Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC February 13, 1994
This, as you know, is Black History Month. Black History Month. What image does the word "history" conjure up for you?
It may be that you are with industrialist Henry Ford, who said, "History is mostly bunk". Well, that's short and simple, though not so sweet.
It may be that you belong with the political philosopher HegeI, who argued, "What experience and history teach is this: that people and governments never have learned anything from history". Pretty cynical. And if you believe that people have never learned anything from history and that they never will, you may as well go to sleep right now. People do go to sleep in the history class, you know.
Although, if anyone is tempted to fall asleep during this sermon, I refer you to the Book of Acts, chapter 20, verse 9, where you will find out what happened to a brother named Eutychus when he fell asleep during the sermon!
When I was a college student, it seemed as though the luck of the draw always dictated that I had history classes in the lute afternoon. No matter how much I attempted to juggle my schedule, it always came out that at 3 or 4 o'clock, I was sentenced to an hour or two in a history lecture.
Now don't get me wrong. I like to study history. In fact, after my ill-fated fling with chemical engineering, I even became a history major. But there's something about taking a history class in the late afternoon. Something about listening to a recital of kings, dates, and battles when the room is getting warmer and the days are getting longer and it's been a long time since coffee break. Hmph. Drowsy, very drowsy. Drowsy always in the history class.
Some of you have had the misfortune of dealing with me in the late afternoon. You know what that's like. You know that unless I've had a shot of caffeine straight into the veins, no matter how interesting or gripping your story is, I am going to yawn and struggle to stay awake. Why, last Sunday I visited in one of your homes. I arrived about 4:30. And when you offered mea cup of coffee, what did I say? I said, "Oh, Thankyouthankyouthankyou". I needed that.
I get drowsy. I especially got drowsy during those long, boring, poorly taught history classes. So I can sympathize with Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration, who, though they were witnessing something awesome, still got so sleepy that they almost missed it. Luke tells us that they were weighed down with sleep and barely stayed awake to catch a glimpse of Jesus, glowing with light and meeting with long-dead patriarchs. They were drowsy and they almost missed a pageant of living history.
Now one of the things I learned as a student is that if you are drowsy in the history class, you are likely to miss something important. Why, one time I went to sleep during the Middle Ages and didn't wake up until they were starting World War I! But missing something in the history class can hurt you. If you are drowsy in the history class, you may not grasp the fact that you have just been exposed to the professor's pet theory, which will very definitely show up on the final exam. If you don't get it, you don't get it. And you will be hurt.
Peter, James, and John were drowsy in Jesus' great history class, and they almost missed something important. They were almost damaged beyond repair. Fortunately they stayed awake and saw the glory. That's what I hope for you too.
So stay awake, now, as best you can, In the Lord's history class. Lest we forget. Lest we forget where we came from, lest we forget who we are, lest we forget to live in the present.
I
The first historical figure that arrived on the Mount of Transfiguration there with Jesus was Moses. Moses the great Iiberator, Moses who had led the people out of Egypt more than thirteen hundred years before. Moses stands on the Mount of Transfiguration, and, if Peter, James, John, and you and I stay awake, there is something to learn from Moses' presence. Something which, in fact, if we do not learn, we will be hurt.
Moses represents the cultural and ethnic history of God's people. Moses represents the distinctive history of the race of people called Israel. The presence of Moses is a history lesson teaching us that God makes a people for Himself in a very distinctive way.
Don't be drowsy in the history class, or you will forget how God makes a people. God makes a people by leading them through a time of oppression and slavery and then bringing them out on the other side. God makes a people using a Moses, using a liberator. That's very special. That's truly wonderful. Don't go to sleep; don't miss that. For if you miss that, your racial pride will be damaged. Your sense of belonging to a proud people will be hurt. You need to know that you are a people like no other people; for a great and loving God has reached down with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and freed you. That's very special.
Black History Month is important. It is important that a church observe it, that our church, which cherishes a multiracial membership, observe it. Some have said to me, wouldn't it be more fair if we also had a white history month or an Asian history month or a Hispanic history month? And there wouldn't be anything wrong with doing that. It would be a fine exercise for us all to get into one another's backgrounds. Why, since I have some American Indian background and so do some of you, we might find out we're cousins. Wouldn't that be something?!
But there is something very special and important about Black History Month and this church. It is not just that persons of African descent outnumber the rest. In fact, if I were pastor of an all-white church, I would still try to lead them to celebrate Black History Month. Why?
Because that history is a history of the actions of almighty God. Because God has moved in the life of the African scattering to do exactly the same thing that He did for those He first chose and led out under Moses. Just as God knew the people of Israel in the lands of their origin; just as God's heart was broken by the cries of the slaves building cities for Pharaoh; just as this mighty God reached down and chose a man named Moses who would issue the great command, "Let my people go", so also has a great God watched and hurt as the peoples of Africa were transported by forced march and slave ship to lands not their own. So also has a great God watched and hurt and acted, calling a whole long list of Moseses, Moseses named Douglass and Tubman and Bethune and King and Marshall. So also has a great God called Moseses to let His people go. African-Americans are a people whom God in His sovereign love and power has reached out and made His own.
Don't be drowsy in the history class. Don't miss Moses, who teaches the power of the cultural and ethnic history of a people forged by the very hand of God. A people liberated and named as God's own. Don't miss it.
II
But then, next, there is Elijah. Standing next to Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration is the first great prophet, Elijah. Elijah lived some 400 years after Moses, some 900 years before Jesus. But here stands Elijah, also teaching a history lesson. Don't be drowsy in the history class while Elijah is teaching, or else you will miss it.
For Elijah, you see, represents the moral and spiritual history of the people of Israel. The prophet Elijah represents the moral strength, the spiritual values, which made that nation strong. Elijah the prophet is a walking history lesson.
When Elijah stands on the Mount of Transfiguration, he reminds that little audience that there is a whole lineage of men and women who have stood for something, persons who have stood up to power and challenged it, who laid their lives on the line for truth and for justice. Elijahs have stood up when it was costly. If we are drowsy to the lesson Elijah teaches, we will miss it. We will be shortchanged.
You remember the story of Elijah? You remember how he was in conflict with King Ahab and the scheming queen, Jezebel? And most of all, you remember that it was Elijah who stood on the heights of Mount Carmel and challenged the priests of Baal? Elijah who put the challenge very forcefully, "Choose, choose. If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him. Choose."
Elijah understood that there are times which try men's souls. There are times when you must stand up and be counted. Don't be drowsy in Elijah's history class, for we are in a day when it is important that God's people, of all races and backgrounds, stand and be counted. We are in a day when we must again speak the truth to persons in power. We are in a day when it will again be costly to do justice. We need to learn Elijah's history lesson.
You see, when violence stalks our streets, and lawless people intimidate whole cities, then God's people have to become Elijahs and take a stand. When gun runners and merchants of death would rather make a fast dollar than submit to regulation, then God's people need to raise a voice more cogent than the NRA's voice. When drug cartels, without any care for human lives, import tons of death into our cities, cynically implying that black male flesh is worthless; when a whole generation is being condemned to death or to prison, then if we have learned any thing from Elijah we must cry out, “Enough, enough, choose.” “If the Lord be God, then follow him. But if Baal, then follow Him. Choose."
Don't be drowsy in Elijah's history class. Learn the moral and spiritual history of the people of God. Learn of Martin Luther King, preaching truth and going to Birmingham jail for it. Learn of Ida Wells Barnett and Mary Church Terrell, sounding a nationwide call for an organization which could challenge prejudice and injustice. Learn of pastors who were beaten when they tried to protect their people, of men who were humiliated when they stood up for their homes and families; learn of women who were violated when they insisted on their purity. Learn the moral and spiritual history of a courageous people, and learn it well. For we are in a new day when it will be tested again. If we are drowsy in Elijah's history class, we will not be ready.
III
But there is something else still to learn. There is something else to stay awake for. And in some ways this is the easiest one of all to miss. This is the one you really have to stay alert for.
We need to stay awake and learn our own personal histories. Our own personal histories. We are not alert to our own personal, emotional, histories. We have not listened to our own personalities. We miss so much.
Think of it. Here are Peter, James, and John, weighed down by sleep on the Mount of Transfiguration. So sleepy that they almost missed seeing the wonder of these long-dead patriarchs Moses and Elijah.
But they also nearly missed seeing Jesus for who He really is. They almost failed to catch a glimpse of glory bright, reflected in the face of their leader. They almost missed getting an insight into their own personal histories.
Their own histories, for, you see, they had spent many months with Jesus. They had talked with Him, listened to Him, witnessed His work. They had seen His miracles, they had discovered His healing power, they had pondered His teaching. He had shaped them. He had formed them.
But they had not seen how their own spiritual lives had been shaped. They did no t yet see what was happening to them, personally and emotionally. Had it not been for the Transfiguration experience, they would never have seen exactly what was happening to them.
Aren't we all like that? Isn't it true that most of us just plod along from day to day, giving practically no attention to our own spiritual and personal histories? We do not remember what has shaped us. We do not perceive who has formed us. We are not aware of our shortcomings, nor are we alert to our strengths. We just plod along, without memories, without insight, without reflection. We are drowsy in our own history class. We are dull and dead to the meaning of our walk with Christ. We don't get it. We miss it.
The discipline of listening to our own hearts has caught my attention lately. Enough things have happened within my life in the last few weeks that I have been forced to listen to my heart and to assess my personal history. It's sometimes awkward, it's never easy; it's a little painful. But it is important. It is a means of growth.
During Lent I'm going to work on this theme: of listening to our own hearts. You'll get plenty of this before we're through.
But for now let me just lift up a couple of things. Let me lift up, since it is Black History Month, the need for us to listen to our own hearts where race is concerned. Many of us harbor feelings that we don't want to acknowledge. Many of us find that, down in our heart of hearts, we are carrying some attitudes we don't want to admit. No, you cannot control what you feel. But you can control what you do with it. And you can invite the spirit of Christ to heal the sin-sick soul.
If you'll forgive me a Eurocentrlc comment, I cannot say it better than the Scots poet Robert Burns, "0 would some power the giftie gie us to see ourselves as ithers see us."
Let me lift up, too, our feelings about the opposite sex. How men really feel about women and how women perceive men. We in this church may talk endlessly about how we are egalitarian and how we ordain women to the ministry and to the diaconate; we may think we arc pretty enlightened because there are one or two men who take turns in the nursery and everyone's favorite cook is male. But that still doesn't quite get to it. That doesn't teach us about our deep-down feelings of distrust. That doesn't quite lead men to acknowledge that not-so-hidden feeling that we are the masters of the universe, thank you. That doesn't teach women how to read and respond to our insecurity.
Like the little boy thumbing through his older brother's anatomy textbook, seeing all the pictures of our internal organs, he said, "Well, it's not very nice, but it is inside us." Our feelings may not be very nice, but they are inside us, and we need to learn to read them.
Do you see what I am saying? I am saying that there is no more important study than the study of our own personal histories. I am saying that Jesus Christ is just the teacher we need, for, like Peter, James, and John, we have walked with Him and have talked with Him, and He has told us we are His own. And knowing that we are his own gives us tremendous security, gives us all the room we need to explore our own histories, and yet to know that He loves us. He loves us just as we are, He loves us despite ourselves, He loves us beyond ourselves. And He accepts us.
Don't go to sleep in the personal history class. For there Jesus waits to teach us and to redeem us.
The philosopher Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." But the Christian Gospel says that those who can remember their cultural and ethnic past can celebrate it; those who can remember their moral and spiritual heritage can march forward with that. And most of all, those who can discover and remember their personal shaping can, in Jesus Christ, become sons and daughters of the living God.
