Missio KC is a faith community designed to welcome all who come, as you are, where you are, and how you are ... our focus is to build a multicultural community with the mission to gather all in Christian love and fellowship. In the following article from Inheritance Magazine, Michael Kim-Eubanks writes eloquently how while our faith community has the desire, growing gifts and the Godly direction we must be faithful to allow Jesus the Christ be the Holy Hand that guides and moves us into breaking the barriers of cultural distress... I share his article with you ... Read carefully and understand that all we do at Missio KC is with and through the hands and life of Christ for the people. We as Missio KC come as the hands and feet of Christ ... Blessings! Breaking Down the Walls of Hostility Like no other time in history, people of different ethnic and cultural origins are crashing together in social spaces, in workplaces, in educational institutions and in the electronic world. It cannot be overstated: we are living in the most connected age in history. And yet I believe, as connected as we are, we have a long way to go in our journey of learning how to live rightly together. Growing up in Los Angeles, I was very connected to the Black community through my family and my almost entirely Black church. However, I attended a primarily White elementary school as one of the Black kids that got bussed into school as a part of its initiative to increase diversity. Eventually, I moved to Rowland Heights, a suburb with a budding Asian American and Asian immigrant community. By the time I was 14, I had significant interaction with three different ethnic communities. eubanks-quote1 But as much as I had learned how to interact, I never found a place I could call home. In church, I didn’t really talk or interact like a “Black kid” should. I was called an “Oreo”, referring to how I was Black on the outside, but White on the inside. In elementary school, I was one of one to three Black children in my classes. I made the occasional friend, but I was never invited to a friend’s birthday party. And my interactions with Asian Americans in Rowland Heights were a mixed bag. On one hand, some of my best friends were people who invited me to their homes, introduced me to their parents, and treated me like I was family. On the other hand, I heard some painful hate speech come from Asian American friends and acquaintances who thought making fun of my dark skin or calling me a nigger was appropriate and amusing. Coming into college, I was confused. I never really gained admittance into any culture, not even my own. I had encountered some longstanding social barriers that were built over centuries in order to separate and alienate people, and it made me angry. My anger, however, gave way to a longing — a deep desire for a holistic experience of peace and community. I needed a home. Breaking Down the Walls of Hostility There is a rhetoric among people (Jesus-following and otherwise) who are aware or becoming aware of ethnic identity and ethnic community dynamics. When we talk about diversity and ethnic identity, we can typically describe the task with phrases like “breaking barriers” or “building community”. We have a sense that there are obstacles and distances separating communities, and that there’s work to do in getting rid of such separations. I believe this is accurate but arrogant. It is correct to assume that there is a reality in which we can live together, as people of different histories and cultures, but in pursuit of shared hopes and dreams. And it is true that there are obstacles and a fair amount of distance that separates ethnic communities from each other. Whether it’s because of a long history of violence, or inherited cultural narratives filled with stereotypes that pit “us against them”, much work has been done to establish enmity, contempt and even hatred between countries, ethnicities and cultures. eubanks-quote2 You and I are not excluded from this. Regardless of what ethnic or national traditions you most identify with, we also have a history. And that history is highly likely to contain its share of violence and inherited cultural stereotypes that affect how you see and interact with people from other ethnic groups. This is a neutral reality shared by all people. It is a part of what makes us human. But if we are honest with ourselves, we must immediately confess that these barriers are too big for us. They have been erected over centuries. In some cases, blood has been shed to ensure that the distances and barriers that we face stay intact. We are too small to break them, and to assume otherwise is to entertain a myth that will only leave us more frustrated and cynical than if we had not. Enter Jesus. Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus (modern-day Turkey) gives us a powerful picture of Jesus in light of ethnic identity and community. In the second chapter he says: Breaking Down the Walls of Hostility“For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.” (Ephesians 2:14-22 NRSV) The reason that we cannot, by ourselves, break barriers or build community is precisely because the breaking and the building are the work of Jesus! Jesus is the one who breaks down the dividing wall of hostility. Jesus is the one who abolishes the commandments and ordinances that created distance between Jews and Gentiles. And Jesus is the one who creates in himself one new humanity out of the two. Insomuch as Jesus was fully aware of his impending execution, he had in full view the reconciliation of both Jews and non-Jews to God. Both groups were in separate, yet equal need of being restored into God’s family and destiny. So as he made his way to the cross, Jesus took the Jews and the Gentiles (or non-Jews) together, presented us all to God, and said, “This is our new family. Make them right with You. Restore Your destiny in them.” Without Jesus, we are left living in the same separated communities with the same ancient barriers. eubanks-quote3As a Black man, one of the greatest gifts Jesus has given me has been Asian Americans whose understanding of ethnic identity and reconciliation is hinged upon the sacrificial love of Jesus. These friends have been generous with their stories and experiences, and have invited me into their joy and pain. They have entered into my story and been sources of solidarity and friendship in the midst of my confusion and anger. And when I have forgotten, they have reminded me that all of our efforts to live in reconciled community are fruitless without constantly acknowledging Jesus, whose execution and resurrection gives us the ability to pursue healed identities and relationships. One very real example of this has been my relationship with my wife Erina and her family. She is a second generation Korean American, and our dating experience started with a high level of hostility from her parents. Erina was very aware that this might happen, and she was well-equipped in her ethnic identity and in her relationship with her parents to be our mediator. It was amazing to see her advocate for our relationship and humbling to see her advocate for me. But her family’s tensions grew with no end in sight. eubanks-quote4It was easy for me to explain their reaction to our relationship as just racism, but in prayer it became clear that it was much deeper. Remembering the stories that some of my other Asian American friends shared with me, I began to see our relationship from their perspective. I realized that her parents had dreams and ambitions for their daughter’s future, and a husband and son-in-law from one of this country’s most disenfranchised ethnic groups did not fit into that future. Not to mention, our two communities had just engaged in violent conflict in the Los Angeles Riots. On its face, this did not bode well for her family’s reputation and future. We didn’t know what to do, but we both believed that God was leading us to imagine a life where the walls between our families and communities had already come down. We persevered, through hard conversations and racist comments, because we believed in what Jesus had broken and what he was building. eubanks-quote5And when I finally asked her father for a blessing, he said, “I trust God, because I believe he will use our family to break down walls in the Korean community. Let’s pray now.” Their ability to let go of their dreams for their daughter and consider a Black man to be a part of their family is one of the most sacrificial acts of love I’ve ever experienced. So this is my appeal to you: Use the gifts you have been given to sacrificially love people who don’t look like you. Find ways to be an advocate and partner in other communities. Remember that it is Jesus who did the breaking, who continues to do the building, and who invites us to partner with Him in what He’s already doing. Inheritance Magazine Michael Kim-Eubanks
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 16:07:18 +0000
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