⁶“I will also bless the foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord, who serve Him and love His name, who worship Him and do not desecrate the Sabbath day of rest, and who hold fast to My covenant. ⁷ I will bring them to My holy mountain of Jerusalem and will fill them with joy in My house of prayer.  I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices, because My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations. ⁸ For the Sovereign Lord, who brings back the outcasts of Israel, says, I will bring others, too, besides my people Israel.”
Isaiah 56:6-8
 
I went on one date with a girl in high school.  I talked to her the next day and she said, “I can be friends with you, but we can’t date.  My dad doesn’t want me dating people like you.”  It took me awhile to figure out what she meant.  I could be a respectful and honest teenager, but I would never be able to measure up because I wasn’t white.  My mom’s parents were both Hispanic and my dad’s mom was Hispanic as well.  My dad’s dad was white – hence the Hispanic with the last name of “Smith.”  But even with that last name, it wouldn’t be enough.
 
I vowed on that day to be color blind.  It would be years later when God begin to speak to me through others and adapt a new outlook – color blessed.  Color blessed means to accept others for who they are and celebrate their culture and story.  God made us different for a reason.
 
What’s your story?  I just told you a little of mine, but it’s just for an example.  I’m not going to pretend to completely understand the pain and hurt caused by racism.  But how well do I really know you if I don’t know your story?  I have to stop talking in order to hear you… or I’m not really going to hear you.
 
Jesus referenced Isaiah 56:7 while He overturned the tables in Matthew 21:13.  “He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”  The Gentiles, you and me, were only allowed in the outer courts of the temple.  Could you imagine going to the Temple in order to worship, but instead of worship all you found was a strip mall?  Jesus was understandbly upset because this is not what God wanted at all! 
 
I read this quote yesterday as I was clearing out some old notes on my phone.  “When we worship with others just like us it stifles our growth in Jesus.”  What a powerful and beautiful picture of the gospel.  God calls us, each and every one of us, to Him.  We celebrate our differences and we find our commonalities.  We love others because He first loved us.  We worship together, united under the banner of Christ!
 
May Central Christian Church be a house of prayer for all people.  Brothers and sisters coming together to worship a Risen Savior.  Jesus paid it all – for me, for you, for the foreigner, for the outcast, for the one who knows he needs Jesus the most, and the one who thinks he needs Jesus the least.  “O Praise the One who paid my debt and raised my life up from the dead!”
 
We are Central… and we’re in this TOGETHER! 
SOLI DEO GLORIA
-F