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Humilty, Endurance, Affirmation, and Love
Endurance. Undoing hundreds of years of racial and denominational prejudice will not happen in a week, a month or even a year. Healing may take several generations. Don't give up if your initial attempt at friendship is rejected. How long has God endured with us? Ex. 34:6 Likewise, if you have been repeatedly offended, remember that Jesus taught us that we should repeatedly continue to forgive. Matt 18:21-22 For further study, see Notes. Affirmation. God created every person who has ever lived. All of us are made in his image. Try to find something of God in everyone you meet. Then, give respect to those who are different from you, cheerfully and openly. Does God expect any less of you? (I Tim. 5:11) Love. Think of others more highly than you think of yourself. Try to understand the lessons of history from another's point of view. Then, use what you've learned for their benefit rather than your own. How can you be a Christian if you don't practice love? (I Cor. 13)
Humility. All references are from the King James Version (Authorized).
Gen 3:5
I Peter 5:5
Additional Notes on Humility
... but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Isa 66:2
... I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isa 57:15
Many examples of humility can be found in the Old Testament. Here are four kings who humbled themselves:
Countless other examples can be found in scripture of God's grace working through man's humility. But no greater example can be found in the Bible than the testimony of Jesus himself. For though
... found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Phil 2:8)
Here Christ provides the perfect lesson for those who would walk in His ways. Through His sacrificial death Christ demonstrates the odd paradox that ultimate humility is the heavenly road to glory.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: (Phil 2:9)
Jesus, the God-man, came from heaven and placed himself into our world. He came to walk in our shoes - or sandals. Could there be a more perfect culture than the Trinitarian society of Father, Son and Holy Spirit? And yet, Christ - God - left the comfort of His own culture to come into ours.
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: (Phil 2:6-7)
Every day, Christian missionaries, like their Lord, leave the comforts of their home-culture and travel to distant places across the globe to bring God's love to those who have never heard. Not everyone is called to global missions work. But any Christian can leave the comfort of their own church-culture once in a while and take a Sunday to visit a church of a different denomination or even a different race or culture. To become a Christian reconciler in modern day America, one need only be humble enough to learn about the heritage and faith of other believers in their own community and to work at building cross-denominational and cross-racial bridges.
Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, we Christians often become so rooted in our own church-culture that visiting a church of a different denomination or race makes us uncomfortable. We find ourselves unconciously thinking that our form of worship, our order of service, our application of scripture is the best or highest way - the standard to which all other church-cultures should conform.
All cultures, be they church or family or national, suffer from what John the apostle calls the pride of life.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (I John 2:16)
Pride is the antithesis of humility, literally meaning an arrogant assumption or a vainglorious display. Pride leads us to think that our view, our perspective, our experience--even our Christian experience - is superior to others. Pride was the sin that led to Eve, then Adam's downfall. (Gen 3:5) Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's Commentary 1 calls these three sins - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - the "world's awful anti-trinity."
In order for our nation to be healed, the Church must first be healed. We need to dispense with denominational, racial and cultural pride - the kind of pride that is the pride of life - that pride which separates us from one another. If Christ could leave the comfort of His own perfect Trintarian society to walk among us, surely we can find the grace and humility now and then to leave our own little societies - our own little cultures - and walk humbly among one another.
Endurance.
Ex. 34:6
And, nearing the end of his ministry, Paul wrote to his friend Timothy of finishing his own personal race.
As reconcilers, we must be willing to settle in for a long distance run. Shortly after Jesus left this earth, His disciples began to disagree. Should the Gentiles be included in the message of the gospel? Should they be circumcised? Or was their faith in Christ enough for salvation? From that day until the present, Christians have disagreed, disputed and separated from one another. Most of the major denominations of our day spring from some sort of disagreement amongst Christian brothers. The net result has been that there are now many unique and varied expressions within the body of Christ. The good news is that our diversity can generally be viewed as positive, not negative.
But perhaps the most noticable split in modern American Christendom is not the denominational but the racial divide. Christians of different colors most often worship separately from one another. Today's racial estrangement stems not so much from overt prejudice in our generation--though some still exists - but rather from our troubled history. Black churches and white churches meet in the same town at the same time but in different places and have been doing so for generations.
The Church's cultural diversity is not something to be despised, but rather something to be celebrated. Nonetheless, how do those outside of the body of Christ view the Church? Do they see us as a healthy, integrated, body of people who love one another and work together in harmony toward the same goal? Or do they see us as splintered, fragmented and segregated into tiny, self-serving entities? Is the Church's testimony to the American culture effective, or is it somehow weakened and even damaged by our splits and divisions?
In order for our nation to be healed, the Church must first be healed. God is not necessarily calling us to permanently abandon our comfort zones and change churches - though He may call an individual or family to do so for a season - but rather to work at extending ourselves in friendship across racial lines in a pro-active way. We must be willing to view these efforts as long-term in nature. Relationships cannot be built overnight and healing our nation's deep racial wounds will not happen without a mindset of endurance.
Affirmation.
To be developed.
Love.
To be developed.
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Humility. The sin of pride separated man from God in the garden. 
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