Diversity is Beautiful
Summer Stories • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsDifferent is Beautiful is a heart-warming story for children ages 7 and up that helps them accept people who may not look the same as they do. The body of Christ / Racism
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Out of the country on 4th of July. It was not the same. I felt like there was something missing.
Even with all her issues and wrong doings the United States is still the greatest country on this planet.
One of the things I love most about our country is that we are a nation of nations. We are diverse in our population.
I love diversity. Diversity means variety. How boring would life be without variety?
All People Are Created in God’s Image
Interestingly, the Bible doesn’t begin with the creation of a special race of people.
27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Mankind is the Hebrew word A-dam.
Mitochondria are organelles in the cells of every human that carry a small amount of DNA. Mitochondria are inherited solely through the egg from the mother, allowing the identification of descendants from any female lineage. Variations in mitochondrial DNA between people have conclusively shown that all people have descended from one female, just as it is stated in Scripture.
The instability of the mitochondrial genome and computer simulations modeling mutation load in humans indicate that the human mitochondrial genome is very young, which fits within a biblical time frame.
Y chromosomes are passed on to sons from their father, and just as mitochondrial DNA shows that all have descended from one female, Y chromosome analysis suggests that all men have descended from one common ancestor.
In Genesis 1 and 2, the first human is simply identified as ādām, which means “humankind.” Adam and Eve are not Hebrews or Egyptians or Canaanites. Their “race” or “ethnicity” is not identified. And they become the mother and father of all peoples and all ethnicities. The beginning of the biblical story, then, is not about white people or black people or brown people. It is a story about all people.
God created them (“humankind”) in his image. This truth has profound implications, for it insists that people of all races and ethnicities are created in the image of God. And since all bear his image, all deserve to be treated with special dignity and respect.
Dehumanization is the psychological process of demonizing the enemy. It is a propaganda technique which promotes an idea about the enemy being a threatening, evil aggressor with only destructive objectives.
9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
From every nation, tribe, people and language.
People from All Ethnic Groups Are United in Christ
In the New Testament, Paul demands active unity in the church, a unity that explicitly joins together differing ethnic groups because of their common identity in Christ. Paul proclaims that, in Christ, believers form a brand-new humanity. The old barrier of hostility and division between ethnic groups has been demolished by the cross; and now, all peoples are to be one in Christ.
11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
Separate from Christ. The Ephesians worshiped the goddess, Diana, and, before the coming of the Gospel, knew nothing about Christ.
Without citizenship. God called the Jews and built them into a nation. He gave them His laws and His blessings. A Gentile could enter the nation as a proselyte, but he was not born into that very special nation. Israel was God’s nation
Without covenants. While the blessing of the Gentiles is included in God’s covenant with Abraham (Gen. 12:1–3), God did not make any covenants with the Gentile nations. The Gentiles were “aliens” and “strangers”—and the Jews never let them forget it. Many of the Pharisees would pray daily, “O God, I give thanks that I am a Jew, not a Gentile.”
Without hope. Historians tell us that a great cloud of hopelessness covered the ancient world. Philosophies were empty; traditions were disappearing; religions were powerless to help men face either life or death. People longed to pierce the veil and get some message of hope from the other side, but there was none.
Without God. The heathen had gods aplenty, as Paul discovered in Athens.
Athens had been called the “junkyard of idols.” We know from secular history that about that time they estimated that there were about 30,000 gods in the city of Athens. There were gods everywhere. In fact, more gods than people were there. The city, at that time, was not a large city—about 10,000 people. There were 30,000 gods and there were 10,000 people. That’s why one writer said that in Athens it was easier to find a god than it was to find a man. There were gods on the hilltop. There were gods down the streets. There were gods in the homes. Gods everywhere—here a god, there a god, everywhere a god. They worshipped everything, therefore, they worshipped nothing. they did not know the one true God.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
One new humanity.
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
The multicultural church is called a “family” (1 Th. 4:10, 1 Tm. 3:15, 1 Pt. 2:17), a “household” (Eph. 2:19), a “people, priesthood and nation” (1 Pt. 2:9-10), “citizens” (Eph 2:19), a “temple” being built by God (Eph. 2:21) and even a “bride” (Mt. 25:1-10, Lk. 5:34, Jn. 3:29, Eph. 5:25). Each of these descriptors of the people of God infers a unity, a commonality in, commitment to and cooperation of as one.
There is not a Democratic gospel and a Republican gospel, a gospel for the rich and another for the poor, a gospel for Americans and another for the rest of the world, nor is there a gospel for one culture, ethnicity, race or class above another.
There is one gospel for all people because all are called to be one.
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
Becoming “all things to all people, so that by all possible means I might save some.
Is this not what missionaries do?
Lounge on our trip. New British friends.