The issue of race has dominated America since its inception. Our inability to
resolve and solve this challenge has been an asterisk on an otherwise
impeccable reputation for our country. Divisions show up in race and class and
culture that has created wars, created internal conflicts, family divisions,
riots, and all manner of other expressions of this horrible divide.
What's even worse is that eleven o'clock on Sunday morning is often the most
segregated hour of the week. While people will play basketball together, while
people will do drugs together, while people will do a whole bevy of things
together, when it comes to racial relationships, especially in the
Christian context, they often break up and go their separate ways. So there
needed to be a definitive word about race from God's perspective. You see,
there are two answers to every question: God's answer and everybody else's, and
everybody else is wrong. The reason why this racial divide has not been able to
be resolved like it ought to have been resolved a long time ago is because
we're not operating from God's point of view, or what I call, a kingdom
perspective on the subject. You know the Olympics happen every four years, and
our nation, as every nation, is represented. When we show up, when America
shows up at the Olympic Games, people from different races and cultures and
classes all converge to demonstrate their individual skills, individual
abilities, to do the best they can to win a gold medal. When we win a gold medal,
they do not ask the gold medalist what your favorite song is. They play
the song of the nation of which they represent, the United States of America,
because their individual performance is to a bigger agenda. They represent
another kingdom. They represent this country. If we could view our racial
differences as intentional, as part of a bigger agenda, what I call the kingdom
agenda—the visible demonstration of the comprehensive rule of God over every
area of life—then we can play God's song and allow
our individual uniquenesses to coalesce for the advancement of gold medals for
that kingdom. We're living in a day when people want to not embrace race. They
want to talk about it as though everybody should be amalgamated and
become uniform in this whole issue of race. But that was never God's design.
God's design was for there always to be racial differences among people. In fact,
those differences go all the way into eternity. For example, in Revelations
chapter 7 verse 9, the Apostle John said he looked up to heaven and when he did
he saw people from every nation, every tribe, every kindred, and every tongue.
These people in eternity still had their racial differences and they were visible.
That's because God is in the variety and He always wants there to be His
variation among His people in the various races that He has established.
So the goal of racial unity is not sameness; its oneness. That's why we called our
book Oneness Embraced. We want to embrace the differences. We want to celebrate the
differences, apart from sin, but the uniquenesses that God has given to each
of us, we want to grab them, own them, celebrate them, rejoice in them, and
utilize them for the advancement of His kingdom. That raises a question: what is
unity, and why is it important? Unity can be defined as oneness of purpose. It's
not sameness of being. It means you're moving toward a common
goal. You're moving toward a a common agenda, utilizing, embracing, recognizing,
and appreciating the differences everyone brings to the table. Now, this is
no small issue and here's why. Jesus, in His high priestly prayer, prayed a prayer
that will blow your mind and that will underscore why this issue of unity,
particularly racial unity, is absolutely critical. Jesus says in John 17 verse 21,
"That they may all be one, even as You Father are in Me and I in You, that they
also may be in Us so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which
You have given Me I have given to them that they may be one just as We are one.
I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity so that the world
may know that You sent Me and love them even as you have loved Me."
Jesus Christ says unity is absolutely critical if His name is going to be made great and if
God's glory is going to be revealed. I don't care what else we do as Christians,
if we do not address the unity issue across race and culture and class lines,
we're blocking the witness of Christ and we're limiting the reflection of the
glory of God. No matter how many church services you go to, how many prayer
meetings you attend, if the enemy can bring about division, if the enemy can
bring about illegitimate fracturing and fissures in the family of God, our
witness becomes a waste of time. This issue of unity must be solved, and it's
because it hasn't been solved by God's people, and has not yet been solved as it
ought to have been by the Church, that the culture remains in disarray.
God calls this unity one new man. In Ephesians, for example, chapter 2, Paul
is writing to this church and he wants them to know how important unity is for
the advancement of God's kingdom in history. And when he writes them he says
this, "But now in Christ Jesus"—verse 13 of Ephesians 2—"you who were formerly far off
have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace who
has made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by
abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in
ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two one new man, thus
establishing peace." Unity is based on peace and it brings about peace. He's
talking to two racial groups. He's talking to Jews and Gentiles who were
divided for forever. How the cross is the emulsifier, and the process of
emulsification is very interesting. It's the process of bringing things together
that otherwise wouldn't fit. For example, you take mayonnaise. I love me some
mayonnaise on my sandwich. I am definitely a mayonnaise man, not a
mustard man. But mayonnaise is made up of products they can't get along: oil and water.
Oil and water don't mix, can't mix, won't mix. No matter what you do
to stir them up and hook them up and get them together and roll them together
and dice them together, they gonna break out to their own individual realms because
they just not made to get along. Their substances are different,
their histories are different, their backgrounds are different, so you can't get
mayonnaise out of oil and water, but you need oil and water to get mayonnaise.
So how do we get mayonnaise? Because I love me some mayonnaise. It's the process of
emulsification. Emulsification is that process where you introduce another
object that can relate to the objects that do not connect
in order to bring them together and hold them together so you can create
something brand-new—mayonnaise. When it comes to mayonnaise, the emulsifier: eggs.
Eggs are introduced to oil and water. The eggs grab the oil, the eggs grab the
water, and hooks them up—brings them together so that they stay together so I
can have some good sandwiches. Guess what? God has provided some emulsification.
Ephesians 2 says it's the blood of Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ reaches
out to people from different histories, different backgrounds, different cultures,
different classes, and pulls them together and holds them together as long
as they don't abandon the cross. You abandon the egg, you don't get the
mayonnaise. You abandon the cross, you don't get the unity. You know why we
don't have racial unity like God designed it? We've abandoned the cross
without abandoning the name. We keep the name, but we've abandoned what it means.
It means more than just that I'm on my way to heaven. It means that God has
transformed my identity on Earth. I bleed red. The blood of Jesus Christ and our
unity in Him is the key to racial harmony. We can't ignore this issue any
longer. It is absolutely critical that we take seriously this issue of oneness of purpose.
You know, I've served a long time as chaplain of the Dallas Cowboys, and
I'm always speaking to football teams that come our way. I love football,
played football, followed my son's brief NFL career in football, been a
chaplain for football teams, and it's very interesting to watch a team get ready
for a game. Teams are made up of people of different races, different backgrounds,
different histories, different cultures, but you still only have one team, in our
case, the Dallas Cowboys. When they take the field,
their humanity stays intact, but they're covered by another uniform, and that
uniform is the same on every player. They have oneness of uniform and function
with oneness of purpose without denying their created humanity. You see, they have
a goal in mind, and that is the goal line. They want to score, but all the positions
aren't the same. People have different tasks, different roles, different
functions, but they all going to one goal. They're not arguing about where they're
headed. They've got oneness of purpose, and the
uniform identifies them and overrides whatever differences exist among them,
culturally or racially. You and I are supposed to have on the same uniform.
It's supposed to be red. It's predicated on the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ on
the cross making one new man—not just making you brand-new, whether you're
black or white or red or yellow—but making a whole new entity brand-new so
that He can advance His cause in history. God wants you to score some touchdowns
for the kingdom of God, but you can't do it as a lone ranger. You can't do it by
yourself. You got to do it as part of a team. And if the Church can ever get it
right and we can ever let everyone know who enters our doors or who leaves them
that you're part of something bigger than you, and that, as James chapter 2
says, there's no place for discrimination because discrimination interferes with
the advancement of God's kingdom. That's what James says. He says when you
discriminate based on class, you've interfered with the kingdom of God.
Are you blocking the kingdom of God, or are you advancing it? Be proud of what God has
made you. Embrace it. Just make sure you're headed toward God's goal line and
not your own.