“In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal. 3:26-28); “In this new way of life, there is no … circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian… but Christ is all, and is in all” (Col. 3:11).
Dear Lord Jesus, I’m still savoring the home fellowship group Darlene and I attended in Maynooth, Ireland a few weeks back. There were 12 of us from 8 different countries. My new “ear candy” (hearing aids) increased the volume of all the voices, but I had to work to understand their accents.
Just as it should be, for hearing sounds and listening to people are two different realities. One necessitates functioning ears, the other requires a heart—a Gospel-heart. In a similar way, Jesus, your grace-in-the-heart is the difference between pragmatically tolerating people and genuinely welcoming them—the difference between stereotyping the “other,” and seeing your image in everyone.
There never has been, and there never will be an archetype or hierarchy of accents and skin colors. Barbarians, Scythians, Jews, Gentiles, (and every nationality)… we all need you, and we all get you in the Gospel.
Jesus, help us, free us, forgive us. You aren’t replacing people, “races,” languages, ethnicities, national identities. You are redeeming them (us). What you DID replace was our sin with your righteousness, our deadness with your resurrection life, and (big hallelujah) you now replace grace with more grace (John 1:16). So Very Amen.