah’s vision of the day when God will bring “the foreigners” and those of all nations to be part of the universal people of God. “Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will surely separate me from his people’” Isaiah said, “and do not let the eunuch say, ‘I am just a dry tree.’” (You might recall in the book of Acts (Acts 8: 26-40) a eunuch from Africa came to trust Jesus and was immediately baptized, fulfilling Isaiah’s vision.)

The money-changers in the Temple courts, the Court of the Gentiles, were preventing those whom God had welcomed into his house of prayer, by charging exorbitant prices for animals used in sacrifice or literally getting in their way. Jesus would have none of it and reclaimed the space for God who desires all tongues, tribes, nations and races to worship God through Jesus Christ.

Both the religious leaders of Jesus’ day and the money changers were seeking to keep people away from the kingdom of God, people they didn’t feel were worthy of it. “Those others.” “Them.” But Jesus knocked over their tables and barriers and kept doing so when he rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sent his Holy Spirit to transform human hearts. It was if he cried, “No more of this!”

It is so important to remember this because many of those promoting white supremacy claim to do so in the name of Jesus Christ. They do not use the name Christianity, but “Christendom”—by which they mean white European cultural domination. Nothing could be further from the Gospel.

Russell Moore, the president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, asks a stark and bold question of the white American Church:

This sort of ethnic nationalism and racial superiority ought to matter to every Christian, regardless of national, ethnic or racial background. After all, we are not our own but are part of a church — a church made up of all nations, all ethnicities, united not by blood and soil but by the shed blood and broken body of Jesus Christ. The church should call white supremacy what it is: terrorism…. that often pretends that it is speaking for God.

If Jesus of Nazareth were present in Charlottesville, Virginia, he would be quite angry. The question is: Does it anger his church?

In hope,

Rev. Norm

What can we do?

Of course, when confronted by heinous acts of violence and moral outrage, too often we throw up our hands and say, “What can one person do?” Christians might also say, “Well, the world is fallen, what do you expect?” But, if sin is “not the way things are supposed to be,” then God’s call is clear— “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8) St. Augustine put it well: “Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.”