May I Speak in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

John 18.33–37

Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’

Christ came to testify to the truth. The Church is the primary place where we listen to God’s voice through His words. His word is the truth, and the Kingship of Christ is for those who abide by His words…His manifesto. Who are we to prevent or discourage any person access to God?

The Church of England has five marks of mission and this Misso Deo is wrapped up as..

1. To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom…

2. To teach, baptise and nurture new believers

3. To respond to human need by loving service

4. To seek to transform unjust structures of society

5. To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation…

In as much as the Church is the people, those who strive to be under the dominion and Kingship of Christ, the Church must not just bring “peoples” together, but bring them together as a single body, with one mind - working together for the same goal. This I believe is the bedrock of IWC -Intercultural Worshiping Communities.

The Church must cease to be regarded as a field of exploitation by any group of people or culture. We must learn how God wants the world to be for His glory.

We must endeavor to walk with all “peoples”, notwithstanding their background, pigmentation and ethnicity. Failing to do this is an act of mutiny to devalue God – The all-embracing God who created human in His image – Imago Dei.In fact, in John 17. 20-21, Jesus asked the Father to make all His followers be of one mind to the glory of God.

Therefore, our call as followers of Christ, is to make like-minded disciples from all corners of the world. If we are to reconcile to God, we must first be reconciled to fellow humans. 1 John 4.20 says …Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.

My brothers and sisters, this is why we must journey from

ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism

Ethnocentric is when you consider that your culture is better than others while ethnorelativism is when you appreciate your culture and other cultures.

As people under the dominion and rulership of Christ, we must move from disregarding others and putting self above to appreciating all humanity and the gifts or talents each brings to the table. The gifts that reveal the immense richness of God’s creative being.

As a congregation we need to have this knowledge to help us embrace the right mode of living within the domain of Christ the King.

Ethnocentrism leads to the formation of a feeling of us and them, and this attitude creates and enforces in-group and out-group within the Church.It ultimately leads to creating bundles of ‘exclusions’ within the body of Christ.

We think we are not ethnocentric until confronted with evidence to the contrary. The English for example finds Italians too emotional, Germans too serious but by implication, themselves just right. Seeing yourself as normal and others as sub-normal and inferior is an example of an in-built pseudo-superiority of perception.

HOW should we and the corporate body of the Church respond to and live within the growing cultural and ethnic diversity in the UK?

One option is assimilation: demanding others change and become like us.

Another is multiculturalism: tolerating difference, but often at arm’s length. In Loughborough, for example, we celebrate all the main festivals of our different cultures and religions; but one can still live here and only ever engage with “people like me”: those of one’s own culture.

I believe that we need something richer: a narrative that not only combats fear of the unknown, but also makes affection towards one’s neighbors tangibly real, seeing them as a

resource, just as they see us as a resource to them. This brings us to the third option - which is intercultural. This involves reflecting on how different cultures reciprocally interact and how we are all changed by this process. None of us is culturally “pure”: even if you descend from generations of white British ancestors. Your culture will probably differ from that of your forebears; and different to that of the various counties and boroughs within the UK. Can we confidently say that the people of Sussex, Essex, Wessex and Middlesex are different just because of geographical locations.

And, for those of us with the privilege and power to insist that others change while we remain the same, Jesus models to us that we should empty ourselves of that power and forgo a life of ease and convenience for the sake of others (e.g. Philippians 2).

As Christians we should imitate our Lord as revealed in the power of the eucharist. As we receive the gift of God’s only begotten Son for our salvation, so we are invited to offer “our souls and bodies as a living sacrifice” to God and as a reconciliation to build the body of Christ. And, in this exchange of gifts, we are transformed, growing in the likeness of Christ the King.

There is always a temptation to play politics with the gifts, talents or resources we have. But this is one of the challenges of the Christian faith: we need the gifts from the

whole body of Christ, where no part can say to the other “I do not need you” (1 Corinthians 12.21). I believe that our Missio Deo is reconciliation — with God and with our neighbors — and that interculturalism could enable that reconciliation across racial, ethnic, and cultural divides. It invites us first to attend to and repent of the injustices of our past and present, the biases that might threaten our future eternity. We must strive to create a Church in which all are genuinely welcome. We must live to reflect the glory of God as we live for and with Christ our King.

Alas, look Christ the King is coming in the clouds, every eye will see Him, and on this account all the tribes of the earth will wail. AMEN.

Rev'd Debo Adelaja