This moment in Black History. No! THIS Moment. RIGHT NOW. THIS VERY MOMENT

John the Baptist had zero patience for people who used their history as a crutch, especially when those people were his own people.

In Luke 3, John was at the Jordan River preaching hard on the theme of repentance.  He called the riverside congregation out for their culturally excused sinfulness.

Brood of vipers!

He mocked their public endorsement of his ministry when  they weren’t actually applying his teaching. “What have I been telling you, people?” John asked.

Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

John demanded that the people, his people, stop making excuses and start making their lives better by living like he and all the prophets before him had taught.

Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance

And John, cousin and prophetic predecessor of Jesus, said something that crossed the line.  John invoked the named of their most revered historical figure---- in a negative sense. 

John the Baptist said, do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.” For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

Stop using history as excuse for your sin and stupidity today.  Yes, you are from a line of kings and queens.  You are the historic progeny of great men and great women. You are the descendants of oppressed people whom God delivered from bondage by miraculous intervention.  

O.K.  Now what?

That’s what they did back then.  You do something now.

Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance

And by the way, your history isn’t all that unique.  God could have chosen any enslaved culture at any point in history and worked the same miracle for them.   That God chose your people is more about God than it is about you.  Cause if God wanted to, He could emancipate the rocks under your feet and make one of them president one day.

Our history is important and relevant.  John didn’t discount the reality of Abraham’s contribution to Jewish history.  The Bible itself is a book of history (and much more) that reiterates the importance of learning the lessons of the past.

Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition (1 Corinthians 10:11)

But we’ve gotta do more with history than keep walking around in circles talking about what Moses and Martin and them did way back in the day.

The great cloud of historic witnesses are given so we can learn solutions, not just so we can collect reasons for our problems.  Properly learned history supplies methods to confront injustice against our community while simultaneously confronting the sin within our community.

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us  lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us... (Hebrews 12: 1a)

History is meant to provoke action.  .. and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1b)

History is supposed to lead us to God… looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2)

For all of his passion, John the Baptist never claimed to have all the solutions for his people in himself.  But John knew where to look for those solutions.

I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Luke 3:16)

I, Anderson T. Graves II, don’t have all the solutions for my people in myself, but I know where to look for those solutions.

Right now, at this moment in African-American history, we need to sit down with our history books open next to our open Bibles. 

Right now we need learn how God organized and mobilized His people to solve the same problems we face now.  We take Scriptural answers and translate them into the contemporary language of history and social action.   Compare Scripture to history and you’ll see how Moses and Martin and them lifted so many so far so quickly.  With both Biblically and historically sound plans before us, we can look at what we have and ask what John’s people asked.

What shall we do then? (Luke 3:8)

Do that now, right now, at this very moment in Black history.

 

---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;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking 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

A LOOK TO KILL FOR

This guy is named Markus Kaarma.  He lives in Montana, a very gun-friendly state.

 In April of this year, after his house was burglarized twice, Markus caught  a 17 year old intruder in his garage.  The intruder’s friends later told police that they all went “garage hopping,” meaning that they broke into people’s garages and stole stuff.

When Marcus caught their friend in his garage (not walking past on the sidewalk), Marcus shot  and killed the 17 year old intruder.

This is the 17 year old Markus Kaarma shot and killed, at night, in his garage, trespassing and attempting burglary. 

 His name is Diren Dede.  He was a German exchange student.

On February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old  American-born student, was shot and killed in the street by a local resident who disregarded police orders not to follow the 17 year old.  He wasn’t trespassing. He wasn’t on the shooter’s property.  The shooter pursued him because he “looked suspicious.”

Trayvon looked  like this.

The man who killed him looks like this.

In both cases, the shooters argued self-defense under their state’s version of “stand your ground. “ In Montana, it’s called the “castle defense,” as in a man’s home is his castle.

In both cases a young man is dead.  In both cases an adult took that young life.  In both cases, something less than 9mm bullets or shotgun rounds could have settled the situation.

This guy was acquitted.  

On December 18th, Markus Kaarma was convicted of deliberate homicide.  (In case you forgot, that was the case where the serial burglar was caught inside the garage trying to steal stuff.)

It seems that only one of these young men looked suspicious enough to kill.

---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 and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking 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

WHY DID HE KILL THAT BOY? (A Biblical Perspective)

Sunday, July 14^th, I stood up to preach.  I was wearing the traditional robe and stole of an ordained elder in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.  Butas the choir sang “Blessed assurance.  Jesus is mine….” I took off the robe, laid it aside, and pulled on a dark hooded sweatshirt, better known as ---- a hoodie.

You see, on July 13^th a Florida jury had acquitted George Zimmerman of all charges in the murder of an unarmed 17 year old named Trayvon Martin.   Mr. Zimmerman admitted shooting and killing Trayvon .  The police verified it.   Mr. Martin and all of the authorities acknowledged that Travon was alone, unarmed, not trespassing, not committing any crime, walking home on a public street.  Everyone involved agreed that George Zimmerman had a loaded pistol when he disobeyed instructions from the 911 dispatcher he’d called about the “suspicious” person in his neighborhood.  Zimmerman followed Trayvon in his car, got out, fought with him, and shot the child in the chest at point blank range.  

The law called it self defense.   The Bible calls it murder. 

There is a theological term for times when the law of the land reaches a conclusion the is opposite to the law of God. 

It’s called INJUSTICE.

So, I preached in khakis and a hoodie---- the same “suspicious” outfit that Trayvon wore the day he died.

I preached a message called JUSTICE IN AN UNJUST LAND?

And some people think I was wrong.  That I shouldn’t have brought such a controversial topic into the church.  That I shouldn’t have used the sacred platform to take sides.  That I should have just let it go.  That I should have encouraged my congregation to accept the decision of the jury and then moved on to appropriately “spiritual” things.

I think what Job thought.

As God lives, who has taken away my justice,

And the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,
 As long as my breath is in me,
And the breath of God in my nostrils,
My lips will not speak wickedness,
Nor my tongue utter deceit.
FAR BE IT FROM ME
THAT I SHOULD SAY THAT YOU ARE RIGHT;
Till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. (Job 27: 2-6)

In the aftermath of young Brother Trayvon’s death and the acquittal of the man who killed him, there were and are a lot of questions.   The questions in my circle of ministry condense into 4 queries:

1.       Why did he kill that boy?
2.       Why did they let him get away with it?
3.       What are we supposed to do now?
4.       Where was God in all of this?

The Word of God has answers to all of them all.

Today, we’ll answer the 1^st question:  WHY DID HE KILL THAT BOY?

The answer is SIN.

It was sin.

Trayvon Martin looked “suspicous” because he was a stranger.  Mr. Zimmerman called himself the neighborhood watch captain, the protector of THEIR community.   

Zimmerman saw Trayvon Martin in THEIR neighborhood and it made him angry.    He wasn’t angry because Trayvon was trespassing.  He wasn’t angry because Trayvon was disturbing the piece.  He wasn’t angry because Trayvon had done or said anything wrong.  He was angry  because Trayvon was there.

“So what?” you may say.  “That’s not a crime, is it?”

No.  It isn’t a crime.  But is is sin.

And no, that’s not just my opinion.  It’s Jesus’ opinion.

 Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’   But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” (Matthew 5: 21-22)

In Zimmerman’s eyes, Trayvon was guilty for existing.  Trayvon’s identity marked him as someone who didn’t belong to that neighborhood.  He wasn’t one of them.  He was a stranger.

“So what?” you say. “Kids who look like that and dress like that commit crimes all the time.  It’s not a crime to be suspicious when ‘people like that’ do suspicious things?”

No.  It’s not a crime.  But it is sin.

You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.  (Exodus 22: 21)

Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Exodus 23: 9)

The Bible condemns the sin of hating strangers without cause.  We have a word for the sin of hating strangers without cause.  We call it RACISM.

Why’d he kill that boy?

Sin.

Now, let’s be clear.  The sin of racism is not exclusive to majority cultures.  In the Exodus context, Israel was a minority ethnicity with no geographical homeland.  They were the gypsies of the ancient world.  And God told THEM not to be racist.

When you get mad, really mad because the staff in the Chinese restaurant speak to each other in Cantonese instead of English------ for what cause are you angry? 

If you were in a fancy French restaurant would you be mad that the staff spoke French, or would you think that the other language made the place seem “classy”?

Yeah, think about that.

When you walk into a convenience store and the people behind the counter look “foreign” does it upset you?    Do you hate them because they came over here trying to take over?  (By the way, when was the last time you tried to buy a convenience store?) 

Whether you’re Caucasian or a minority, the moment you feel angry at your not-like-you brother or sister just for being there, just for being one of “those people” -------- no it isn’t a crime.

But it is racism. 

And racism is sin.

James 1 says that an unchecked sin takes root in your heart and grows into something worse.

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.  (James 1: 14-15)

Unchecked the sin of greed grows into the sin of theft.  Unchecked lust evolves into adultery and depravity. 

And unchecked racism in the heart of a neighborhood watch captain grew into murder.

Was it murder under the law?  Clearly not.

But it was sin.

Churches may not agree about the legal arguments or the social assumptions of this case.  But the church can agree that sin is wrong.   The church can have a conversation within itself about hating our brothers and sisters without cause.  The church can have a Bible-centered discussion about how God says we are to respond to strangers.

And that may save some other boy's life.

---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 Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

 

Still to come: Why did they let him get away with it?