Christians live in "already but not yet" time. The kingdom of God is already here through Jesus’ life, teaching, death, and resurrection. It is present today in this world and it is spreading like "yeast" (Matt 13:33). At the same time, the full manifestation of the kingdom is not here yet. It will be fully established in the eschaton, on the end of the day when Jesus returns with his angels to redeem all the believers and renew everything. So, as the church witnesses and participates in God’s kingdom, we know that it is imperfect. This, however, does not excuse us to remain in the status quo. As we fully embrace our brokenness and know that the kingdom is not fully established, we are still called to live a holy and perfect life (Matt 5:48).
The Christian Reformed Church has five specific callings and among them, a commitment to be anti-racist and intercultural community is embedded, a community where people from all culture, ethnic, and race are welcomed, accepted, and respected. A biblical vision that beautifully captures what an anti-racist and intercultural church looks like in the eschaton is Revelations 7:9-10: After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb!”
It is important to listen to the experiences of our church members.
Notice that all these people are from different ethnocultural and racial backgrounds and that they are praising God from their own languages, dialects, and accents! Despite of these differences, somehow, the worship is done in a perfect harmony and God fully accepts their worship. This is how the church will look like when the kingdom is fully manifested and this is the vision that we Christians need to strive to embody in “already but not yet” time.
To know where we are as CRC churches in our work of anti-racism and intercultural relationships, it is important to listen to the experiences of our church members. Everyone’s experience is important, and we particularly need to listen to our BIPOC (Black Indigenous, and people of colour) sisters and brothers because we want our church to be a place of rich belonging for all. The CRC began as Dutch immigrant community and it has become richly diverse. This year, we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the denomination work of anti-racism through the office of Race Relations. Its biblical commitment to this work is expressed in various documents but one document that highlights the most is the booklet “God’s Diverse and Unified Family.” In spite of all this great work, I hear story after story from our BIPOC members about how they experience exclusion, micro-aggressions, and harm at their local churches.
To embody the vision from Rev. 7 we need to know the stories of our BIPOC members and learn how they experience harm and exclusion at our local churches. It is by truly listening to them the church will know where we are in our journey of anti-racist work and what kind of changes are crucial so that our community can become a space and a place where people from all backgrounds can flourish.
They are daring to speak up because they know that there are better ways of being a community.
For this reason, in this series, we intentionally invited our BIPOC members to share their stories and experiences. If you are white siblings, the BIPOC’s stories might unsettle you because they will share experiences of how they were harmed and continually experience exclusion through our predominantly white church. It won’t be an easy reading but I assure you that their writings will help our church to truly live out our commitment and know how to be a life-giving and shalom-making community.
As you are about to read these blogs, I want to emphasize again that our BIPOC siblings are equal members of the body of Christ. BIPOC are family members of Christian Reformed Church of North America. For this reason, as family members and not merely guests, it is not only fine but also necessary for them to make demands that will shape our church to be a place where they feel belonged and are safe from micro-aggressions and exclusion. They are daring to speak up because they know that there are better ways of being a community where everyone is respected and loved, where everyone experiences genuine belonging.
So let’s sing “God I’ll surrender, bring us together” as a way to shape our attitudes and approaches we need to embrace as we embody the vision from Rev. 7 in our “already and not yet” time.
I will sing with you, my family; will you sing with me? I will sing with you, my family; will you sing with me? The notes won’t always come out as I’d like, but I will learn to see the log in my own eye. God, I’ll surrender. Bring us together, bring us together.
I will sing with you, my neighbor; will you sing with me? I will sing with you, my neighbor; will you sing with me? My words will be imperfect, but I’ll try. Bringing my assumptions to the light, I’ll pray, God, I’ll surrender. Bring us together, bring us together.
I will sing with you, my rival; will you sing with me? I will sing with you, my rival; will you sing with me? Difference is a place where God is found. In seeking peace, we’re walking onto holy ground. God, we surrender. Bring us together, bring us together.
We will sing our song together; sing in harmony. We will sing our song together, whether two or three. Jesus feels our pain; he sets us free. The Spirit’s given us this song of hope to sing: God, we surrender. Bring us together, bring us together. Bring us together, bring us together.
The Reformed family is a diverse family with a diverse range of opinions. Not all perspectives expressed on the blog represent the official positions of the Christian Reformed Church. Learn more about this blog, Reformed doctrines, and our diversity policy on our About page.
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