Editor’s Note: As part of our mission to equip the local church and Asian American Christians, we are posting sermon excerpts, devotions, and prayers from our SOLA Council members concerning racism and injustice. We hope that these words would be challenging and encouraging to believers as we fight against the sin of racism.
This is an excerpt from a sermon given by Rev. Harold Kim at Christ Central of Southern California. You can listen to the rest of the sermon here.
Below is an edited transcript of the video. Please note that some changes have been made for readability and clarity.
I don’t think any of us have issues with grieving when someone dies. But should the church of Jesus Christ, then, grieve and work against the sins of racism and injustice too?
No one has issues about grieving at funerals. But should the church of Jesus Christ address, grieve, and work against racism and injustice too?
The Bible Equips Us
First, I absolutely believe so because the Bible itself uniquely equips us to work against how evil works — it’s multi-layered. The Bible is not simplistic, it’s extremely sophisticated.
Evil works at least on these three levels.
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First, in the flesh. It’s in my flesh, it comes from me. I’m responsible. Sin resides in me individually from original sin. It’s my fault, my guilt.
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But there’s a second layer. Evil works through the world. It’s structural, it’s systemic. There’s such things called social sins, culturally dominant accepted sins. I read the news before our recording today that Ahmaud Arbery — no better words to put it — was hunted and that was a modern lynching. Because those who shot him had been hurling racial slurs online, during, and after the death and the murder of Arbery.
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A third layer of how evil works is [that it comes] from the devil. The devil tempts, the devil lies, the devil seeks to destroy and take away life.
Should the church grieve and work against [evil]? Why else would the Bible equip us to do so?
The Church Must Work
Second, church history. Church history is not too good on this [issue]. Not just the White majority American church, but the Asian American church too. Some people will say, “Well, the past is past. Aren’t we making enough progress? Let’s not pay attention to history. Just leave it there.” And some will go even far as to say, “I’m just so tired of this topic. Why is everyone always talking about or tweeting or blasting it on social media about racism and injustice?”
I can understand appreciate your fatigue. But would you please consider how much more tiring it must be for our Black brothers and sisters, for whom it’s not just a topic, but it’s something traumatic and something they still suffer today?
At the 2015 Golden Globes, Tina Fey, one of the hosts, delivers this line [in the opening monologue]: “The movie Selma is about the American Civil Rights movement that totally works. And now everything’s fine.” The church must address and work against racism and injustice.
For The Next Generation
Third, is because we’re going to win or lose the next generation. [My daughter] Taylor has been [talking to me] this week that some of her friends are saying, “Is Jesus coming back sooner than later?” She was a little frightened. Some friends were certain that this means Jesus coming back real soon.
But then she also told me and shared that some of her friends online are saying that if you don’t take up violent means, then you are really not down with Black lives matter. And I had to answer her. I mean, some of her friends sound just like Malcolm X when he ridiculed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr for being like an Uncle Tom because he refused to take up nonviolent means because he followed Christ rather than just a cause.
Well, I had to answer it. I’m fumbling, I’m learning, and the learning curve is steep, my friends. I am a little tired from all the kinds of things that I’ve been thinking for the sake of my own daughter. And here’s the thing: If I don’t teach her, if I don’t try to answer her, if I don’t disciple my own household, and the church does not disciple the next generation, someone else will. Someone else will.
Jesus Abhors Injustice and Partiality
Fourth, last but not least The prophets, the apostles, Jesus Christ Himself railed, I mean, railed against racism and injustice. You know, that one time where Jesus overturned the tables in the temple — do you know what that was about? [It was] because Jesus abhors the superiority versus the inferiority dynamic. He abhors power completely overtaking and dominating the powerless, rich versus poor, partiality, looking down upon based on race.
Christian people, take a stand against racism and injustice. Not because it’s popular or unpopular, not because it’s political, not because it’s opportunistic, but because God Himself made every human being in His own image.
The Psalms say you have been fearfully and wonderfully made. And what would you do, my friend, if your best work of art, a masterpiece, that you put up there [and] someone comes in spits upon it, rips it apart, defaces it. How would you feel? This is somewhat akin to what God must be feeling. God Himself grieves. He grieves that every human being made in His own image is being treated so far less.