“I Am Because We Are” Luke 6:17-26 preached at Trillium United Church Caledon February 17, 2019 Black History Month

Jesus came down with the twelve apostles and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and be healed of their diseases; those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. All in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Then he looked at his disciples and said:

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets."

But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your consolation.
Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets."

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Ubuntu  is an Nguni Bantu term from Southern  Africa meaning "humanity". It is often translated as "I am because we are," or "humanity towards others", but is often used in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity".

Following the presidency of Nelson Mandela in 1994 the term has become more familiar through the ubuntu theology of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was the chair of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

The term ubuntu appears in South African sources from as early as the mid-19th century. The simplest translation is “humanity” - "human nature, humanness, virtue, goodness, kindness".  As the decolonisation of Africa progressed, ubuntu was used as a term for a specifically Southern African kind of humanism found in the transition to majority rule.

"Ubuntu" as political philosophy encourages community equality, the distribution of wealth. This socialisation grew in agrarian communities where mutual sharing promoted the well-being of the community in both good and difficult times, and who have a vested interest in collective prosperity. Ubuntu induces an ideal of shared human subjectivity that promotes a community's good through an unconditional recognition and appreciation of individual uniqueness and difference.

And there is a "redemption" meaning in this word. The belief is that humans are born formless, so to speak and the community, as a whole, turns the child into a productive member of society.. imperfections should be borne by the community and the community should always seek to redeem.

In the Sermon on the Plain of Luke’s text, Jesus uses an old form of prophecy - prophecy being a speaking to the present time- the blessings and woes. Luke’s is the only Gospel which gives us both parts. We are so used to hearing the first part, the blessings - but we don’t hear the second. Yet prophecies were normally in this two-part form. Remember God saying to the people “I have set before you blessings and curses, life and death. Choose life.”

So Jesus says “Those who are suffering, hungry, cold, oppressed, enslaved, beaten, discriminated against, pushed aside - you will be blessed by God. Your time will come.”

And he says “Those who have caused others to suffer, who have oppressed, who have grown wealthy over the bodies of others, you have already had yours.You will be cursed. Your time will pass.”

It seems rather stark, and I cant help but cast the whole experience of both racism and bigotry into this text. Because it speaks not only to the state of what humanity was in that time, but what it still is; it speaks to the divisions set up in communities which seek to use and abuse others for their own gain and greed; and it speaks to what humanity could be, the realm of God where integrated, vibrant, collaborative community lives. It speaks directly to the meaning of “ubuntu” - I am because we are.

One of the philosophies which arose out of the StarTrek series was “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” That seems to say that community always supersedes individual needs. But that philosophy also goes on to say “The needs of the one sometimes outweigh the needs of the many.”

Ubuntu says all humanity is bound up with all humanity - we are only at our strongest when we are together.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote about Ubuntu in the book  “No Future without Forgiveness”. He says: “Ubuntu speaks of the very essence of being human. We say "Hey, so-and-so has ubuntu." Then you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, "My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours." We belong in a bundle of life. We say, "A person is a person through other persons."

A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they were less than who they are.”
              
In this Black History month, I think this is the message which is most important. No one is free so long as some people are still seen as “other”. When others are pushed aside, oppressed, subjected to racism, diminished or used in any way - we are all chained. We are all held hostage.

In the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes the same. He was speaking about the church but in a wider sense he was speaking about humanity.

"The body is a unit, though it is comprised of many parts. And although its parts are many, they all form one body......For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given one Spirit to drink."

“I am because we are”. What would our communities, our world be like, if we were able to think in such a way.     “I am because we are.” We are interconnected, all of humanity is interconnected. The realm of God is ‘ubuntu’, the time and the state when all humanity sees itself simply as one.  When everyone’s place is equal to everyone else’s.  May it be so.

Sources:
1, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_philosophy
2. Tutu, Desmond Mpilo. “No Future without Forgiveness”; Doubleday, a division of Random House. 1540 Broadway, New York 10036. 1999.

Free at Last? preached at Trillium United Church Caledon February 10, 2019

Psalm 138 (paraphrase) I give you thanks, O God, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise; I bow down facing your holy temple, and give thanks for your steadfast love and your faithfulness; for you have exalted your name and your word above everything. On the day I called, you answered, you increased my strength of soul. All the kings of the earth shall praise you, for they have heard the words of your mouth. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies; you stretch out your hand, and your right hand delivers me. Your steadfast love, O God, lasts forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

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Paul Robeson – “Nobody Knows”

Of course what you’ve just heard is the great Paul Robeson singing “Nobody  Knows the Trouble Ive Seen” -  nobody knows but Jesus….

This is black history month. Most of us have a general idea of the overall history of black life in North America – huge numbers of people literally stolen from their homes, and transported by ship mostly to the southern US. Christianity was used to justify immense violations, at the same time it was used to subjugate people and convince them that the Bible said they were inferior. We have a general idea of lynchings, murders, slavery – the civil rights marches, the struggle for equality.

The broader picture we know – but some of the finer parts of the picture we don’t. It really has not changed as much as we would like to believe.

All week Ive been reading material posted by friends, about the history of entire peoples – ripped from their homeland and brought to North and South America to be slaves for white Europeans. About the living and working conditions of those people; about the struggle to gain basic human rights, and then basic civil rights. About people who have had to fight twice or three times as hard to be recognised – and sometimes, whose work was often credited to someone else, who was white.

Here is one – the face of Franklin D. Roosevelt which ended up on the American dime, was done by black artist Selma Burke. She never received credit for her work.

A modern one -  a movie about a black marine who saved several people from the twin towers on 9/11. Except in the movie the hero is white.

Robert Smalls – born into slavery in 1839. He stole a Confederate military ship in 1862, disguised himself as the captain, managed to get past Confederate guard using their secret hand signs, rescued more slaves and their families, escaped to freedom, ran for Congress, and won.

Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson invented portable fax, touch tone phone, caller ID, call waiting.

Navigation devices or software like google maps – Dr. Gladys West, inventor of GPS technology.

Dry cleaning invented in 1821 by Thomas Jennings. Jennings was smart enough to get a patent – amazingly he got it.

Crest toothpaste, Folgers Coffee, Bounce Fabric Softener, Safeguard soap all created by Dr.Herbert Smitherman – PhD in physical organic chemistry. Pioneering executive and professional chemist.

Benjamin Banneker, a black architect who was a designer of the city of Washington, DC – hired by George Washington.

What about Canada? Who knows the name of Violet King Henry – the first black Canadian to get a law degree in Alberta, the first black person admitted to the Bar in Alberta, the first black woman to become a lawyer in Canada.

Or Jean Augustine – tireless worker for human rights and the first black woman elected to Parliament.

Viola Desmond -  a black Nova Scotia businesswoman who was arrested because she refused to leave the white section of a theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia – before Rosa Parks refused to give up a seat on a bus. Viola is now featured on our ten dollar bill.

Someone will say “But they did that even though they were black. They had opportunities.” I will answer they did it *in spite* of the fact that they were black, because they had to fight a system stacked against them based solely on the colour of their skin and a mistaken belief that white was superior.

Every one of these people in some way has a connection to white colonialism in history. Every one of them was more than likely raised in a church-going home, following the Christian faith which had been brought to them by white colonials. Religion, faith, has underscored and supported the experience of black culture, because it’s often been the only way to keep going.

Well, we can also find endless examples of current violence against people of colour – but I want to just touch on more subtle things, but which are all part of  a wider picture. 

For example, a black youth jailed for slapping a police officer, is labelled a *thug* by the media: those same media label a white mass shooter as a *teen*. Two people – one black, one white, same age. Is it deliberate? I don’t think so, but its still a subconscious delineation of difference based on skin colour.

A black male beaten by police during an arrest. The media immediately points out that he had a conviction for possession of marijuana ten years before, and suddenly he’s a criminal and the beating is justified – he deserved it.

Black woman jailed for twenty years for theft of food. White woman caught shoplifting an expensive jacket  gets a fine and probation.

And it comes right down to the ridiculous – driving and listening to the radio – a request show, with a request for a recording of “Nobody Knows”,  recognising Black History Month. The radio host played a recording of white Canadian opera singer Maureen Forrester singing that. As I drove I thought “Wait a minute…he picks a white singer?” Names run through my head -  Leontyne Price, Jubilant Sykes, Louis Armstrong, Eartha Kitt, Mahalia Jackson, George Shirley, Simon Estes, Marian Anderson, Canadian Measha Brueggergosman.  

And I knew it wasn’t intentional that it was done that way, but I am also quite sure there were other recordings available in that studio – so I asked my black friends if they thought I was over-reacting. They said no, not over-reacting at all.

As much as great strides were made in civil rights an human rights, we really  aren’t there yet. I read the Psalm and I can hear the voices of black friends  “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies; you stretch out your hand, and your right hand delivers me. Your steadfast love, O God, lasts forever.”

On August 28, 1963, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King gave a famous speech in which he broke from his script and spoke about a dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. May it be so.

“Crossing Rivers” Preached at Adjala Historic Church and Cemetery, February 3, 2019

Genesis 12:1-9 Now God said  to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So Abram went, as God had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,  Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then God appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to God, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to God and called on God’s name. Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Joshua 4 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, God said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of God. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as God had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.

John 15:1-11 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.  If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
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This morning, we read three passages, all about transition, change, growth, new life, and being.

First, God sends Abram off on another ‘exodus’. He takes everything he owns, all his family, and sets off somewhere. He doesn’t even know where. God says “I’ll show you.” I can imagine some of the things Abram muttered. But he trusted, and he followed. Along the way some of his family is left in one place, but he keeps on going. He isn’t “there” yet.

Joshua is commanded to take the Ark of the Covenant, and move on. They are to cross the Jordan, where God stops the water from flowing so they can cross over on dry land. God tells them to take stones from the riverbed – one for each of the tribes of Israel – and when they reach the other side, lay the stones there are a memorial. And the story says “they are there to this day”.

Finally Jesus explains to the disciples that God is like a gardener, pruning so that growth can happen. He is the vine, the people are the branches; and that if the people abide in love, they bear fruit.

Here we have had three churches, each only a few kilometres apart. Three distinctly different areas, settled and worked by people coming as settlers, or from elsewhere in the country. Each area, and each of these churches, has a different personality and a strong connection to place and to history. Here, Adjala was first a Methodist church which became United, in a pastoral charge with a Presbyterian church which also had joined the union. For awhile they existed and worshipped as a two-point charge and then they decided to amalgamate – so this place has a dual history which has made it unique.

Many things happened of course. This church sits at a farming corner, and many who lived around here made this their home church. But then as cars and roads improved, land was turned into housing, commitment to family farming began to change, people were able to travel more and move around, smaller churches in country areas began to be at a disadvantage. So the inevitable happens as lives change and mobility increases.

We get attached to our churches, and that’s to be understood. But like everything, there is a season. Rural churches which once thrived and served the surrounding neighbourhoods can no longer do that. While in our heads we recognise that, in our hearts it’s harder. We make a decision to come together as one, but we still have that emotional attachment to our ‘place’. It’s our church, and it holds a place in our hearts. As the world changes more, and we feel less secure, we tend to want to hang on to the meaning and the place. Sometimes that’s not so good, sometimes it’s the best choice.

I came to an amalgamated congregation made up of all of you, from three distinctly different places. Someone said to me “Oh but they all have the same worship and do the same things.”  It was difficult to explain that the service is never done quite the same way, the sermon is never preached exactly the same because each place is different. But each place has held, and I believe still holds, a piece of the ‘Ark of the Covenant’ imbued into its very being. The stones say “we were here” and the change of function for the place says “we are still here.”

From January 2017 right up to December 2018 – pretty much two years -  the work has mostly been “What do we do with our places?” Presbytery wanted us to declare the properties surplus, and sell them. I cannot tell you how pleased I am that we didn’t.

When I look at the history of each place – I can’t help but think of the Joshua passage. Each place is built up of stones, some perhaps taken from the ground, which we can truly say remain to this day as a memorial to the people who were there. But the amalgamation was a calling out to go from one place to another and follow the Spirit’s lead. And as we looked at how to deal with the properties, the recognition that the pruning of the vine and branches can take many forms. With the caveat that the branches continue to produce.  What does it mean to produce? To keep having services? Or to look at what we have, recognising the desire to preserve the ‘stones’, and to keep a piece of history alive, living differently than before to be sure, but still making sure that the branches bear fruit.

As I look back, I believe the Spirit moved with us when this work began. We were able to say to Presbytery “no we aren’t ready to make decisions yet”, and take the time. I believe the Spirit was with us in the connection to the Ontario Historical Society, and with us as the changes took place. To me it says that there are always creative options beyond sale of property.

So now we start the next part of the journey – for life in the church is always a journey. Adjala Church is now on a different journey, a different future.  The road has diverged a little, But there is never a “there” to get to. There are only places where we stop, set down our stones, and continue with the journey. And I also believe the Spirit is with us in all of this.

Amen.