One of the amazing images described in scripture is the time when peoples of every ethnic group will surround the throne of God and give Him worship. What impresses me about that is how it highlights the majesty of our great God and how only He can bring all of His creation in a way that legislation, medication and education will never be able to come close to realising. All my life I’ve carried the baggage of various identifying labels being placed on me that just plain didn’t fit, but in Christ I know I belong.
I struggle to marry that image and that divine reality with some expressions of church. It baffles me how those with the ministry of reconciliation can sometimes be the harbingers of ethnic division. Sad, but true and that truth is often evidenced at the time that churches come together to worship. It makes a mockery of a gospel that makes Gentiles and Jews one manages to have ‘black-majority’ and ‘white-majority’ churches still carrying on under the pretence of appealing to the homogeneous tendencies of the base desires of unreconstructed believers.
I love that challenge then to live in such a way to make the truth of the unifying gospel evident in all human relations crossing gender, nationality, ethnicity boundaries and reaching to the God-created humanity that allowed Him to send His only Son to die to do what this song is all about. Indeed the call to be peacemakers and in such a way be rightfully called Sons of God is something that seriously influences life in all its manifestations.
The challenge for me continues with our worldviews and mind-sets that often preclude any real sense of unity, but I’m grateful for the greater truth that the power of God for salvation breaks down barriers and builds bridges so that we can be one even as He is one.
Life With CD 