How can things like the murder of Ahmed Arbery happen? Especially in the Bible Belt, the spaces and places where the Christian faith seems the strongest?
In part, it’s because we Christians no longer have the right goal. For far too long the goal of American Christianity, specifically white American Christianity, has primarily been “heaven.” It’s been to have a “personal relationship with Jesus.” But this emphasis on a place besides earth and this focus on personal and private spirituality has divorced us from the more central concerns of God.
Paul writes of the true goal of the Christian faith in this way:
“The plan of the fullness of times is to bring all things together in the Messiah—both things in heaven and things on earth, all in Him.” (Eph. 1:10 TLV)
God’s got a plan he’s been pursuing for the entire existence of us. It’s a “plan of the fullness of time.” In other words, everything in time has been tracking toward this goal.
And what is that goal? It is “to bring all things together… all in Him.” Everything God’s been doing from his ancient “Let there be light” to our most recent “Let’s call it a night” has been to “bring all things together … all in Him.” The early Christians called this “union.” What God dreams of desperately are communities where people experience union with God.
But it’s not just union with God that is the goal. It’s union with others. And this is the second part of the gospel that’s long been ignored and dismissed by American Christians. We embrace a private vertical faith, pursuing union between “me and Thee,” but we ignore a public horizontal faith, pursuing union between “you and me.” Paul explains the horizontal goal of faith in these words:
Christ is the reason we are now at peace. He made us Jews and you who are not Jews one people. We were separated by a wall of hate that stood between us, but Christ broke down that wall. (Eph. 2:14 ERV)
One of the central concerns of Jesus’ death on the cross is to abolish the walls of hate separating people, especially those rooted in racial and ethic prejudice and bias. This involved Jews/ Gentile in Paul’s day. In our day it involves the multiple forms of racism that remain rampant in our cities, streets, and churches.
Jemar Tisby in The Color of Compromise writes about how the church has become complicit in this deadly racism:
“The failure of many Christians in the South and across the nation to decisively oppose the racism in their families, communities, and even in their own churches provided fertile soil for the seeds of hatred to grow.”
Union with others as well as union with God is the Gospel. It is the one thing God’s been working for all our existence.
This goal acknowledges two forces. Centrifugal force is pulling all things away from the Messiah, the center, and thus dragging people farther away from Jesus and each other. Centripetal force is pulling all things toward the Messiah, the center, and thus drawing people closer to Jesus and to one another. The former force is from Satan. The latter is from the Savior.
To have “union” as our destination means naming and repenting of the personal and systemic centrifugal sins pulling all things, especially people, apart: racism, hatred, self-centeredness, prejudice, inequality, bias, discrimination, homophobia, sexism, etc. To have “union” identified as God’s and our primary direction means pursuing and prioritizing the personal and systemic centripetal virtues that bring all things, especially people, together–reconciliation, repentance, equity, forgiveness, humility, compassion, and justice.
The fundamental question we must start to ask ourselves and our churches again is this: are we sold out to union? Not just union with God. But union with others. To not pursue it, to passively disregard it, is to participate in its opposite. To pursue it, to actively seek it, is to participate in the longest running divine project in human history.
