Following the finals of the Euro 2020 football championship, Sancho, Rashford and Saka, the three football players from the England team have been racially abused and so much venom has been spitting on them online because of their colour by some toxic nationalists. When a mural of Rashford was damaged at Withington in Manchester, a great number of people came together to stand up against racism, supporting Rashford, offering messages of love and calling communities to defeat hatred and hostility against the stranger has been heart-warming. To offer our support and solidarity to Rashford, we as a family visited this site where the mural of Rashford was covered with lots of messages of love, and found that there are many people from different walks of life who came there to offer respect and stand up against racism. This wall with the mural of Rashford in Withington has now become a new pilgrim site for justice, where lots of people are visiting to take hope and courage in standing with Rashford and in standing up against racism.
I was particularly warmed by the profound theological statement made by Phoebe Parkin, the Youth President of the Methodist Church condemning racism following the Euro 2020 final. She says, “Football isn’t the problem. The problem is that we live in a society where sexism, racism, nationalism and violence are enabled, where not enough of us (including myself) actively work to challenge even the lowest levels of sexism, racism and nationalism. Jesus showed us that we should be peacemakers and showed us that we should love others as ourselves, showing the same grace and compassion that God shows to us.” By this statement, Phoebe is inviting the church to actively work on challenging issues of racism, sexism and nationalism in the spirit of Jesus offering love, peace and compassion.
In the epistle lesson for this week, Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul speaks to the early church at Ephesus about Jesus who has come to make peace by breaking down the dividing wall, transcending all kinds of barriers like uncircumcised, gentiles, strangers, foreigners, aliens and making all people of God as ‘one humanity’ and as equal members of the household of God. In the Ephesian context, the divisions among people were based on circumcision and uncircumcision, believers and non-believers, gentiles and Jews, foreigners and natives. In other words, the divisions were based on rituals, religion, ethnicity, and regionalism. Into such a divided and divisive context Paul was ascribing the public relevance of the gospel of Jesus Christ by encouraging them to strive for peace, reconciliation, and oneness of humanity, reminding them of Jesus’ mission of peace and peace-making, joining both the groups in peace. It is interesting to see Pauls’ public theological perspectives coming alive in this text as he engages with his context.
Firstly, Paul explains that peace is realised by creating ‘one new humanity’ in Christ. Paul says, “He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of two, thus making peace,” (15v) for peace in a divisive setting is possible only by creating ‘one new humanity’ in Christ. Paul was not offering a solution of creating a ‘one new church’ here, rather was emphasising ‘one new humanity in Christ.’ Humanity has been losing its credibility by falling prey to the divisions based on race, colour, ethnicity, religion and ritual. In other words, with the entrenchment of divisions, discriminations, oppressions, and marginalisation in the society, dehumanisation has taken over humanity since creation. So, when Christ has come in the form of a human, it is important to recognise that Christ was born as Jesus in a dehumanising world offering ‘salvation as humanisation.’ Though this sounds anthropomorphic, the idea is that when Jesus has come to offer peace, breaking the walls of division, he is breaking the walls of dehumanisation and has been creating ‘one new humanity’ which strives for a renewed creation order. To put it in other words, Christ has come to create ‘one new humanity’ by breaking the powers of dehumanisation, so that this new humanity in Christ will work together transcending all barriers for a new and renewed creation.
So, drawing a relevance of this text for our context, today we recognise racism, sexism and toxic nationalism have been the principalities of dehumanisation, that have been dividing the society, and the call for us as followers of Jesus Christ is to work towards ‘one new humanity’ where all these evils of dehumanisation will be dismantled. The call of the church is to partake with Jesus in creating ‘one new humanity’, where Christ offers the clue to understand what humanness means in Jesus, for love, peace, reconciliation, compassion and justice are the outward expressions of the ‘one new humanity.’ What have we as a church contributed towards creating that ‘one new humanity’ in Christ? The obsessions of the church today have been on numerical church growth, and the mission for ‘one new humanity’ has taken a back bench in our endeavours as a church. We as a church should be at the forefront of fighting racism, sexism, toxic nationalism, and addressing the needs of the people on the margins. By such activism and actions, new spaces and new places of Christian presence will be celebrated. We as a church should stand by Rashford, Sancho and Saka and many like them who have become victims of racism and engage with the issues in the public sphere, for only then we as churches will find our relevance today.
The public theological language of testifying about ‘one new humanity’ for our 21st century is all about engaging in ‘one new ecology in Christ.’ The ‘new humanity’ who have defeated dehumanisation with Christ, will work for a new creation, thereby a (re)newed ecology is created, in which space, humanity and creation live and work in peace and harmony, with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone for such a ‘one new ecology.’
Secondly, Paul explains that peace is celebrated as ‘one new humanity’ in Christ by growing into a new temple of God in Christ (20-22v). Here Paul offers a clue for the church to grow. When peace through Christ and in Christ is made, then all disparities and inequalities are broken down for this ‘one new humanity’ becomes the household of God built on Jesus Christ, the cornerstone. Paul proposes to the church at Ephesus that this ‘one new humanity’ where peace, equality and love are established, now becomes the ‘dwelling-place for God.’ In a way Paul was proposing a new definition for the temple of God, that God is not limited to the holy shrines and the temples, nor is confined by territory or building, rather the ‘one new humanity’ becomes the site where God’s indwelling moves, lives and happens.
The relevance of this text for us today is that when dehumanising powers of racism, sexism and toxic nationalism are broken down and dismantled, ‘one new humanity in Christ’ is created. In that new creation, peace, equality and love thrives, and such a new site becomes the new ground where God finds God’s new dwelling place. So as followers if we defeat these powers and break down the walls of division, then we collectively become part of the ‘one new humanity’ and we become the new temple where God dwells among us. Put it differently, if dehumanising powers thrive and dominate our lives, God is not living among us and we as humans have lost the purpose of our humanness. So, the call for us as a church is to find the dwelling place of God within us and among our communities. It’s time that we as churches should be working for a ‘one new humanity’ and testify that God dwells among us in that new humanity and community.
God doesn’t dwell among sites of dehumanisation, for all the powers of dehumanisation are anti-God. Let us therefore work together in breaking down the walls of racism, sexism and toxic nationalism and make ourselves, our churches and our communities as places of love, hospitality and inclusion, celebrating the fact that we are all part of ‘one new humanity’ in Christ.
Rashford, Sancho and Saka, we love you and we stand by you, for you have all made us proud. Together we live, together we fight against dehumanisation, and together we partake in the ‘one new humanity in Christ.’
Raj Bharat Patta,
16th July 2021
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