With apologies to Bonnie Tyler . . . turnaround because every now and then I get a little tired. Tired of the fight. Tired of the pride. Tired of the anger. Tired of the blame game. Tired of the incessant need to be right, instead of doing right. The result is a total eclipse of the heart.
Since the Charlottesville incident last week, America’s heart has been exposed for what it is – a heart eclipsed by Satan’s will and sin. What we’ve witnessed is a nation in the grips of hatred, racism, and nationalism. The news media and FaceBook have taken sides and have helped feed the frenzy.
Maybe we’re just trying to figure out how all of this happened. Maybe we’re trying to get our heads wrapped around the events. Or maybe our hearts are that dark, and we’re exposed for what we really are. In the process we’re tearing ourselves apart; when that happens, everyone loses. We need to turnaround.
Turnaround and look at the man hanging on the cross. In that moment, God removed the barrier that existed between himself and mankind. The act was symbolized in the temple when the curtain that prevented access to God was torn from top to bottom (Mt. 27:51). Everyone now has access to God. No human priest is needed. No human mediator is needed. Jesus fills that role as he escorts mankind into the throne room of God (Heb. 10:19-22). The work at the cross not only removed barriers between mankind and God, but also removed the barriers between each other. We are one in Christ. Paul says that male or female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, black or white is irrelevant to God (Gal. 3:28), and if it’s relevant to us, it’s because our hearts have been eclipsed by sin.
Bonnie Tyler is right, in a call for repentance, we need to turnaround.
Turnaround . . . and realize that the sins of the White Community are coming back to haunt us. No, those of us living today have not been slave owners. But it wasn’t even a hundred years ago (my grandparents era) that the White Community could and did lynch black men for any unprovoked reason and feel justified in doing so. Eighty years ago black communities were forced to live in areas of towns that provided subpar living conditions and education. Sixty years ago the White community could discriminate simply because of the person’s skin color. In my lifetime, whenever black families tried to purchase homes in White Community neighborhoods, they have been met with resistance, followed by White Flight. Listening closely, you still hear racial slurs from White people, even those claiming to follow Jesus.
At the most, the White Community needs to repent for holding onto racists view and spouting slurs against their black brothers and sisters, and to acknowledge that woven into the fabric of our nation was an unfair advantage given to White people over Black people. At the very least, we need more White leaders to follow the lead of Daniel by identifying with the sins of the nation or church even if we’re not directly guilty ourselves (e.g. Daniel 9:1-20).
Turnaround . . . start choosing the Kingdom of God over Patriotic loyalty, especially when Patriotic idealism clashes with God’s ethic. Some have wondered how the churches in Germany could ever support the Nazi regime. The simple answer was that somewhere along the way, Christians in German were far more loyal to the nation and blinded by the myth and propaganda produced by the government. God’s Kingdom cannot tolerate hate, racism and the dehumanization people which have been so prevalent in America and in the American churches. God, on the other hand embraces color and its diversity as the Spirit always leads toward reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16-21; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 4:4). In the fallout of Charlottesville, we appear to be far more concerned with the well-being of statutes, than we are with the well-being of our fellow man.
Turnaround . . . and in the midst of fear, choose faith. I don’t know how life will unfold tomorrow. But we need to choose faith, trust God with the future, and believe that his purpose will endure long after we’re gone.
Turnaround . . . because once upon a time we were falling in love with Jesus, now we’re only falling apart. We need cleansing from this total eclipse of our hearts. I pray that it happens.
Soli Deo Gloria!
(i.e. God Is Glorified!)