Heritage Sermon
Feb 16, 2010
Emma Jean Gregory
It's February and for a long time now the powers that be (that is, the earthly powers that be) have designated February as African American Heritage Month. Dr. Alanis and the Lutherans have invited me to speak today and to talk about some things that have to do with African American Heritage and I thank them for that.
I graduated from the Tuskegee Institute, what is now known as an HBCU or Historical Black University. Historical Black Colleges are what the government calls schools that were in operation before 1964 and that were meant exclusively for Negroes. When I went to Tuskegee, I didn't think of it as a Historical anything. It was just a place where Negroes could go to school, get a good education and feel safe from all the madness that was going on outside the campus. It was a place where we could be all that we could be and there were only two kinds of restrooms and one kind of water. Those of us going to Tuskegee were really proud that we were there and we exercised our bragging rights because there were two men associated with the school who were actually in the real history books: Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. I'm going to tell you a little bit about Dr. Carver and some other people who have inspired me and countless others.
George Washington Carver was born a slave sometime near the end of the Civil War. When he was about 13 and was free, he ventured off by himself to make his way in the world. He had no money, no support, and no education. What he did have was a dream-a dream to get an education no matter what it took. He did manage to get an education and how he managed it is an interesting story in itself. I commend the reading of his story to you. Eventually he wound up at Tuskegee as the head of the Agricultural Department. It was there that he began a program of crop rotation that saved the depleted Alabama soil and also did his research on the peanut there. He devised more than 300 uses for the peanut. Whenever you eat peanut butter or any processed peanuts other than freeze dried, you should give a nod to Dr. Carver. Dr Carver was asked by the United Peanut Growers Association to speak before the US House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee to advocate for a tariff on peanuts. The Committee allowed him ten minutes to speak. When he arrived he found some members of the committee acting with total disrespect for him. Some had on hats; some not only had on hats but were sprawled back in their chairs with their feet up on the tables and smoking cigars. He thought, these people have no respect for me, why am I here and he decided to leave. He said that it was then that the thought struck him, "I am a child of God. As a child of God I am as good as any of these men. I won't let their disrespect keep me from being the man that God made me and from sharing the knowledge that God has given me. And so he stayed and he began to speak. As he talked, hats came off, feet came off of tables, cigars were extinguished and his 10 minutes was extended to 45. The peanut tariff was passed. As a result of his appearance before the Ways and Means Committee, he was thrust into the spotlight as a spokesman for scientific agriculture and his fame grew from there. Had he not thought of himself as a child of God things might have worked out differently for him.
He didn't have any patents for his inventions. He said that God told him how to do everything that he did and he wasn't going to charge people for knowledge given to him by God.
In today's gospel, it says "I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will." I have it on good authority that when the word infants is used in the Bible it often means, not babies, but those with the characteristics of babies; those who are helpless, those who are open, those who are incapable of speaking up for themselves. George Washington Carver, although a wise and intelligent man, was often helpless like an infant . God spoke to him often and he listened.
Another person that I want to tell you about is Harriet Tubman. Harriet also was born a slave. She escaped from slavery using the underground railroad. About a year later she became a conductor on the railroad herself and made 19 trips back to the south to help others escape, risking capture and the loss of her freedom. She is often referred to as the Black Moses because she led so many of her people from slavery in the south to freedom in the north. According to her biographers, it was the voice of God that told her to escape and prompted her to return for others. God spoke to the helpless slave and she defied all odds and escaped and became the instrument of freedom for so many others.
Then there's Isabella Bumfrey, born in 1797, a Dutch-speaking slave in rural New York. As was the case for most slaves in the rural north, Isabella lived isolated from other Negroes and she suffered physical and sexual abuse from her masters. She had a habit of going into the woods and talking with God. Inspired by one of these conversations with God, she walked to freedom. She said that she was struck by a vision of Jesus, during which she felt "baptized into the Holy Spirit" and it gave her the confidence to get away. It was this same spirit that instructed her to leave New York and travel and lecture under a new name, Sojourner Truth. She spent her life speaking and lecturing successfully for the causes of abolition and women's suffrage. Perhaps you've heard of her famous "Ain't I A Woman" speech.
Mary McLeod Bethune was another force in Black heritage. She was born shortly after the Civil War to newly freed parents. She had an experience early in life that determined her course. She had an encounter with a young white girl while she was with her mother in her mother's former master's home. While her mother was tending to some work, Mary was sitting there in a room filled with books and other school supplies. When she picked up a book, the girl made it clear to her that she did not know how to read and she leave books alone and maybe look at a picture book. According to her biography, this experience left her with life-altering self-awareness, a determination to read, and a drive to engage and unleash the power of God. Through this event, prayer became central to Mary's life as she prayed continually for the opportunity to learn to read and write. Her prayers were answered. She graduated from Scotia Seminary and the Moody Bible Institute. Mary McLeod Bethune went on to found a College, Bethune-Cookman, one of the current Historic Black Colleges and she was also the founder of the National Council of Negro Women. She was an advisor to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman and did so many things to further the cause of Negroes. Throughout her life, she acknowledged that the work of her life was filled with divine guidance and a daily awareness of God.
Thomas A. Dorsey is known in some circles as "the father of gospel music". He was born in rural Georgia to a Christian family. However after moving to the city Dorsey strayed away from religion and began to play music with Ma Rainey, the reigning blues singer of the day. Then Dorsey developed a condition that left him unable to play, write or perform. He went to a faith healer and was cured. After that experience, Dorsey went on to write his most famous song, "Take my hand, Precious Lord." He said that when he wrote the lyrics he was serving as a channel through which God spoke.
And finally, The Reverend Pauli Murray, who in 1977 became the first black female to be ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church. She was the victim of a double whammy. After graduating from Hunter College she was denied admission to the University of North Carolina Law School because she was black. She was turned down for admission to Harvard University because she was a woman. In spite of this, she got her degrees. She spent her life as a social activist and an advocate for social and gender equality. Although she was privileged in many ways, she was helpless in some situations. Did God speak to her in those times? An Episcopal priest? Certainly.
You don't have to be born a slave or be a victim of racism, sexism or ageism to be helpless like an infant. There are many, many ways to be made helpless. Perhaps you've been an employee of a tyrannical employer who held your economic welfare in his hands; or been the student of a professor who just didn't like you and whom you couldn't please no matter what you did, and yet you needed a grade; or maybe you've had to answer to a commission, one that holds your future in its hands. Do these situations make you helpless? Of course. But when your mind is stayed on Jesus, you will get the answers. When you turn to him, he will heap grace upon grace and blessings upon blessings upon you. Just as he heaped grace upon grace upon George Washington Carver, grace upon grace on Harriet Tubman, grace upon grace upon Sojourner Truth, grace upon grace upon Thomas Dorsey, grace upon grace upon Pauli Murray and grace upon grace and blessings upon blessings to so many other. So much grace, so many blessings.
