Editor’s Note: Check back tomorrow for Kim Kira’s “5 Starting Points for Addressing Racism.”
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 video is a compilation of excerpts from a sermon given by Kim Kira, the primary teaching elder at Lighthouse Community Church in Torrance, California, on June 8, 2020. You can watch the rest of the message here.
Below is an edited transcript of the video. Please note that some changes have been made for readability and clarity.
I want us to consider [this question] in light of what is going on right now: How do we live out our faith in light of not only the protests and civil unrest but the racial injustice that exists in our country. Now, to be honest, I wanted to avoid this discussion for numerous reasons.
First of all, my selfishness wants to wait out the events, and then move on knowing that I’m rarely directly affected by such matters. Maybe some of you can feel this. It’s either watch from the sidelines, maybe make a comment or two, but generally hope that things will get back to normal so that we can live our comfortable lives.
Maybe you’re the ones that wish I wouldn’t talk about this and wish I wouldn’t bring this up. On the other hand, there have been times where my heart has been grieved, and I absolutely want to do something, but don’t know what to do. Maybe this describes you: You as a Christian, you should act, but you’re unsure of what that really means.
If I’m honest, I’m fearful of saying the wrong thing. Just look at the news, and you’ll see story after story of someone getting rebuked for attempting to support efforts of change, but failing in some way or offending in some way.
That’s sad, but I’ve talked to pastors that said that the minute they mentioned this topic in their online service last week, people turned off the computer. For others, they accused them of becoming liberal in some way.
I worry about this even though our church has always been so gracious and has taken injustice seriously. I’m worried that some might be offended. Maybe you can relate to some or all of these.
Now, on one hand, we aren’t called to respond simply out of social pressure — the whole “if you aren’t with us, you’re against us” or “silence is racism.” Society is pressuring us to believe a lot of things, many of which we shouldn’t believe. Our goal as Christians isn’t to follow our culture, but to follow Christ.
That being said, this doesn’t mean we should or even are allowed to be silent on the issue of racism. In fact, I would argue that if we’re going to live out our faith, then we more than anyone else should hate the injustices we see in our world. Meaning we don’t hate racism because the culture does. We hate racism because the Bible shows us that God does.
This theme of ethnic reconciliation continues in Scripture, not only in the ministry of Jesus, but it becomes a huge theme within the epistles. There’s this focus on the call and the power of the Gospel to tear down the divide between Jew and Gentile. This is something we have to take seriously.
Think of Ephesians and Romans. They offer some of the greatest expositions of the Gospel we have in Scripture. And yet practically speaking, they are addressing the Jewish-Gentile divide.
This could be an extended study. But for now, just remember that the Bible is anything but silent on the issue of race. And so, if it’s important to Scripture, that must be important to us, my point being that we can’t ignore the racism that exists around us.
Now, I know being a largely minority church, many of you have experienced bigotry of your own at some level, but that doesn’t absolve us from paying attention to the struggles going on with others, for example, with our African American brothers and sisters. If we’re going to be faithful Christians, we cannot simply ignore the injustices around us. And of course, by this, I don’t mean that engaging our culture saves us. But when we are saved, we will want to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.
So what is the solution to what we’re seeing? I don’t know. This is not some easy fix. It’s a massive issue that has plagued our country for centuries. I can’t solve this problem. I can’t answer all your questions or even tell you exactly what to think. For me, I’m still processing this.
Because here’s part of the challenge: Don’t we believe that the Bible is sufficient? How it applies to a situation is based in part on how much we understand about that situation? Does that make sense?
For example, I can say with absolute confidence that the Bible is sufficient to speak to the typical marriage difficulties for Christians in Uzbekistan. How? I have no idea because I know nothing about Christian marriages in Uzbekistan.
So what while we can say with absolute confidence that the Bible is sufficient to speak to what is going on in our country, until we better listen to and understand the plight of those around us, we can’t as powerfully and practically apply the Gospel to it.
I would argue, like Proverbs 18:13 says, “We are foolish if we speak before we listen.” But again, this doesn’t mean we don’t do anything. If we’re going to live out our faith, if like it describes in this passage, we are going to follow Jesus, if our lives are not only going to be shaped by the gospel but be shaped like the gospel, then we must live lives of sacrificial love.