Ethnic Diversity in Romans 16

I can't sleep so I am writing. A close study of Romans 16 reveals that the church in Rome was a dynamic mixture of racial and cultural backgrounds. I want to highlight two areas – racial and socioeconomic differences. Racial differences - There were many Gentiles listed (e.g., Epenetus v.5). There were also Jews listed like Priscilla and Aquilla (v.3-5) and Andronicus and Junias (v.7) and Herodian (v.11). Timothy (v.21) was biracial. Acts 16.1 says that Timothy’s mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek. So there was racial and ethnic diversity. Socioeconomic differences - There were wealthy people in the church at Rome like Aristobulus (v.10), the grandson of Herod the Great. And Narcissus (v.11), a rich and powerful man who had influence on the Emperor Claudius. Erastus (v.23), was an government official in Corinth. But there were also poor people. Some appear to be slaves like Ampliatus (v.8), Urbanus (v.9), Hermes (v.14), and Julia (v.15) - these were common names for slaves. The church in Rome was diverse. There were Jews and Gentiles, biracial couples and biracial children, slaves and free people, and wealthy and poor people. There was not a more diverse group of people in all of Rome and yet they experienced a profound unity which transcended their differences. How did they do it? How did they maintain unity? Well, it’s right there in the text -in the Lord (v.2), in Christ (v. 3), in the Lord (v.8), in Christ (v. 9), in the Lord (v. 10), in the Lord (v.12), in the Lord (v.13). Do you think Paul’s trying to tell us something? Jesus Christ breaks all racial and cultural barriers and makes us one family so that there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3.28). How do we compare to the church in Rome? Are we diverse or segregated? Forty years ago Martin Luther King Jr. said that the most segregated hour of the week was Sunday morning at 11am. Has it really changed that much? I pray for more ethnic diversity in our church. We have Euro-Americans and African Americans. We are blessed to have international students from Vietnam, China, Japan, and Africa visiting our church. Most of these students do not know Jesus. Jay (Campus Minister) is teaching english and the Dozier's are serving the international students. Our church is excited about all of this and we pray that God will continue to lead us to people as well as bring people to us i.e., people who do not know Jesus. I pray that we can be as flexible as Paul in our ability to communicate Jesus cross-culturally. In 1998 Dr. Doston (prof at OU) shared the following. It changed my perspective. "If we could reduce the world’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, the demographics would look something like this The village would have 60 Asians, 14 Africans, 12 Europeans, 8 Latin Americans, 5 from the USA and Canada, and 1 from the South Pacific 51 would be male, 49 would be female 82 would be non-white; 18 white 67 would be non-Christian; 33 would be Christian 80 would live in substandard housing 67 would be unable to read 50 would be malnourished and 1 dying of starvation 33 would be without access to a safe water supply 39 would lack access to improved sanitation 24 would not have any electricity (And of the 76 that do have electricity, most would only use it for light at night.) 7 people would have access to the Internet 1 would have a college education 1 would have HIV 2 would be near birth; 1 near death 5 would control 32% of the entire world’s wealth; all 5 would be US citizens 33 would be receiving --and attempting to live on-- only 3% of the income of the village” If it were possible to reduce the world’s population to a village of 100 people, I wonder if we would treat people differently? Would our churches be more diverse? ______________________________ Father, Help us to love and accept each other. To value our differences and view all people through your eyes. To accept people regardless of their racial and ethnic background. Make our church family more diverse. Let it be said of the church - "that there is not a more diverse group of people in all the world." For Christ sake. Amen!