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"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:"
- 2 Corinthians 5:18, NIV
This past Tuesday, the weekly Bible study I lead did something different. Instead of looking at the Bible passage for the upcoming Sunday sermon, we looked at last week's adult Sunday School lesson from "The Wired Word." This excellent resource looks at a very current event in light of scripture. Last week's lesson was about racism. Our Tuesday Bible Study looked at four passages from scripture that guide us in thinking about the challenges of racism. Talking about such issues is difficult, but our Bible Study struggled well with these four texts. Given all that is going on in our world and our community related to issues of race and racism, as Christians we need to lead the way in talking about this and providing guidance for our world.
I want to invite each of our Bible Study/Small Groups to break from what you're doing presently and find a time in the near future to look at this lesson from June 7th. You can find it on our "Church@Home" web page and in the sidebar here under "Quick Links". It provides an excellent resource to consider what the Bible says, to ask insightful questions, and to discover what we as Christians need to do. It also provides many other links and resources for anyone who wants to continue going deeper into this issue.
Because talking about these kinds of things is difficult, I also want to include a link here to a resource I have shared before from our Presbyterian Church called Seeking to be Faithful Together: Guidelines for Presbyterians During Times of Disagreement. It focuses on how we talk about difficult issues constructively. It is one of the best resources our Presbyterian church has created.
Many of you know that I am part of an interfaith group of religious leaders here in Johns Creek. We have been meeting for a little over a year and have come to know, respect, and trust each other. Last week, we created a joint statement focusing on racism. It was published last Friday in the Johns Creek Herald Newspaper. I have included the link here if you would like to read it. My prayer is that each one of us would take the next step as followers of Christ and enter into God's "ministry of reconciliation." Through God's grace, I believe we can make a difference in our world!
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