Showing posts with label joseph. Show all posts
Showing posts with label joseph. Show all posts
Sunday, December 5, 2021
Sunday, May 17, 2020
HOW SLAVES ARE MADE. Bailey Tabernacle CME Church Worship for May 17, 2020 (video)
---Anderson T. Graves II is a pastor, writer, community organizer, and consultant
Click here to support this blog with a donation. Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.
THANK YOU to all of you who continue to be faithful in supporting the ongoing ministry of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church. You may use any the following options for tithes, offerings, and donations:
1) From your computer or phone use the Givelify app or website for BAILEY TABERNACLE CME Click on or copy this link and paste it into your browser for Givelify: https://giv.li/7xp90t
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Or 3) Mail your check or money order to:
Bailey Tabernacle CME Church
P.O. Box 3145
Tuscaloosa, AL 35403
Monday, December 16, 2019
REMEMBER WHAT YOU’RE DOING THIS CHRISTMAS, Advent series 3 of 4 (audio)
The 3rd message in our series
for Advent/ Christmas is titled: REMEMBER
WHAT YOU’RE DOING THIS CHRISTMAS.
Listen well.
If you can’t get the audio on your
device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/
---Anderson
T. Graves II is a pastor, writer, community organizer, and
consultant
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at
www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com
Click here to support this blog with a donation.
Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and
click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.
Support
Bailey Tabernacle CME Church with a donation through Givelify
Or visit baileytabernaclecme.org
Support
by check or money order may be mailed to
Bailey
Tabernacle CME Church
1117 23rd Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401
Monday, December 9, 2019
GET THE TRUTH FOR CHRISTMAS, Advent/ Christmas part 2 of 4 (audio)
The second message in our series for
Advent/ Christmasis titled: GET THE
TRUTH FOR CHRISTMAS.
Listen well.
If you can’t get the audio on your
device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/
---Anderson
T. Graves II is a pastor, writer, community organizer, and
consultant
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at
www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com
Click here to support this blog with a donation.
Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and
click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.
Support
Bailey Tabernacle CME Church with a donation through Givelify
Support
by check or money order may be mailed to
Bailey
Tabernacle CME Church
1117 23rd Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401
Tuesday, December 18, 2018
MIND BLOWING BLESSING (audio of Advent message 3 of 4)
This is the 3rd of 4 messages
in this year’s Advent/ Christmas preaching series. This sermon focuses on the events between the
visit of the shepherds and the visit of the wise men. The message is called: MIND BLOWING BLESSING.
Listen well.
If you can’t get the audio on your
device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/
The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482
--Anderson
T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and
consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Bailey
Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the
popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com
Friend
me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves
Follow
me on twitter @AndersonTGraves
Click here to support this ministry with a donation.
Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and
click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.
Visit
the ministry’s website at baileytabernaclecme.org
Support
by check or money order may be mailed to
Bailey
Tabernacle CME Church
P.O. Box 3145
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35403
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
NOT WHAT YOU PLANNED BUT EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED (audio of Advent sermon 2 of 4)
The 2nd of 4 messages for Advent 2018. This sermon is titled: NOT WHAT YOU PLANNED BUT EXACTLY
WHAT YOU NEED.
Listen well.
If you can’t get the audio on your
device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/
The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482
--Anderson
T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and
consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Bailey
Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the
popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com
Friend
me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves
Follow
me on twitter @AndersonTGraves
Click here to support this ministry with a donation.
Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and
click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.
Visit
the ministry’s website at baileytabernaclecme.org
Support
by check or money order may be mailed to
Bailey
Tabernacle CME Church
P.O. Box 3145
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35403
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
THE MONSTERS WE LOVE
We hate monsters, but we love OUR
monsters.
Eric Rudolph was a serial killer
who murdered innocent people with bombs.
His mama still loved him.
Stalin was genocidal, but Andrew Jackson was a strong leader?
Jeffrey Dahmer killed and ate
people. His parents still loved
him.
Think of Thomas Jefferson the slave
owner and Nat Turner the rebel slave.
Hear in your own head how you condemn one and make excuses for the other,
the one with whom you identify?
Liberal-leaning commentators attack
Ivanka Trump because they despise her father’s policies and personality. But before and since Daddy Trump was elected,
Ivanka championed several liberal causes.
Now, they call on Ivanka to denounce her father and distance herself
from his administration. Comedian and
talk-show host Samantha Bee recently called Ivanka a “feckless c**t” because
she refused to turn on Donald.
That’s not going to happen.
You’re not asking a woman to denounce
a misogynistic man. You’re asking a
little girl to abandon her daddy. You’re
not asking a professed liberal to stand against a conservative administration,
you’re asking a daughter to turn against her father in the moment of his
greates accomplishment.
President Trump may be a racist,
self-worshipping monster; but he is Ivanka’s racist, self-worshipping
monster.
This, scripture affirms that the sin of partiality is the
root of our tendency to injustice and hypocrisy. We hate the sins we hate, but we love the
sinners we love.
Joseph, son of Israel,
exploited a national tragedy to bankrupt and enslave the entire working class
population of Egypt while protecting and enriching the Egyptian elites and his
biological family. Of those three groups,
the only one who had not betrayed and abused Joseph was the working class
population of Egypt (Genesis 47: 13-26).
Jepthah the Gileadite (Judges
11-12) was one of the great Judges of Israel.
He saved Israel from the oppression of Ammonite raiders. He also committed the ultimate religious heresy:
he murdered his own daughter as a human sacrifice to God despite all the
explicit commands in the Bible not to ever perform human sacrifices.
Samson (Judges 13-16) had the
powers of a superhero, powers which he used to impress Philistine women and win bets against Philistine men. The deliverance he gave to his own people was
the accidental result of his (literal) dying request for blind vengeance.
David (2 Samuel 11) betrayed the
most honorable and loyal warrior in his most elite division. His highest ranking general knew it. His royal ministers, the members of Uriah’s
household, and most of Jerusalem knew it.
(Come on now. Factor in the time
to discover Bathsheba was pregnant, send word for Uriah, get Uriah back from the
front lines, send him back to the front lines, kill him there, get word
back, have a mourning period, and hold
the wedding, which traditionally lasted a week.
Bathsheba was showing before the honeymoon.)
Absalom, David’s favorite child, killed
his own brother; burned down his David’s best friend’s field (2 Samuel 14),
overthrew his father in a coup, slept with/ raped his father’s wives, and tried
repeatedly to have his dad murdered (2 Samuel 15-18). David never condemned Absalom, and he forbade his forces to harm him despite his crimes. When General Joab, David’s oldest friend
defied that order, David held a grudge so deep that on his deathbed he ordered Joab's assassination (1 Kings 2:5-6).
Aaron, Moses’ older brother, made
the golden calf and led the children of Israel in its idolatrous worship, all
while Moses was on the mountain receiving the 10 Commandments (Exodus 32). When Moses came down, he ordered the Levites
to “kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor,” but Moses didn’t let anyone touch Aaron. Aaron got to keep his life and his status;
less than a year later he was consecrated as high priest.
Joseph, Jephtah, Samson, David,
Aaron, and others who did worse are revered as heroes of the faith. Except for David, there’s no record that any
of these men every repented or even felt convicted over their atrocities.
They did great good in their lives,
but they also committed great evil, but we ignore their monstrous sins because of the good they did for their faith,
for OUR faith.
We hate monsters, but we love OUR
monsters, and that is the kudzu root of all kinds of evil.
We cannot have justice until we can
judge our friends and our enemies with the exact same measure of wrath and
mercy.
You
shall have the same law for the stranger and for one from your own country; for
I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 24:22).
We will not be a just nation or a
righteous church until we commend our political rivals and condemn our social
allies in equal measure based on what they did, not what (we think) they stand
for.
You shall do no injustice in judgment. You
shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In
righteousness you shall judge your neighbor (Leviticus 19: 15).
We can’t honestly call ourselves ethical, or good, or godly until we treat
all monsters the same.
For there is no partiality with God (Romans 2:11).
History and Scripture agree that such has never been the case in human civilization. We may not see real justice until Jesus
personally comes back, but society’s historic failings don’t exempt you and I
as God’s people from the commands to do justice and love mercy equally for all
alleged sinners.
Look around and look within and be honest about the kinds of monsters you
love, the affiliations and self-designations that get a pass from you and the
ones that receive immediate condemnation.
Work on that. Wrestle with yourself. I’ll do the same. That’s
the only way to overcome the most vicious monster in the room, the monster we
love more than all others: the one who looks back at each of us from the
mirror.
--Anderson T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for
education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is
pastor of Miles Chapel CME
Church in Fairfield,
Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word
to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Click here to support this ministry with a donation. Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button
on the right-hand sidebar.
Support by check or money order
may be mailed to
Miles Chapel CME Church
P O Box 132
Fairfield, Al 35064
Friday, April 20, 2018
MISPLACED LOYALTY, an uncomfortable lesson about Joseph
Before we leave the book of Genesis, we need to talk
about Joseph.
Joseph survived and succeeded under circumstances
that would have destroyed most people. Though
betrayed and forgotten, he maintained his personal integrity and phenomenal work
ethic. Through the trials and temptations of slavery and the quite different
but equally perilous trials and temptations of rapid success, Joseph never
abandoned faith in God. Joseph modeled
the principles of love your enemy. He
forgave his brothers for the unforgiveable.
He fed them when they were hungry, provided them a home when they were
strangers. He lifted them up when he had
the power and justification to grind them into the dust. In doing so, Joseph saved the covenant line from
extinction. He was a prophet, a natural
leader, and a really, really smart guy. He
was a hero. I’d argue with you that
Joseph is THE most genuinely heroic figure in the entire book of Genesis.
But. . .
(Of course, but. . . )
But, we have to talk about what Joseph did to the Egyptian
people during the famine.
Read DON'T
TRUST PHARAOH
for the details, but basically Joseph used the crisis to
strip the general populace of Egypt of their wealth, property, and
freedom. By the 14th year of
Joseph’s appointment as prime minister, the average Egyptian citizen was basically
a slave to the state. Specifically, a slave
to Pharaoh. All by the very deliberate
plan and administration of Joseph, the Hebrew hero.
Now, if your response is, “So what? They were Egyptians. All that matters is that Joseph saved the Jews,” pump the hate-brakes and think.
The Egyptians hadn’t done anything to deserve being bankrupted
and exploited by their own government.
They had not enslaved the Hebrew people.
In fact, the Egyptians saved Abraham from a famine (Genesis 12), Isaac
from a famine (Genesis 26), and Israel and sons from famine (Genesis 46-50). Now that you think about it, maybe you’re
remembering that Abraham and Isaac went down to Egypt lying and causing plagues
but Pharaoh blessed them anyway.
Maybe you think that Joseph was repaying the
Egyptians for enslaving and incarcerating him.
But when you stop and think, you'll recall that Joseph was bought and
imprisoned by the noble-elites of Egypt.
It was the working people (cooks and butchers) who shared his cell and, after a while, remembered and recommended him for parole (Genesis
40, 41).
Maybe you want to say that Joseph only did what he
had to do to save the Egyptians from starvation during the famine. You know, “Desperate times, desperate measures”
and all that. “Somebody had to make the
hard choices” blah-blah-blah. But come
on. It was THEIR grain taken from them
by a tax that Joseph invented just for that purpose. Joseph set the price. He didn’t have to set it so high that it took
ALL of EVERYBODY’S money. No he didn’t. That wasn’t market capitalism. They didn’t even have market capitalism.
So, we have to talk about the fact that Joseph the
hero was directly, deliberately, and personally responsible for the economic
ruin and subjugation of millions of innocent people. Joseph’s
actions were neither justified nor necessary.
So why did as nice and as smart a guy as Joseph do it?
Because his boss.
Because his boss.
Joseph understood (quite correctly) that his first
and final loyalty in his job wasn’t to the country. It was to Pharaoh.
This is how a genuinely good person in a powerful
position finds himself/ herself doing genuinely horrible things to people who don’t
deserve to have horrible things done to them:
through misplaced loyalty.
Loyalty is a virtue, a necessity among friends and family
and colleagues fighting for any cause.
But loyalty is a dangerous virtue. Joseph bankrupted millions of innocent,
hard-working Egyptians because he was loyal to Pharaoh instead of to the
people.
Honorable soldiers commit war crimes not usually
because every soldier in the company is a terrible human being but because they
are loyal to the terrible human being who gave the order. Lovers do foolish things not always because they
are fools but more often because they love and are loyal to a fool. Innocent clergy protect predatory ministers
because the innocent ones are so blindly loyal to the institution and to the
brotherhood of ministry. Partisans
become so loyal to their party designation that they find themselves aggressively
supporting the very policies and practices they joined the party to
defeat.
We need to talk about Joseph because we are each equally
capable of atrocity in the name of loyalty.
The antidote to misplaced loyalty is to look
beyond Joseph and make Jesus our final example. Jesus loved His people, the Jews.
But He
answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel” (Matthew 15:24).
He loved His companions, the disciples.
No
longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is
doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My
Father I have made known to you (John 15:15).
He has faithful to His religious tradition, the Temple-synagogue
system.
. . . And as
His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to
read (Luke 4:16).
He was present and selflessly engaged for the good
of the community, especially the poor, possessed, and sick. He gave His life for them and for us.
When the
sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases
brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them (Luke
4:40).
But when any of those to whom Jesus was loyal tried
to turn Him against what He knew was the Father’s will ---- Jesus rebuked
them.
But He
turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for
you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men”
(Matthew 16:23).
Joseph-style loyalty is a dangerous virtue. Jesus-style loyalty is the solution.
Jesus-style loyalty is built from a moral-center
that’s independent of all other relationships.
Jesus-style loyalty is built on a clear sense of
personal identity that doesn’t change when the people around you change.
Jesus-style loyalty is built within a clear sense of
mission and purpose. You know why you’re
here no matter who else is or isn’t here with you.
Jesus-style loyalty exists where you have a personal
relationship with your heavenly Father, a relationship that does not depend on
any other associations.
Joseph was loyal, but misguided. Don’t be like Joseph.
Be like Jesus.
--Anderson
T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education,
ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He
writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at
www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Click here to support this ministry
with a donation.
Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button
on the right-hand sidebar.
Support
by check or money order may be mailed to
Miles
Chapel CME Church
P O
Box 132
Fairfield,
Al 35064
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