Dear Friends.
I am not sure who expressed the need for us to be color blind,
but he or she was mistaken. The only way one who can be color blind is the one
who has lost his/her ability to see- one who is literally blind. No, most of us
will never be color blind, but we can be “color indifferent”, or “even color
courageous.”
Sonny Johnston grew up in a sheltered environment in rural
Oklahoma. When the Korean War broke out his limited perception of the world was
about to change quickly. After enlisting in the Army, nineteen-year-old Sonny’s
worldview dramatically expanded. Sonny Johnston had never met, let alone lived
with, a black man. He found himself in the Korean War randomly partnered in a
life-or-death team relationship with an African American soldier.
Sonny later told W.T. that he never had any reservations about his
comrade going into battle. Together they faced the enemy and watched out for
each other. From their bunker during the bloody conflict, Specialist Green
loaded mortars and Sonny fired them. The two soldiers became friends as trust
developed in the heat of battle. The men learned that in adversity, it doesn’t
matter what color a man’s skin might be. It only matters if he has your back.
A lot of our race problems would be quickly solved if we would
only have each other’s back.
In today’s racially charged world, I want to be color
indifferent, or better yet color courageous. I want to be a healer, even if it
means that I may be rejected or misunderstood. I want to be a unifier, a
reconciler as God calls each of us as believers to be.
Paul a Jew learned the importance of reconciliation following
his conversion. He became a preacher to the Gentiles, the very people he
despised, and whom he had sought to persecute. Paul learned that to be
reconciled to God carried with it the responsibility to be reconciled to his
brothers, and he not only preached reconciliation he became the champion of it.
And God calls us to do the same.
And yet we are a long way from seeing this kind of
reconciliation become reality in our racially charged world. As it has been
said many times before, Sunday morning at 11:00 am is the most racially
segregated time of the week. On this Martin Luther King Day may we take this
message to heart.
One of the greatest sermons ever preached on racial, social,
political and religious reconciliation, was taught by Paul, who in our
contemporary language challenges us with these words in 2 Cor 5:14-20:
Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man
died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in
his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection
life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. Because of
this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We
looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We
certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we
see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new.
The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the
God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to
settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself
through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of
sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re
Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their
differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them.
We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a
friend with you.
If we have been reconciled to God, then we are called to be
reconciled with others, no matter their color, creed or conduct. To paraphrase
Albert Schweitzer, “Truth never has its special time, its hour is always now”.
Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom
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