Picked a random message from Pastor Piper while working on some projects at home before the return to school, and this one had a message that is particularly applicable and vital to the dream of Dr. King, which we celebrate today. It’s been many years since integration and the sit-ins, and we’ve seen progress. For the first time we have an African-american president. But this is the one thing we must know if we are to see ethnic tensions put to rest: Jesus is the End of Ethnocentrism. Ultimately we will not love and accept others unless we first accept the One who made us and accepts us in His Son. We will not accept all ethnicities with dignity and equality if we reject man in the image of God in favor of the evolutionary view that the fittest ethnic group has the right to trample on “lesser men.”

What would America look like if the church took up the vision of William Wilberforce once again? What if the church fully embraced loving our neighbors, treating all ethnicities with equality and justice? Let’s take up the ethnic boundary-shattering message of the Nazarene and work, not just dream, for a world where all men are valued as souls with worth, crafted so by a Maker who looks not on the outward appearance, but on the heart.