By Milan Homola
Have you ever walked into a house where popcorn has just been popped? You are overwhelmed with the smell and something innate takes over. You start searching.
Where is the popcorn?
Which room is it in?
Is there any left?
Who has it?
You know when you are getting close because the smell of warm, melted butter intensifies. You have no doubt when you are just outside the room containing the source. Now imagine stopping there…outside the room. Where getting close enough is good enough or smelling popcorn is just as good as eating popcorn.
This is how I feel when I read about racial reconciliation and biblical justice. We settle for half-truths.
I can tell when I’m in the right house: the call to be present to our neighbors, to see the overlooked, to stand for hope in a hopeless world. The truth is close at hand but then I get stuck, give up, or distracted by something else. In doing so, I give in and settle for less.
This feeling is amplified when I read anything by John M. Perkins about biblical reconciliation and justice.
I’ll state my bias upfront: I consider John Perkins a hero of the faith. When I was in Seminary, I heard many stories shared about him as a humble voice for biblical justice and reconciliation. Stories about how he was born and raised in Mississippi but fled in 1947 after his brother was shot and killed by a police officer, returning in 1960 with a passion for the ministry of reconciliation. Stories about six decades of serving, teaching, mentoring and loving all people.
Then I got to meet him a few times and look him in the eye as he taught. I realized the stories didn’t cover half of it. To many, including myself, Perkins represents a determined, biblical call for reconciliation and justice around the world.
In this short blog my aim is to pique your interest in the significant truths Perkins expounded and help you, like myself, stop settling for less when God has called us to so much more (or in lay terms, find the popcorn and indulge).
How Do We Not Settle For Less?
What does settling for less look like? For me when it comes to engaging in the work of biblical reconciliation, I often choose the easy and efficient route versus the time consuming commitment of building trust.
Settling for the smell of popcorn looks like sending in a check to support a cause you have a passion to do something about but you keep finding reasons not to show up. It looks like not seeking or giving forgiveness. It looks like avoiding or postponing the work of mending brokenness across racial, class, and even denominational lines. The real joy and labor, like partaking in the buttery goodness of popcorn, can only be experienced up close (and by getting a bit messy).
“As Perkins would say, the problem we rarely see involves a one-sided gospel: a gospel where being reconciled to God has little to no implications for reconciliation between people and within the church across different ethnicities, social strata, and denominations.”
My hope is that we would be more honest and have our eyes opened to the real problems in front of us as Christians collectively. I was reminded of this when I recently completed Perkins’ latest and possibly last book: One Blood: Parting Words to the Church On Race and Love.
At one point in the book, Perkins borrows a quote from GK Chesterton and applies it to the Church in America: “It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem.” In a problem-solving culture we move quickly to solutions, often neglecting the work of humbly asking the Lord if we are even fighting the right battles.
As Perkins would say, the problem we rarely see involves a one-sided gospel: a gospel where being reconciled to God has little to no implications for reconciliation between people and within the church across different ethnicities, social strata, and denominations.
This is a blatant inconsistency advancing through the ages because of two “F” words: fear and failure.
Fear
The pathway of reconciliation is fraught with fear because it means facing tension, pain, and suffering. It involves the work of humility and forgiveness, which is never safe.
I will admit I’m afraid of the work of reconciliation. I’m afraid of the experiences (some real and some imagined) where I, the youngish white guy gets scoffed at by a person of color when I try to reach out simply because I yearn for friendship outside my “bubble.” I’m afraid of rejection because I’m weak.
The labor and courage required for all forms of reconciliation can be daunting. But as our personal fears collaborate and become corporate failures, they can at their worst become invisible systems of thought and action.
Failure
Within the greater Christian community we struggle to reconcile in many areas, making it rare to find a Philippians 2 lifestyle lived out. Even rarer still is to find this lifestyle thriving across theological/denominational boundaries and leaders.
“If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.” Phil. 2:3 MSG
Cue the mic drop.
We are failing to live into the flourishing for which Jesus lived, died, and rose again.
Striving For More: Made for Unity
I don’t think I’m alone in feeling the fear and the failure. Yet we continue to settle for less when God calls us to so much more: oneness in the body of Christ not because it is optional, rather because it is essential.
According to John Perkins, “there is a vision shaped vacuum in the soul of the church that will not be satisfied by man-made strategies or philosophies, but only by his vision of the church victoriously fulfilling the divine mandate.”
The “divine mandate” is not new or cutting edge: it is the vision Jesus unveiled in his High Priestly Prayer found in John 17. The prayer includes petitions spoken hours before his death: “May they be one as we are one […] so that the world would know the love of the Father.”
When we take steps to pursue reconciled relationships we are part of the answer to Jesus’ prayer–reconciled to one another and to God so that the world would be invited into God’s love.
I’ve always seen this as an ancient mandate–a mandate to oneness as the body of Christ so that the power of Christ might be witnessed. When we take steps to pursue reconciled relationships we are part of the answer to Jesus’ prayer–reconciled to one another and to God so that the world would be invited into God’s love.
When you believe and walk in this truth, it is like walking through the door and finally getting to eat and enjoy the popcorn.
What if the everyday followers of Jesus experienced a faith where the pursuit of biblical reconciliation was just as significant as the disciplines of prayer and reading Scripture?
What Can You Do Today?
- Read One Blood or any other book by John Perkins. Find a group to talk about and process the ideas together.
- Forgiveness– Seek it and give it. According to Perkins, “forgiveness is the linchpin of reconciliation. It is the soil in which reconciliation takes root and grows.” Start with those areas and relationships right in front of you this week, when you hurt someone or feel hurt. Pursue reconciliation through the process of forgiveness. Intentionally consider what makes it difficult to forgive or receive forgiveness?
- Challenge yourself and your community to take the first or next step in the journey of reconciliation across ethnic, class and denominational lines.
- Focus on the Reconciler more than your plans or the latest conference on reconciliation. Meditate, paint, journal, reflect, etc., on Ephesians 2:14-16 and Hebrews 12:1-3.
“We may not have much time left to offer the world a glimpse of this unity that will point the eyes of the watching world to the power of our great God.” -John Perkins
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