A CUSSING KING

Warning.  This post contains a fully spelled out curse word, but it’s not me cussing. 

Inspired by former NFL quarterback Colin Kapernick, several NFL players elected to protest police brutality and systemic racism by kneeling during the national anthem.  President Donald J. Trump said:

In fairness to the president, this is not the first time a national leader went all potty-mouth in public.

Read 1 Samuel chapter 20.

Saul, the first king of Israel, had been chosen by God (1 Samuel 9:15-17), anointed by the prophet-priest Samuel (1 Samuel 10:1), and publicly selected in a national election in which the outcome was predetermined (1 Samuel 10:20-22).

In the first year of his administration, the new king solidified a fiercely loyal and enthusiastic base. 

So all the people shouted and said, “Long live the king!” (1 Samuel 10:24)

He inspired an opposition movement that questioned his qualifications for the office. 

But some rebels said, “How can this man save us?” So they despised him, and brought him no presents. But he held his peace. (1 Samuel 10:27)

And his supporters took violent action against their leader’s critics, which Saul actually, definitively condemned.

Then the people said to Samuel, “Who is he who said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring the men, that we may put them to death.”

But Saul said, “Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the Lord has accomplished salvation in Israel” (1 Samuel 11: 12,13).

They had high hopes for King Saul until he started saying stupid stuff and issuing cool-sounding orders that made no sense.  Like, in 1 Samuel 14, when Saul cancelled all meals for the army and threatened to execute anyone who  ate or even drank water.  And this was while the army was in the middle of major combat (1 Samuel 24).  The king appointed David to his staff, but then he got mad because David was doing his job right, so he turned on David and tried to destroy him (1 Samuel 18; 19).

Around this time Saul contracted potty mouth.  Suspecting that his son and 2^nd in command, Jonathan, was not sufficiently enthusiastic about having his best friend and colleague David murdered, 1 Samuel 20:3-33, explains: Then Saul’s anger was aroused against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness?

“You son of a perverse, rebellious woman!” Translation, You, son of a b****!

The “shame of your mother’s nakedness” is either a reference to Jonathan’s birth, or a callback to the euphemism “uncover the nakedness of”  in Leviticus 18.  It's a euphemism for "have sex with."  The former interpretation means Saul said Jonathan had been a disappointment since the day he was born.  

The second interpretation, which I think is correct, means Saul said: “Jonathan, you son of a b****! I knew you’d chose that mother-f****  David over me!”

Now, where was I going with this?

Oh, yeah.    Three points: 

1) There’s going to be a lot more yelling, and cursing, and twitter-spear throwing before this term is over.

After all that cussing, Saul continued to be  king.

People asked David to remove Saul from office, but nope.    

Look, this day your eyes have seen that the LORD delivered you today into my hand in the cave, and someone urged me to kill you. But my eye spared you, and I said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD’s anointed’ (1 Samuel 24:10).

The cussin’ king had a long, full term as leader of the nation. For 4 decades, he decided military action, tax policy, immigration law.  During that time the political climate was characterized by infighting, betrayal, military resources wasted on strategically pointless personal vendettas and a steep degree of moral and psychological decline so bad that Samuel literally came back as a ghost to tell Saul that he was an idiot (1 Samuel 28:13-19).

But he was in office for a long, long, long time.   

2)  A verbally filthy leader indicates a spiritually unprotected nation. 

Unrestrained speech shows that the spirit of the leader is  unrepentant and un-redeemeed. Oh, the king/ president can go up to the temple and make the sacrifices/ take the communion and say all the right churchy words, but if he can't control his mouth,the Bible says that his faith is powerless at best, and insincere at worst. 

Read 1 Samuel 15. 

Saul’s unraveled, public profanity came after God had withdrawn His favor on the anointed, elected leader. 

Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel” (1 Samuel 15:26).

3)  A nation following a leader who is leading outside of God’s favor, is a nation on the verge of getting its butt kicked by somebody and/ or something.

The next major military action led by Saul ended in humiliating defeat for his nation and a series of murder suicides that decimated the royal family (1 Samuel  31:1-13).

When a proclaimed Christian acts without restraint, it means that God had stopped restraining him/her.  If God has withdrawn His restraint, then God has also withdrawn His FAVOR (Acts 7:42-43; Romans 1:24-25). 

A nation outside of God's favor that thinks it's still God's chosen people, a spiritually unprotected people whose think they're still the America that God shed his grace on ----- that's a nation about to have a very unpleasant surprise. 

---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 

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

GHETTO NAMES

From time to time, groups of African-Americans get into debates over which names we  should give our kids.  For Black people this is serious business because newspaper investigations, generations of personal anecdotes, and multiple studies, like the one conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research, have shown that ethnic sounding names can be a hindrance to success in the corporate world.

What researchers call “ethnic sounding names,”  were once called Afrocentric names.   Informally, we now usually use the disparaging term “ghetto names.”  And African-Americans still pass those names to our children--- a lot.

Oh, wait.  You do know the kinds of names I’m talking about, right?  These are names typically built around the consonant sounds  q, r, and sh.    Multi-syllabic names with lots of a’s, long e’s, er’s, and ia’s .   Some parents take a common name and spelling it too phonetically.  For example, Airwreacka for Erica.   

Another way is to appropriate a brand name or a complex term and use it as a name, like calling a girl Alopecia Areata-- which is a skin disease that causes hair loss.   (Yes, I’ve met a girl named Alopecia Areata.)

In some cases, parents choose such names because they have a genuine linguistic translation into something significant.  Ashanti or Asante, for example, is the name of a Ghanaian tribe that once held a vast empire.

But most of the times, parents give their babies “ethnic sounding” names because the parents think they sound cute or look cool.

But, here’s the point of this post:  this whole debate over ethnic names isn’t new, nor is it unique to Black people in America.

1 Chronicles chapter 3 lists the genealogy of Saul, the first king of united Israel.  Verse 33 says that Saul named one of his sons Esh-baal.  Saul’s oldest son Jonathan named one of the grandbabies Merib-baal. 

Baal was a generic name for any of the pagan gods worshipped by the surrounding Philistine and Canaanite tribes.  So, Esh-baal means “man of Baal.”   Merib-Baal means something like “Baal Is My Advocate.”

So, think.    Why would two generations of good Jewish men from a good---- heck, from a royal---- Jewish family give their babies pagan, Philistine sounding names?

Cause they sounded cute.  Cause those names were cool.

At the time Saul came to the throne, Philistia was the dominant military and political power of the region.  Israel was like a minor, ethnic minority, tributary territory of loosely connected backwater tribes.  Heck, until Saul, “those people” didn’t even have a king.

To Israel, the Philistines would have been cool.  Yes, they were uncircumcised heathen oppressors, but they were powerful.  They had culture and money and their own blacksmiths.  I bet you that young Israeli girls wanted to wear their hair in Philistine styles.  I bet you that teenage Israeli boys wore their robes like the Philistines did.  (And if the Philistines had been sagging, the Israeli boys would have been sagging.)  Because that was swag back then.

After Israel became a “real” kingdom and Saul’s family became royal, it wasn’t cool anymore to have a Philistine name.  Kids with Philistine sounding names were considered less patriotic, less desirable to employ than kids with good, strong, Anglo--- I mean Hebrew--- names.

That’s why, if you follow the story chronologically to 2 Samuel, King Saul’s family doesn’t use those ethnic sounding names anymore. 

2 Samuel 2: 8 refers to Ishbosheth, the son of Saul.  He’s not Esh-baal anymore.

2 Samuel 4: 4 refers to Jonathan’s son named Mephibosheth.   They don’t call him Merib-baal anymore. 

Mephibosheth means “destroyer of idols” or “exterminator of shame.”    O.K., so it’s obvious how that name change reflects a genuine linguistic translation into something significant.

But his Uncle Ishbosheth’s new moniker means “man of shame.”  Not exactly a kingly title, but so what?  It’s a Jewish name, not an “ethnic” name.

It’s like a kid named Keniqua who decides to start going by Kennedy.  Never mind that Kennedy means “helmet head.”   Or, a parent who decides to shorten Porsheresa to Portia, nevermind that Portia means “pig.”  Or the Vietnamese immigrant who drops Ngyuen in favor of Nelson.

The way we beat each other up over names, hairstyles, clothing fads, etc. is nothing new.  It’s not unique to the American experience or the African-American experience. 

That which has been is what will be,

That which is done is what will be done,

And there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

All this stuff is just part of the age-old human experience.

Changing names may have made Mephibosheth and Ishbosheth sound more acceptable.  But the name changes didn’t keep the throne in their family.  Some kid out of nowhere named David still came to power.  The name didn’t make the man.

God made the man and the name followed.

…to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel.

 And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who are on the earth. (2 Samuel 7: 8-9)

My all Black household has a collection of the most anglo names in America:  Anderson, Sheila, Katlin, and Anderson III.  But those names don’t guarantee success.   Just like a ridiculously ethnic sounding name like, for example, Barack Hussein Obama, doesn’t preclude success. 

Each of us has to choose how we will relate or not relate to Jesus Christ.  Each of us has to choose how we will obey or disobey God’s Word.  Each of us has to choose whether or not we will live in line with or aligned against God’s will.  Because ultimately, 

God decides whether or not to pour out his favor and it is God’s favor that makes the man or woman A GREAT NAME, LIKE THE NAME OF THE GREAT MEN WHO ARE ON THE EARTH.

---Rev. Anderson T. Graves II   (email:  atgravestwo2@aol.com )

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 (5220 Myron Massey Boulevard) 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 blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  

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

THE SEPARATION IN OUR HEARTS (The Separation of Church & State, sermon #2)

In the last month, at least 5 unarmed Black men have been killed by police officers.  What does that mean?  Is there a way to make sense of it all?    It’s all too easy to accuse all police officers and fall into the easy indignation of stereotyping, but what does God have to say?

Plenty. 

Open your Bibles to the book of 1 Samuel for a timely installment in our emerging sermon series.

It’s part two of the series we’re calling The Separation of Church & State. The message is called: THE SEPARATION IN OUR HEARTS.

Listen well.

---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

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