Coronavirus Response

  • Home
  • A-Z List
  • About
    • About the NCC
    • Connectional Table
    • Staff
  • Calendar
    • Events
    • Google Calendar
    • Past Events
  • Churches
  • Contact
    • Find Us
  • Districts
    • District Office
    • Beacon
    • Capital
    • Corridor
    • Fairway
    • Gateway
    • Harbor
    • Heritage
    • Sound
  • Employment
  • Search

NC Conference

Healthy Congregations and Effective Leaders in Every Place Making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World

  • Discipleship
    Developing Disciples
    • Christian Formation
      • Children
      • Church & Society
      • College
      • Creation Care
      • Differently Abled Persons
      • Older Adults
      • Spiritual Formation
      • Status & Role of Women
      • Young Adults
      • Youth
    • Church Revitalization
      • Coaching
      • Disciple Making Way
      • Evangelism
      • Grants
      • MissionInsite
      • Shift
    • From the Bishop
      • Church Transformation
      • Conflict Transformation
    • Multicultural
      • Anti-Racism
      • Asian
      • Hispanic-Latinx
      • Native American
      • Strengthening the Black Church
    • Stewardship
      • Apportionments
      • District Remittances
      • Financial Discipleship
      • Grants
      • Insurance
      • Mission & Service
      • Pension
      • Treasurer Training
  • Leadership
    Strengthening Leaders
    • Bishop’s Office
      • Appointment Book
      • Church Transformation
      • Conflict Transformation
    • Office of Clergy Life
      • Board of Ordained Ministry
      • Called to Ministry?
      • Extension Ministries
    • Board of Laity
      • Certified Lay Minister
      • Lay Servant Ministries
      • Local Church Lay Leaders
      • United Methodist Men
      • United Methodist Women
      • United Methodist Youth
    • New Faith Comm.
      • New Room Society
      • Our Communities
    • Conference Offices
      • Center for Leadership Excellence
      • Christian Formation
      • Communications
      • Conference Secretary
      • Connectional Ministries
      • Information Technology
      • Multicultural Ministries
      • Outreach Ministry
      • Treasurer’s Office
  • Service
    Ministering To The World
    • Local Outreach
      • Afghan Refugees
      • Church Construction
      • Church Loans
      • Congregations for Children (C4C)
      • Creation Care
      • Cross & Key Prision Ministries
      • Health Ministry
      • Restorative Justice and Mercy
      • Seed Funds
      • Mission Projects
    • Global Outreach
      • Love for Liberia
      • Missionaries
      • NCC UMVIM
      • Project AGAPE
      • Sierra Leone: Mission of Hope
      • ZOE
    • Disaster Ministries
      • Donate to Storm Response
      • MERCI
      • Response Plan
      • Response Team
      • Training
      • UMCOR Kits
    • Giving
      • 2021 District Christmas Offering
      • Advance/Rainbow Covenant
      • Apportionments
      • Give to Storm Response
      • Mission & Service
      • The Gary Wayne Locklear Mission Endowment
      • New Room Society
      • Special Sundays
    • Ministry Partners
      • Boy Scouts of America (BSA)
      • Camps & Retreats
      • NC Institute for Spiritual Direction and Formation
      • Partners In Ministry
      • Robeson Co. Church & CC
      • UMF
  • Resources
    Supporting Ministry
    • Conferences
      • Annual Conference 2021
      • Annual Conference 2022
      • Charge Conference 2021
      • General Conference
      • Pilgrimage
      • SEJ Conference 2016
    • Media Center
      • Catalog
      • Labyrinth
      • Ministry Tools
      • Online Resources
      • Weekly Newsletter
    • Online Resources
      • Anti-Racism
      • Archives & History
      • #BeUMC
      • Church Lookup
      • Green Church Initiative
      • Online Data Collection
      • Online Learning
      • Pastor Lookup
      • Ramus: Web Hosting
      • Video (Vimeo)
    • Publications
      • Appointment Book
      • Bible Study
      • Conference Directory
      • Conference Journal
      • Every Day Grace
      • Lenten Reflections
      • Mission & Service
      • Podcasts (NCCUMC.FM)
    • From UMC.org
      • Agencies
      • Communications
      • Discipleship
      • Finance & Administration
      • Global Ministries
      • Graphics Library
      • Relief
      • Status & Role of Women
  • Immigration Task Force
  • About

Lent Day 28 : April 6, 2019 “(e)Raced”

April 6, 2019 Leave a Comment

“Most people tend to believe that they are the centre of the world, and their culture is the linchpin of human history.” — Yuval Noah Harari in 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

“Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” — Genesis 2:7

 

This week we have been talking about race and immigration. The white, Western world created the idea of race to go along with its global expansion and imperialism. It gave validity to its charge to subdue the non-white people, because of their inferiority. However, science has, in large part, discredited the idea of race, showing that we are mostly one, human race. Aside from minor skin-deep differences — the size of our nostrils, the type of hair we have — we are more or less the exact same in our DNA. These shifts have led a lot of people to say that we are in a post-racist world. In a lot of ways, this seems increasingly true. Even though hate groups have quickly grown in the USA in recent years, the number of seemingly racist people we see on a daily basis seems to decrease.

 

We have seen how racism exists in policies and practices, how it is a systematic thing more than a personal thing (for more on this, see Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crowe, which gives an example of institutional racism in the prison system). However, on a personal level, racism has turned into culturalism. Israeli author Yuval Harari talks a lot about this in his book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, in which he talks about how cultures look at each other, during times of immigration. One culture will say to another, “We were here first, our culture is best.” They might go on to say, “We do not need to leave our country, but you are leaving yours. Therefore, something must be wrong with your culture.” This idea goes beyond the definition of race as a personal issue, but it follows the same lines as racism does. Add to this that most people think that their culture is better than other people’s culture, and you get the recipe for racial polarization all over again.

 

Furthermore, how are we to talk about culturalism in an age of mass-immigration with massive amounts of refugees? We see powerful video clips, like this one from the United Methodist group Justice for Our Neighbors, but we may still end up thinking, “What is wrong with their country that they want to come to ours?” I propose one idea. Let us celebrate what God has done in and around us. Let us celebrate that, before we humans created our dividing lines, God called us all the same.

 

Let us go in our imagination back to the beginning of Lent, when we received the sign of the cross in ashes, on our foreheads, and were told. “You are from dust, and to dust you will return. Repent and believe and follow the Gospel.” Let us go, even before that, to the places in our memories that we have all but forgotten, to the place where God created us. Let us remember God breathing life into humanity, to the first human made from dust. And let us remember how similar we are. Of course, our differences are apparent, and we should never forget these differences. But also, let us remember what unites and brings us together. Let us remember that, underneath the dividing lines of culture and race, we are all dust, beloved of God, with the breath of God in our lungs.

 

Consider: How does the remembrance of my insignificance change the way I live? The only important thing in us is the breath of God. How does that make me feel?
Pray: Lord, our creator, you gave us breath. You breathed life and distinctiveness into our nostrils. You gave us personality. We changed and decided to use our individuality to create division — from each other and from you. Please, help us to see that you are within all living humans, drawing us back together. Amen.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Filed Under: General

Get Immigration Task Force Emails

Sign up below to receive email updates from the Immigration Task Force.

The NC Conference respects your privacy. See our Privacy Policy.

Recent Posts

  • Christmas Day Devotion
  • Advent: Week 4, Day 3
  • Advent: Week 4, Day 2
  • Advent: Week 4, Day 1
  • Advent: Week 3, Day 7

NC Conference of The United Methodist Church · 700 Waterfield Ridge Place · Garner, NC 27529
Phone: 919.779.6115 · Toll-free: 800.849.4433 · Fax: 919.773.2308

Copyright © 2022 · Privacy Policy · Powered by WordPress · Site Admin