WHAT BECOMES OF THE BROKEN HEARTED?

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 12/4/16)

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?   My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises. In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.   To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. Psalm 22:1-5

             If I can be transparent for a few moments, there have been only a few times in my life when I have been truly broken hearted.  One was when our Son, Marcus William Hunt died from an accidental drowning on August 7, 2005.  Another was on September 11, 2001, with the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon in Virginia.  Yet another was the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968.  And a fourth was at the presidential election on this November 8-9, 2016.

If you’ve ever been broken hearted, you know what it feels like, and you can feel the same pain that I’m still experiencing in the aftermath of the election.  To be clear this is not, at its core, a political concern – it is more an existential concern – getting to the very core of who I am, and who we are as the people of God. 

Indeed, many of us right now are living with broken spirits - broken hopes and dreams - indeed broken hearts.  

And it would not be an overstatement to declare that the experience of broken heartedness is often accompanied by a sense that one has been punched in the gut so hard, and knocked down to the point that one finds it difficult to get back up.  The broken heartedness that I’m talking about today carries with it profound disappointment, dis-heartedness, a confusion, and pain – and indeed fear – fear for the future of God’s creation.   And this brokenness often leads to bitter tears of despair – which may seem to drip with no end in sight.

LESSONS FOR A LUKEWARM CHURCH

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on  11/20/2016)

"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. ¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!                     (Revelation 3:14-22

These last two weeks have found many people in the midst of heated conversation.  Anywhere you find news on the television, on newsstands, or on the Internet -there seems to be heated conversation about last week’s presidential elections. 

The heated discussions have extended into the church, where it’s clear that even Christians, those of us who profess to be followers of Jesus, are not of the same mind about the implications of the election on the well-being of all God’s people. 

Indeed, many people are passionate in their beliefs about the efficacy, or not, of the election.  And if the truth is told, this has resulted in often heated conversations, even among Christians.

It leads us to wonder, what if the church and society was as passionate about other important things as we are about who the President-elect is, who will be on his cabinet and how he will govern after the Inauguration?  What if we were just as passionate about doing good, doing no harm, and staying in love with God?

A GLOBAL, ECUMENICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE

I'm pleased again to share that I have a chapter that will be included in the forthcoming volume, "Scripture and Its Interpretation: A Global, Ecumenical Introduction to the Bible," edited by Dr. Michael J. Gorman. The book is scheduled for release in April 2017. My chapter is entitled, "African American Biblical Interpretation". Several of my colleagues and former colleagues at St. Mary's Ecumenical Institute also have chapters included in the volume, including Paul Zilonka, Christopher Skinner, Michael Barre, Stephen Fowl, Michael Gorman, Brent Laytham and Patricia Fosarelli. Pre-order online at www.bakeracademic.com

Dreams and Nightmares – Reflections on the 2016 Presidential Election

The election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States on November 9, 2016 should not have been a surprise to anybody who had been paying attention to the racial/social/political climate in the nation over the last 16 years.  The writing began to be clearly scrolled on the nation's wall in 2008 with the rise of Sarah Palin (prior to President Barack Obama's election in November 2008), the rise of right-wing Tea Party politics, the preponderance of ultra-obstructionist governance in both houses of the United States congress, and the alarming rise of militias and hate groups across the nation. 

The fissures in the social fabric of the nation really began to be evident with the politics of race and class so prevalent during the presidential tenure of George W. Bush (2000-2008).  The truth is that racism is and has been, since the nation’s founding, the elephant in the nation's living room - what Rev. Jim Wallis refers to as "America's Original Sin.".  The 2016 presidential race and the election of Trump merely serve to confirm that America is what many people know it is, and bring to light for some others what they have just been in denial about.

In the 2016 election’s aftermath, many Americans who have disproportionately felt the scourge of racism, sexism, classism and various forms of xenophobia – and yet still held out hope that the United States would become an authentically inclusive, post-racial, post-racist nation – now understand more fully what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. intimated on  May 8, 1967, less than four years after his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in August 1963 in the Nation’s Capital, that his dream for America had in large measure become a nightmare.  King stated, "I must confess that that dream that I had... has at many points become a nightmare. Now I'm not one to lose hope, I keep on hoping, I still have faith in the future... but I've come to see that we have many more difficult days ahead, and some of the old optimism was a little superficial, and now it must be tempered with a solid realism. The realistic fact is we have a long, long way to go."

I resonate with Dr. King’s sentiments.  I was born in a Freedman's Bureau hospital in the nation's capital at a time when the federal city was largely racially segregated.  I went to segregated inner city public schools and lived in segregated communities for my first 15 years. Growing up, although we were told we could be anything we wanted to be, I never really dreamed that I'd live to see a president who looked anything like me.

I'm reflecting on the fact that with the election of Donald Trump, the nation elected as its 45th president the person who, by becoming the very face and voice of the Birther movement, effectively sought - and in no small way served - to delegitimize Barack H. Obama, the 44th president.

A THANKSGIVING PRAYER

A Thanksgiving Prayer for the Nation and World  -

We the people of Epworth Chapel, Baltimore join others in prayers of thanksgiving and prayers for the nation on the eve of Thanksgiving.


"God of our weary years, God of our silent tears; thou who has brought us thus far along the way. Thou who has by thy might, led us into the light - keep us forever in thy path we pray" (James Weldon Johnson). O God, you see all and know all – and amidst the various and sundry vicissitudes of life, we are mindful that you are in control of all that is and is to be. We pause to offer thanks to you for your grace and mercy towards your people. We are a people of divergent perspectives, with a diversity of hopes and dreams and visions. But we come before you acknowledging the commonality that all persons share in you, the creator of the universe.

O God, we offer you thanks for this nation. We take this opportunity to offer prayers for the nation and our world. We pray for the people of every city and county in every state in America. We pray that you would bless every home and every community - every school and every place where your people gather for work and leisure. Bless those persons who are older and those who are younger. We pray for peace and safety for all of us who live and move throughout every community across our nation, and we pray likewise for communities like ours around the world.

Lord God, we pray especially for your blessings upon those persons who bear the burdens of want and disparity among us - whether it be for lack of food or shelter, inadequate health-care or inadequate education.

We ask your blessings upon those who serve and lead the nation in elective and appointive office, and those who will do so in the future. Bless them with a portion of your wisdom, patience, integrity, justice and compassion.

“Now dot thy still dews of quietness; let all of our strivings cease; take now from our souls the strain and the stress; and let our ordered lives confess; the beauty of your peace” (Howard Thurman). Amen.

SOCIAL JUSTICE READING LIST

The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander

Rules for Radicals – Saul Alinsky

Dirty Hands: Christian Ethics in a Morally Ambiguous World - Garth Baker-Fletcher

God of the Rahtid – Robert Beckford

The Cost of Discipleship – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Manchild in a Promised Land – Claude Brown

Katie’s Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the of the Black Community - Katie Cannon

Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates

God of the Oppressed – James Cone

A Black Theology of Liberation – James Cone

The Cross and the Lynching Tree – James Cone

Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement - 
Angela Davis                                              

The Souls of Black Folk – W.E.B Dubois

Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster - Michael Eric Dyson

The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America - Michael Eric Dyson

Ferguson and Faith: Sparking Leadership and Awakening Community - Leah Gunning Francis

Pedagogy of the Oppressed – Paulo Freire

Hope and History: Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement -  Vincent Harding

The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus’ Teachings and How they have been Corrupted – Obery Hendricks

Blessed are the Peacemakers: A Theological Analysis of the Thought of Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr.  –  C. Anthony Hunt

My Hope is Built: Essays, Sermons and Prayers on Religion and Race - C. Anthony Hunt

Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing - Dennis Jacobson

Race, Religion and Resilience in the Neoliberal Age – Cedric Johnson

Is God a White Racist? – William R. Jones

Justice in an Unjust World – Karen Lebacqz

Racism and the Christian Understanding of Man – George Kelsey

Why We Can’t Wait – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Where do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? – Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X – Malcom X

Where have all the Prophets Gone?: Redeeming Prophetic Preaching in America Marvin McMickle

Pulpit and Politics: Separation of Church and State in the Black Church - Marvin McMickle

Jesus Weeps: Global Encounters on Our Doorstep – Harold Recinos

A Troubling in My Soul: Womanist Perspectives on Evil and Suffering - Emilie Townes

Jesus and the Disinherited – Howard Thurman

The Luminous Darkness: A Personal Interpretation of the Anatomy of Segregation and the Ground of Hope – Howard Thurman

America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege and the Bridge to a New America - Jim Wallis

Prophecy Deliverance – Cornel West

Race Matters – Cornel West

Bonhoeffer’s Back Jesus: Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance - Reggie Williams

No Difference in the Fare: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Problem of Racism - Josiah U. Young

A WAKE-UP CALL

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 11/13/16.)

Revelation 3:1-4

"To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.  Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.  Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

Eight years ago, almost to this day, I can recall the great joy and euphoria that many of us felt with the election of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44^th President of the United States.  I recall election night and looking with amazement at the crowds that gathered at around midnight in Grant Park in the center of Chicago to celebrate President Obama’s election. 

             I remember – as I’m sure many of us do – the inauguration in Washington, DC, the city where I was born and raised, and the pride that we shared in the historic election of the first African American president of these United States.  This pride that swelled in many of us was married with great hope and expectation that we, as a nation, had come to the place where we could finally realize in no small way what the words in our nation’s Declaration of Independence really mean – “we hold these truths to be self-evident that ALL people are created equal” - that we had come to realize in no insignificant way the Latin words imbedded in our nation’s credo – e pluribus unum – out of many one.
            As we fast forward eight years, we now find ourselves at the dawning of a very new reality.  And this is not merely because of the fact that the nation has elected as its 45^th President a person who has largely expressed disdain toward the interests of immigrants, Muslims, many Latinos and Black persons, women, the disabled, and city dwellers in this nation.   But we find ourselves at the dawning of this very different day because in many ways the hopes and dreams that many of us shared in 2008 have been delayed if not denied.   In many ways – as Dr. Martin Luther King intimated in May 1967 – less than four years after his marvelous and prophetic “I Have a Dream” speech in August 1963, that his dream had in very real ways turned into a nightmare.
           And if the truth is told – we find ourselves at the dawning of this very different reality – and for many of us a troubling reality – a very dark night in the nation -because we as a society and indeed as the church have slept on our opportunities.