There are times lately when the entire world seems to be in some form of upset and confusion. In addition to conflicts and hostilities in various places, there continues to be racial and gender problems, economic problems, climate upset, and of course the ongoing pandemic. Each problem is in many ways magnified in the context of all the other difficulties. All in all, the world seems to be in a total mess.
Some of this tends to come from recognizing a basis fact often referred to in an old saying: Birds of a feather flock together. People of like language, culture, gender, race, etc., are more likely to congregate together than with others. This is not a problem; the problem develops when one group starts to disavow or demean the other and this in turn often develops because we do not learn the lessons of history. As the saying goes: Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. And if one looks at history, it’s not hard to see that the problems which we face today, were as well faced by others in the past, especially in so far as intolerance is concerned.
If we go back to the days of the early church, there seemed to be no greater animosity than what existed between the Jewish people and the Gentiles. In fact, it went back much further than that. Even David said of Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:26: “…who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” And this separation continued up to the church era. Jewish people were not allowed to associate with Gentiles, they were not supposed to go into Gentile homes, Gentile dinnerware had to be blessed before it could be used by people of the Jewish faith. This is why there was so much surprise when Paul was sent by God to minister to the Gentiles saying “…for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles…” (Acts 9:15) and stayed in Simon’s, the tanner, house and dined there. Paul said in Acts 10:28: “…‘You know how unlawfully it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean’.” And in Acts 10:45 “…those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.” So the early church became composed of both former Jews and Gentiles worshipping together.
This is also applicable today. During the Presidency of Jimmy Carter, when segregation was the rule in the southern USA, Billy Graham held a crusade in Atlanta Georgia. As per usual, many thousand attended and when Rev. Graham gave the usual invitation many responded, both whites and people of colour, standing together side by side, as one, to accept Christ. The racial divide, at least for that moment, had disappeared.
In this day, when the world has so many problems, perhaps we should look more carefully at lessons from the past. When leaders say they are doing all they can to bring people together and resolve some of our present problems, perhaps they should consider trying what has worked in the past and evaluate some of the lessons of history.
After all, what has succeeded before could succeed again. It’s certainly something to think about
No comments:
Post a Comment