Biography
Rev. Joan Brown Campbell is General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ (USA). She is ordained in both the Disciples of Christ and the American Baptist Churches. Her career has encompassed a broad range of experiences and a strong commitment to church unity, racial and cultural diversity, and women's issues. As the first ordained woman to head the National Council of Churches, she continues as a strong church leader, advocating equality, peace and justice in the issues that face the world. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"The Face of God" 
This message was inspired by the visual image of Christ chosen to symbolize the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. El Cristo Negro, completed in 1595, is a unique expression of the Christ that suggests both suffering and compassion. This Imago Dei was crafted by a Guatemalan sculptor and mystic. A replica of the famous sculpture which was credited with miraculous healing powers was enshrined in the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio.

A feast in honor of El Cristo Negro de Esquipulas is celebrated each year on January 15. It is an appropriate symbol that ties together the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. To believe that it was totally an accident that Martin Luther King was born during the octave of prayer for Christian Unity is to deny the power of the Almighty to enter human history. This Christ who is with us always is a Christ of many colors -- a Christ who knows no boundaries, tolerates no barriers between God's children. That same Jesus invites us to dream of a world without walls just as Martin Luther King's life and work and memory are rooted in that very dream.

The text for today's sermon is from the 2nd chapter of Ephesians: For Christ is our peace who has broken down the walls of hostility thus making one new humanity. The Biblical story in Ephesians may be about ancient times but its message is as current as today's headlines.

The story is about the Jews and the Gentiles, two peoples set against each other; two peoples who lived a world apart; two peoples who were suspicious of one another; two peoples whose relationships were marked by prejudice, bigotry, even by hatred, fear and enmity. Invisible walls, thick, craggy and impenetrable had been built to separate them from one another. But God with God's mighty hand entered human history and the Gentiles -- the outcasts, those outside the walls -- were brought near and the wall itself was brought down. But don't miss the key point. The Jews were not then put outside the wall. They did not become the new outcasts. No, the wall itself was brought down and with his blood Jesus bought peace for both and from these two peoples. He created a new humanity and in that new world none will be stranger or sojourner but all fellow citizens -- saints, members of the household of God.

Here in clear and ringing words is our call as Christians to bring down the walls between us. This text is not about winning and losing. It is about creating a new humanity where the gifts and graces of those who are so very different, those whose lives have been marked by privilege and those whose way has been watered by tears, are called to come together - to be one new humanity, to be community. This, my friends, would be a truly new world -- ordered by unity, love, justice and dignity.

This is the vision set before us -- it is the vision we must hold to and it is the vision that must carry us for the road is rough, the detours dangerous and seductive. The new humanity will not be an easy birth. Already we have heard the whole creation groan as we struggle to become sons and daughters of the living God.

If we care about unity, then we must commit ourselves anew to this struggle. We must know what is required - our bodies will be broken and our blood will be shed until that day when we are the one people God intends us to be. The degree that our churches are in service to division and fragmentation, to racism, to sexism and to economic superiority, then the church is less than faithful and needs our prayers and our transforming acts of courage.

If Martin were among us, he would press for an ecumenical future for his life and death were a witness to the ties between the unity of the church and the renewal of our broken human community. Once one gets into the business of seeking unity then the fullness and the completeness of that unity overtakes our human limitations and carefully defined definitions. It is in the search for unity that the church most often confronts the walls that divide us. It does not take a rocket scientist to make the connection between God's call to us to be ONE people and the issues that divide us. In fact, the struggles for racial justice and gender equality and respect for cultural pluralism have broadened and deepened our understanding of Christian unity.

Today's issue is whether we can deepen and maintain our diversity without breaking the bonds of unity. It is a faithful struggle, it is the exact right struggle and it is one fraught with toils and snares and dangers. But we have no less than the Lord Jesus Christ praying for us that we might be one so that the world will believe.

Possibly the future of our world depends on our getting it right. For the walls between us are the root of our violence and our wars. Love is indeed the most powerful force the world has ever known and love leaves no room for cold, unfeeling walls.

Not long ago I was back in Cleveland worshipping in the congregation where a friend and mentor is the pastor. This 75-year-old African Methodist Episcopal preacher, who was the first black pastor to share his pulpit with King, now pastors a small inner-city church in the riot-torn Hough area of Cleveland. It was communion Sunday and I was invited to celebrate this feast of life. The bread was broken, the wine poured and the people came. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a little child -- about 3 years old -- moving quickly toward the altar with her embarrassed mother in tow. She was clearly a neighborhood child and her mother a child herself not used to churchly rituals. The child boldly put her hands together. I placed the bread in those little hands and said to her, "This is the body of Christ broken for you." And she looked up at me with her precious brown eyes already filled with suffering and said in a voice loud and clear, "For me?" And I whispered quietly, "Yes, sweetheart, for you."

And either that is the liberating word of HOPE and LIFE and LOVE or it is all a sham, and if it is the word of HOPE then we are called to work against all of those things that will limit that little girl's potential. For in her face is El Cristo Negro.

We do not work for unity, my sisters and brothers, because someone decreed it to be a priority. We work for unity because Jesus is our Lord and bled, died and rose again so that that child, all of God's children throughout the inhabited earth, might have life abundant, full, free.

Interview with Joan B. Campbell
Interviewed by David Hardin

David Hardin: Joan, in your very thoughtful comments on the need for Christian unity, for all of us to try to be together as community, I am struck by the fact that the National Council of Churches is often criticized by the more conservative denominations in Christianity as being too liberal. What about that?

Joan B. Campbell: One of the mistakes that people often make is they think of certain churches as conservative. The fact of the matter is that within every congregation there probably is a range of liberals and conservatives. There is a kind of myth that goes around that the National Council is perhaps not concerned with spiritual things, but concerned too much with things of the world or political things.

You and the viewers might find it interesting to know that very early in my days as General Secretary, Billy Graham came to see me. This is not exactly the guest that people would expect the General Secretary to receive.

Hardin: No, because he is often placed in that conservative arena to some extent by a lot of people.

Campbell: Yes. I think we both really enjoyed the fact that we were breaking some stereotypes by meeting. He commented on that in his own very simple and clear way. He said, "Joan, we have got to break down these stereotypes. We have to get out of our boxes. There is just too much to be done. We need to find ways to work together."

Hardin: He was on our program. We had a wonderful interview. He had just gotten back from the Soviet Union. This was eight years ago when there was a very real Cold War.

He said that he felt the Soviets wanted peace and that we needed to do more connecting. He received a lot of criticism over the idea that unity is appropriate when a lot of people only feel safe in kind of an armed camp.

I am sure that as leader of the National Council another area that you struggle with is the fact the World Council of Churches is made up of a lot of newer groups especially from Third World churches -- Latin America, Asia, the African countries -- which are developing strong churches. I know that at the world meeting there was some criticism of the western world, the European and American churches. There was some difference of opinion between them and the Third World churches. What was that all about?

Campbell: It is very exciting to see the Third World churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America come alive. The sociologists tell us that by the year 2000, the largest number of Christians in the world will not be here in North America nor in Europe. They will be in Africa. It is a rapidly changing scene.

I think the Third World churches have some real questions to ask those of us who are in the northern or western churches. They sometimes see us as very paternalistic, wanting to impose our way of life upon them and our understanding of what is needed. They will cry out very clearly that they want to help frame their own lives.

Sometimes when we give aid, we think it is for good and that it is exactly what they need. Often, if we consult, they will say, "No. Help us to learn ourselves, how to develop food, how to take care of ourselves. You don't always need to give us material goods but train us, teach us."

Hardin: In visiting Guatemala, I remember that the Mayan Indian culture, for example, is a sharing culture. They don't know what competition is. No one has to win or lose. Of course, we are very competitive in our masculine-dominated society.

They were abused because the Hispanic influence was competitive and they weren't ready to compete. They wanted to have the sharing approach. We need to listen, that is what I am hearing you say. I think it makes sense.

There are more and more wonderful women preachers and speakers than we have ever had before. Many of them resist coming on this program. They are almost fearful of it. Why is that more true of women than men?

Campbell: I think many women lack confidence. They don't have the experience. Television is, in fact, a rather intimidating medium. When you are sitting in your living room watching it, it looks very easy. Then you think of yourself before a camera. There are not a lot of women who have that kind of experience. Women have been criticized mightily for going into the ministry and so they think twice before exposing themselves to a larger audience.

Hardin: Maybe they are still a little defensive? They need to know that we need to hear them.

Campbell: Absolutely. There are women with much to say. You know, the statistics show that congregations which have women pastors, once they have gotten past that hurdle, will very often call a second woman. Experience tells them that they like what they have experienced.

Hardin: We just have a few seconds left. I just want a sort of yes or no. Are things getting a little better? We have so many mergers going on, the Lutherans and Episcopalians working with the Catholics, etc. Do you feel unity is growing?

Campbell: Absolutely. It is God's will. It will come.

Hardin: I think that is great. It has been wonderful.