For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus mailing peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. …
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
Character Check How can I respond to racial comments I hear around me?
In Business Terms I minister in a racially mixed church on the west side of Chicago. I attended a wedding not long ago of a family who lives in Nebraska. I remember standing on this farmer’s front lawn and seeing only one road, no other people, and corn in every direction. The scene couldn’t have been farther from the west side of Chicago. Yet this farmer has developed one of the closest relationships with the people of our community.
It began the day he arrived with a work crew some years ago. During that week, he got connected with people in the neighborhood, and all his stereotypes began to break down.
When he returned for a second visit, he told me: ‘The Monday after I came home from my first work trip to Chicago, I met with the same fellas I’ve been having coffee and a roll with for twenty-five years. But this time, I had to get up and leave, because the same jokes, the same conversation, the same prejudices that never bothered me before now got to me.”
His daughter is now a staff member at our church.
—Glen Kehrem
Something to Think About When a person of one race treats with contempt a person of another race, he is revealing weaknesses in his own character. – Wellington Boone
