It's Martin Luther King Day

Depending on how long you've kept up with this silly blog of mine, you know that just about every January I tend to write a rant in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The fact of the matter is this: God has placed a burden in my heart for the less privileged people in our world that was further cultivated and focused through various studies in college.

So, this year, while I was reluctant about taking on the responsibility, I ended up being honored and excited about being appointed as the chair of the diversity committee at school this year. On one hand, I laugh, thinking of Michael Scott and all of his fumbled attempts to embrace diversity. On another hand, I get frustrated with what could very well be just another trend and festival of buzzwords. On another hand, I don't know how to achieve certain outcomes that I believe are only possible with Christ as a mediator. And on a final hand, I get excited about putting my years of thinking to work, passing on these thoughts to young minds.

And so, this past Wednesday consisted of an assembly with some beautiful moments, including the students reciting excerpts of the "I Have a Dream" speech and culminating in a peace march outside complete with signs and singing.

And all of this is impacting me personally. As I reflect on my teaching in Acts 14, how anyone living a godly life will face hardships, I can't help but think of Martin Luther King telling his wife he knew he wouldn't live to see 40. As much as we'd like to think persecution doesn't happen in the USA, we only need to look back to 1968 to see it's not as unlikely as we might think.

And as I study Acts elsewhere, I can't help but marvel at how God cares about our unity, and how he went to great lengths to preserve the unity of the early believers.

In Acts chapter 8, Philip takes the gospel into Samaria--what could basically be considered enemy territory--for the first time. And after they receive the gospel message, Peter and John travel down to see what's going on and end up instilling the Holy Spirit in these new believers in an unusual experience.

Now, if you're a Pentacostal, you'd read this and say it's a typical experience, the way the Holy Spirit is usually received. If you run in more conservative theological circles, you might say these Samaritans were never Christians in the first place. If you take a look at things more carefully, you might agree that the Holy Spirit typically comes at the point of conversion, but in this case, it's clear that these Samaritans were believers but didn't yet have the Holy Spirit. So why did God choose to do things so differently here?

It could be that God cared deeply about the unity of his believers at this important turning point in the history of the early church. Jews and Samaritans were heated enemies, and so, when they first believed the gospel and received the Holy Spirit, it was utterly important that the leaders of the church first see the evidence of their conversion and also make this important connection with them. A gap was being bridged in these moments. Peter and John placed their hands on their enemies, and they were no longer Jews and Samaritans but children of God and brothers in Christ.

How humbling this must have been to a man like John, who at one point in his life suggested destroying an entire Samaritan village with fire from heaven. He was learning an important lesson in these moments.

God bent his own rules in this turning point to make sure everyone knew that, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." He cares about our unity.