2020.01.19 | Called, Equipped, and Empowered
I have always believed that every person has a God given call and set of aptitudes and abilities to fulfill that call. But when I was young, words like “witness” and “testimony” creeped me out, because I was raised among God’s “frozen people,” and we didn’t use words like “witness” and “testimony,” unless they were reading them out loud straight from the Bible.
Imagine then, if you will, my first chapel experience at Andover Newton Theological School. Andover Newton is a seminary dually aligned with the United Church of Christ and the American Baptist Churches, the left-leaning Baptist tradition that Jan, Rob, and Keith grew up in.
One of the ways that the UCC and ABC denominational identities were reflected in seminary life was through each group taking leading a monthly chapel service. The American Baptist students had the lead-off responsibility on my first day of seminary.
Services were always held at noon. My new UCC friends and I figured that we needed all the help we could get, so we headed over to the chapel right after our morning classes ended. The Baptist’s drew a big crowd because they had invited a well-known pastor to preach, and because none of us had much homework yet.
Not knowing what to expect, my UCC friends and I discreetly slipped into the back pew and watched the chapel fillup. About 15 minutes after the hour, Sherman, an ABC student, stood up and announced that the preacher had been delayed. He asked us to stand and join in prayer for the preacher’s safe arrival, which we did. After the amen, we were seated, and listened quietly to every piece of music that the seminary organist had in her bench.
At about 45 minutes past the hour, the preacher still had not arrived. The congregation was starting to squirm, because we all knew that the kitchen would be closing soon.
Sherman stood again and addressed the crowd saying, “It appears that our preacher has been detained. Will there be a witness for the Lord today?”
I was riveted by this situation. I had never in my life heard of a pastor being late for worship, much less missing an entire service, and I had never been in a service where people were called on to share personal testimony at the spur of the moment.
The first thought that went through my head that day was, “Oh dear, what was I thinking, enrolling in a UCC seminary that was dually aligned with a Baptist denomination?”
Before I offend any of the Baptists in the house, let me just say that I have evolved a lot since my first day of seminary. And, studying, worshipping, and living shoulder to shoulder with American Baptists was a great experience for me, and it has made me a better person and a better pastor.
For example, I can now use terms like “evangelism,” “testimony,” and “witness” and claim their meaning and identity without feeling like a fraud or throwing up. Also, I can now deeply appreciate the power of personal testimony and Christian witness in the public square.
II
This holiday weekend as our nation observes the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we have occasion to reflect on life and contributions of a great man who courageously testified to his faith in the public square.
In celebrating Dr. King’s birthday, it behooves us to remember that he wasn’t alone in his mission, and we ought not sit on our hands waiting for someone else to carry it on. We must each, in our unique ways, step up and do our part.
In that spirit, I name some of the names who worked and walked shoulder to shoulder with Dr. King. My list is not exhaustive. It’s a start. As I name some of the people who have contributed to the improvement in civil rights in our country, consider who else you would add to the list.
To begin, I lift up the name of James Forman, a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Forman not only established and provided leadership for SNCC, but he was concerned that Kings efforts to overcome racial segregation be bridged to the younger generation of African Americans in large urban areas, who were pressing on for racial justice and equality in all areas of society.
In addition, there were men such as Ralph Abernathy and Hosea Williams, who marched and prayed and who were jailed alongside Dr. King. Ralph Abernathy was Dr. King’s best friend. He succeeded King as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which used nonviolent means to fight for civil rights for African.
Hosea Williams was a brilliant intellect, scientist, entrepreneur, and he was also King’s right hand man. Williams organized and led the major nonviolent protests and demonstrations that King is associated with. Williams was also the founding president of one of the largest social service organizations in North America, Hosea’s Feed the Hungry and Homeless. Williams is also the person who coined the now famous motto, "Unbought and Unbossed."
Another in the struggle has been Congressman John Lewis, who along with Forman and others led SNCC, and marched over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma with King. Each year, Congressman Lewis reenacts this march that lead them face-to-face with firefighters pointing hoses at them, and law enforcement releasing attack dogs on them and beating them with billy clubs. One of those billy clubs was used to crack the congressman’s skull. Lewis, not only was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, but he is now one of the last people in Congress with the capacity to unite, rather than divide the Democratic and Republican parties.
As school children, we learned about Rosa Parks, the woman who started the Montgomery bus boycott, which led to the integration of bus eating, when she refused to give up her seat in the white section and move to the back of the bus.
There was also Diane Nash, one of the leaders of the sit-in movement to desegregate public facilities all over the South. Nash taught the Freedom Riders who rode buses to desegregate public transportation how to protect their heads with their hands when they got beaten as they were.
In 1963 Nash held a meeting with Mayor Ben West of Nashville, who suggested that they begin with a prayer. Following the prayer, Nash raised her head and said, “We prayed together. How about eating together too?” Mayor West suddenly had a change of heart that moved within him to say, “Yes,” so that that battle was won.
In addition to these specific souls who bravely said and did what needed to be said and done, there were numerous children who filled Birmingham’s jails to help dismantle school desegregation in 1963. Those students are now in their 50’s and 60’s. Relatively few of their names are enshrined on plaques but without them being beaten and bleeding alongside Dr. King, the achievements that grew out of the civil rights movement would not have been accomplished. This national holiday that we celebrate tomorrow is theirs too.
III
On occasions when we stop to remember and celebrate great leaders like Dr. King, we long for others to rise up and lead and may fail to see or embrace the opportunities before us. But the Apostle Paul, who authored today’s epistle lesson would not let the Corinthians off the hook, and he would insist that modern Christians are called to step up and do our part, even now.
Paul reminds us that the leaders in Corinth were not super religious or high profile people. In fact, they were, theologically speaking, “the bad-news bears” of the Bible. They were rich, selfish, backsliders, who couldn’t get along with each other or with Paul. So if God can work good through them, surely God can work in and through us.
I don’t know how many of you follow NCAA Women’s Basketball, but I am a big fan of the game in general, and I have enjoyed following several coaches and teams over the years, including Pat Summit and the Tennessee Lady Vols.
Pat Summit was one of the winningest coaches in the history of Women’s college basketball--and not because she started off with a “dream team,” but because she played the team she had, and made that team into the best they could be.
During her first year as head coach, her five starters were comprised of four guards and a post player. The game was old school in those days. To win, it was thought that you needed at least two big girls, but she only had one. Summit knew that her lineup could never win a game by trying to shoot over their opponents. The only way to win would be to out run ‘em on the court and shoot layups. So she emphasized conditioning, and not only had a winning season, she transformed the game of women’s college basketball into one that has been increasingly dependent upon on a running-gunning offence.
Like the Tennessee Lady Vols, the Corinthians weren’t the best players on the court, but Paul reminded them that God had a role for them to play and that by emphasizing the gifts they had, they could fulfill their vocation. Listen again to Paul’s equivalent of a locker room pep talk:
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters; not many of you were wise by human standards, not many of you were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. God is the source of your life in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (I Cor. 1:26-31)
As we overhear the gospel again today, we are reminded of the ancient truths that regardless of whether we are comfortable with God’s claim on our lives, regardless of our sense of giftedness for the ministry, and regardless of our status in the hierarchy of religious beings, God has instilled in each of us a holy purpose. God has already given us the gifts that we need to fulfill this purpose. So, in response to my friend Sherman’s question, “Will there be a witness for the Lord today?” we can say with assurance, Absolutely! Thanks be to God. Amen.