Excluding the Threat...

Matthew 2:13 (New Living Translation)

13 After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

Jesus was a threat to power, thus Herod wanted him dead. He was such a perceived threat to his power that Herod had all children two years and younger executed in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Once power is threatened, exclusion occurs. Exclusion has a few faces: segregation (to remove the threat completely from one’s presence; that is to live lives in separate and mostly unequal communities), assimilation (to make that which is different, exactly like you; no worries, you are still in charge.), and assassination (get rid of the threat by death which is the Herod approach).

Our culture, both in society and the church, must address the issue of exclusion. Unless we are able to identify our cultural tendency to exclude “the other,” our congregations will be ineffective in combating racism. In terms of segregation, are our congregants in authentic relationships with bipoc not just on Sundays but for the entire week? Is our church guilty of assimilation as they have cultivated a culture of sameness that does not give voice to diversity? Maybe our church is guilty of assassination. No, you may not have killed the lone voice crying out for justice in your midst, but did you fire them from your staff when their voice became too loud? We must change the trajectory of history. We must change our church culture!

In 1919, in my hometown of Huntington, Indiana, there was a petition signed by 328 residents to remove the black folks living and working in town at a local factory. The Fort Wayne news coverage of the petition illuminated the fact that there were only 8 black residents! This reflects a culture of exclusion. “They” were a threat to “our” jobs. The problem wasn’t that they were a threat, the problem was that “they” were not considered a part of Huntington’s community! The same rhetoric is spewed from people’s lips today when they talk about immigrants and their threat to “our” way of life.

Jesus’ response to the threat was to hide out in Egypt until Herod was dead. It is time for Herod and the culture of exclusion in the church to die. The threat of exclusion and racism has plagued us long enough. Preaching and living the Kingdom of God calls us to actively pursue racial equity and reconciliation. Let’s move from exclusion to embrace.

“We are who we are not because we are separate from the others who are next to us, but because we are both separate and connected, both distinct and related; the boundaries that mark our identities are both barriers and bridges” (Volf, p.66).