WHEN GLORY COMES

“They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.”  (Isaiah 35:1-10)

If advent is about anything, it is about the promise of the glory of Lord becoming evident and real in each and every one of our lives.  Isaiah’s words make this perfectly clear when he declares at the beginning of the 35^th chapter that “They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.” 

If you know like I know, the glory of the Lord is not like any other type of glory that can be found in the world.  In our popularity driven culture, we tend to glorify too many things and too many people that really mean too little to us.  We glorify sports and entertainment figures; we glorify politicians and people with power in our lives; some people we even glorify preachers.  And if the truth is really told, some of us are seeking glory for ourselves.  But this is not the same type of glory that Isaiah promises that the people will see. 

With picturesque and vivid imagery, Isaiah told the people of Judah of a time when the glory of the Lord would be revealed to them. 

And so it was to be that some 700 years later, the people of God would experience this glory when angels proclaimed in the Book of Luke, the birth of Jesus, and declared this same glory when they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth toward all people.”

THERE'S HOPE!

Luke 1:39-45

 

In this day and age, there seems to be a paucity of hope among us, and thus we are led to wonder, what is there that we can really be hopefully about.  An inventory of our world, and the days of our lives, would indicate that we teeter (and teeter) on the brink of hopelessness and despair. 

The news abounds with such signs.  The Affordable Health-care Act (what is known as Obama-care) has consistently been threatened with failure and demise over the past several weeks.  Sequestration, fiscal cliffs, foreclosure, shut-downs, bankruptcy, have become are part of our everyday reality. 

Crime continues to infect our neighborhoods – in Baltimore city, again there will have been over 200 people murdered in 2013.  Global conflict and wars persist, natural disasters kill thousands around the world, preventable diseases like AIDS and malaria continue to afflict too many of our sisters and brothers – especially in the two-thirds world.  The days of our lives often appear to be hopeless – don’t they?

And yet, the death of Nelson Mandela (three days ago) should remind us that regardless of how hopeless things might appear, regardless of how dire our circumstances may feel, regardless of the despair and disappointment that we face, there’s always some reason to hope, and  we should never give up hope. 

History shows that South African Apartheid brought on some of the most despicable forms of human atrocity and suffering in modern history.  We should not forget, that through decades, the majority population in South Africa and in other southern African countries like Rhodesian (Zimbabwe), were subjected to deplorable living conditions, under oppressive political and military power structures.  And it was people like Nelson Mandela – even in the midst of 27 years of imprisonment – who never gave up hope that the day would come that Apartheid would come to an end, and that all people – blacks and whites - would have rights to live as they were created by God.

And we know that the apparent paucity of hope that I began with is not new or exclusive to the present age.  Luke tells us that as the angel Gabriel came to Mary to announce that she was about to give birth to God’s son, the world – and especially Israel - faced similar apparent hopelessness. 

God’s people in that day found themselves under Roman occupation.  Their land had been overtaken by political and economic structures that served to oppress them and subject them to human suffering not unlike Apartheid in South Africa, or slavery in America, or imperialism in India, or the Holocaust in Germany, or ethnic cleansing in Europe.

A WAKE UP CALL

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.  (Isaiah (11:1-10)

 It is clear that ours is a world that in many respects has become insensitive, if not downright rebellious and resentful of the ways of the Lord.  Much of the crime that continues to permeate our communities, the corruption that perpetuates itself at all levels within our society, and even the hatred that persists among too many people, can be attributed to the fact that we have collectively, and often individually, fallen out of relationship with God, and thus out of relationship with one another.

If we searched for a metaphor to describe the collective spiritual posture of our world, and even of many of our churches, one could easily ascertain that we are spiritually asleep – not awake – in a slumber – and thus not fully attuned to the ways that the Lord would have us to go, and the things that God would have us to do.

We are asleep.  We are on a sort of spiritual “snooze control” - where the clock of God’s divine annals of eternity sound out to awaken us, only to see us tune the Lord out, roll back over, and continue to sleep.  We’re on snooze control.  Indeed, the Lord sounds an alarm that it is time for us to wake up, it is time for us to get up on our feet, and do something about the spiritual condition of our lives, our churches, our homes, our communities, and our world. 

Indeed, God sounds the alarm, and indicates that it’s time for us to wake up, but we just turn the clock off, ignore that God is alarming us, and keep on sleeping and slumbering.  We’re on snooze control.

As we search the Scriptures, we discover that this matter of God’s people being spiritually asleep is not a new phenomenon.  We see, as we look at the book of Isaiah, that the people of Isaiah’s day were spiritually asleep, as well. 

The prophet Isaiah was writing to the people of Judah some 700 years before Christ was to come into the world, and it was Isaiah’s calling then – his mission – to alarm God’s people – to give them a wake-up call – to speak to them about the spiritual snoozing that he witnessed in the land.   They we spiritually asleep – not willing to worship like they knew how, not willing to pray like they used to, not willing to care for one another like they used to. 

BE A BLESSING!

And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.  In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.  (2 Corinthians 8:1-2)

  

I must confess that for me, Thanksgiving is a holiday for which I have some mixed feelings.  For I wonder – at least on one level, why we find ourselves with the need to set apart a day to celebrate and give thanks to God for what God has done for us all year long.  In some way every day should be a day of thanksgiving for us.   And also, one to the most interesting things about Thanksgiving is that it is the one day of the year that we express our thanksgiving by eating more food than on any other day of the year.  For most people, that is our primary act of thanksgiving. 

And if that’s not enough, for many, our thanksgiving will extend into the next day, and what we know as “Black Friday” – which has become the day where we as a nation spend more money shopping – and engaging in conspicuous consumption - than on any other day of the year.   

In the church, our typical act of thanksgiving in liturgy and worship is to remind ourselves of how good God has been to us, and to sing and say “thank you” to God in our time together.  In our thanksgiving, seldom are we led to reflect on anything we might do beyond saying “thank you” to God.  Seldom are we led to act on our thanksgiving.  Seldom are we led to think about how our thanksgiving can and should become thanks-living.

This is the matter that the apostle Paul sought to address with Christians in Corinth.  In the days of Paul, Corinth was a major port city on the Mediterranean Sea. It was a major city for commerce and trade, and many of the people in Corinth as a result of the economic prosperity there were blessed with a more than a modicum of good living and good success. 

 

 

 

 

Nelson Mandela was a person of great courage, compassion, prophetic imagination and vision - and his impact will be felt for generations to come. Mandela's life should lead us all to reflect on what our legacy will be.

"No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

Nelson Mandela from "Long Walk to Freedom"

 

A Work in Progress

"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

Here in the book of Philippians, the apostle Paul is writing while in prison.  He is writing to new Christians - those who had been converted and come to new faith in Jesus Christ.  The Christians in Philippi were persons who had begun to find their way in the faith, and at the same time, they were finding that in many ways, there were those of different opinions as to how the church should function.     

Paul here offers words for those in the Philippian church to remind them and to encourage them that despite their differences, despite their disputes, despite their growing pains, God had indeed begun to work in their lives.  Paul says, “He who began a good work in you, will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

One of the realities of God’s creative process, and God’s power, provision and promise for us is that God has begun a good work in each of us.  This is the essence of what persons would be alluding to when they would sing, “Please be patient with me, God is not through with me yet,” or when it was declared that “God has not brought us this far to leave us.”  God has begun a good work in each of us, and we are a work in progress.

All of us have seen the yellow caustion signs that serve to stop us in our tracks and point us in another direction.  The signs say “Work in  Progress.”  These signs serve as a notice that the work that is going on behind the yellow sign is work that will bring about improvements in that particular space.

These yellow signs simply imply that there are some necessary improvements and upgrades that have to be made, and that the work is now in-fact underway.  There is a work in progress.  

The word for us today is that there’s a good work that God has begun in you and me.  There’s a work in progress in each of our lives. What was Paul really saying to the church at Philippi and to us? 

God Has a Plan for Your Life

“I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord, “plans for your welfare and not your harm, plans to give you a future with hope.” (Jeremiah29:11)

It is clear in scripture that God’s work over the course of history relates to God’s plan for all that God has created.  This is to say that from the very beginning of time, God had a plan for us.  We are told in the Book of Genesis, that in God’s divine plan, God created heavens and earth.  God created the light and the seas, fish in the seas and birds in the air.  

 We can imagine God as a divine architect, thinking and planning and scheming as to how creation would look.  Or we might see God as a divine potter, with clay in hand, making and molding the world according the divine vision, the divine plan God has had for creation. 

And we find in the Genesis story, that as God observed that which had been divinely created, God realized that the plan for creation was not complete, so God decided to create humanity, and not only did God create humanity, but God created us in God’s own  divine image.

Indeed, throughout scripture, we find evidence of God’s divine plan at work.  We are told later in Genesis that God told Abraham to leave where he was, and that God would make Abraham the father of all nations.  God spoke to Moses, and told Moses to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go.  We find in Matthew that over 42 generations, God’s divine plan was in effect, preparing the way for the coming of Christ into the world.  And we are told that Jesus arrived in the world in the fullness of time.

I believe we could all affirm that plans are important.  Plans serve as the roadmap, the GPS, for our success.  Plans are critical to us moving forward in life.  Someone has wisely suggested that if we fail to plan, we are really planning to fail. 

HOPE

Recently, I have had a chance to re-read Jurgen Moltmann’s book, Theology of Hope.  Moultmann shares that “Hope alone is to be called ‘realistic’, because it alone takes seriously the possibilities with which all reality is fraught.  It does not take things as they happen to stand or to lie, but as progressing, moving things with possibilities of change.  Only as long as the world and the people in it are in a fragmented and experimental state which is not yet resolved, is there any sense in earthly hopes.”  

I believe that hope is the window that God has given us to see into God’s preferred future for our lives.  In the midst of the apparent hopelessness, nothingness, meaninglessness and lovelessness that seems to pervade our collective reality today, hope lends credence to the promises and possibilities that God has for each of our lives.  So we are encouraged – regardless of the circumstances that confront us - to keep hoping, for indeed we know that with hope - our best days and our most blessed days are not behind us, but ahead of us.

The "Butler" and Hope for Today

A couple of weeks ago, I went to see the movie, “The Butler.” What is most clear to me is that even before Cecil Gaines would become the butler for eight United States presidents – God had a plan for his life.

Raised on a cotton plantation in Macon, Georgia, Cecil experienced family tragedy that could have destroyed him. But he escaped the plantation and finally made his way to Washington, DC, ...and in DC he learned how to serve people. It’s clear that God had a plan for Cecil's life - and God made him into the very best servant, the best butler that he could be.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us years ago that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. God made Cecil Gaines into a great butler because he was willing to serve, and Cecil realized that that was his purpose in life, God's plan for him.

In Jeremiah 29:11, the prophet shares these words from the Lord - “I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not your harm, plans to give you a future with hope.” The same God of Jeremiah and Cecil Gaines has a plan for your life. What is God's plan for you? What is your purpose for living? Where are the places that you see possibility and hope for your life? Where and who have you been called to serve? Never forget that God has a plan for your life, and that your tomorrows are bound to be better that our yesterdays and todays!

In the aftermath of yesterday's 50th Anniversary commemoration of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and in the midst of global conflict....

LOWLY LIFE

"Lowly Life" by Paul Laurence Dunbar (sometimes life is like this, and somehow we hope and dream on...!)

A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in,
A minute to smile and an hour to weep in,
A pint of joy to a peck of trouble,
And never a laugh but the moans come double;

And that is life!
A crust and a corner that love makes precious,
With a smile to warm and the tears to refresh us;
And joy seems sweeter when cares come after,
And a moan is the finest of foils for laughter;

And that is life!

Obama, King and War

If Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive to experience the 50th anniversary commemoration of the March on Washington and his "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28. 2013, it leaves one to wonder what advice he might have for President Obama with regard to war and global conflict. Based on Dr. King's direct advocacy against war with both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and what he said in his sermon "Beyond Vietnam" on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church, he would likely say to the President that we should seek to cease and avoid war at all costs, and that "the buck stops at the Oval Office."

Obama, King and Just Peacemaking

When President Obama speaks on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial tomorrow at the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, I'm sure he will invoke the memory and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As we as a nation find ourselves on the brink of more global conflict in Syria, what I pray that the President will be mindful of in his remarks is that Dr. King was a peacemaker and was opposed to war (one of the "triplets of evil"). For, me, Dr. Glen Stassen's (Fuller Theological Seminary) framework for Just Peacemaking (as opposed to "just war") is helpful - 1. Support nonviolent direct action. 2. Take independent initiatives to reduce threat. 3. Use cooperative conflict resolution. 4. Acknowledge responsibility for conflict and injustice and seek repentance and forgiveness. 5. Advance democracy, human rights, and religious liberty. 6. Foster just and sustainable economic development. 7. Work with emerging cooperative forces in the international system. 8. Strengthen the United Nations and international efforts for cooperation and human rights. 9. Reduce offensive weapons and weapons trade. 10. Encourage grassroots peacemaking groups and voluntary associations.

STONES OF HOPE - REFLECTIONS ON THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON (1963-2013)

Rev. Dr. C. Anthony Hunt
August 2013

 

In just a few days on August 24, 2013, thousands of people from around the nation and world will gather in Washington, DC for the 50^th year anniversary and celebration of the historic March on Washington.  Deemed in 1963 as the March for Jobs and Freedom, the march came at the height of the American Civil Rights movement, as over 200,000 thousand persons gathered to call the nation to action as it regarded the rights of all people to opportunity, equality and justice. 

Among those who spoke at the Lincoln Memorial on that sunlit day in 1963 was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  King shared with the crowd, the nation and the world a compelling dream – a vision - of Beloved Community and a world where every “child would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”  He articulated a hope that America would heed the true meaning of its creed as found in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all (people) are created equal.” 

For the masses that will gather this year, this will be a time of remembering, celebrating, and hopefully renewing a commitment to King’s (and others’) dream of peace, justice and equality among us. 

Theologian Jurgen Moltmann articulated in his book Theology of Hope that “Hope alone is to be called ‘realistic’, because it alone takes seriously the possibilities with which all reality is fraught.  It does not take things as they happen to stand or to lie, but as progressing, moving things with possibilities of change.  Only as long as the world and the people in it are in a fragmented and experimental state which is not yet resolved, is there any sense in earthly hopes.”  

One of the things that King intimated in his 1963 speech was a hope that God would “hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”  The despair that he was alluding to then was capsulated in what he deemed to be the “triplets of evil” – racism, poverty (classism) and war (militarism).  In King’s estimation, these were the major categories of the social disease that afflicted America then, and thus there was the need for the struggle for Civil Rights, human rights, equal rights and the March on Washington, and a renewed call/commitment to action.

FAITH UNDER FIRE

(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 8/11/13.)

 

Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?”  They replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.”  He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”  (Daniel 3:24-25) 

It has been said that faith is most clearly evident in our lives when it has been tested.  This speaks to the very nature of faith.  As the writer of the Book of Hebrews so clearly articulated, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not (yet) seen.” 

There is a certain mystery imbedded in the whole matter of faith, in that we cannot see it, and yet it is at work in our lives if we are in relationship with God.

The testing of our faith can come in any manner of ways.  Serious illness, financial distress, relational problems, death – will, at some points, come into all of our lives.  These are but a few of the ways that our faith can and will be tested.  Often, if the truth is really told today, our faith in God can also be tested in moments of our disappointment with God as we might be praying and waiting on a blessing in our life that has been long deferred and appears to be denied, or we might be enduring suffering so long that we wonder why God - who created us, loves us and cares for us - would allow such things to happen in our lives. 

And it is also the case that we might find that our faith is tested in the light of our faithfulness to God.  In other words, sometimes it our very faithfulness, that somehow serves as an entrée for Satan to enter into our lives and to test us.

And so it is in Scripture that we find the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  These were three young men who were extremely faithful to God, and because of their faithfulness, they found themselves in the horns of a dilemma.

These young men were the cream of the crop, the pick of the litter, they were royalty.  They had the right stuff.  They had been trained in the most stringent ritualistic and dietary laws of their times.  They had been trained at the highest levels to become servants in King Nebuchenezzar’s court.

UBUNTU

 

UBUNTU is a life-changing concept.

 

(One of the members of Epworth Chapel, Baltimore posted this on Facebook, and I thought it was worth sharing)

 

An anthropologist proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told the kids that who ever got there first won the sweet fruits. When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ...ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said: ''UBUNTU, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?''

'UBUNTU' in the Xhosa culture means: "I am because we are"

COURAGE IN THE FACE OF CRISIS

 

 

(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 8/4/13.)

 

“O Daniel, servant of the living God, who you have faithfully served, is your God able to deliver you from the lions?”   “My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you.  O king, I have done no wrong.”  (Daniel 6:21-22)

 

Each and every one of us will face times when we are confronted by crisis in our life.  It has often been said that “if it’s not one thing it’s another.”  Crises will confront us at virtually every juncture of life, whether it’s in our homes or on our jobs, or in our neighborhoods.     

In the midst of crisis, psychologists have indicated that it is the human tendency for people to react in one of two ways.  Either we will act and react through fight, or we will react through flight.  In other words, in the midst of trouble, people will confront their crisis head on, and seek to fight their way through and out, or they will run from their problems. 

It is indeed true that we all struggle from time to time in our ability to overcome all of the trouble that is in our midst.  And in the midst of this, we wonder about the very presence and providence and power of God.  Where is God in the midst of our struggles?  It is one thing to proclaim that God is a provider – an on-time, right now God – but it is yet another thing to know that when you call on God, God will indeed show up when you need the Lord.

And so it is in midst of crisis and trouble in our lives, we who are people of faith  need to know where God is in the midst of our trials and tribulations.  For if we know where God is, then we will know where our courage and strength really lies – not in us, but in God.

And so it is that we find evidence of the presence of God in the face of crisis in the story of Daniel.  The book of Daniel is part of the biblical genre known as apocalyptic, a type of literature that appeals to an oppressed and down-and-out people, and emphasizes God’s ultimate power over all that will confront God’s people. 

RACIAL PROFILING

 

 

 

 

For those of you who know me, you are aware that I am one of the persons who is very troubled by the death of Trayvon Martin on 2/26/12, and the recent acquittal of the man who shot and killed him. I am concerned for his family who has los...t a son, brother, nephew and cousin. And I am concerned about what this means for America, the nation of my birth and life, and especially what this says and means about the perceptions that we have about young black and brown males in America, and how we value their lives.

I write and speak not as a media pundit or politician, but as a concerned citizen of the United States. I write and speak as a parent, a pastor and a theologian. I write and speak as a person who has led, taught and coached young persons of many nations and all races for three decades. I write and speak because I believe it is our right and duty to do so. And I write and speak because I seek to more fully understand what is going on in our nation, and perhaps to help raise consciousness so that we can all do our part in making things better for all people.

One of the images that has haunted me for over a year as it regards Trayvon Martin's death is the hoodie that he was wearing. Maybe it is because I have seen my sons - who were both excellent athletes and honor students - leave the house on hundreds of occasions wearing hoodies. Maybe it is because I wore a hoodie through many years as a football and basketball coach of young boys of all races. Maybe it is because today I wear a hoodie to the gym four days a week to stay warm after sweating through my workouts. And so more than even the Skittles or Arizona Ice Tea, it is the image of the hoodie that haunts me.

This past week, Geraldo Rivera went on the record again by saying that the reason why Trayvon Martin was shot in the chest and killed was because he was wearing a hoodie. I wonder what the direct connection is between a teenager's death and wearing a hoodie, and how in the world anybody could arrive at this conclusion. I've appealed to Aristotle's formal logic on this one, but I can't figure it out... ‪

SHORT PEOPLE

 
 
 
 
 
 

Luke 19:1-10

This morning, I’m here to talk to and about short people.  No - I’m not here to talk necessarily to or about people who are short in physical stature.  I didn’t come today to talk to or about those who are perhaps “vertically challenged.”  But this message is for some short people.

I’m here to share some things with all of us – because in some way – we’re all short.  The apostle Paul said it best when he declared that “we’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  

We’re all short in one way or another - short on mercy and grace in our lives – short on loving our neighbors – short on caring for the needy – short in the areas of generosity and compassion – short in gentleness and kindness – short on doing justice and walking humbly with God – short in forgiveness - short on speaking the truth in love - short on caring for the environment – short in our commitment to the church - short in our love and relationship with God.  We’re all short in one way or another. 

BECOMING A TRANSFORMED NONCONFORMIST (THE REMIX)

 

“Be not conformed to the world; but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2)

 
About fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached a sermon entitled, “Transformed Nonconformist.”  Dr. King based his message on the familiar text from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Roman Church, where in the 12^th chapter, Paul reminded the Christians in Rome that they were to “be not conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of (their) minds.” 

The context for Dr. King’s message, this matter of transformed nonconformity, was the American Civil Rights movement of the mid-20^th century, and the need for leadership in the church and society that would stay the course in seeking to transform society and deliver America from the racial division, economic disparity, and other social maladies that plagued our nation then.

Dr. King’s message has haunted me over the years, as I have thought about what it means to be a leader in the church today.  And it has led me lately to think about what it means for us to be adaptive in our leadership.  In a nutshell adaptive leadership is what I sense that Dr. King was talking about when he talked about transformed nonconformity. 

THE POWER OF LOVE - MOHONDAS K. GANDHI AND NON-VIOLENCE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

by Rev. C. Anthony Hunt, D.Min., Ph.D.

 

(This public lecture was delievered at St. Mary’s Seminary and University, Baltimore, Maryland on February 10, 2012)

                    

Mohandas K. Gandhi was one of the few pesons in modern history to lead inthe struggle for human progress simultaneously on moral, religious, political and cultural fronts. His life and praxis of non-violence impacted many persons in india and across the world in the promotion of peace and love with jsutice, and continues to impact persons and institutions today.  With the ongoing proliferation of violence, war, local and global conflict, and geopolitical discord, Gandhi’s philosophy and praxis could be helpful in the discovery of non-violent approaches to conflict resolution and transformation in the 21^st century.

Huston Smith, in The World’s Religions offers that “the face of Hinduism for the West is Mohandas Gandhi.”  According to Smith, “Most responsible for awakening the West to (the realities of the East and the beauty of Hinduism) was a little man who weighed not much more than a hundred pounds and whose possessions when he died totaled two dollars.[1]  If his picture were to appear on this page it would be recognized immediately.  How many other portraits would be recognized universally?  Someone ventured a few years ago that there were only three: those of Charlie Chaplin, Mickey Mouse, and Mahatma Gandhi – “whose essence of being is great” as the title “mahatma” would be literally translated.

The achievement for which the world credited Gandhi was the British withdrawal from India in peace.  What is not as well-known is that among his own people, he lowered a barrier much more formidable than that of British colonialism in India, racism in the United States or Apartheid in South Africa, renaming and redefining “untouchables” in India as “harijan”, God’s Children, and raising them to human status.   

WITHOUT LOVE

(This is an exerpt of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 5/12/13)

“Though I understand all mysteries and all knowledge…. but have not love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2)

This text is familiar to many of us because it is a part of what has come to be known as the “love chapter” in the Bible.  It is not uncommon for couples who are preparing to get married to scan the Bible for a scripture text that they wish to be read at their wedding ceremony, to park here are at 1 Corinthians 13 at these marvelous and challenging words attributed to the Apostle Paul.

There is no evidence that Paul intended for 1 Corinthians to become known as the “love chapter,” and the “wedding poem,” but upon close examination, his words speak to the very nature of love for those seeking to be in relationship within the context of the church, and for those of us seeking to understand love in our daily lives. 

On at least five occasions in this particular text, Paul juxtaposes love against various and sundry actions and activities that the people of his day might have understood and to which they might relate.  Paul here talks about the many gifts of the people of Corinth – gifts of tongues of mortals and of angels, gifts of prophecy, gifts of wisdom, gifts of faith, and gifts of charity.  But Paul shares that without love, none of these gifts really mean anything.  

Common Ground for the Common Good

Rev. C. Anthony Hunt, D.Min., Ph.D.

(This is the text of a public panel response/presentation given on April 9, 2012 at the Ecumenical Institute of Theology, St. Mary's Seminary and University in response to Rev. Jim Wallis's new book, On God's Side.)

 

I would venture to suggest that at the root of Protestantism is an ongoing quest for an appropriation of the common good.  Martin Luther’s call for the reformation of the church in the 16^th century seemed to signal a call for Christian communities to address matters of ecclesial, theological, and socio-political significance to the masses of people.    By its very nature Reformation faith and Protestantism served as a faithful protest against what was viewed – at least to some degree – as the perceived class abuses of the church and society – directed primarily toward the poor.  In as much as the Protestant Reformation was to become a protest against some of the practices of the church - as perceived by Luther and others - it would also become a framework for reforming and reframing some of the practices of Christianity in the search for common ground and the common good.    

The quest for such common good became one of the marks of enlightenment faith that would be the hallmark of early Protestantism in America.   Martin Marty intimates in his book Pilgrims in their Own Land, that although early 15^th and 16^th century settlers in the American colonies were largely “pilgrims of dissent,” what they shared was a common quest for freedom, and that colonists were “knit together by law, religion, and custom.”[1]

Addressing Educational Disparities in Urban Settings

          


Dietrich Bonheoffer, the great German theologian pointed out in the middle of the 20^th century that the test of the morality of a society is how it treats its children.  A statement of American abolitionist Frederick Douglas from more than century and a half ago sheds light on the critical importance of properly educating today’s urban young.  Douglas intimated that “literacy unfits a child for slavery.”  Similarly, today education unfits children for poverty, addiction and incarceration. 

It is important to give constructive attention to the education of children in urban areas because – as Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund points out - urban children  face the higher likelihood of being abused and neglected, born into poverty, born without health insurance, killed by a firearm, or born to a teenage mother.  These figures are exacerbated for black and brown children in urban settings.[i]