These days we are talking about our tag-line, "Celebrating Diversity, Building Community in Christ." And it continues to happen -- every time I tell people that this is our tag-line, they get enthusiastic. And as I said to you before, not only does it have popular appeal, it is also the gospel. And that combination makes it an incredibly powerful evangelistic tool.

But there's a catch! We can talk that language all we want, we can write it on our sign, we can put it up on advertising but if we don't live it -- in other words if we only talk the talk and don't walk the walk, it has no power. Not only that, people will say of us, what a bunch of hypocrites. That's why I want to preach on this theme for several Sundays. So we will understand and learn how to live it out.

So, let me quickly recap for you, what I've said so far, so you will remember. By the way, all my sermons are on my web-page, and you'll find the address on the back page of the bulletin. We are working on a new Church web-page, when that is ready, the sermons will be there.

First, we talked about universality and particularity. Celebrating Diversity is not about relating to each other only through the universal factors of our languages and cultures. That is a good place to begin a relationship but it cannot stay there. If we want to celebrate diversity, we will need to highlight our particularities. We will need to learn to appreciate each other's language and idiom, understand the peculiarities of each other's culture and faith -- in other words those things that make him or her that particular person.

Second, we acknowledged that community is broken -- that apart-heid, the doctrine of keeping people apart that is still very much active. Not so much as a political philosophy or a legal structure, but as an economic reality. If we believe that God intends for us to live in community, then the power of that apart-heid must be broken. Then last Sunday, we considered how God intends for people to come together across barriers that divide us. We read the parable of Jesus where the king has invited a lot of important people to come to a banquet, but they make excuses. They probably already know the king's heart and know that they will probably have to mix with people who are so different from themselves -- people who are poor. Such a table is threatening them. He tells the servant to go and invite everybody from the highways and the byways and to bring the blind and the lame the crippled and the lame, in other words those who could not participate in the economy, those who were poor, to the banquet in God's kingdom. And we said, we better get used to the idea, because that's how its going to be in heaven!

This past week leaders of many countries came together to a table to a World Conference of Against Racism. It was like gathering countries from the highways and the byways. These were not the elite G8 countries. I was disappointed that even the low level U.S. delegation that went that conference pulled out earlier this week. The Bush administration didn't feel safe at that conference despite having a universally recognized powerful African American in General Colin Powell, who could have led a strong US delegation. Its is really hard to deal with the effects of racism. At the end of the conference Germany apologized, Spain expressed regret for slavery and colonialism. But as Nigeria's president, a devout Christian Oleguson Obesanjo said, it is good to admit the truth and to apologize, but that's the first step.

As I have said to you before, if we leave it to the politicians to take us to God's kingdom, we are never going to get there. Would it make more sense for the churches to take the lead on this? But it does not happen that way. Churches are by and large sidelined in this conversation. But real conversations about racism don't necessarily take place in the world stage, they need to happen in our church and in our community right here. That conversation is about why some of us have greater access to jobs, education resources and health care than others of us and why some of us live in neighborhoods that are safer than others. The fact is that some our African American sisters and brothers right here in our congregation are struggling because they are living down the legacy of slavery. And others of us are privileged also because of the legacy of slavery -- its just that some of us were on the privileged of that equation. So, why is a conversation about reparations inappropriate? In fact, judging by the failure of politicians to have a civil conversation about this, as Harvard professor Cornel West once speaking at Rockefeller Chapel suggested, the church is the one place in our society that we can and must have such conversations about justice? Now, I want to suggest to you, that this too is a part of what it means for us to be "Celebrating Diversity and Building Community in Christ."

Here's the critical difference. When those politicians came together to talk about racism they couldn't make that environment safe. Arabs and Israeli's and European colonialists and American slavery together with African and Asian counterparts were trying to sit together in an environment where power politics was the name of the game. It was a losing proposition. But it is different in the church. It is different because we come together at a table on which the central elements are a broken body and shed blood. We are coming together at a place of acknowledging the tremendous pain and death that our Lord had to go through for us. That's the critical difference. So, if I am the descendent of slave owners, I will look at my brother or sister who is the descendents of slaves across the table upon which sits the body and the blood -- and I will learn to understand and appreciate that person's pain and struggle. If I am a descendent of slaves I will look at my brother or sister who is the descendent of slave owner, I will consider that person in love. Since I benefited from colonialism, when I sit across the table from my sisters and brothers at Agalawatta Baptist Church, where Sinhalese and Tamil people worship together, and I see them from the context of the body and blood of our Lord symbolized at the table, their struggle becomes my struggle. Now I am not anxious or scared to be at that table, because they consider me across the table too, and receive me as a brother. We each know that we are sinners and Jesus Christ came to this world to die for us. That's why the church is the best place for this conversation. And that too is a part of Celebrating Diversity, Building Community in Christ."

Let me tell you again, why this is so much a part of the gospel. I mean, its there from the very beginning. In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, at the pinnacle of that creation, God created human beings. The first story of creation Gen 1:1-2:4, has a very liturgical feel to it. God created everything including animals in 5 days. When you read the story, you'll see that the liturgical structure for those 5 days is very similar. But the 6th day is different. That day, God has a conference. Vs.26 reads like this: "Then God said, 'Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.'" Where did this "us" and "our" come from? All this time we thought God was one. Yes, but although God is one, within God is three persons. That's why we call God the Trinity. God is in relationship. God is in community. This is a fundamental factor about the God of the Bible.

Now, God wants to create this human being in God's image. So, what is this image of God? Theologians over the years have suggested a variety of answers to the question. I want to highlight one possibility: that the image God wanted to create human beings in is community. God's desire to create human beings in God's own image is immediately followed by God's creating human beings in community. "So God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." And then, God looks proudly at the creation and sees that is very good.

There's a second creation story in the Bible, which begins in Gen. 2:4b. That story deals much more with our earthly environment than with the cosmic scene. Relationships between men and women and our human relationships with God are paramount in this story. God shaped the man from the dust of the ground with meticulous care as a potter forms the clay into shape. But, in this story, God is not happy with the product; it is incomplete. So God makes the man fall into a deep sleep, takes one of his ribs and from that he made a woman. Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called woman, for out of man this one was taken." That is when God might have said "very good." God created human beings to live in relationship. At this point of the story, God is central to the relationship between the man and woman and they did not see their life together as separate from God.

But of course, things didn't stay that way. In chapter 3 we have the story of how Satan came in the form of a serpant and said to them that if only they would eat the fruit of the tree, they would become like God. So these two, wanting to understand themselves on their own terms and apart from their creator, eat the fruit. And suddenly they realize that God is not at the center of their relationship anymore, and that they have lost their joyful unity. Now they find themselves to be self-conscious "I"s over against each other. Adam accuses Eve and Eve accuses the serpant. Cain kills Abel and so it goes on.

Much later, when Israel began to construct its life together, its all messed up. Relationships are based on power: the rich over against the poor, the men against women, powerful against the powerless. Israel constructed their society this way not because this is how God intended it, but because of their sin, because God was not at the center of their relationships and the image of God was not seen in them any more.

When Jesus arrived on the scene in this segregated society, he wanted to restore that lost image of God to people. So he freely and naturally engaged women in conversation, associated with sinners and outcast, with Samaritans and Greeks, and tried to restore men and women to the place where God had intended for them in the first place. The NT church from the outset brought those who had been traditionally separated and built community. Women and men, slaves and free, rich and poor, Jew and Greek were all on par with each other. This is really not surprising. The fundamental premise on which the church was founded was that God's son lived, died and rose again for all people; and that all were reconciled to God through him. Now, Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, men and women have the joyful possibility of living in community. Paul affirmed this when he wrote to the Galatians, "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:27-28). Everywhere, the NT sings this song of relationships restored, divided persons reunited and hostilities overcome and healed. Now God has returned into the center of a relationship which had previously turned God out. That's what the gospel is about.

God intended that human beings live in relationships, because fundamentally that is who God is. When God is at the center of our lives, we can nurture and foster relationships. But sin puts ourselves at the center instead of God and that messes up our relationships. The gospel is about restoring God to the center or restoring God's image and thereby reconciling our relationships. Let me illustrate this with a couple of stories.

Onesimus was a slave. He belonged to a wealthy Christian of Colossae named Philemon. He was one of Paul's converts. Apparently, Philemon took his commitment to Jesus Christ very seriously. He even hosted a house-church. One day, Onesimus ran away from his master. And before he left, he stole some of his master's property and what he couldn't take, in his anger he destroyed. This was a terrible thing. If he got caught, the law said that he could be put to death.

Onesimus somehow made his way to Rome. And there was converted under Paul's ministry. He became very close to Paul and served him as his personal assistant. Now, although Onesimus is saved, there were some things that he needed to do. There was this gnawing, annoying, restless feeling that something was not right. He was carrying a burden. He may have told Paul about this before his conversion and Paul may have wanted him to wait until God's timing was right, or he may have told him later and Paul may have acted on it immediately. We don't know. There are some things about which we must act immediately and there are other things about which we must wait until God's timing is right. Anyway, at some point in Paul and Onesimus decide that the timing is right and that he must go and restore his relationship with his former master, Philemon. It is important that you understand that this letter is not about the combating the evils of slavery. It is about restoring relationships. It is about reconciliation.

I wonder if you can grasp the utter audacity of that decision. The man may very well have been killed. Its hard to imagine why didn't Paul say to him, "Onesimus, you are a new creature now, the old has passed away, so let's just put Philemon out of our minds and go on in your new life." No, Paul knows how critical it is to both Onesimus' spiritual journey and to Philemon's that they restore the relationship. And Paul has incredible courage to believe that Philemon will understand and honor his Christian commitment and however hard it may be that he will receive Onesimus like a "beloved brother." Paul's letter is a lesson in the art of Christian relationships. It is a powerful testimony to the trust and therefore the safety that we can experience in Christian community. The problem is that we are often very afraid. If you are Onesimus, it is hard to go back to Philemon. And if you are Paul, it is hard to send him. But each of them would consider each other from across the table that has the elements of the body and blood of our Lord. Each of them would know that he is a sinner, redeemed only because of God's love for them in Jesus Christ. That's what the gospel is about.

Some time ago, I shared with you about a pastors' prayer meeting I attended where white and black pastors confronted the sin of racism in their lives. They confessed their sin to each other and sought forgiveness. Some of the confession was pretty startling. One white pastor confessed that on the night that he heard that Martin Luther King had been shot dead, he and his friends went out to the street and danced for joy. I think it took guts to say that at 79th and Wabash, even inside a church. But the environment had been made safe for reconciliation.

A few years ago, at the Urbana International Student conference, another remarkable thing happened. Students from different countries took the first steps towards reconciling their traditional rivalries. Some Japanese students in a gesture of repentance sought forgiveness for the atrocities their ancestors committed against the Koreans; and the Korean students in turn made a gesture of forgiveness and grace. It was a powerfully moving event. That led some Sri Lankan students to talk about how they need to repent for the atrocities each of their communities had committed and are committing against each other and seek reconciliation. Perhaps students from many other countries did the same. Can you imagine a World Conference Against Racism when these people have become the leaders of their countries?

Celebrating Diversity, Building Community in Christ is about creating a safe environment for reconciliation. How do we do that? Here are some pointers. First, we need to understand deeply and fundamentally that we are all, sinners redeemed by God's grace. That's our commonality. We consider each other across the table on which sits the symbols of our Lord's sacrifice. This is not a superficial community. Second, we must build relationships with each other. Get to know each other's stories. We cannot do that if we don't sit with each other, have coffee with each other, visit each other in our homes. We must share in each other's struggles and share in each other's joy. People must say, like they said of the early Christians, look at how they love one another. Third, we must understand that the structures that keep us apart or systemic ones. They are not just about individuals reconciling. World conferences are necessary to deal with racism, but the conversation must begin here at the grass roots, in our communities, in our churches. And the churches must take the lead in that. That's why we are building powerful coalitions of congregations that would do exactly that.

When those ingredients are in place, when people see our tag-line, they are going to say, not only do that talk the talk, they walk the walk. Now, how about that for an evangelistic strategy.