Racism in the Early Church?

Acts 6:1-9 is just a small sampler of a bigger problem that the first Christian communities had to deal with. It’s a good lesson for us to wrestle through for us today. Racism is never an easy term to hear but, when it comes to the faith, it is important that we acknowledge that God’s Word and Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is bigger than any one culture. Otherwise, Gospel wouldn’t be Gospel and the vast majority of us would be left outside of Salvation by the simple fact that we are not born as natural Israelites. But thanks be to God in Jesus Christ that Jesus’ work applies to not only people of Jewish heritage (as the early Christians sometimes believed), but to Samaritans and Gentiles (that’s the rest of us) as well – and it’s a Gift that Jesus gives through baptism. Let’s be cautious that we don’t stand in the way of the Gospel in our attitudes – racism should never be a pattern of life that makes a home among us.

Posted in Pastor's Blog |