Summer Epiphanies

Can the demon of racism be dislodged in an instant? A Birmingham pastor said yes. While watching a young couple unload their car on the street across from his church, he decided to invite them to his church. Then, halfway across the street, he realized they were Black. In the blink of an eye, he knew the Lord was calling him to minister to precisely that couple—in fact, to all people—not just white people. In that instant, he vowed to start a multicultural church serving the poor, and he kept his vow. A similar epiphany transformed John Newton, the slave trader turned abolitionist, whose hymn, “Amazing Grace,” famously declares, “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

Jesus’ power to break our spiritual shackles can be found in the Gospel of Luke. As Luke tells it, Jesus arrived in the region of the Gerasenes, a Gentile area, when he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. But, in fact, all of us meet Jesus when we’re burdened by spiritual demons like bigotry, jealousy, unforgiveness, naked ambition, and anger. Like the shackled man, we may waste our lives among dead things—lies, conspiracy theories, hard-hearted disobedience, idolatry, and racism.

Racism is a pervasive spiritual brokenness. It replicates itself like a deadly virus, infecting legions as it rages through a body. But not even racism stands up to the Lord’s authority.

Thus, John Wesley’s pamphlet “Thoughts Upon Slavery” has inscribed on its cover the convicting words of Genesis 4:10: “And the Lord said—what hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground” (KJV).

Indeed. Now freed, confess and tell others that Jesus saves.