Ken Fong
February 7, 2001
7:15 pm
Lessons from My Family Portrait
Message Summary
A third-generation Chinese-American, Ken Fong recently has seen his family portrait grow to include Japanese, Caucasian and African-American relatives. Fong began his message by wondering aloud what his grandfather would think if he could see the diversity of his descendants. He related the changes in his family to show how they have caused him to confront some of his own feeling and prejudices.
Fong read from Ephesians 1:9-10 to set the context of the "great mystery of God" that has now been revealed. He continued to explain how that mystery is fleshed out in 2:11-15. The mystery which God has had planned from the very beginning is to create for himself a 'messianic people' from every tribe, tongue and nation. As a family of believers, we are supposed to be moving toward God's plan, but we keep meeting it with resistance.
The saints in Ephesus struggled with racial division, just as we do. Even after the work of Christ made them one, Jew and Gentile believers still allowed barriers to exist between them. Verse 14 shows that the finished work of Christ was meant not only to reconcile believers to God as individuals but also to reconcile them to one another. Yet our sinful humanity makes us, like the Ephesians, want to preserve the dividing walls that Christ had demolished.
Fong commented that we need to remember that all who believe, despite their ethnic backgrounds, have been brought together in Jesus Christ. "In Jesus we are all blood relatives," said Fong, so it is time to treat one another as such. Begin with God, he exhorted, get to know His heart and the two-fold purpose for which he sent His Son: to reconcile people to God and to craft for His glory a beautifully diverse 'messianic community.'
Student Response
I found Fong's message to be personal and powerful. It struck me that though I may not be overtly racist, I too would surely wrestle with my own fears and presuppositions about people if they joined my family. Yet, as Ephesians shows, all believers are my family. Dare I ignore this critical aspect of God's perfect plan for my own comfort and convenience?
—Sheri Leasure, Junior, International Ministries major