Text: Genesis 9:18,19

Theme: "A Question of Race"

Sunday March 30, 2008

The political arena today and the news are full of the racial statements of a local pastor. They are inflammatory, divisive, and it is said that things like this are being said from pulpits across the country. I don’t know what is being said from pulpits across the country, but I believe it is important that you hear from this pulpit, what the Bible says about the question of race. From our text today and the history of the world God has given us in the Bible. We see there is no question of race, for there is only one race, the human race. The Bible shows us we are all the decendents of one man and one woman originally Adam and Eve. More recently, Noah and his family as we read in Genesis chapter 9. Beginning with verse 18, "The sons of Noah who went forth frm the ark were Shem Hamm and Japheth. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these came the people of the whole earth were dispersed.

This gives a true view of the world, one race, the human race. This is the biblical world view and it is confirmed by science.

Biological research shows the concept of race should be discarded, this was the findings of the ABC news science page September the 10^th 1998. The study found that 0.2% difference in genes between any two individuals of that .2%, only 6% deals with the characteristics people associate with "race". That means the things of "race" are only one 100^th of 1% of your genes versus 2/10 of a percent variation between any two individuals, identical twins excluded of course. There is therefore more variation within the people groups than between the people groups. So where did the idea of race come from? It is cultural.

So what we have is not a question of race, but of conflict, of broken relationships. It is a question of sin, the breaking of our relationship with God, the turning of our back on Him and His way. We are all sinful by our fallen nature. This is the cause of the broken relationships and of conflict; conflict in our personal life, in our culture, in the world. This is the source of conflict in families, in communities, and between people groups.

The Lord has answered this question for us and has given His answer to the church to distribute. The biblical answer to conflict is not revenge, retribution, or reparations. These are part of the problem. They continue the cycle of conflict. They take judgment into our hands. In this way, we remain in rebellion against God. These continue the broken relationships, that caused it all. They leave us in sin. These are making ourselves to "be like God.". To be like God, wasn’t that the temptation in the garden? Isn’t that how it all started? God gives us a very different approach in his Word the Bible.

In His Word God tells us to answer these questions, these conflicts, with repentance, redemption and reconciliation. The repentance is in us. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we turn away from these false notions and attitudes of conflict. We turned from the false notion of race, and from the self focus of pride and greed that makes us willing to stand on someone else to appear taller. We are to turn to God’s way of seeing one another and living together as he tells us, in His Word.

This all begins with God’s work of redemption. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life". We need to see all people, whatever their outward appearance as God sees them, souls bought with Christ’s blood. We need to see them as people God has adopted into His family or as those He wants to make His children. Jesus fulfilled justice for us all. He paid for each and every one of us with His suffering and death on the cross. With that redemption as a foundation, the Lord wants His church to build reconciliation. The mission of the Church is to bring the message of reconciliation to the world. We are here to repair relationships. That’s our job.

The church is to be about repairing relationships, first in the vertical as God has reconciled with us, and then in the horizontal. That order is important. Vertical first and then horizontal. In order to repair, restore, or build new relationships as they should be one needs first to be in right relationship with God. So God restored the vertical relationship. Jesus has done all that is needed. His life and death satisfied the law for us. He was our substitute. God the father accepted it all on our account and proclaimed that by raising Jesus from the dead. This is not only to repair our relationship with him, but also to bless and benefit our relationships with each other.

Living God’s way, we can repair, develop and grow in our horizontal relationships. Once God has established us as His children, He empowers us to live His way together. He gives us the power, the ability for this to happen. I have seen this in the healing brought to those in need in Helpmates. Helpmates brings healing first by reconciling them with God. Its premise is that their relationship with the heavenly father, must be repaired first, for once that relationship is growing, they can heal and grow toward relationships with others again, that is the key.

God’s ultimate answer to our conflict and rebellion, his ultimate answer to our emphasizing our differences is to make us one in his son. His answer is to join us together into the body of Christ. Most of all, through the reconciliation he has made, he will unite us is eternally, returning us to the relationship he created us to have with him. And with each other. Thanks be to God, and come quickly Lord Jesus. Amen

SDG