They shall not labor in vain,
or bear children for calamity;
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—
and their descendants as well.
At the one end of the Edmund Pettis bridge in Selma, close to where the march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights began, there is a park commemorating the march. One of the monuments is to Representative John Lewis. As a college student, Lewis was with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC, and suggested the march as a way to press the politicians in Montgomery to ensure voting rights for all. The quote from Rep. Lewis that is on this monument says, “When we pray, our feet move.”
May our praying move our feet to continue the work for God’s justice right here and right now, so that everyone’s chains will be broken and the doors to the prison will be opened.
Amen.
THE TOWER OF BABEL OR THE NEW COMMANDMENT?
GENESIS 11:1–9, JOHN 13:34–35, JOHN 19:30, NAB
Question: Where will you stay when it is finished?
Answer: In one of the many rooms Jesus prepared.
Let us begin our journey to the city of heaven. From what I understand, a room has been prepared for us. How much will it cost? What do we owe? Those questions you may ask, but you should know that the price has been paid. We do not have a mortgage on this house, or rent for the room.
You ask: How is this possible? Who owns such a house? What do I owe?
Answer: It is in the Father’s house. It has been purchased for you. And, the cost? The house had to be purchased before you could even enter the city called “The Kingdom of Heaven.”
You cannot enter the city until the paperwork on the house has been finished. What was written in the Old Testament had to be fulfilled. The foundation had to be laid.
The kingdom of heaven could not be entered until Jesus said his last word and died. Because he did, you may go into the room prepared for you.
When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit. (John 19:30, NAB)
It is finished. Jesus went to the closing for us so we could enter the city, house, and room prepared for us. The mortgage has been paid. The papers have been signed. It is finished. Welcome. Enter your city. Your house. Enter the room that Jesus prepared for you.
[Jesus said] There are many rooms in my Father’s house. If there weren’t, I wouldn’t have told you that I am going away to prepare a place for you, would I? (John 14:2, ISV)
Jesus has prepared an inclusive house. The “many rooms” do not necessarily mean he is quantifying the spaciousness of God’s house. Jesus has prepared a place for the authentic you, the you God created, the you he has come to learn about over the course of your life.
Jesus is not color-blind. He applauds the individuality when he recognizes you and is designing the room he prepares for you. After all, there are many rooms, and those many rooms are contained within God’s house—a house that is meant to be filled.
Question: If Jesus is not color-blind, does that mean heaven is segregated?
Answer: Jesus is reassuring the people that there will be a place for them. Each of them. There is no segregation according to race or color.
Question: I want to be certain. May I request a walk through? May I preview the room?
Answer: All your life you have been given a preview. You only had to listen and live the words you have been told.
Jesus took the foundation from the Hebrew Bible. Jesus built the structure, designed the room. You only had to see what he said in the Gospels. You had to let your spirit hear the words deep down in your soul. You would feel the room come to life through those deeds and those actions to know what your room will be like.
No, heaven is not segregated. Believing that it is puts us in a dangerous place. A place that is not filled with his love. Earthly segregation is evil: people viewing the “not me” through a myopic lens of fear filled with incomprehensible suspicions.
The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words. While men were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.” They used bricks for stone and bitumen (tar) for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.”
The LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men had built. Then the LORD said: “If now, while they are one people, all speaking the same language, they have started to do this, nothing will stop them from doing whatever they presume to do. Let us go down and there confuse their language, so that no one will not understand what another says.”
Thus the LORD scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because the LORD confused the speech of all the world. It was from that place that He scattered them all over the earth. (Gen. 11:1–9, NAB)
How soon do they forget the “New Commandment”?
[Jesus said,] “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” (John 13:34, NAB)
You may be in one room together or separated among the many rooms. What you will share is the love. It is the love that will bring together the tenants within His house.
[Jesus said,] “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35, NAB)
I repeat. How soon do they forget the “New Commandment”?
It is possible to appear to be segregated. A Black church. A White church. A Latinx church. An Asian church. A dichotomy of churches, as may appear to be the end result of the Tower of Babel. But Jesus left one Church.
I saw a meme that said (I’m paraphrasing) to be a person in the United States of America means that your ancestral origins are:
1. Native American
2. Immigrant
3. Enslaved victim
4. Refugee
It seems that these categories are just another way for human beings to separate ourselves; they don’t even seem to be complete or accurate. And yet, they exist, more often than not, to highlight differences as opposed to showing how we are alike.
The movie Black Panther introduced me to “colonizers.” It was an epiphany. I was aware of colonization, but had never really matched the word to people. Colonizers: those who colonize. History was taught to me through the perspective of the United States of America colonizers. I was told the grand tales of the explorers who colonized the world, without using the word “colonizers.”
That fear from Babel seemed to disappear. They cared not but to explore the exotic and live amongst those who were different.
But to hear the story from the perspective of a Wakandan? To hear the story from the perspective of woke, indigenous people?
What was the way of colonizers?
Someone,