“Solving our race problems must begin at the foot of the cross” (More Than Equals, 44).
WOW…I am so full of emotion as I sit on this plane on my way home, after 3.5 months in South Africa. I have also just finished More Than Equals: Racial Healing for the Sake of the Gospel. I know that God divinely timed my reading of this book. After a summer at CHAT in Richmond and a semester in South Africa, I am so burdened by the need for racial reconciliation – especially among black and white brothers and sisters who claim to follow Christ. A friend asked me the other night if I can see change in myself since coming to South Africa. I paused and replied not really except for greater confidence in research from our ISP time and that I needed more time to reflect on my experiences in South Africa and how they've shaped me. For example, recently I’ve been looking back at the summer and realizing how much God shaped and changed me during my time in Church Hill. There I saw the challenges of racial reconciliation – through EEF, CHAT, and living in the neighborhood – and yet I came away from the summer with an incredible hope in the POWER of the GOSPEL to break down walls of hostility in light of the cross.
When I arrived in South Africa back in August I was very eager to see what racial reconciliation looks like there. Over the course of the semester questions of racial reconciliation continually lingered beneath the surface of conversations and experiences for me – from discussing race in friendships with 2 SIT friend in Langa, to talking about reconciliation late at night with a friend in Tshabo, to discussing race, the church, prejudice, racism, and Christ’s call with my hostparents in Stellenbosch, to sharing about CHAT’s impact on me and the need for racial reconciliation among Christians with SIT students in the last week. In the past two days I’ve realized that I’m leaving Cape Town burdened about racial reconciliation. I’ve seen and experienced the separation that still exists between races in the South Africa – riding the combi’s into Rondebosch from Langa everyday, seeing the clear separation between white churches and black churches, observing the way whites live around whites, blacks live with blacks, and the tension between coloreds and blacks. I did see beacons of hope – the little diversity at Shofar church in downtown Cape Town and the amazing diversity of the Lecrae concert I attended in November (possibly THE most mixed/integrated setting I experienced during my entire time in South Africa). . .So I guess I have a mixture of feelings but mostly a burden. That burden compels me to cry out to God - THE TRUE RECONCILER (2 Cor. 5:18-20, Eph. 3:14-16) - for the reconciliation of believers in South Africa…that whites would step out and move into all black areas with the Grace of the Gospel as their sole motivation…that blacks in townships would ground themselves in YOUR WORD and be open to letting hurt and anger go to form friendships with whites (on a personal level) and white churches.
“Being able to extend grace and to forgive people sets us free” (More Than Equals, 246).
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