Tag Archives: discrimination

God’s People, part 238: Discrimination

Read Acts 6:1-7

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, ‘You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor’—well, doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?”  (James 2:4-5, NLT)

When we think of God’s people, we tend to think one of two things. We might think of the Israelites who were God’s “chosen people”, or we might think of specific characters in the Bible. Either way, we tend to idealize the people we are thinking about. For instance, we may think that God’s people are super faithful, holy, perform miracles and live wholly devout and righteous lives. Unfortunately, this idealism enables us to distance ourselves from being God’s people, because we feel that we fall short of those ideals. As such, I have decided to write a devotion series on specific characters in the Bible in order to show you how much these Biblical people are truly like us, and how much we are truly called to be God’s people.

discriminationPart 238: Discrimination. Discrimination has been around for as long as humans have been around. Often times it is done unintentionally out of subconscious preference and/or ignorance. Still, there are times when it is being done on purpose in order to keep people in their places.

In the Scripture reading above, we have a case of discrimination. As was discussed in an earlier devotion, the early Christians lived with sharing everything in common. What that meant was that nobody individually owned anything. Instead, everything they had was shared with the community as a whole. This put everyone on an equal level with each other. No one person was richer or better off than the next.

This form of communal sharing also included food. The Apostles were overseeing the daily distribution of food to all of the Christians in Jerusalem. In the early church in Jerusalem, there were two different types of believers, the Hebrew-speaking believers and the Greek-speaking believers. It is important for us to understand that all that distinguished these believers from each other was their language.

In other words, both of these groups were Jewish. The Hebrew-speaking believers grew up in Judaea and, therefore, spoke Hebrew. The Greek-speaking believers grew up in Diaspora (or displaced) Jewish communities around the Roman empire and spoke Greek, which was the common language throughout the ancient Roman world, as opposed to Latin which was mainly spoke in and around Rome itself.

The situation that Scripture mentions was this: the Greek-speaking believers felt that their widows were getting discriminated against by the Hebrew-speaking believers when it came to food distribution. It seems as if the Apostles, who were overseeing the daily distribution of food, tried to handle the situation themselves, but it got out of hand and so they had to call a meeting to figure out how to move forward.

What needs to be understood is that, though both groups are Jewish, Diaspora Jews were looked down upon by purist Hebrew-speaking Jews. Why? Because they believed that they ought to be separate from the rest of the world, including speaking Hebrew instead of Greek. It’s what kept the Jews distinct and separate from the Greco-Roman culture. Jews who lived outside of Judaea, in the views of the Hebrew-speaking Jews, had been compromised by the Greco-Roman culture and therefore, they were cause for suspicion.

Though the Bible doesn’t elaborate on the ways in which these Greek-speaking believers were being discriminated against or why it was happening, we can guess that the aforementioned purist Jewish mentality was at play. This controversy was, at best, was not getting properly addressed and it was pulling the Apostles away from spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The solution they came up with was to appoint seven well-known and trusted people to oversee the daily distribution of food and to make sure it wass being done fairly to all people. The group of people they chose were diverse, including an earlier Syrian convert to the Jewish faith who later became a believer in Jesus Christ. This group’s diversity would ensure that the discrimination came to an end.

This Scripture teaches us a couple of things. First, God’s people are NOT immune to the sin of discrimination. Even Christians can find themselves discriminating against others. Second, discrimination has NO PLACE among God’s people. Let us be challenged by the fact that the Apostles took the charge of discrimination seriously and found a way to counteract it. If they took it seriously, so should we. Let us, who are God’s People living today, do everything we can to put an end to discrimination.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“We’ve come a long way, but there is still a lot of discrimination.” – Aretha Franklin

PRAYER
Lord, make me aware of the ways in which I discriminate and help me to root out discrimination from my life. Amen.

God’s People, part 31: Deborah

Read Judges 4-5

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” (Matthew 12:32 NRSV)

When we think of God’s people, we tend to think one of two things. We might think of the Israelites who were God’s “chosen people”, or we might think of specific characters in the Bible. Either way, we tend to idealize the people we are thinking about. For instance, we may think that God’s people are super faithful, holy, perform miracles and live wholly devout and righteous lives. Unfortunately, this idealism enables us to distance ourselves from being God’s people, because we feel that we fall short of those ideals. As such, I have decided to write a devotion series on specific characters in the Bible in order to show you how much these Biblical people are truly like us, and how much we are truly called to be God’s people.

DeborahPart 31: Deborah. Deborah is both a familiar Biblical name to many people, as well as an obscure character. I would wager that most people, while recognizing her name, don’t really remember who she was or what she did. It is also what drives me crazy about those in Christianity who would like to keep women in their pretty little boxes, put nicely in their place within the church, as is if they are nothing more than second-rate members of the church that are meant to “compliment” men by being subservient to their every whim and wish.

To support such a view on women, such Christians skip over (almost literally) 98% of the Bible in order to hone in on a few (and I mean only a few) passages that the Apostle Paul most likely didn’t write (1 Timothy 2:11-15, Ephesians 5:22-24, and 1 Corinthians 14:33b-36, which is really suspect given the context surrounding it). By honing in on those verses they, of course, skip over all of the other passages where Paul celebrates women leaders in the church (one even named an apostle), call for their equality in Christ, and lists himself as a benefactor of women contributors and supporters of his ministry (e.g., Romans 16:1-7; 1 Corinthians 1:10-11; 12:12-13; Philippians 4:2-3; Galatians 3:27-28).

While there are many verses that are not kind to women in the Bible and, honestly, there are many verses that are not kind to men, children, and animals too, there is no doubt that certain women were leaders. Deborah is among them and she wasn’t just a leader but a prophet as well. In fact, though I previously said, these judges were not “penal judges”, like we have in our court systems, it seems that this Deborah did act in such away, making judgments on disputes between people.

Most importantly, though, is that she was a prophet and that her prophecy led to Barak (I am sure this name sounds familiar) having victory over the Canaanites. What’s more, while the Canaanites were defeated, the victory did not go to the Israelite general Barak, but to A WOMAN who drove a tent peg through the head of the Canaanite general. Brutal, I know; however, it is important to name it and claim it that it was a woman, as prophesied by Deborah, who brought victory to Barak and the Israelites.

Following this, Deborah broke into one of the most epic war songs found in the Bible, making her among the Psalmists as well. Deborah led Barak in a song that gave the victory and the glory back to God. She was quite a woman, for sure. While her tale does not inform us of her “shortcomings”, no doubt Deborah had them as we all do. With that said, we Christians can certainly ascertain our own shortcomings while reading of Deborah.

How have we, as Christians, been Spirit blasphemers? How have we as Christians denied the work of the Holy Spirit as a result of our cultural and personal biases? How have we passed the Holy Spirit by because we could not see past gender, race, age, ability, sexual identity, or anything that we label people by? The challenge for us is to remove the LOG from our eyes so that we can clearly see the speck in our sisters’ and brothers’ eyes. If we do, we just might find out that, at least in some cases, what we initially saw as a “speck” might actually be the work of the Holy Spirit.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Did you know that American President Barack Obama was named after the Israelite general Barak, who sought guidance from Deborah? Think about the resistance our former president initially received over his name/ethnicity/religious affiliation/place of birth and what that says about our sinful (if not evil) biases, as well as our own Biblical ignorance.

PRAYER
Lord, forgive me for I have sinned against you and against heaven. I am not worthy of being called your child. Yet, you have redeemed me and set a feast before me to celebrate my return. Help me so that, in all that I do, I bring honor and glory to your name, just as your daughter Deborah did!

A LOOK BACK: Pieces of You

bflw-devotional-800x490Writing the Life-Giving Water devotionals is not only an important ministry, but is a deeply rewarding spiritual discipline for me as well. With that said, observing Sabbath (aka rest) is an important spiritual discipline as well. So here is a LOOK BACK to a devotion I wrote in the past. Read it, reflect on it, be challenged by it. Who knows how God will speak to you through it and how it will bear relevance in your life today? May the Holy Spirit guide you as you read the suggested Scripture and subsequent devotion.