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).

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HAPPY NEW YEAR ------- RIGHT NOW!

It won’t be 2012 much longer.  In a couple of days 2012 will end and the year 2013 will begin.  In every time zone  people will gather in homes, and clubs, and churches, and public spaces to countdown to midnight.  And then they will shout and sing and celebrate the moment of transition out of one year and into another.

Why is that?

Our modern Western calendar marks 365 days in a year.  This is about how long it takes planet Earth to complete a single orbit around the sun, but even the 365 isn’t exactly right. So, we have leap year to try to make up the miscalculation. 

The billions of people who follow the Chinese, Hindu, Muslim, or Eastern Orthodox calendars mark New Year at an entirely different time. 

To us it’ll be a new month and a new year.  But to a whole lot of people,  it’ll just be Tuesday. 

Even the Bible makes it clear that the date we choose for New Year’s Day has no real significance in itself.  In fact the Bible has 2 different dates for New Years’ Day.

The ancient Hebrews counted years by the  movement of the moon, not by the movements of the Earth and sun.  So the Biblical calendar was not 365 days.

But even then, New Year’s Day was marked and remembered.

We know that because Noah marked the New Year.

Genesis 8:13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry.

But that was New Year’s Day on the old Hebrew calendar.

In Exodus chapter 12, when God sent the 10^th plague on Egypt, killing the firstborn and freeing the Jews from slavery, the Lord also changed the calendar.

The 1^st Passover took place in the Hebrew month of Nisan (Abib in Caananite), the  8^th month of the Hebrew year.  On the day of the 1^st Passover, God said in   Exodus 12:2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. 

So, from then what had been the 8^th month became the 1^st month. The freed Jews had a new New Year’s Day.  

Like the Christian church today, the Jews have 2 calendars, a religious or “liturgical” calendar and the original secular calendar. 

I have a friend in Camden, Alabama who greets everyone with “Happy New Year.” Doesn’t matter what day or what time.  Whether you see him in a store, or call him on the phone, he says, “Well, Happy New Year.”

Why is that?

“Because,” he says, “Every day, every moment is a chance to start fresh.  Every moment is the beginning of the rest of your life.  Everyday is the start of the next year of your life.  So---- Happy New Year.”

Nothing is wrong with joining with friends and family in the celebration of the coming New Year, but you have to understand that there is nothing magical about this date. That 10 second countdown between what we call December 31^st and what we refer to as January 1^st is not in and of itself anything special.

What makes the New Year new and hopeful is you. 

You determine that this moment is the moment at which you begin to do the things you have not done. 

You determine that this is the date from which you will calculate the deadlines for completing the projects that will change the trajectory of your life.

You determine that this is where you start counting down through the milestones and obstacles you must pass to fulfill your purpose.

The newness of the New Year is not a function of our shifting and arbitrary calendar markings. 

The newness of the New Year comes from you.

Therefore, you don’t have to wait for the December 31^st countdown to reach your local time zone.  You can begin your New Year right now.

In fact, what you really should be asking yourself is: Why you are waiting for Monday night to become Tuesday morning? 

Are you going to be any different Tuesday at 12: 01 A.M. than you are right now?

Is the champagne and music of that New Year’s party going to give you any power that you don’t now possess to choose the path you have been called to?

Are you holding out for a Word in “Watch Night” worship to confirm the calling and anointing that the Holy Spirit has already confirmed a thousand times?

No, you’re not.  Not really.

You know that the real change from old to new year doesn’t come from flipping a page on a calendar; it comes from shifting the mentality  that has held back your spirit.

Right now is the first moment of the next year of your life.

Resolve to be different from this moment forward.

Resolve to be better starting now.

Resolve to do what you should have been doing and seal your resolve by doing, not by drinking. 

Do some push-ups---- now.

Read your Bible ---- now.

Pray---- now.

Call, text, email, write, get up and go into the next room and tell the people you love how much you love them------ right now.

Throughout history and across cultures we’ve made New Year’s Day to be whatever day we wanted it to be.

Make NOW your New Year.

Happy New Year.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a pastor, writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Call me at 334-288-0577
Email me at 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@blogspotcom.