cover spring 2009:***TAAP winter cover 3/10/09 11:54 PM Page 1

T H E S E N I O R S TAT E S P E R S O N S I S S U E
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THE AFRICAN AMERICAN PULPIT

SPRING
2009
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VOLUME 12, NUMBER 2 / SPRING 2009

Build your collections or give gifts and save! ■ John Hurst Adams
■ Audrey F. Bronson
And don’t forget to visit www.TheAfricanAmericanLectionary.com
and see the worship and sermonic help that preachers, scholars, ■ Harold A. Carter Sr.
and clergy all over the country are raving about. ■ J. Delano Ellis
■ Violet L. Fisher
■ William A. Lawson
■ James Earl Massey
■ Otis Moss Jr.
■ J. Deotis Roberts
■ Fred L. Shuttlesworth
■ C. B. T. Smith
The African American Pulpit A quarterly journal that serves as a
HOPE FOR LIFE INTERNATIONAL

repository for the very best of African American preaching and ■ Anne E. Streaty Wimberly
provides practical and creative resources for persons in ministry. …and more
ISBN: 978-0-9820169-2-3
Advisory Board Members Otis Moss III Matthew L. Watley
Brad R. Braxton Joan S. Parrott F. Bruce Williams
Leslie D. Callahan Robert Smith Jr. and Richard W. Wills Sr.
Marcus D. Cosby Gina M. Stewart
John E. Guns Gardner C. Taylor (Emeritus)
cover spring 2009:***TAAP winter cover 3/10/09 11:54 PM Page 2
 CONTENTS

THE SENIOR STATESPERSONS ISSUE

Editorially Speaking
From the Publisher’s Pen
Martha Simmons 4

Honoring the Elders

Eugene Gibson Jr. and Maria Mallory White 6

Articles from the Elders

The Theology of The Triple Tithe
John Hurst Adams 8

Are You Happy?

Anne E. Streaty Wimberly 12

Sermons from the Elders

Can Any Good Thing Come Out of Nazareth?
Audrey F. Bronson 18
CONTENTS

The Power Is in His Name Trust and Commitment

Harold A. Carter Sr. 22 (Part 1 and 2)
Otis Moss Jr. 64
The Road to Jerusalem
William P. DeVeaux 28 Tambourines
J. Deotis Roberts 70
Be Not Afraid
J. Delano Ellis 34 A Blueprint for Living or
a Pattern for Dying
Bread for the Journey Fred L. Shuttlesworth 74
Violet L. Fisher 38
The Proof of His Sonship
Blood and Guts C. B. T. Smith 80
William A. Lawson 44
Preaching to the Cities
From Praise to Praise J. Alfred Smith Sr. 86
Elliott J. Mason Sr. 52
A Day for Us
A Grand Word about Harry S. Wright 92
a Great Savior
James Earl Massey 58
 A quarterly journal that serves as a
repository for the very best of African
American preaching and provides practical
and creative resources for persons in ministry.
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 2 / SPRING 2009 (ISSN 1094-0111)

Chief Executive Officer

of Hope for Life
Frank A. Thomas
International, Inc.
President and PublisherMartha Simmons
Coexecutive EditorsEugene L. Gibson Jr. and Maria Mallory White
Advisory Board Members Brad R. Braxton, Leslie D. Callahan, Marcus D. Cosby,
John E. Guns, Otis Moss III, Joan S. Parrott, Robert Smith Jr.,
Gina M. Stewart, Gardner C. Taylor (Emeritus),
Matthew L. Watley, F. Bruce Williams, and Richard W. Wills Sr.
Project Manager Victoria McGoey

Theological and other opinions expressed by the editors and contributors are not necessarily those of
Hope for Life International, Inc. or the publisher. Unsolicited manuscripts that are received and considered
for publication must be original unpublished works. Please see our submissions guidelines at
www.TheAfricanAmericanPulpit.com or call 412-364-1688 for further information. Please e-mail submis-
sions to mcgoeyeditor@comcast.net.
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THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

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Copyright © 2009 by Hope for Life International, Inc. Printed in the U.S.A.

Visit our website: www.TheAfricanAmericanPulpit.com Back Issues On Sale! 3

 E D I T O R I A L LY S P E A K I N G

From the
PUBLISHER’S PEN

Martha Simmons

he older I get the more

I know that it is true,
God always has someone
T public relations and mes-
sage marketing and brand-
ing. She received her
preachers in the country.
From the Hampton
Ministers’ Conference to
to do the work that needs Bachelor of Science from the Word Network, to the
to be done. A year ago, we Ohio University’s E.W. Trinity Broadcast
lost one of our former Scripps School of Network and revivals
coexecutive editors when Journalism and her Master throughout the country,
she was blessed to obtain a of Divinity from Emory Reverend
great new opportunity in University (Candler School Guns is an
ministry. Since that time, of Theology), and she is admired
we have searched exten- currently ABD at Ashland proclaimer
sively for her replacement. Seminary in the Doctor of of the
And then, God did more Ministry Program. She is a Gospel.
than we asked. It is my dis- member of the African He is the
tinct pleasure to introduce Methodist Episcopal pastor of
to our readers the new Church. Maria, we are St. Paul Missionary
coexecutive editor for The pleased and honored to Baptist Church in
African American Pulpit have you on board. With Jacksonville, Florida. St.
(TAAP), Maria Mallory you as a member of the Paul has gained a reputa-
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

White. She comes to us TAAP team, our future is tion for empowering the
with two decades of experi- bright indeed. Jacksonville community
ence writing for national In addition to having by working to strengthen
and international Maria Mallory White join families and leading eco-
newsweeklies, large metro- the TAAP team, Frank nomic development initia-
politan newspapers, and Thomas and I are pleased tives. He is a graduate of
city and regional magazines to announce the addition Virginia Union, School of
including the Atlanta- of Reverend John E. Guns Theology and a D.Min.
Journal Constitution, U.S. to the advisory board of candidate at Virginia
News and World Report, The African American Union, School of
Business Week, the Pulpit. As many of you Theology. He is the
Baltimore Sun, and others. know, Reverend Guns is author of four books and
She also brings with her a one of the most inspira- a board member of count-
4 decade of experience in tional and sought-after less organizations.

Let me also offer special
thanks to those advisory
board members who rotat-
ed off the board in
December 2008: Cynthia
Hale, Sean H. McMillan,
and Alyn E. Waller. Your
service and support of the
journal is appreciated.
Thank you for your role in
E D I T O R I A L LY S P E A K I N G
advancing the work of the things this year too. To
Kingdom through TAAP. God be the glory.
Finally, thank you to Sincerely,
each of our readers for
your continued support of
TAAP. With your support
the Winter 2008–2009
issue was one of our
biggest-selling issues ever. President and Publisher,
We are expecting amazing TAAP
 E D I T O R I A L LY S P E A K I N G

HONORING
the Elders

Eugene Gibson Jr.

and Maria Mallory White

et’s be honest: It is easier

to talk about changing
the world than it is to go and
L the history of the Black
Church’s struggle for civil
rights: White clergy wanted
distinct path of Christian
work and witness. Each,
going beyond speaking truth
actually do it. Talking about to talk about social equality, to power, put dedicated
ministry is easy. Doing min- giving mere lip service, even hands toward the hard work
istry is not. Reverend Maria while the nation allowed of dismantling those powers
Mallory White, like other racists to wage an evil—and and principalities, employing
sons and daughters of largely televised—civil war the hammer of Gospel Truth,
Richard and Sarah Allen, against peaceful protesters. and building saints-equipping
knows this to be true from Talking about ministry is ministries along the way.
the historic witness of the easy. Doing ministry is not. Talking about ministry is
African Methodist Episcopal It took Martin Luther King easy. Doing ministry is not.
Church. In the days of the Jr., working with the under- As we celebrate these who
birth of their branch of Zion, standing of “Why We Can’t have gone before us—these
the white worshipers in St. Wait,” to leave talking who can surely say it but
George Methodist Church behind and go out and do: who have also lived it and
wanted to talk about the fel- Agitate for a justice “that worked it—let us be inspired
lowship of all believers, even rolled down like waters” by the witness of their words,
while segregating black wor- and “righteousness like an let us emulate the great works
shipers outside full fellowship ever-flowing stream” as the of their walks, let us continue
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

and into the balconies. Black Church led the path the legacy of their spiritual
Talking about ministry is toward justice for all. endeavors. We have entered a
easy. Doing ministry is not. It Talking about ministry is new era of politics in the
took Richard Allen to leave easy. Doing ministry is not. United States, but it still
that hypocritical talk behind Such was the case with each remains, that doing ministry
and go out and do: Seek out of the personal journeys rep- is hard work. Our prayers go
and serve the least, the last, and resented in this Senior with each of you as you go
the lost—especially the sun- Statespersons issue. Each of forth to do ministry that will
kissed children of the Most these exceptional preachers, make a difference.
High God—and thus give professors, prophets, pastors,
birth to the A.M.E. Church. and pacesetters went beyond
Talking about ministry is merely talking to doing.
easy. Doing ministry is not. Each, after finding his or her
6 We know this to be true in own unique voice, forged a
 ARTICLES FROM THE ELDERS JOHN HURST ADAMS

The Theology T he mission and ministry of the Church

must stay strong. The primary motiva-
tions for mission and ministry are faith and
of commitment implemented with good per-
sonnel and materials. The tithe is the bibli-
THE TRIPLE cal teaching to provide the resources to get
the personnel and materials required to do

TITHE the Church’s mission and ministry in and to

the world.
When the scribes sought to trap Jesus in his
JOHN HURST ADAMS own words, they asked him, “Which is the
greatest commandment?”1 Jesus’ reply offers
further guidance by lifting up the priorities to
honor in the practice of the faith: “You
should love God with all your heart, soul,

JOHN HURST ADAMS was elected and

consecrated the 87th bishop of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church in
1972. Bishop Adams’s first assignment
was to the Tenth Episcopal District
(Texas), where he served as presiding
prelate for eight years. He then served for
eight years in the Second Episcopal
District (Maryland, District of Columbia,
Virginia, and North Carolina), for four years
in the Sixth Episcopal District (Georgia),
for eight years in the Seventh Episcopal
District (South Carolina), and for four
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

years in the Eleventh Episcopal District

(Florida and the Bahamas). He is a past
president of the Council of Bishops and
General Board of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church. Bishop Adams retired
from active service at the 2004 General
Conference after 54 years in ministry, 22
as a pastor and 32 as a bishop, with 16 of
those 32 years as senior bishop.
Prior to his election to the episcopacy,
Bishop Adams served as pastor of three
churches: Bethel A.M.E. Church (Lynn,
Massachusetts), First A.M.E. Church
8
 ARTICLES FROM THE ELDERS JOHN HURST ADAMS
mind and strength, and you should love your
neighbor as you love yourself.”2
This clear teaching of Jesus amplified and
advocated in the teachings of my father along
with the practice of The Triple Tithe has
grown into the idea presented in this article.
The Triple Tithe means first allocating 10
percent of our income to God, then 10 per-
cent to others, and finally 10 percent to our-
selves. The Triple Tithe is proposed for the
three levels of the Church in which every
member participates. It will work in the indi-
vidual’s personal effort to serve well. It will
work for the local church in order for it to
serve well. It will work for the denomination
(Seattle, Washington), and Grant A.M.E.
Church (Los Angeles, California). In addi-
tion, he served as chairman of the
Department of New Testament Studies at
Payne Theological Seminary (Wilberforce,
Ohio) and President of Paul Quinn College
(Waco, Texas).
Long recognized as a creative coalition
builder, Bishop Adams is founder and Chair
Emeritus of the Congress of National Black
Churches (CNBC), founder of the Richard
Allen Service and Development Agency
(SADA), founder and chair of the Institute
of Church Administration and Manage-
ment (ICAM) in Atlanta, Georgia, the
Educational Growth Organization (EGO) in
Los Angeles, California, the Central Area
Motivation Program in Seattle, Washing-
ton, and Chair of the Central Area Civil
Rights Committee of Seattle.
Bishop Adams has distinguished him-
self as an activist and a pioneer in
church growth and expansion, black
ecumenical development, theological
and ministerial development, political
empowerment, civil rights, black eco-
in its struggle to serve well in a global setting.
The Triple Tithe, practiced at the three lev-
els of Church life, does what the faith expects
us to do:
1. It shows our love for God, our gratitude
to God, and the firstness of God in our lives.
2. It is a tangible and visible way to wor-
ship and praise God with both the talk and
the walk of faith.
3. It is the ultimate statement of faith, as the
more we do for others, the closer we are to
Christ.
4. It is the means by which we can pursue
the biblical themes of liberation and salva-
tion, empowerment and strength, and the
nomic development, and African libera-
tion and development projects.
He earned an A.B. Degree from Johnson
C. Smith University and holds S.T.B. and
S.T.M. degrees from Boston University. In
addition, he has completed post-graduate
studies at Harvard University and Union
Theological Seminary.
Bishop Adams has received numerous
national awards and 12 honorary doctorates.
He was named one of the nation’s greatest
preachers in 1984 and 1994. He served
with honor and distinction as a trustee at the
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
Interdenominational Theological Center, the
Joint Center for Political Studies, the
Children’s Defense Fund’s Black Community
Crusade for Children and the Industrial Area
Foundation. He has served as board chair of
seven colleges and graduate schools.
The son of the Reverend and Mrs. E. A.
Adams of Columbia, South Carolina,
Bishop Adams is married to Dr. Dolly D.
Adams of New Orleans, Louisiana. They
reside in Atlanta, Georgia, and are the
proud parents of three daughters and the
doting grandparents of eight.
9
 ARTICLES FROM THE ELDERS JOHN HURST ADAMS
The objection to and the instant rejection of The Triple Tithe is that a
person does not have enough or make enough to survive on the
remaining 70 percent. Many make this excuse who ought not.
love motive with the justice means.
5. It is the way to self-definition, self-deter-
mination, self-development, and self-disci-
pline, which captures the A.M.E. gift to the
faith community.
6. It is a personal stewardship plan so that
we do all we can to ensure reasonable securi-
ty in our latter years when we can no longer
work.
The Triple Tithe at the level of Church life
helps us in many ways to live well and serve
well. Its litany of benefits allows us to:
1. Live theologically;
2. Live in obedience to the Bible;
3. Actualize personal discipline;
4. Defeat selfishness;
5. Realize spiritual formation;
6. Engage in right relationships with the
Creator and creation;
7. Participate in an orderly way of taking
care of what God has provided;
8. Refrain from wasteful lifestyles of
extravagance;
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
9. End gimmick financing; and
10. Enable stewardship of all life.
The objection to and the instant rejection
of The Triple Tithe is that a person does not
have enough or make enough to survive on
the remaining 70 percent. Many make this
excuse who ought not. They are able to do
The Triple Tithe. Those who really are unable
to immediately do The Triple Tithe are urged
to make it a goal to be achieved and to begin
a process of study, prayer, and discipline. This
enables you to start where you are, use what
you have better, and move orderly and sys-
10 tematically toward the goal of The Triple
Tithe. You begin by modifying your lifestyle.
The Personal Individual Triple Tithe is sug-
gested as follows. Give:
1. To God and the things of God through
the Church;
2. To the causes, movements, and other
institutions and organizations whose purpose
is to uplift persons; and
3. To allow yourself to live in dignity in
your later years and old age.
The distribution of the denominational
Church Triple Tithe is suggested as follows.
Give:
1. To the underdeveloped areas it serves
and the people in those areas, to help elimi-
nate poverty and disease, provide education,
and enable development;
2. To the international community in sup-
port of projects that seek peace, justice, and
respect for creation; and
3. To endow and give permanence to val-
ued, viable, and relevant ministries the
Church must do.
When you practice The Triple Tithe, God
will provide, protect, and prosper you in ways
you do not deserve and could never earn.
The Triple Tithe is sacred. It makes us obe-
dient to the Word of God, and it builds the
ability to respond to the needs of the people.
The Triple Tithe is serious. It rejects the
casual and inadequate stewardships of cheap
gimmicks and small gifts, moving us toward
quality commitment.
The Triple Tithe is smart. It is a system that
creates the capacity to cope with an increas-
ingly diverse and complex world.
The Triple Tithe is strong. It demands
 ARTICLES FROM THE ELDERS JOHN HURST ADAMS
discipline and sacrifice on our part so that we
can bring spiritual authority and governance
to our possessions and our decisions.
Finally, The Triple Tithe moves us step-by-
step to a new kind of stewardship of all our
resources under these principles:
1. We are never free if funded by someone
else.
2. We ought to spend on the basis of our
own philosophy and needs, not someone
else’s.
3. Our spending suggests that we are more
value-cheap than money-poor. We can do
better with what we have, what we do, and
what we spend.
4. We have an ethnic and ethical obligation
to help each other.
5. We should honor the ethnic label as
equally as we honor other labels.
6. We need to remember the creativity used
in our past survival when handling our
resources now. We must apply the lessons
learned in the wilderness when we get to the
Promised Land.
7. We must rebuild our ethnic self-esteem
and create environments of achievement
among our people, especially our youth.
8. We must intentionally re-circulate funds
within our community.
9. We can build ownership and production
capacity by collaborative and cooperative
approaches.
10. We are accountable not only to God but
also to those who support and empower us. |
NOTES
1. See Matthew 22:34-40.
2. Luke 10:27, paraphrased.
 A R T I C L E S F R O M T H E E L D E R S A N N E E . S T R E A T Y W I M B E R LY

Are You I f you could choose someone whom you say

has every reason to be happy, who would it
be? Why would you choose this person?
HAPPY? What is it that brings about happiness? What
is happiness?
In this article, we will enter into a prelimi-
ANNE E. STREATY nary Critique of Happiness through three
WIMBERLY
vignettes and questions for self reflection after
each vignette, followed by some additional
thoughts about happiness. Second, we will
consider the Character of Wise Happiness.

A CRITIQUE OF HAPPINESS
During this opening period, consider some of

ANNE E. STREATY WIMBERLY has

served as an educator for more than forty
years and in ministry for more than thirty
years. Her current position titles include:
Professor Emeritus of Christian Education
at the Interdenominational Theological
Center (ITC) in Atlanta, where she taught
for 16 years; Director, Lilly Endowment-
funded Youth Hope-Builders Academy;
Principal Investigator, Lilly Endowment-
funded Faith Journey: Partnership in
Parish Ministry Formation Program at
the Interdenominational Theological
Center in Atlanta; and Principal Investiga-
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

tor, Lilly Endowment-funded Vision Quest:

A Study of Efforts, Challenges, and Needs
of Youth Ministry Leaders in Black
Congregations.
She received her Bachelor of Science in
Education Degree from Ohio State
University, Columbus, Ohio. She earned a
Master of Music Degree from Boston
University School of Fine Arts, Boston
Massachusetts. Dr. Wimberly also obtained
a Graduate Certificate in Gerontology from
Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia.
She obtained her Ph.D. Degree in
12
 A R T I C L E S F R O M T H E E L D E R S A N N E E . S T R E A T Y W I M B E R LY
our personal thoughts about happiness in
light of what is contained in three vignettes
and the questions that follow.
VIGNETTE ONE Our opening vignette is from a
novel by J. California Cooper, a black female
author who is known for her vivid folkloric
storytelling. In her novel entitled In Search of
Satisfaction, Ms. Cooper tells of a family’s
longing for happiness.1 This longing is played
out by a freed slave named Josephus and in
the lives of main characters Carlene, Yinyang,
Ruth, and Joel. The search for happiness takes
place in a town called Yoville—a place that, in
Educational Leadership with a major in
Curriculum and Instruction, Cognate in
Social Gerontology from Georgia State
University, Atlanta, Georgia. She also did
Post-Doctoral Studies as Scholar-in-
Residence at the Institute for Religion and
Wholeness (now called The Clinebell
Institute) School of Theology at Claremont,
California. In 1993, she received her Master
of Theological Studies from Garrett-
Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston,
Illinois. The book Soul Stories: African
American Christian Education was the
Master’s Degree Project.
Dr. Wimberly has also served for more
than 18 years as an organist/choir director
and as Principal Guide of the development
and implementation of the Annual Youth
and Family Convocation at ITC with more
than 2,000 persons attending in 2005.
Dr. Wimberly has done gerontology
research through a grant from the Kendall
Fund of the General Board of Global
Ministries of the United Methodist Church;
she studied African American retirement
transitions and designed a retirement
transition program for Black clergy and
a previous era, had been an imposing and lux-
urious plantation. However, for the characters
in the story, money and well-being, security,
and comfort of life became fruits of greed; and
instead of experiencing the kind of happiness
they yearned, their very beings became mired
in pseudo-satisfaction or an empty happiness
and loneliness. At one point, Yinyang, who is
one of the daughters of Josephus, has a con-
versation with another character named
Hosanna about satisfaction as it relates to
life’s meaning. Hosanna tells Yinyang, “Girl,
life ain’t something you grab; life is something
you accept and make grow.” The story
their spouses. She also received a geron-
tology grant from the Administration on
Aging supported by the Morehouse
School of Medicine Multidisciplinary
Center for Gerontology Curriculum Project
for purposes of developing a core curricu-
lum in gerontology at ITC, which resulted
in the book Honoring African American
Elders: A Ministry in the Soul Community
(Jossey-Bass, 1997).
Dr. Wimberly has made more than one
hundred scholarly presentations in the past
15 years at schools, in countries outside
the United States, for denominational gath-
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
erings, and at programs for national organ-
izations. She has also served on numerous
boards and been a member of more than
15 professional organizations, including the
Religious Education Association, where
she was the second Black President in the
100-year history of the organization; the
Association of Professors and Researchers
in Religious Education, where she was the
first Black President; and Voices for
Georgia’s Children. She has received
numerous honors and awards for her pro-
fessional and community work.
13
 A R T I C L E S F R O M T H E E L D E R S A N N E E . S T R E A T Y W I M B E R LY
poignantly questions the meaning of happi-
ness and proposes that, in the end, you have
to “make your own happiness inside yourself,
and when you have enough to share, find
someone to share it with.” But, let’s think
about it: Is happiness something that we can
make happen all by ourselves? What does it
mean to share happiness if we get it?
VIGNETTE TWO The second vignette is from the
era of our slave forbears whose songs, called
spirituals, were said to express lament, resist-
ance, happiness, and hope in the midst of
deep hardship, unrelenting degradation, and
life-negating brutality. In one of these Black
heritage songs, our forbears entered into a
conversation or what musicologists identify
as “call and response.” In the spiritual, the
call was given: “Sit down, servant,” and the
response came: “I can’t sit down! My soul’s
so happy that I can’t sit down!” In this
instance, the inner happiness about which
they sang resulted simply from the hope they
had and the belief they tenaciously held in
the promise of God for a better life, if not
here on earth surely in the hereafter. But let’s
think about this instance in light of Cooper’s
novel. Novelist Cooper gives us a message
that we can make our own happiness. But
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
the spiritual, “Sit Down, Servant” conveys
the notion that happiness is something that
gets stirred up in the soul because of hope in
God. So, what do you think? Is happiness
something that can be stirred within us even
in rough times as the result of our standing
on the promises of God? Or is it just some-
thing you accept and make grow as
Hosanna said?
VIGNETTE THREE My third vignette comes from
Africa, where my husband and I go to visit at
least once every year. On one of these visits, we
14 visited friends at the Dangamvura East Circuit
in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. Their
church is built with roughly hewn boards at
the base of a mountain where water from an
exceedingly heavy rainy season poured down
in between these wooden walls and onto the
bumpy and uneven cement floor. Handmade
wooden benches seat the members of all ages
who come early enough to find a vacant space.
All others stand in doorways, in the aisles, and
outside the windows even in the rain to hear
the Word of God and to enter into prayer and
praise. Protection from the cold of winter and
the heat of summer is impossible. Yet they
worship there as though in a cathedral. A col-
lege-aged youth directs the intergenerational
choir and had led the group to win a country-
wide competition of church choirs. Outside
church, life is difficult. Food is in short supply,
and even if it were plentiful, there is no money
to buy it. Thirst is not always satisfied because
water is not always available. Electricity lights
homes and streets only for short periods. And
the dangers wrought by political upheaval
seem ever-present.
Yet, for so many in the midst of stark
Zimbabwean life, happiness seems so real
and is expressed exuberantly. When we asked
our friends the reason for their happiness,
their answers simply were: “Why should we
not be happy? We are alive! We are together.
God has given us yet another day and the
message, ‘Fambanyi wo majoni, a mwari
wedu imwi,’ which translated from the shona
language is ‘March on, you soldiers of our
God.’” So, in light of these Africans and their
outlook, how do we measure happiness?
What, indeed, makes happiness possible?
Can we choose it? What is to be done with
happiness when we have it? Is there a differ-
ence between happiness and joy?
In an article called “Road to Happiness,”
Mike Jones makes the point that even with
the heightened quality of life in this country,
 A R T I C L E S F R O M T H E E L D E R S A N N E E . S T R E A T Y W I M B E R LY
people are not happier. To the contrary, he
cites research showing that people today
are 10 times more likely to suffer from
depression compared to those two genera-
tions ago. He states, “Making enough
money to pay the bills doesn’t cut it.
Neither does intelligence, prestige, or sunny
weather.”2 Craig Lambert, in his article
“The Science of Happiness” in Harvard
Magazine, points to “an epidemic of
depression in every industrialized nation in
the world.”3 So, maybe happiness isn’t
what we think it is. So what is it? What
guides do we have for it? I have already
hinted that happiness may well be a way of
being in life that is hope-filled and that is
reckoned as being blessed by God. This
brings me to the second area for further
reflection: The Character of Happiness.
THE CHARACTER OF HAPPINESS
I want to offer several thoughts about the
character of happiness. First, happiness is
more than a state of simply feeling cheerful or
euphoric as the result of something wonder-
ful that has happened to us or by virtue of
what we have accomplished or received. It is
more than a pleasant emotion stemming
from a satisfying experience. From a
Christian perspective, the center of a deep
sense of happiness is our surety of and faith
in God’s for-us-ness and our fullest knowing
that nothing, absolutely nothing can separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.4
From this perspective, we experience and live
by something far deeper than lighthearted
cheerfulness. Our surety that God accepts us
and remains with us—in the midst of not
simply exhilarating moments, but horrifying
experiences and unparalleled tragedy—is
what can trigger a smile anyhow. This kind of
happiness is best understood as blessing.
Second, there is such a thing as “wise hap-
piness” or a kind of happiness that becomes
a state of being because of the wise choices
we make in life based on our unashamed
embrace of the Christian lifestyle and com-
mitment to talk the talk and walk the walk. I
also want to suggest that there is a kind of
happiness we may call “joy” that inhabits
and defines our very soul because of our rela-
tionship with God, the One who with joy cre-
ated us, and said “That’s good.”
But where may we find a guide for the kind
of “wise happiness” and “soulful joy” I’m
talking about? Aspects of it are surely imbed-
ded in the vignettes with which I began. But
we also discover profound guides to it in
Scripture. I want to call to mind one particu-
lar Scripture for us to continue our reflec-
tions. Think with me for a moment on the
first chapter in the book of Psalms.
Verses 1-3 say: “Happy (Blessed) are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in
the seat of the scoffers; but their delight is in
the law of the LORD, and on his law they
meditate day and night. They are like trees
planted by streams of water, which yield their
fruit in its season, and their leaves do not
whither. In all they do, they prosper.”5 These
verses give us a message about a certain kind
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
of existence. In this journey we call life, hap-
piness results from knowing that we are
doing right in our choice to avoid advice,
guidance, or pressure to act in ways that we
know are inconsistent with God’s desire for
wholeness—a healthy, sincere, and honest
relationship with God, with others, and with
God’s created world. In other words, true
happiness results from our courage—our
embrace of who and whose we are, our
standing up for all that confirms ourselves as
beautifully and wonderfully made by God,
and that promotes the highest good not just
for ourselves but for others. Is this easy? No! 15
 A R T I C L E S F R O M T H E E L D E R S A N N E E . S T R E A T Y W I M B E R LY

The temptations and challenges are out there! We have to have what is called a “teachable
But so is the love of God to restrain, teach, frame” that includes a reverence for Scripture
and guide us. and the insights and guidance found in it. We
Third, having the character of happiness have to be open to learn from the lives of per-
means that we act on the wisdom and calling sons who have chosen to hear the voice of
of God which is the calling to be our best God and to follow the footsteps of Jesus.
selves and to help others to be their best These exemplars of the faith past and present
selves—set on integrity, honesty, care for our are ones who invariably have been able to
bodies, the health and welfare of our whole find a way out of no way and to chart a new
selves, and respect and care for others. The way because of their relationship with God.
character of happiness extends to choosing to These exemplars also center their lives in
reach and achieve what will contribute to and service on behalf of others.
build up people and communities of promise, At the end of the day, what we want to
justice, and peace; choosing to be quick to emerge is not that we are called to a typical
affirm and encourage others to reach for the kind of happiness. Rather, the call is to a
same; and choosing to give service to those in transformed happiness—a movement away
need. When we have the character of happi- from an old view of happiness to a new more
ness, we experience satisfaction and joy by expansive and richer happiness. The old hap-
making these choices and acting on the basis piness comes from the notion that “I’m on
of our knowing our lives belong to God and the right track. I know where I’m going! I
that our futures are secured by God. know what I want to do! And I can do it
Fourth, we cannot be self-instructed, self- myself! I’m going to make my own happi-
directed and be happy or blessed by God. A ness!” Transformed happiness comes from
commentator of Psalm 1 said that people in our praise of God because we are valued cre-
this country find the view of delighting in and ations of God with gifts and graces given to
following the teaching of God unsettling us by God, and a future that surely unfolds
because the culture here in the U.S. “pro- with hope as we give back, lift up, build up,
motes as the highest virtue—autonomy. and shore up people and communities in
What generally marks maturity... is self-suffi- need and a world deserving of hope. |
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

ciency.”6 Our wanting or needing help,

whether from others or from God, is taken as NOTES
a sign of weakness or instability. The effect is 1. J. California Cooper, In Search of Satisfaction (New
to produce a society of isolated selves. The York: Anchor Books), 1995.
2. Mike Jones, “Road to Happiness,” http://answers-
commentator describes the “wickedness” to forme.org/article.php?id=780&search=road%20to%20h
which the Psalm refers as persons’ self-right- appiness (accessed October 20, 2008).
eousness or of believing and saying: “I don’t 3. Craig Lambert, “The Science of Happiness,” Harvard
need any help. I’m doing all right by Magazine (January–February 2007); also available online
at http://harvardmagazine.com/2007/01/the-science-
myself.”7 Or, as in the words of the character of-happiness.html (accessed October 19, 2008).
in the story of the folk in Yoville, “You have 4. See Romans 8:38-39.
to make your own happiness.” If we fail to 5. Psalm 1:1-3, NRSV.
6. J. Clinton McCann Jr., “The Book of Psalms,” The New
trust God and to make connections with God
Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IV (Nashville: Abingdon Press),
as the Source of life, our happiness is a false 2003, 687.
16 and illusive happiness. 7. Ibid.
 S E R M O N S F R O M T H E E L D E R S A U D R E Y F. B R O N S O N

Can Any John 1:43-46, NKJV

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee.
He found Philip and said to him, “Follow
Good Thing me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the
city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found
Come Out of Nathanael and said to him, “We have found
him about whom Moses in the law and also

NAZARETH? the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from

Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can
anything good come out of Nazareth?”
AUDREY F. BRONSON Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

A t this time, Jesus was beginning to

assemble a group of men who would

AUDREY F. BRONSON, consecrated

bishop, is the pastor of the Sanctuary
Church of the Open Door in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. She began preaching at
age 14, and after many years of serving
as an evangelist, she was led to establish
the Sanctuary Church of the Open Door in
1975. Under her leadership, the church
has grown extensively. She also founded
the Sanctuary Christian Academy in 1978,
a private academic school for children pre-
school through fifth grade. The church
also operates a counseling and referral
center and the Sanctuary Bible Institute.
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

Bishop Bronson believes in serving the

community, and the doors of the
Sanctuary Church are open seven days a
week to minister to those in need of spir-
itual and physical help. Bishop Bronson
tries to pattern her life after Christ and two
historical heroines, Harriet Tubman and
Mary McLeod Bethune.
Bishop Bronson is a native of Florida,
hailing from a family of ministers and
educators. Her father, Reverend Dr. Uriah
Bronson, was a pastor in Florida and the
principal of several schools. Her mother
18
 S E R M O N S F R O M T H E E L D E R S A U D R E Y F. B R O N S O N
become his disciples. Everything was going
fine. He got Andrew. No problem. Andrew
found Peter. No problem. Philip came. No
problem. But things hit a snag when Philip
tried to convince Nathanael. When
Nathanael heard that Jesus was from
Nazareth, he got an attitude saying, “Can
any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
When you are introduced to people or
when you apply for a job, one of the first
things they want to know is: Where do you
live? What city or neighborhood do you
come from? Certain neighborhoods and
cities have reputations. In other words, peo-
and stepmother were both teachers. Her
brother, Dr. Oswald Bronson, is a United
Methodist Minister and recently retired
president of Bethune-Cookman College in
Daytona Beach, Florida, and Edward
Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida.
Bishop Bronson received a Bachelor of
Science degree in elementary education
from Cheyney University and a Master’s
Degree in psychology from Howard
University, where she was also a Ph.D. can-
didate in Psychology. She earned a Doctor of
Ministry degree from New York Theological
Seminary and holds an honorary degree
from Bethune-Cookman College.
Dr. Bronson was an associate professor
of psychology for 17 years at Cheyney
University. She also served as dean of the
Philadelphia Urban Education Institute, a
subsidiary of the African American
Interdenominational Ministries, Inc. (AAIM,
Inc.) of Philadelphia. She has served on the
boards of One Church, One Child as state
secretary. This national organization exists
to encourage churches to adopt African
American children. She was a member of
the Transition Team for the current mayor
ple base their opinion of you on where you
are from.
Let’s take a look at Nazareth, the place that
Jesus came from. Nazareth was utterly
insignificant. There is no mention of this town
in the Old Testament, the Talmud, or the
Midrash literature or even in any pagan writ-
ings. It was akin to Jesus’ birth in a stable. It
was a most unlikely place for royalty. It was a
ghetto. It wasn’t a place where anyone
thought a Messiah would be born. No won-
der then that Nathanael would ask, “Can any
good thing come out of Nazareth?” But Jesus
did come out of Nazareth. The folk from
of Philadelphia and was for two years a
member the Executive Committee of the
Association of Theological Schools.
Currently she serves on the board of the
Philadelphia Development Corporation and
is the 2nd Vice President of the Black
Clergy of Philadelphia. She was briefly the
host of the television program, “Dialogue.”
Her picture and bio were displayed at the
Afro-American Museum of Philadelphia as
one of the women who has made a contri-
bution to Philadelphia in the area of reli-
gion. She is also listed in the book
Philadelphia Leaders, 1991, Who’s Who in
the Delaware Valley and is a member of
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
the Heritage Registry Who’s Who for
2005–2006. Bishop Bronson appeared in
The African American Pulpit’s “Those
Preaching Women” issue and in Gospel
Today magazine as one of 2005’s most
loved pastors. She recently received the
Ruth B. Hayre Award for commitment to
and excellence in education.
In 1994, she was consecrated to the
office of Bishop, and she now presides
over many churches in the International
Fellowship of Churches, Inc.
19
 S E R M O N S F R O M T H E E L D E R S A U D R E Y F. B R O N S O N

Some thought that nothing good

could come out of Nazareth, but there are
those who don’t know a good thing when they see it.

Nazareth knew him; they saw him grow up, asked, “Who art thou Lord?” Jesus
and he remained in Nazareth until he was answered, “I am Jesus from Nazareth.”3 In
grown and left to begin his public ministry. other words, the boy from Tarsus had to bow
The people of Nazareth were in darkness, to the boy from Nazareth. That lets me know
and they could not see that their hometown that wherever Jesus is is the best place to be.
boy was someone special. They tried to He can take a nothing place and make some-
harm him; they were jealous. It is to be thing of it.
noted that the demons knew who Jesus was, I’d like to think about Nazareth this way.
but the people in his hometown did not. A Nazareth is on the left side of God; the left
prophet is not without honor save in his side of the world. When Job was in contem-
own country.1 plation about his search for God, he said he
Where you come from is not important. It went forward, but he could not find God.
is where you are going that is important. You But, then he looked to the left hand where
see, Nazareth did not make Jesus; Jesus put God doth work.4 I see Nazareth as a place
Nazareth on the map. There are 25 to 30 ref- on the left side, a place where we would not
erences in Scripture where our Lord is expect God to do anything extraordinary.
referred to as Jesus of Nazareth. This lets me Some folks refer to the left side as the “other
know that you can be from the slums and in hand.” No one wants to be left out left
the slums, but the slums don’t have to be in alone or left back. Everyone wants to be in
you. You can put your birthplace on the map the right—in your right mind, in the right
for the right reasons. place at the right time, and ceremoniously
At this point, I want to say a little bit about seated at the banquet table on the right hand
Jesus and the Apostle Paul. Paul was from of the host or hostess. The right hand is the
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

Tarsus, the capital city of Cilicia.2 Paul would hand of protocol. As a matter of fact, there
let you know where he was from. He was are more than 100 biblical references to the
proud of his hometown. Tarsus was right hand but only 10 or fewer references
renowned as a place of education. It had an to the left hand. Yes. The left side is the
important university and literary circles that minority side, the remnant, the remainder,
were world class. It was cultured and proud the residue, and even the refuse side.
of its Greekness. Greeks were also proud of In Continental Europe when they con-
their philosophers. It was prosperous and an vene the Parliament, they put the status quo
important trading place. It gathered a colony (the Conservatives and Traditionalists) on
of Jews that grew and prospered; it was the right side the Speaker of the House. On
indeed a city of considerable consequence. the left is the group called the Left
Paul was one of those Jews. But upon his Wingers—the bleeding heart liberals, the
encounter with Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus of a radicals, the over-turners, and the so-called
20 ghetto, Jesus from an insignificant place, Paul hell-raisers. When the folk on the right
 S E R M O N S F R O M T H E E L D E R S A U D R E Y F. B R O N S O N
speak everyone falls asleep. They know
what they are going to say—the same old
thing, the status quo line. But when those
on the left speak—Patrick Henry, Martin
Luther of Germany, Martin Luther King Jr.
of Alabama—the House gets uneasy, for
they know that anything is coming but the
status quo. And this is where God does his
best work; the left side is the side of change.
The people in the synagogue at Nazareth
got uneasy when Jesus stood up and said,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to
the poor; he hath sent me to heal the bro-
kenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, and recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”5
See, Jesus came into the world through the
back door, on the left side of society, and
allowed himself to be born in a manger, the
only place left in town. Throughout his min-
istry, he identified with the weakest side of
society—the left down, the left out, and the
left behind. He knew that sometimes folk
are like King David, going up against the
giants of a society with only five small
stones and the power of Jehovah as the
force behind their slingshot. Jesus knew that
the left side was the unpredictable side
where God works.
Some thought that nothing good could
come out of Nazareth, but there are those
who don’t know a good thing when they
see it; and then some do. There was a
woman lost in the crowd, a woman with
an issue of blood, a woman with the odds
against her after 12 years of sickness. She
touched the hem of his garment, and Jesus
said, “Somebody touched me.”6 Right
away the fountain of her blood dried up.
With her healing, the fountain of all
women excluded from the temple dried up.
The one called the weaker vessel became
the willing vessel. A Mary McLeod
Bethune, a Mother Teresa, a Harriet
Tubman were all set free by the only one
who matters. The left-outs were put in
their rightful place by the hand of God that
works on the left side.
Let me conclude by telling you what is
happening in another Nazareth—the
Nazareth that is in the part of Philadelphia
where I live. When we move in, other folks
move out; then they call where we live a
ghetto. When we move in, city services to
Nazareth go down. Unemployment goes
up, which leads to houses getting boarded
up and drugs being sold for income and to
dull the pain.
Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?
Businesses close down. High-interest-rate-
charging check cashing places replace banks.
They have written us off.
Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
Everyone has left this Nazareth ‘hood but
the Church. The Church is still there and
that means that Jesus is still there. He’s still
feeding entire soup lines with just two little
fish and fives loaves of bread. He’s still there
making a way out of no way. He’s still there
building up the torn down—torn down
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
neighborhoods and town down lives. He is
making cathedrals out of storefronts. He is
giving hope to the hopeless. He is raising up
the let down, bringing in the left out, and
making something beautiful out of their left-
over lives. Something good can still come out
of Nazareth! |
NOTES
1. See Matthew 13:57.
2. See Acts 21:39.
3. See Acts 22:8, KJV.
4. See Job 23:8-9.
5. Luke 4:18-19, KJV.
6. Luke 8:45, paraphrased. 21
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS HAROLD A CARTER SR.

The POWER azine with the title, “Jesus Has an Identity

Crisis.” The article explained the fact that in
the contemporary mind of many in the
Is in Canadian world, Jesus is seen as “Company
Man,” “Regular Guy,” “Vengeful Prophet,”
His Name “Street Preacher,” “Revolutionary,” “Rabbi,”
and “Son of God.”
I read this article with great interest and
HAROLD A. CARTER SR.
reflected on how difficult it is for people to
come to the faith knowledge that Jesus is,
indeed, the Christ, the Son of the living God.
In the three years Jesus spent in his ministry
Matthew 16:15, NRSV here on earth, the Gospels reveal that one of
He said to them, “But who do you say that Jesus’ most difficult works was that of lead-
I am?” ing men and women to know that he was the
Christ, the Word of God made flesh.

T his past Easter 2008, McLean’s Magazine,

a weekly and international news maga-
zine of Canada, ran a leading story in its mag-
Some people thought of Jesus in demonis-
tic ways, calling him the “Chief of
Beelzebub.” Others wanted him to be a rev-

HAROLD A. CARTER SR. has been pas-

tor of the New Shiloh Baptist Church,
Baltimore, Maryland for over 43 years. He
was married for 48 loving years to the
late Dr. Weptanomah W. Carter. From this
union a daughter and a son were born,
Weptanomah Carter Davis, wife of a pas-
tor, and Harold A. Carter Jr., who serves
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

as pastor of New Shiloh Baptist Church

with his father.
In May 1990, Dr. Carter led New Shiloh
into a modern church and family life facil-
ity. The building complex, costing more
than $16,000,000, has been paid in full,
and the church is presently developing a
three-block complex known as The New
Shiloh Village Center. Dilapidated facto-
ries and other blighted buildings have
been moved, and now a Child Develop-
ment Center is in operation, along with
modern parking facilities. In May of 2007,
22
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS HAROLD A CARTER SR.
olutionary, a kind of zealot who would lead
a campaign against the Roman occupiers of
the land and restore absolute freedom to the
Jewish nation. Some thought Jesus was one
of the reincarnated prophets of Old
Testament times, such as Jeremiah or Elijah.
Consider also that several hundred of years
after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead,
leading thinkers of the Church held councils
to try to determine who he is. Eventually, in
the Council of Nicea, 325 A.D., it was agreed
that Jesus was indeed “fully God and fully
man!” Still in the year 2008, the question of
who Jesus really is continues to rise up in so
many instances to destroy the power of the
Church, for if the head be lost, then the body
will falter.
The question Jesus asked his disciples,
“But whom say ye that I am?” is a question
an ultra-modern 80-unit housing complex
known as the New Shiloh Village Senior
Living building opened its doors to serve
the community’s need for affordable hous-
ing for its senior citizens.
Dr. Carter has led evangelistic ministries
across America and many foreign coun-
tries. On numerous occasions, he has
preached Men’s Rallies for the Promise
Keepers Ministries.
Dr. Carter’s first book, The Prayer
Tradition of Black People, continues to be
a standard work for those studying the
spirituality of Blacks. A more recent work,
Building Disciples in the Local Church, is
used widely by ministries seeking Christian
renewal. His book America, Where Are
You Going? has proven to be a prophetic
call to our nation, so richly blessed by the
Christian faith and often ignoring its pre-
cepts in contemporary life.
whose answer has the power of life or death.
Jesus had already called and commissioned
his disciples into this new ministry. He had
already taught them that the kingdom of
God is at hand: “A new order is here where
every man and every woman can now
become a member of the family of God.
Everyone who believes in me can now have
fellowship with God and know for a fact
that God is one’s Abba Father.”
Through signs and wonders, Jesus had
made clear that he was more than a
“Company Man” opening up corporate
doors so that people could arrive at the good
life. He was not some “Vengeful Prophet”
seeking to exact justice based upon military
might or the power of a sword. Jesus came in
love, served people in love, and declared the
reality of the kingdom of God in love.
New Shiloh Church operates a School of
Music, training students in all types of
musical disciplines. The church is also the
founding force for the Determined Biblical
and Theological Institute of Baltimore,
Maryland, founded in June 1996 and open
to all students.
More than one hundred preachers have
been called and licensed under the pas-
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
toral leadership of Dr. Carter at New Shiloh
(1965–present), with more than 40 such
persons having gone on to serve various
congregations.
Dr. Carter has earned two doctorate
degrees: a Ph.D. from St. Mary’s Ecumeni-
cal University, Baltimore, Maryland, and
Colgate Rochester Divinity School/Bexley
Hall/Crozier Theological Seminary, Roch-
ester, New York. Dr. Carter continues to be
guided by the theme “Determined to Live
with Christ.”
23
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS HAROLD A CARTER SR.
Therefore, as any good professor would do
to one’s students, Jesus asked his disciples,
“Whom do you say that I am?
“You have seen me turn water into wine.
You have seen me cast wicked spirits out of
the lives of people. You have seen me feed the
multitude with a few fish and biscuits. You
have seen me still stormy seas and calm rag-
ing winds. You have seen me work to break
down customs and traditions that locked
many out of the temple and held many down
because of their race or social status. I have
preached and worked that all the people
might be one. So I ask you, Whom do you
say that I am?”
Your current answer to this question will
reveal three of the essential ministries of the
faith. Your answer will carry the essence of
what Jesus is calling you to do, provided your
answer is grounded in faith. By faith, I mean
your ability to open up to the Spirit of God
and see the new work that is unfolding in
your midst. It is your ability to open up to the
Spirit of God and see the one God has sent to
make this kingdom of God known, not sim-
ply today, but even unto the end of the age.
The moment we declare that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the
world, we enter into the ministry of procla-
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
mation. Jesus came proclaiming. Jesus came
preaching the good news of the kingdom of
God. It was the good news that a people in
sinful bondage could now be made free by
the faith to trust Jesus as Savior and Lord of
one’s life. The burden of sin could now be lift-
ed. The miracle of forgiveness was available
through the name of Jesus whose grace
would indeed set the captives free.
Consider that the early church came out of
its infancy in Jerusalem with nothing but the
proclamation of a witness in his name. The
Roman government in her imperial might
24 was there seeking to stop the onward march
of this new community. The Roman govern-
ment would tolerate no religious assembly
that threatened to eclipse the sole authority of
Caesar. Yet, these new believers had a mes-
sage of faith, based upon the life, death, and
resurrection of one who had been crucified
on Calvary but was now alive in glory and
praise. Rome had its edicts from Caesar to
stop and destroy this new movement.
Amazingly, the imperial power of Rome
could not stop the proclamation of believers
nor could the wild beasts sent to ravage their
bodies keep them from declaring that Jesus
Christ is Lord.
This powerful communal faith had three
aspects that the church of today would do
well to revisit and put into practice. First,
each believer knew that he or she was called
to be an active witness for Christ. It was
part of the essence of being a Christian. One
did not have to go to a workshop to be a
witness. The fact that one had been forgiv-
en of one’s sin and guilt and made new by
the grace of Christ was reason enough to be
a witness. Second, each believer became a
minister of the faith, exercising one’s gifts
with courage and power. The book of Acts
tells us how the early church disciples went
everywhere as workers, evangelists, teach-
ers, and preachers doing the work of the
church. Some even made use of their homes
as places for worship in the growing of the
church. Third, the Gospel gave to each
believer a deep purpose for living. It was the
power that fueled one’s life of faith so that
sufferings of one type or another could not
and would not stop the work God had
begun in one’s life.
On August 4, 2008, I flew from Baltimore
to Dallas early in the morning to be in atten-
dance at the funeral for Dr. C. A. W. Clark.
Dr. Clark, 93 years of age, a preacher, pastor,
revivalist, was known near and far as one of
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS HAROLD A CARTER SR.
The question of who Jesus really is continues to rise up
in so many instances to destroy the power of the Church,
for if the head be lost, then the body will falter.
the best revival preachers to mount the pul-
pit, particularly in the African American
Church. I had personally come to know Dr.
Clark very well, preaching in his church on
numerous occasions and hearing him in one
of the many yearly revivals he did at the Vine
Memorial Baptist Church in Philadelphia.
Dr. William Shaw, eulogist for the funeral,
spoke about a sermon Dr. Clark had
preached after a period of preaching the
Gospel for 50 years. The sermon, “After 50
Years, What Shall I Preach?” found Dr. Clark
declaring, “I will preach with even more
power that Jesus is Prophet, Priest, and
King!” The long years of preaching in the life
of this preacher of the Gospel only served to
deepen his zeal to proclaim all the more that
Jesus Christ is Lord!
I know the church of God today has an
identify crisis, not only in Canada, but
America, too. No wonder we are not seeing
great revival in the land. No wonder we are
not seeing powerful signs and wonders.
When we have lost the true sense of who
Jesus really is, we end up with a religious soci-
ety and not an “army of the Lord!” The fact
of the matter is that no one can come to
know Jesus in the flesh. The faith that Jesus
brings to us is spiritual and is grounded in the
will of God.
Peter, a disciple of Jesus Christ, was
absolutely correct when he declared to Jesus,
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God.” In giving this answer, Peter moved
from information to revelation. Jesus
declared that the word Peter spoke had been
given to him by the Father. This is what
Pentecostal power is all about. This power
always comes upon us to make us know who
Jesus really is. Yes, in the name of Jesus we
not only receive proclamation power, we also
receive Pentecostal power!
Jesus taught his disciples when he sent
them out to do mission work to depend
upon the Pentecostal power of God’s Spirit.
“Do not worry about mundane things of life
such as styles, popularity of speech or even
the social rank of the people you serve. I
want you to go out in my name depending
upon my presence to give you the power you
will need.”1
Jesus is more than the identities we give
him. He is more than some “Regular Guy”
whom we can speak to and do our own thing
in front of while having no sense of awe or
praise. The church, in many instances, has
become too secular, too void of the sense of
holiness. The fear of the Lord is still the begin-
ning of wisdom.2 This will never happen so
long as we make Jesus a “Regular Guy.” It
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
will never happen so long as we make Jesus
our “Company Man,” to worldly success and
material possessions. Our Lord’s kingdom,
contrary to popular trends, is not made up of
eating and drinking or dollars and cents. Of
course we need financial resources to do the
work of our Lord, but those financial
resources do not constitute the altar of our
faith. Our faith has been purchased for us
without silver and without gold. Therefore,
the help we need in the ministry of our Lord
is the presence and the power of God’s Holy
Spirit. Jesus said in the 15th chapter of John
and the 26th verse these words: 25
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS HAROLD A CARTER SR.

“But when the Comforter is come, proclamation! He is our Pentecost! He is also

whom I will send unto you from the our prophecy that gives divine authority to
Father, even the Spirit of truth, which our lives.
proceedeth from the Father, he shall Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy in that
testify of me: And ye also shall bear he completes, in his own person, all the hopes
witness, because ye have been with and all the dreams of the people of faith. This
me from the beginning.”3 is why Jesus could declare when he founded
the church that “The gates of hell would
Jesus specifically told his disciples that never prevail against.”6
divine assistance would be needed for believ- The Word tells us in Revelation 13:8 that
ers to know who he really is. “The the one who died on Calvary’s cross was, in
Comforter, the Holy Spirit of truth, will be fact, “Slain from the foundation of the
sent to you by the Father. He will cause my world.” Calvary was no accident of fate.
Word to come alive in you with understand- Calvary was the culmination of God’s great
ing and with power. He will make clear to love for his people, already in the nature and
you exactly who I am. You will be led to mind of God long before Adam and Eve
know that I am the Son of God, I am the broke covenant with God in the garden
Redeemer of life, I am the one who makes of called Eden. The one called Jesus is therefore
many people a holy community of love. I am the Word of God made flesh. He is the one
the exalted power that you will need to lift who has openly shown us the way back to
me up so that the world might know just God by humbling himself and becoming obe-
who I am.” dient unto death, even death on a cross.
It was this power, I repeat, this power of Therefore, God also has highly exalted him
God’s presence working in one’s life that led and given to him a name which is above all
Peter to declare, “Oh Lord, thou art the Christ, other names.7 At the name of Jesus,
the Son of the living God!”4 This is the mighty Philippians 2:10-11 tells us, every knee
affirmation of faith needed in the Church should bow and every tongue should confess
today. We need more than friendship sermons that Jesus Christ is Lord.
designed to motivate behavior and give some This is the power and the assurance we
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

sense of well being. We need transforming have when we proclaim his name! This is the
messages that will move us into the new life of Pentecost we have to know that his Word
faith we have in Jesus Christ our Lord. will never return void. This is the prophecy
The enemy of our faith wants to hide this we build our faith upon: “Jesus Christ, the
face of Jesus under a culture of selfishness and same yesterday, today, and forever.”8 Amen
secular powers. But, alas, the Gospel is not and Amen! |
about us. It is about the one who suffered and
died for our transgressions and now lives for NOTES
1. See Matthew 10.
our righteousness and power. Hear him as he 2. See Proverbs 9:10.
declares, “And I, if I be lifted up from the 3. John 15:26-27, KJV.
earth, will draw all men unto me.”5 Yes, it is 4. Matthew 16:16, paraphrased.
5. John 12:32, KJV.
about him who saved us, who raised us, and
6. See Matthew 16:18.
called us out of death into eternal life. Who 7. See Philippians 2:8-9.
26 would not serve a God like this? He is our 8. Hebrews 13:8.
 S E R M O N S F R O M T H E E L D E R S W I L L I A M P. D E V E A U X
The Road to
JERUSALEM
WILLIAM P. DEVEAUX
John 12:12-13, NRSV
The next day the great crowd that had come
to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to
Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm
trees and went out to meet him, shouting,
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
28
“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in
the name of the Lord—the King of Israel!”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18a, NRSV
So we do not lose heart. Even though our
outer nature is wasting away, our inner
nature is being renewed day by day. For this
slight momentary affliction is preparing us
for an eternal weight of glory beyond all
measure, because we look not at what can be
seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can
be seen is temporary.
Philippians 2:9-11, NRSV
Therefore God also highly exalted him and
gave him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee
WILLIAM P. DEVEAUX was born to
Chaplain John and Della DeVeaux in Fort
Huachuca, Arizona. The youngest of
three children, he spent his elementary
and high school years living on army
posts in Maryland, Kansas, and Colorado,
and in Germany. Upon graduation from
high school, he entered Howard
University. An active student, he was
elected junior and senior class president
and Basileus of Omega Psi Phi Frater-
nity. While a student at Howard, he
answered the call to ordained ministry.
Following in his father’s footsteps, he
served in the United States Army as a
chaplain. In the midst of enemy fire, he
brought comfort and solace to troops in
combat during the Vietnam conflict.
In addition to a bachelor’s degree from
Howard University, Bishop DeVeaux
attained a Bachelor’s degree in Sacred
Theology from Boston University as well as
a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy
 S E R M O N S F R O M T H E E L D E R S W I L L I A M P. D E V E A U X
should bend, in heaven and on earth and
under the earth, and every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.
N ow let me just frankly admit at the out-
set that I have a few problems with
Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday comes at the
beginning of a disastrous week in the life of
the Master. We know what the end shall be,
and thanks be to God, we also know that the
final victory is coming, but it’s a joy that
jumps up in the midst of tragedy. It’s an
insert. It’s a pleasant interlude in a terrible,
terrible time.
You see, Jesus had been at Bethany, he
had raised Lazarus, and he had drawn a
from Vanderbilt University. He has served on
the faculties of Meharry Medical College,
Princeton Theological Seminary, and
Howard University School of Divinity.
In the field of theological education,
Bishop DeVeaux is recognized for his
achievements as the Executive Director
of the Fund for Theological Education
Inc. During his tenure, scholarships to
Black, Hispanic, and North American stu-
dents were granted to support their theo-
logical educations.
His career as a minister in the African
Methodist Episcopal Church includes pas-
torates at Bethel A.M.E. Church in Lynn,
Massachusetts; St. John A.M.E. Church in
Nashville, Tennessee; Wayman A.M.E.
Church in Dayton, Ohio; and Metropolitan
A.M.E. Church in Washington, D.C. He
served at Metropolitan from 1986 until his
election to the office of Bishop. Using his
personal leadership style, academic expert-
ise, and diverse ministerial experience,
crowd. Any time you perform a miracle,
any time somebody gets up from the dead,
somebody will follow you. They may not
be following you for the right reason. They
just knew that it was amazing that Lazarus
was dead four days in the grave, and he got
up because a Nazarene prophet named
Jesus said, “Come forth.”
And so they followed him and made a big
hoopla. For some reason this disturbs me just
a little bit, and I’m going to ask God when I
get to heaven to explain a lot of things. I’m
going to ask God some key questions when I
make it. I didn’t say if I make it; I said when
I make it. What I’m going to ask him is:
Exactly what were you about? You knew
your Son was going to die and suffer. Why
Bishop DeVeaux energized the member-
ship of Metropolitan into active participation
in community outreach efforts.
On July 2, 1996, the Reverend William
P. DeVeaux was consecrated as the 113th
Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal
Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and was
assigned to Southern Africa, where he
lived and served for four years. He also
served as the presiding bishop of the 16th
Episcopal District of the A.M.E. Church,
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
which includes the following conferences:
Guyana/Suriname, Windward Islands,
Virgin Islands, Dominican Re-public, Haiti,
Jamaica, and London/ Holland. He is cur-
rently the presiding bishop of the Sixth
Episcopal District, the state of Georgia.
Bishop DeVeaux and Dr. Pam DeVeaux
have six children, a host of sons and daugh-
ters in the Gospel, and 14 grandchildren.
Bishop DeVeaux remains steadfast in his
belief that he can best serve Jesus by
“ordering his steps in the Lord.”
29
 S E R M O N S F R O M T H E E L D E R S W I L L I A M P. D E V E A U X

You knew your Son was going to die and suffer. Why did you have
the parade? Perhaps God will answer, “I had the parade because
even in the midst of sorrow, we can’t lose our joy.”

did you have the parade? Perhaps God will said, “But be of good cheer. Do not lose heart.
answer, “I had the parade because even in the You will be renewed.” So in some sense, Palm
midst of sorrow, we can’t lose our joy. Sunday is a cipher, a sign, a foretaste, a har-
Anybody who’s on the road anywhere knows binger of a new beginning for us in Christ
it’s not going to be a perfect situation. So, I Jesus. It’s a sign that you can shout anyhow!
insert things,” God says, “into your life. Now So what we’re saying on Palm Sunday is
don’t miss your blessing. Don’t be too wor- you might as well sing now. You know Good
ried about how you’re going to get out of Friday is coming. You know the crucifixion is
Florida A&M or how you’re gonna get a job coming, but start the music now. Sing in
or how you’re gonna find a husband or how anticipation of the victory. Sing now.
you’re gonna find a wife. Don’t get so bur- So on Palm Sunday, I wish everybody there
dened down you can’t have some joy every understood exactly what Jesus was doing, but
now and then.” So he creates interludes. He that would be asking too much. I don’t under-
intervenes. He inserts himself into our lives. stand what Jesus was doing, either. Two thou-
Now Jesus knew what was going on in sand years later, you ask me to explain in sim-
Jerusalem. As a matter of fact, the disciples ple terms how blood shed 2,000 years ago still
had said, “Don’t go.” It’s a marvelous thing; has efficacy for me today.
you go back and read those stories. It was You ask me to explain in common lan-
Thomas the Doubter who says, “I know you guage how a man can get up out of a tomb
shouldn’t go, but I will go with you!” without the help of a human force—perhaps
Jesus said, “I’m going to Jerusalem. I’m going an angel—and just walk around. Ask me
to face my fate because if I don’t go there, if I’m how he can walk through doors and
not crucified and resurrected, there’ll be no Mt. acknowledge himself; tell me how you do it?
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

Zion in Tallahassee or anyplace else. I have to Scientists can’t do it. It’s a leap of faith.
go and die.” He knew what was waiting, but So the fact that the people didn’t fully
he said, “Let’s have a celebration, anyhow.” understand Jesus can be understood. But let’s
But I want to argue today that on the road celebrate anyhow because the celebration is
from Bethany to Jerusalem and beyond, Jesus what gives me the strength to go through the
went through a lot. We see it as the Gospel dark times.
writers say it and as Paul tells about it that If you’re a parent—I’ve got a bunch of
they put palm branches down. But then Paul children and 14 grandchildren—whatever
tells us, over in 2 Corinthians, the day will they do right, you go ahead and celebrate
come when they won’t be as happy to see you right then! If they get it right, just celebrate it
as they are now. There’ll be some ups and because you are going to have some days
downs, and they’ll beat you up. when they’ll break your heart—just like you
The Pharisees were already out to kill Jesus broke your mother and father’s heart when
30 when he was on his way to Jerusalem. Jesus you didn’t quite get it right. Celebrate right
 S E R M O N S F R O M T H E E L D E R S W I L L I A M P. D E V E A U X
In some sense, Palm Sunday is a cipher, a sign, a foretaste,
a harbinger of a new beginning for us in Christ Jesus.
It’s a sign that you can shout anyhow!
then. If they do something right, say thank
you right then. Build up gratitude so that you
have a trust fund of gratitude when you have
to fuss at them a little later on. Do not miss
the blessing!
In your church, don’t wait until it’s time to
complain about what didn’t happen. When it
is right, when the service is right, when the
preacher’s done his job, when the choir’s been
singing well—say it right then. Rejoice and
celebrate and don’t wait in anticipation for
the other shoe to drop.
Some of us live our lives looking beyond a
few days ahead of us for what might happen.
We’re cynical. We’re jaded. We say, “Well,
ain’t nothing good gonna happen,” and “It’s
hard, with all the bad news in this world, to
celebrate.” It is hard. Got men and women in
Iraq who ought not be there, been there too
long, should have been home a long time ago,
and we’re still talking about surges—but the
same word comes to us that came to Job:
“You are going through something now, but
where were you at the beginning of time?”1
The timetable of God is an eternity: “I will fix
it when the time is right.” So when you get an
opportunity, just celebrate.
So I come to church on Palm Sunday to
sing, “O’er all the way, green palms and blos-
soms gay are strewn this day in festal prepa-
ration.”2 I know in a few days ya’ll gonna
curse him and condemn him and scream out
you’d rather have Barabbas, a ne’re-do-well
thief and murderer, but I’m going to celebrate
anyhow because I know what the end will be.
The Apostle Paul, who had such bad news
to bring from time to time, he said, “I’ve been
down myself. First of all, the folk in
Jerusalem don’t understand me. They talked
about me like a dog. They said I didn’t know
Jesus face-to-face. They said you ought not
have people become Christians who aren’t
circumcised. They talked about me, and they
said I persecuted the Church. And anyway,
I’m sick. I’ve got something to complain
about. I’ve got this thorn in the flesh, and I
don’t seem to ever get totally well.”
But do you have anything happy to say? Yes,
we do! This same Jesus, whom they put in the
tomb, this same Jesus whom they pushed
around and beat, this same Jesus whom they
traded for Barabbas—you know what hap-
pened? Now he’s highly exalted! And at his
name, every knee shall bow and every tongue
confess. If I can celebrate on Palm Sunday with
Good Friday looking me in the face, you know
I can celebrate now. He’s been exalted. He’s
high and lifted up. He allows me to sing,
“Jesus! the name high over all in hell or earth
or sky.”3 He’s somebody special.
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
And so we’re on the road to Jerusalem,
and we know the heartaches and the pain.
Have you ever been going somewhere, and
you’ve been disappointed? Your friends left
you? Somebody betrayed you? Somebody
lied to you?
Can you imagine Jesus looking around for
the whole crowd—that crowd that said, “I’ll
go with you.” “Where’s Peter? He said he’d
be here. Where are the sons of Zebedee?
They’re the twin sons of thunder. I can’t find
anybody but John, and he’s just here to help
my mother. I’ve been disappointed and neg-
lected, but I’m going on anyhow.” 31
 S E R M O N S F R O M T H E E L D E R S W I L L I A M P. D E V E A U X

The road to Jerusalem runs through Palm that you’ve got to be sprinkled or you’ve got
Sunday, but it also runs through Good to take communion in a certain way or
Friday. It runs through suffering and pain. It you’ve got to speak in tongues or you’ve got
runs through disappointment. It runs to give evidence to having gifts of the Spirit—
through neglect. It runs through despair. It or whatever—you just tell them if you believe
runs through depression. But I came by here that the Lord Jesus Christ is raised from the
to tell you that it doesn’t end there. There is dead, you shall be saved.5 God so loved the
joy unspeakable on the other side. There is world that he sent him into the world that
glory coming. whosoever believes in him shall not perish
It used to be that I had to tell other people’s but have everlasting life.6
stories, but I’ve lived long enough to have my The lesson of Palm Sunday is that we can
own now. Even as a young preacher, I used to live in anticipation of the joy that’s coming.
have all kinds of wonderful things to say in The victory is already ours. The wonderful
times of grief and pain. I could tell you every thing about my God and the Palm Sunday
platitudinous remark about angels greeting occasion is that I already know what the vic-
loved ones in heaven and how God wanted tory is going to be. I already know because it
another choir member—all that kind of was won for me on Calvary a long time ago.
stuff—before death came to my home. But He sits on the right had of God the Father
now I’m older; I’ve been through some things. saying, “Father, I remember Palm Sunday
I’ve had the Death Angel come sit in my and the misunderstanding. I remember the
house. I’ve been at the cemetery with someone denial. I remember the betrayal. I remember
I love dearly. I had to rely on the same God how Judas cut up. I remember how Peter
that told me, “If you see Good Friday, you acted like he didn’t know me. But I’m here to
also will see Easter; and this man you serve, tell you to give Bill DeVeaux and that crowd
his name has been highly exalted. Just hold on in Tallahassee one more chance.”
and have the strength to keep on going.” I can rejoice in understanding that he made
Well, my brothers and sisters, as we go it through Palm Sunday, the cross, the cruci-
through Palm Sunday in anticipation of the fixion, the empty tomb, and now he is exalt-
great celebration, as we go through this ed. And if I can sing on Palm Sunday, God
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

Lenten season of reflection and meditation, knows I can sing the rest of the year because
we also know that the day is coming when his name is above every name. And knees
we will be restored. We’ll be revived and shall bow and tongues shall confess that Jesus
rejuvenated because if there’s a Palm the Christ is Lord.
Sunday, if there’s a Good Friday, there’s So if you see me dragging a little bit and get-
also a Resurrection. ting down some, just nudge me and say,
Paul, this early theologian, the man who “Brother, you’re on the road to Jerusalem and
wrote so much, he says this Resurrection is beyond.” If you see me not smiling, if you see
critical. How critical is it, Paul? Well, if Jesus me mad at someone, if you see me disap-
is not raised from the dead, all our preaching pointed, talking about what I lost, when I did-
is in vain.4 It won’t make any difference how n’t get what I wanted, how I didn’t get the
much you preach. If a person in the world assignment, just nudge me and say, “He cares
asks you what is the key ingredient to the for you. He went through it all. And now if
32 Christian faith, before you go and tell them you will exalt his name, you shall be blessed.”
 S E R M O N S F R O M T H E E L D E R S W I L L I A M P. D E V E A U X
Let me say, finally, if you get into the praise
business of exaltation, it’s catching. I don’t
care how you praise him. Some people praise
him quietly with a smile. Some people run.
Some people jump. I can’t tell you how to
praise him. But I can tell you one thing: You
ought to praise him some kind of way
because praise is contagious!
I can’t be in a crowd that’s praising God and
not feel better. I’ve been to church when I’ve
been down to my last and didn’t know what
to do. I’ve got a large family, but nobody
called. But I came to church anyhow and
praised God. That’s why I can’t get my religion
on the television. I know Bob Schuller’s got a
bigger choir. I know Creflo Dollar’s got it
going on. But I’ve got to come somewhere and
see somebody who says, “I was down and
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now I’m up.” I need to be in the number when
the saints gather to exalt the name of Jesus. I
don’t need theory. I don’t need mere theology.
I know about vicarious atonement; I know all
of those things. I need somebody to tell me, “I
tried him! His name is over all! I’ve tried every-
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my Savior! He’s my Lord! In him will I put my
trust! I’m on the road to Jerusalem, and I can-
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NOTES
1. Job 38:4, paraphrased.
2. Lyrics from “Palm Branches,” a song which celebrates
Palm Sunday, composed by Jean Baptiste Faure.
3. Hymn, “Jesus! The Name High Over All,” written by
Charles Wesley, 1749.
4. 1 Corinthians 15:14, paraphrased.
5. See Romans 10:9.
6. John 3:16, paraphrased.
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 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS J. DELANO ELLIS

BE NOT the day of our death. But in all of this looking

into those years that run relentlessly on, we
have hopes and ideals; but still we see the per-
Afraid ils, and fear-filled questions plague us: “What
will happen tomorrow? In the coming years?
How life will end, and how it will be rounded
J. DELANO ELLIS
out? Will there, at evening tide, be light? Or
shall the end be darkness?”
Then there are those other times when we
stand still and think, attempting to grab hold
of the present—today’s life itself of suffering,
Deuteronomy 33:27, ERV of weakness, and of that which is always
The eternal God is thy dwelling place, And present with us, death! Face it, in all of these
underneath are the everlasting arms: And he things—life, suffering, and death—there are
thrust out the enemy from before thee, And profound and unknown mysteries. Each one
said, Destroy. of us has had to grapple with the surface of

“What have I to dread, what have

I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
I have blessed peace, with my
Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure

from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on
the everlasting arms.”1
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

randma Ellis would sing that hymn

G
when everything seemed to fall apart,
and the family couldn’t figure out the next
move in our daily struggle to survive.
Each one of us lives in two realms of mys-
tery on a persistent basis, and both realms will
produce a sense of fear in the soul. They are
the unknown future and the unfathomable
present. I’m having some difficulty trying to
figure out which of the two provokes more
fear. We look ahead. We think of tomorrow
with fear. We stare into the inevitable days
that will surely multiply into years. We even
34 try to look beyond those years and imagine
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS J. DELANO ELLIS
them all. But we also have had to become
sensitive to the depths, the depths of life itself
at its highest and its best. We are related to
these things, and we cannot escape them. So
we lift our eyes and look toward tomorrow
and ask, “What will happen?” Or as Miss
Celie would say, “What us gone do?”2 We
are forced to look introspectively and make
attempts at understanding the mysteries of
life, suffering, and death; and before long
we’re crying, “What shall we do?”
Well, the answer to both of these questions
is found in my text. The first one addresses the
fear of the future; and the text declares, “The
eternal God is thy dwelling place.” Then there
is the answer to the profound, unfathomable
J. DELANO ELLIS is a native of Pennsyl-
vania and a product of the Philadelphia
Public School System. He holds a Bachelor
of Arts Degree in History and Sociology
from Howard University, a Master’s Degree
in Religious Education from Nazarene
Seminary, as well as a Doctor of Philo-
sophy Degree from Stafford University in
London, England. Bishop Ellis is also the
recipient of four honorary degrees from
various Universities in the United States
and the United Kingdom.
Prior to Bishop Ellis’s present responsi-
bility as Senior Pastor for the Pentecostal
Church of Christ in Cleveland, Ohio, he
served the Church of God in Christ, head-
quartered in Memphis, Tennessee, for over
35 years. His gift for planning and organiz-
ing has been beneficial to the body of
Christ across denominational borders.
Bishop Ellis organized and developed the
Adjutant’s Corp in the Church of God in
Christ and served the leader of that
denomination for more than 25 years. In
1989, he established and organized the
present with all of its mysteries; the text
declares, “underneath are the everlasting
arms.” Let’s consider this declaration and
then take on our fears in the light of our faith.
First, there is the declaration itself. This
statement is part of a benediction being pro-
nounced by Moses just as he prepares to
leave the children of Israel, whom he has led
for 40 years. This was almost the last thing
that Moses said. Picture it: “The eternal God
is thy dwelling place, And underneath are the
everlasting arms.”
In this text, we have that great name of
God by which he is introduced to us in bibli-
cal revelation: Elohim. The name stands for
“unfathomable and immeasurable might of
United Pentecostal Churches of Christ.
During his tenure as head of this reforma-
tion, Bishop Ellis organized the Joint
College of African-American Pentecostal
Bishops Congress, an organization de-
signed to train and prepare Pentecostal
Bishops in their roles as episcopates.
After several years of committed service,
the Joint College of Bishops elected
Bishop Ellis to the titular rank and dignity
of Metropolitan-Archbishop for that
Communion of Pentecostals.
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
In 2006, Bishop Ellis was elected to the
office of Senior Bishop of the Pentecostal
Churches of Christ, and he continues to
teach and mentor pastors and bishops
throughout the United States in the areas
of leadership and churchmanship. He
serves as Adjunct Professor at Beulah
Heights University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Bishop Ellis shares the pastorate of
Pentecostal Church of Christ with his wife,
Sabrina Joyce Ellis. He is the father to six,
grandfather to 21, and great-grandfather
to one.
35
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS J. DELANO ELLIS
the Most High.” This is just one definition
suggested by the word. In this particular
name of God, there is really no revelation of
his work. There is nothing that tells us about
his motives that inspire him in his activities.
There is nothing in that name that reveals to
us the purpose behind all of his doings. The
name in the intensive Hebrew plural, Elohim
speaks of might and consequently of majesty.
But the arresting word in the text is not the
name of God, even though it’s necessary if we’re
going to understand the declaration of Moses.
The key word of the text today is the word that
we have translated “eternal.” That word does
not mean what “everlasting” means! Look at
the text: “underneath are the everlasting arms.”
That word “everlasting” is the greatest of all
words that attempt to express that which is
beyond our calendars and almanacs—the time-
lessness of deity. But the word here translated
“eternal” has another meaning and another
thought! Let me say right here and now that the
word has nothing to do with the idea of tomor-
row, but it has everything to do with yesterday.
This word, “eternal,” is designed to make us
look forward, and it compels us to look back.
So now you ask me, “What are you trying
to tell me, in light of my fears about tomor-
row?” That’s the very genius of the text. The
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
word literally means “the front,” whether
you’re talking about place or time. It means
the forepart! The literal Hebrew interpreta-
tion says that it means “the east”—the place
of sunrise, the place where the day began.
The text is trying to tell us that God is the
God of the beginning. I wouldn’t hurt the text
if I said, “The God of old is thy dwelling
place.” Even though it’s not as poetic as the
speaker’s word “eternal,” it comes nearer to
his thought. The God of old, the God of
beginnings is thy dwelling place. Everything
that was involved in the beginning continues
36 through, processes to consummation. The
eternal God, the God of the morning when
the stars sang together over the initiation of a
new mystery in the universe on which they
had never looked before—that God of the
beginning is thy dwelling place.
Now I know you have some questions,
because some of what I’ve begun to share
sounds paradoxical and surprising. But listen
to me as I try to make some sense of my obtuse
thoughts. Human thought is always prone to
think of tomorrow as though it is in front of
us. Tomorrow, however, is not in front of us!
Tomorrow is behind us! This is, and these are,
the latter days. The earlier days are gone.
Tomorrow is still “latter.” The underlying
thought here is that of a great procession.
Follow me for a moment. Imagine some
great procession of cars or people, moving
from point “A” to point “B.” The beginning
of the procession is always in front; the end
of it is always behind. If you can see that, then
you’ll understand when I say that yesterday is
in front; tomorrow is behind! The whole his-
tory of humanity is a procession; and in the
beginning is God, leading the procession. We
are not moving away from those who went
before us, as though we dropped them some-
where behind and left them. The generation
that shall be born shall not be in advance of
us. They will come on behind us. God leads
and accompanies. He is the God of the morn-
ing, he is the God of the beginning, and he is
thy dwelling place!
Now regardless to how far away God may
seem to be, he is the God who was at the
beginning; and he is our refuge, our dwelling
place. God is no further removed from me
than he was from the first man in that proces-
sion. God is no farther distant from his cre-
ation—even after the long ages of develop-
ment and continuation—than he was from the
first propulsion of the night. The eternal God,
the God of the beginning, the God of old time,
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS J. DELANO ELLIS
the God of the morning—that God is our
dwelling place!
Then there is the simple deduction: The
future that is behind us is not in our care. We
have nothing to do with that which is to come
after this. We have only two things that
should concern us: yesterdays that are in front
of us and today in which we set our faces
toward those things that have gone on before
us. We follow God, in company with God!
“The eternal God is our dwelling place.”
All that prepares for, and leads to, the second
part of this declaration: “And underneath are
the everlasting arms.” My first argument con-
tends that God is the God of the beginning. I
tried to tell you that he is our dwelling place on
our entire journey, so then we learn what
Moses really means when he says, “under-
neath are the everlasting arms.” As a matter of
fact, this is the only place in the English Bible
where we will find the word “underneath.”
The Hebrew word is found in a few other
places. To understand this word, let me give
you a simpler phrase: “the bottom.”
“Underneath” is the uttermost limit of depres-
sion, humiliation, and beating down. How far
down can your imagination or your experi-
ences carry you? Those profound depths of life
are suffering, weakness, and death—how well
do you know them? How deep have you been
into life? Think about it. How deep in sorrow
have you ever been? Can you remember when
you sank in weakness? How weak did you
become? How near to death did you come?
When you have reminded yourself of that low-
est level, then hurry up and think about it:
“underneath” (lower than your lowest) “are
the everlasting arms.”
Everlasting arms! The word “arms” in the
Bible always constitutes a picture of strength,
and the idea is also qualified by the root
meaning of sowing, fructifying, or bearing.
Motherhood lies in the figurative use of this
word in the Bible, as well as fatherhood.
Everlasting means the point of vanishing; the
ultimate reach of the imagination and
thought; or that which is hidden. To tell the
truth, there is no way to describe what we
really mean when we say “eternal” or “ever-
lasting.” The Bible doesn’t even make an
attempt to explain it either. All I can offer
today is the blessed assurance to you and to
myself that when I’ve reached my bottom and
all of my hope is gone and I’ve come to the
ultimate in suffering and pain or if I come to
the valley and shadow of death, there is still a
place lower than my low; and in that place—
underneath—are the “everlasting arms.”
What fears do you have today? What
frightens you and causes you to stammer in
disbelief? What sufferings have you been
forced to endure so that you find yourself
looking for one to help you? What tempta-
tions have you faced and even given in to on
occasion? How far did you sink? Well, I have
good news for you: There were the everlast-
ing arms underneath you, and fear is erased
in the presence of his arms.
I’ve got to close this witness for now, but I
came to church today to tell somebody that all
is not lost. All is not over and done with. You
are not out. God is the only “umpire” in this
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
game, and he decides who’s “out” and who’s
“in.” Good afternoon and have a nice dinner,
but go out of here knowing that your latter will
be greater than your past. Your past is in front
of you, and your future is behind you. Here it
comes and the procession goes on! Be not
afraid, beloved. God is the Parade Marshall,
and he’s leading us to a good conclusion! |
NOTES
1. Hymn, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,” words by
Elisha A. Hoffman, music by Anthony J. Showalter, 1887.
2. Alice Walker, The Color Purple (New York: Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich), 1982. The novel was adapted into a film
in 1985 and has been performed as a theater production. 37
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS VIOLET L. FISHER
Bread for the
JOURNEY
VIOLET L. FISHER
Isaiah 55:1-3, NIV
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the
waters; and you who have no money, come,
buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk with-
out money and without cost. Why spend
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
38
money on what is not bread, and your labor
on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to
me, and eat what is good and your soul will
delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and
come to me; hear me, that your soul may
live. I will make an everlasting covenant with
you, my faithful love promised to David.”
John 6:25-35, NIV
When they found him on the other side of the
lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you
get here?” Jesus answered, “I tell you the
truth, you are looking for me, not because you
saw miraculous signs but because you ate the
VIOLET L. FISHER’S call to ministry came
at the age of 16. Though her roots were in
the Methodist Episcopal Church, the affirma-
tion for her ministry as an ordained clergy
member came through The King’s Apostle
Holiness Church of God. In this church, she
served as National Evangelist and was the
first woman to be ordained. During these
years, she also taught in the public school
systems of Virginia and Maryland.
Her journey brought her back to the
church of her birth, and in 1988 she was
ordained a deacon and in 1990 an elder in
the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the
United Methodist Church. Bishop Fisher
served St. Daniel’s United Methodist Church
in Chester, Pennsylvania, and Sayers
Memorial United Methodist Church in
Philadelphia. From 1994 to July 2000, she
served as District Superintendent of the
Mary McLeod Bethune District, and during
her tenure on the district was twice appoint-
ed Dean of the Cabinet.
Reflecting on her consecration as
Bishop in July 2000, Bishop Fisher stated,
“This affirmation speaks to all women,
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS VIOLET L. FISH E R
loaves and had your fill. Do not work for
food that spoils, but for food that endures to
eternal life, which the Son of Man will give
you. On him God the Father has placed his
seal of approval.” Then they asked him,
“What must we do to do the works God
requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of
God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
So they asked him, “What miraculous sign
then will you give that we may see it and
believe you? What will you do? Our forefa-
thers ate the manna in the desert; as it is writ-
ten: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to
eat.’” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth,
especially women of color.” Jurisdictional
delegates commented after the election:
“There is a sense of wonder and delight that
a nontraditional leader was elected. She is a
very enthusiastic, energetic people-person
with a strong spirit and strong leadership
skills. She knows the pulse of the people.
God anointed her bishop.”
Within the structure of The United
Methodist Church, Bishop Fisher served as
President of the Northeastern Jurisdiction
College of Bishops, is a member of the
Commission on Pan-Methodist Coopera-
tion and Union, and serves on the Audit
Committee, Holistic Africa, and Hope for
the Children of Africa Committees as Vice
President of the General Board of Global
Ministries. Bishop Fisher continues her
work with the General Board of Disciple-
ship Committee on Older Adult Ministries
and remains a member of Black Methodists
for Church Renewal. She previously served
on the General Board of Church and
Society. Bishop Fisher was the keynote
speaker for the International Prayer
Conference for Wesleyans in Renewal held
it is not Moses who has given you the bread
from heaven, but it is my Father who gives
you the true bread from heaven. For the bread
of God is he who comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said,
“from now on give us this bread.” Then Jesus
declared, “I am the bread of life. He who
comes to me will never go hungry, and he
who believes in me will never be thirsty.
Shortly before his death, tennis great,
Arthur Ashe, wrote these words to his daugh-
ter, Camera, in the closing chapter of his
book, Days of Grace: “Camera, have faith
in God. Do not be tempted whether by
in Singapore in June 2004. In 1998–99,
she was Dean of the Northeastern
Jurisdiction School of Evangelism.
Bishop Fisher holds two Master’s
Degrees, one in Education and the other in
Divinity; a Doctorate in Divinity; and hon-
orary doctoral degrees. Bishop Fisher is
profiled in the new book compiled by
Bishop Judith Craig, The Leading Women:
Stories of the First Women Bishops of The
United Methodist Church. She is a contrib-
utor to The African American Pulpit, The
Women of Color Study Bible, and the
Women of Spirit Devotional.
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
In addition, Bishop Fisher proudly served
as a short-term missionary to Kenya,
Uganda, Haiti, Jamaica, and the Dominican
Republic. Most recently, Bishop Fisher was
nominated by the Council of Bishops to
serve on the Executive Committee of the
World Methodist Conference 2006 in
Seoul, South Korea, and most recently in
Australia. She has a large extended family
in the Maryland and Delaware area, includ-
ing her son, Marcus, and her mother, sisters,
and brothers.
39
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS VIOLET L. FISHER
pleasures and material possessions, or by the
claims of science and smart thinkers, into
believing that religion is obsolete, that the
worship of God is somehow beneath you.
Spiritual nourishment is as important as
physical nourishment and intellectual nour-
ishment.”1 The words of Arthur Ashe can be
summed up in the Old Testament lesson,
Isaiah 55:2, words which provide profound
insight and echo down the corridors of time:
“Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good.”
“Bread” is a good word. “Bread” is a word
we use often around our homes. Bread is so
important to life. I’m sure most of you have a
memo pad with a pen or pencil near your
refrigerator where the list for groceries is com-
piled as you run out of things. I am sure that
at the top of every list, in every household, is
the word “BREAD,” the universal food and
need for our bodies. You can go around the
world and some sort of bread is found in
every culture and country. I have been fortu-
nate enough to visit and experience many dif-
ferent breads: Italian bread, New York rye,
Matzo crackers, whole wheat bread, English
muffins, bagels, shortbread, scones, Greek
pastries, white bread, and my favorite, corn-
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
bread. Even in years past, prisoners in jails
were entitled to at least bread and water.
Jesus knew the needs of the human body.
Remember, he hungered and thirsted in the
wilderness. He grew up in a Jewish home
where his mother, Mary, as part of her daily
routine and responsibilities made bread. Jesus
used bread in the Passover meal. He fed
5,000 people with five loaves of bread
because he had compassion on them. He
would not permit them to go home hungry.
In a family, the one who brings home the
most money is called “the bread-winner.”
40 When we take a job we ask ourselves a ques-
tion, “Can I put bread on the table for my
family?” The word “bread” has so many
meanings and emotions attached to it.
Immediately after the fighting had stopped
in World War II, American soldiers gathered
many hungry and homeless children and
placed them in tent cities. Many of them were
malnourished and in need of medical care.
The soldiers shared their bread with them.
The soldiers noticed the children were afraid
to go to sleep at night. One of the soldiers
tried an experiment after dinner; he gave the
children a piece of bread to hold. The result
was astounding! When they had the security
of bread for tomorrow, the children slept like
babies. It took away their fear. Talk about
fear, just mention the word “snow” in many
parts of our country, and immediately every-
one scrambles for bread, milk, and eggs. We
love that security.
Bread! There is a surplus of meaning in this
word. The word evokes strong emotions like
security, fellowship, the presence of God, and
provisions for the journey. Bread is deemed
holy by peoples everywhere. The root word
for “bread” in most languages can be trans-
lated “food,” as it is in the Bible. Yes, people
invest the word “bread” with special mean-
ing and with religious significance. For the
Jews, bread was a symbol of the Torah, the
Law, and God’s covenant with the people.
The word “bread” has amazing powers.
I know that the physical, physiological
need of the human body is one of the most
powerful drives of humankind; and unless
this need is satisfied, many will not search in
earnest for satisfaction of one’s higher needs.
Jesus realized this. We realize this. There is,
however, a deeper hunger to be met and sat-
isfied. There is bread (with a small “b”) and
then there is Bread (with a capital “B”). It is
that tension between bread (little “b”) and
Bread (big “B”) that we find in our text in
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS VIOLET L. FISHER
St. John. It is a very real tension and to
understand that tension, we must see it in the
context of the Gospel of John.
Earlier in the chapter, Jesus had fed the 5,000.
What a marvelous, unbelievable miracle! Five
thousand men, not counting women and chil-
dren, were fed from a small lunch. When the
disciples, who were in training at that time,
wanted to dismiss the crowd, Jesus saw this as
an opportunity to minister to an even deeper
need. He wanted the crowd to know that God
cares for their stomachs and their souls as well.
What an impression it left. The biblical text
says that the bread was multiplied in Jesus’
hands. This is why social action/mission always
goes hand-in-hand with evangelism. They rep-
resent the two sides of the Gospel truth.
The crowds went crazy and wanted to
name Jesus king, but he refused and retreated
to be alone with the disciples. And it was dur-
ing this time that Jesus walked on water.
Guess how the people responded. When Jesus
began to talk about the Bread, the people
asked, “Can you give us a sign?” Here Jesus
had fed 5,000 and walked across water, and
they wanted a sign. It is easy not to see the for-
est because of the trees. Talk about being
locked in the temporal dimension of life and
not being able to see the big picture. That is
why this story can be set squarely in the midst
of this modern world. Not one thing has
changed! We, modern people, love the spec-
tacular and get bored with the ordinary.
The people follow Jesus. We see that when
the people get to the other side, Jesus moves
the question to a deeper spiritual level and
need. Jesus ignores their questions about
when and how he got there and proceeds to
tell them why they really came to seek him.
Notice that he says there are two kinds of
bread in the world: that which lasts and that
which does not. Now we need to recognize
and understand the other meaning of the
word “bread.” Our Old Testament text,
Isaiah 55:1-3 shares profound insights and
words about this other level when it shares,
“Why spend money on what is not bread and
your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen,
listen to me, and eat what is good.”
Jesus was a great teacher because he used
the symbols of everyday life to connect us to
the spiritual and the eternal. Jesus intended
the symbol and substance of physical earthly
bread to direct and lead us to the spiritual
needs of our existence, as well as to meaning,
purpose, and fulfillment. As we take time to
prepare three square meals a day, we also
need to set aside time to feed our souls with
prayer, service, fellowship, and study in the
things of God. It is far better, Jesus concludes,
to work for the bread that endures, the bread
that provides strength and nourishment for
our spiritual journey.
Sisters and brothers, our Bread is God him-
self and God gives himself to us as food. Jesus
provides more than a meal. Jesus provides a
moment in which we can give ourselves to
God. In this story, we see the answer that
Jesus gives to that need. Yes, there is a need
for bread that keeps us alive. There is also a
need for bread that gives us a reason to live.
Jesus is trying to help them understand that
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
everyone has a need for living bread. They
are like people sitting at a great feast and are
famished because they are not taking advan-
tage of the spiritual food that is before them.
Jesus is trying to broaden their vision.
There is a hunger and a thirst that only God
can fill. Every single person has that hunger.
There is an empty place in your life and heart
that only God can fill. You may not know what
to call it. At times, we try to suppress this long-
ing. We just know that something is wrong.
Yes, life is more than an empty dish. Our good
shepherd does not lead us to an empty dish but
rather green pastures and still waters. Without 41
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS VIOLET L. FISHER
that, all the manna in the world can’t produce
anything but a grumbling spirit.
The struggle to discern what is significant
and what is superficial is a constant struggle
in every generation. Jesus knows we need
bread from a new Adam. Jesus knows we
need a rebirth. Jesus knows we need bread
that frees us up to love God. So, from Jesus
we learn an important insight. In John 4:34,
Jesus tells his disciples, “My food is to do the
will of him who sent me and to fill his work.”
This is where the satisfaction and staying
power come from. The only work I know
that can satisfy this hunger is the mission of
building God’s kingdom revealed in the per-
son of Jesus Christ. This is the Bread (with a
capital “B”). People who adopt the philoso-
phy of eat, drink, and be merry usually are
not merry or full of joy. That philosophy can
only provide bread (with a small “b”). It will
eventually lead to an empty and broken life,
an empty and broken family, and empty and
broken relationships.
Brothers and sisters, I remember a song
sung by my mother, “The world is hungry for
the Living Bread. Lift the Savior up for them
to see; Trust Him, and do not doubt the
words that He said, ‘I’ll draw all men (peo-
ple) unto Me.’”2 Yes, the world is waiting for
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
those of us who are filled with spiritual bread
to pass it on. The world is in need of a Savior,
of healing, of salvation, and of direction. Like
the lad in John’s Gospel, maybe, just maybe
we are that lad. Our virtues or acts of gen-
erosity are no match for the power of God’s
love expressed in the one who gives himself
to the world as the “bread of life.”3 All we
can offer is whatever morsel of bread we
have in our hands—to be transformed by
Christ into the food that sustains us for eter-
nity and live in the power of that gift. The
world is asking the church “Is there any
42 bread in the house?” We have the answer:
Jesus Christ himself. Pass it on.
On this journey called life, ofttimes we do
become weary; the stress, strain, and
demands of life are often more than we can
bear. We find ourselves alone in our wilder-
ness, barren desert experiences, thirsty and
hungry for spiritual nourishment. Our sister
Hagar and brother Elijah can identify with
us, for they found heaven in the wilderness in
the form of bread—bread that refreshed,
revived, renewed, and recreated.4 As we con-
tinue our journey as disciples of Jesus Christ,
we, too, have that confidence. Our God
meets us and gently promises again and again
to be with us in the journey. God is with us!
Hear the words of our Savior, “Eat this
bread, drink this cup, come to me, and never
be hungry. Eat this bread, drink this cup, trust
in me, and you will not thirst.”5
We then can join with our mothers and
fathers, the saints of the church and declare:
“The road is rough,
The going gets tough,
And the hills are hard to climb.
I started out a long time ago,
There is no doubt in my mind;
I have decided to make Jesus [the big
“B”] my choice.”6
Pass it on. |
NOTES
1. Arthur Ashe, Days of Grace: A Memoir (New York:
Alfred A. Knopf), 1993.
2. Hymn, “Lift Him Up,” words by Johnson Oatman Jr. and
music by Benjamin Beall, 1903.
3. See John 6:34, 48.
4. See Genesis 21:14 and 1 Kings 17:1-6.
5. From the song “Eat This Bread (Jesus the Bread of
Life)” written by Jacques Berthier, 1984; see also 1
Corinthians 11:24-26.
6. Gospel song, “I Have Decided to Make Jesus My
Choice,” written by Harrison Johnson; lyrics found at
http://www.music-lyrics-gospel.com (accessed October
3, 2008).
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S WI LLIAM A. LAWS O N
BLOOD
and Guts
WILLIAM A. LAWSON
Mark 14:22-24, NKJV
D r. Cosby has asked me to give a title to this
message, so I’ll give a title to it. I’ll call it
“Blood and Guts.” And I want to take it from
the 14th chapter of the Gospel according to
Mark. We’ll look at verse 22 down to 24.
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
44
Mark 14 beginning with verse 22: “And as
they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed,
and break it, and gave to them, and said,
Take, eat: this is my body. And he took the
cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave
it to them: and they all drank of it. And he
said unto them, This is my blood of the new
testament, which is shed for many.” Amen.
This table represents blood and guts. Jesus
says, “Eat my body and drink my blood. This
has been prepared for your redemption. This
makes it possible that instead of dropping
directly from life into hell, you may be able to
be with me in my Father’s kingdom.” It is
important that we understand that the only
way we have access to God is through his
Son, Jesus Christ, through the death and suf-
ferings of Jesus Christ.
WILLIAM A. LAWSON was founding
pastor of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church
in Houston, Texas. He retired from that
position in 2004. Lawson was born in St.
Louis, Missouri, and reared by Walter and
Clarisse Lawson Cade in Kansas City,
Kansas. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in
Sociology at Tennessee A. & I. State
University in Nashville (1950). He
returned to Kansas City to attend Central
Baptist Theological Seminary, which con-
ferred upon him the Bachelor of Divinity
and Master of Theology Degrees.
While in seminary, he was married to
Audrey H. Lawson of St. Louis. The
Lawsons have four children and celebrat-
ed their golden wedding anniversary in
January of 2004.
Reverend Lawson went to Houston
after graduation from seminary to serve as
Director of the Baptist Student Union and
Professor of Bible at the new (eight years
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S WI LLIAM A. LAWS O N
This is not a pretty message, but it is prob-
ably important for some who have not
thought about it or who don’t even know it.
How gruesome, how gory, and yet how glo-
rious was the death of Jesus Christ.
Jesus died on what we call “Good Friday.”
And it may seem that he died on Good Friday
because scribes and Pharisees wanted him to
die after Palm Sunday. His death was not
plotted on Palm Sunday. Indeed, God the
Father had preplanned before the founda-
tions of the world that when man sinned—
even before Adam and Eve had sinned—God
had plotted that when man sinned, he would
have a plan of redemption by which one of
the Trinity—his Son—would come into this
world, live as a human being for 33 years,
and then would be put to death; and his
old) Texas Southern University (TSU). He
served in that position for ten years, also
becoming director of Upward Bound, a pre-
college program for high school students
on the TSU campus. During his years at
TSU, a number of residents of the neigh-
borhood persuaded the Lawsons to estab-
lish a church near the university. Wheeler
Avenue Baptist Church was established in
their home in June 1962. The congregation
grew to over 4,000 members, with many
outreach programs, and is much respected
in the community. Since the church was
born and lived its infant years during the
Civil Rights Movement, Lawson has been
deeply involved in advocacy activities for
African Americans, for Hispanics, for
women, and for the poor.
In 1996, the Houston community hon-
ored him with the creation of a non-profit
advocacy agency called WALIPP, the
William A. Lawson Institute for Peace and
death would save you and me from our sins.
See, God already had a way to get us start-
ed again. I want you to think about the death
of Jesus Christ, and I’ve said already that it is
not a pretty story. But the death of Jesus
Christ occurred in a way that followed a plan
by God.
Let me talk about that last week before he
died. For on what we now call “Palm
Sunday,” Jesus did what was unexpected. His
enemies had wanted to put him to death, and
they had been trying to find some way to put
him to death for months—even for most of
the three years that his ministry had carried
him among them. They had never been able
to reach him; when they looked for him, he
was just gone. Somehow God protected him
from his enemies getting to him.
Prosperity. That agency has testified
before public officials and bodies on behalf
of the underprivileged, and now has estab-
lished a middle school for boys and char-
tered it as a public school with the Houston
Independent School District so that it is
accessible to low-income families. In 2007,
it was the second-highest ranking among
public secondary schools in Houston.
WALIPP is also constructing 50 apartment
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
units for seniors in Houston’s Third Ward.
Finally, the agency is bringing together
community development groups, churches,
civic clubs, and local governments to rede-
velop the Third Ward so that aggressive
real estate development will not expel all
who need affordable housing.
In 2006, Pastor Lawson joined the
University of Houston faculty as Distinguished
Community Scholar in Residence. He is the
author of a book of meditations entitled
Lawson’s Leaves of Love.
45
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S WI LLIAM A. LAWS O N

But on what we now call “Palm Sunday,”
Jesus came boldly and publicly into
Jerusalem surrounded by hundreds of peo-
ple. And his enemies did not dare touch him
because on that Sunday he was surrounded
by his supporters and those who worshiped
him. That was what happened on Sunday of
that week. He went back to Bethel.
Then he came the next day—on Monday.
And on Monday when he came into
Jerusalem, his disciples came to him and
said, “Lord, some Greeks want to see
you.”1 And rather than Jesus saying, “Bring
them here; I’ll talk to them,” Jesus said,
“Now is the hour for the Son of man to be
glorified.”2 Now, that sounds like we need
to praise him. But that isn’t what that
meant. This was now six days, five days,
four days, before the most important events
of his life or our lives: before his crucifixion
and his resurrection.
He said, “Now is the hour for the Son of
man to be glorified.” That meant being
glorified by death. Jesus was predicting his
own death. And then he followed that up
by another statement that sounds like we
ought to praise God; he said, “If I be lifted
up from the earth, I’ll draw all men unto
me.”3 Once again he was not talking about
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
woman came into the room where he was,
let her long hair down, and began to wash
his feet and to wipe his feet with her hair—a
strange thing. Jesus’ disciples wondered,
“Why is he allowing this woman, first of all,
to come into this room, which ought to be
reserved for us disciples—but then, in the
second place, to bow down, wash his feet,
and wipe them with that long hair? What is
the matter with that woman, and why is
Jesus letting her do it?”
And Jesus said to them, “Leave her alone.
She is doing this for my burial.”4 How
could they understand that Jesus, who
would continue to predict that he was going
to die, was once again saying that this
strange act by this woman was a prediction
of his death.
God seems to have given to women some-
thing that he hasn’t given to men. There is a
kind of an instinct that women seem to have
that men don’t seem to have. Women are
given some kind of a special instinct.
One of the things I will always remember
about Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church is
that when the church was just two years
old, there was a woman who said to me,
“I’ve been called to preach.” And I said,
“Well, if you’ve been called to preach,

praising God. He was talking about how come on into this pulpit.” We were two
he would die. The way Jews executed crim- years old; just a few of us in that church. So
inals was to stone them. The way Romans she came up and she preached and she
executed criminals was to hang them on a blessed our hearts and we praised God that
cross. Jesus was talking about being lifted this woman had been called to preach. She
up on a cross. He knew he was going to obviously had been called to preach. So
die, but he said, “If I be lifted up from the after she had preached, she came down,
earth, I’ll draw all men unto me.” That’s Pastor Cosby, and joined the church. She
the important statement that he made on said, “I had said that if any preacher would
that Monday. let me into his pulpit, I would join that
Tuesday was an interesting day. He told his church.” Since that time, a number of
disciples that in two days he would die, but women have come to preach the Gospel
somehow they never heard him. And the here at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church.
46 interesting thing was that on Tuesday a We’ve got 28 right now.
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S WI LLIAM A. LAWS O N
By the way, something else happened on
Tuesday. Judas makes a bargain to sell Jesus
to the high priest for thirty pieces of silver.
Exodus tells us that thirty pieces of silver was
the price of an injured slave—a slave is
injured and he can’t work and then you want
to sell him? You sell him for 30 pieces of sil-
ver, which is about 25 dollars. Can you imag-
ine a human being sold for 25 dollars? But he
bargains to sell Jesus for 25 dollars. All that’s
on Tuesday.
Wednesday is a day of rest. Neither Jesus
nor his disciples do anything then. They sim-
ply remain and they are getting ready for
Thursday, which is an extremely busy day.
Thursday, Jesus sends his disciples to pre-
pare for the Passover. The Passover is the
most important dinner for Jews. It reminds
them that God emancipated them from slav-
ery in Egypt. And much of the menu of the
Passover reminds them of that time of slavery
and the time that God released and redeemed
them from slavery.
The Passover menu included Matzo, which
is an unleavened bread—bread without
yeast. That reminds Israel that when God
called them out of Egypt and took them out
into the desert, they had to leave hastily with-
out time to leaven their bread. So, this is
unleavened bread. Till this day, it is a part of
the Passover feast. Plus they have wine—fer-
mented, never distilled. When you take the
wine today, it is not grape juice. Jesus called
for wine at the Last Supper, and the Jews
always used wine when they had the
Passover. There were four cups, and one of
those cups was never drunk. It was the cup
that was called the “cup of Elijah.” The
assumption was that some day Elijah would
come back to redeem Israel; and when he
came back, he would drink from that cup.
That’s the cup that Jesus took and gave to his
disciples. Elijah was not going to come back
to redeem them; Jesus was. So, they had to
have that cup.
They had to have maror, which is bitter
herbs, probably horseradish—very, very bad
tasting. It reminded them of the bitterness of
slavery. There was a vegetable, probably
parsley, and that vegetable was dipped in salt
water because that represented the tears of
the slaves who suffered in Egypt. There was
something called “charoses” that was a sweet
paste made of apples and almonds and honey
and several other sweet things. It was the best
tasting thing in the Passover feast and repre-
sented the sweetness of freedom.
I just wanted us to look at this because
that’s what Jesus fed his disciples. And the
final thing was fish, gefilte fish. That remind-
ed them that when God delivered them he
carried them across two bodies of water: the
Red Sea and the Jordan River.
All of those things had meaning. So the
Passover feast was something that remind-
ed them of their redemption. After they
had taken the Passover feast, Judas, who
ate the Passover with them, was told by
Jesus, “I know that one of you is a trai-
tor,”5 and he pointed to Judas. Judas got
mad and stormed out of the room. And,
after he did, there was only Jesus and 11
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
disciples. Jesus then established what we
call “the Lord’s Supper.” He said, “This
bread is going to be my flesh, and this wine
is going to represent my blood. As often as
you take this bread and this wine, it’s going
to remind you of me. Do this in remem-
brance of me. In other words, don’t forget
that I’ve died for you.”
The important thing about that is that the
symbols of the Jews always look back at
something that happened hundreds of years
ago. What Jesus gave them was so that they
could look forward. That was Thursday
night, and the next day he was going to die. 47
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S WI LLIAM A. LAWS O N
And so he gave them the Lord’s Supper, and
we still take it.
Thursday was also an important day
because Jesus washed the feet of his disci-
ples. And as he washed their feet, he was
showing them servanthood—what it
means to yield to the will of God. Because
the fact is that as high as the heavens are
above the earth, so high are the thoughts
and the ways of God above our thoughts
and ways.6
That’s basically what was happening on
Thursday, but Thursday is not finished yet.
When Jesus establishes the Lord’s Supper, he
gets ready to pray. He takes three disciples
with him—Peter, James, and John—and
goes into a place called Gethsemane. He
prays most of the night until well, well after
midnight. And while he is praying, one of the
physicians, one of the Gospel writers who is
a doctor, Luke, tells us that his sweat was like
“great drops of blood falling to the
ground.”7 I want us to remember that, and
we’ll talk about that a little bit later on. He
sweated profusely. While he was praying, he
prayed a prayer of request and surrender.
His request was, “Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass.”8
Remember, he was no longer divine. Now,
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
God had made him human and sent him
here to be born of a woman and to grow up
among other human beings—to have the
same feelings, the same ability to be hurt as
anybody else. If he was cut, he bled. When
he was sad, he wept. When he was tired, he
slept. The fact is that Jesus had many of the
same emotions that we have. Never sinned,
but he had many of the same emotions. He
wanted to let it go, but he was asking the
Lord, “Now if it is possible, let this cup
pass.” But then he yielded as you and I
ought to yield, “Yet, not my will but thine
48 be done.”9
He knew already what was going to hap-
pen to him, so he asked God, “If it be possi-
ble, let the cup pass. But if it’s not your will,
then I’ll let it be as you will.” Now, as Jesus
prayed, his disciples went to sleep. Now, I
know that that never happens in our church,
but his disciples went to sleep. He came back
and asked them, “Could you not watch with
me for one hour?”10
And while they were in the garden, it was
invaded by Roman soldiers and scribes and
Pharisees led by Judas, who came over and
betrayed Jesus with a kiss. All of this stuff you
know; is that right? But I want you to see
how it fits into the whole picture because
God had a device to get us started again. And
as he faced this group of people, they came
over not sure which of these men was Jesus.
And Jesus said, “I’m the one who is called
Christ. Don’t bother these fellows. If you
want to take somebody, I’m here. Take me.”
And so they came to arrest him; God was
not going to let that cup pass. He may not
give to you what you want right now. You
need some money today. You need for God
to heal your sickness right now. You need for
God to take care of the friction that you have
in your family between you and your wife;
between you and your husband; between you
and other family members; and you want
that reconciliation to happen today. But
yielding to God’s will is what Jesus had to do.
And you?
And now the gory stuff begins. But
when they took Jesus, they took him first
of all to a Roman officer named Pontius
Pilate. Pilate said, “I’ll examine this man,
but I don’t see anything that he’s done
that wrong that he deserves punishment
by the law.”
And so he learned that Jesus lived in an
area that was overseen by Tetrarch Herod.
Just as Pilate was a puppet officer of the
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S WI LLIAM A. LAWS O N
Roman government, so Herod was a pup-
pet king.
When Jesus got to the place where Herod
was, Herod said, “I don’t find anything
wrong with him, but if you religious folks
want me to do something to him, then I’ll do
a little bit to him.” He took a crown of thorns
and pressed it down on the head of Jesus and
the blood started squirting from those
wounds. And he said, “You fellows can just
take him back. He seems innocent to me.”
They took him back to Pilate. Pilate was
hoping he would never come back. Pilate’s
wife told him, “Don’t bother this man.
There’s something different about him.”
There’s that woman’s intuition again. And
Pilate said, “Look, the man seems innocent to
me.” But they were saying, “We want you to
punish him. He needs to be punished.”
Pilate said, “Alright, I can chastise him a
little bit, but he doesn’t deserve to be execut-
ed.” So Pilate got a whip—a thing called the
“cat-of-nine-tails” and told one of his sol-
diers, “Whip him real good.” The cat-of-
nine-tails had thorns and broken pieces of
pottery woven into all of those nine lashes.
And they began to beat Jesus with that cat-
of-nine-tails. Once again, skin was almost
pealed off of his back and blood began to
flow everywhere. This isn’t pretty; this is
basically what happened. And while they
whipped Jesus, he fell on the ground but
never said a mumbling word.
They were getting ready to let him loose,
but the Pharisees said, “You can’t turn him
loose. He’s got to be killed. Crucify him!
Crucify him!” So Pilate said, “Well, if I have
to crucify him, it’ll be the Roman way, not
the Jewish way; then I will have him cruci-
fied.” They cut down two beams. They were
like large trees, and they stripped the trees
and then turned them into beams. You know
what a two-by-four is. Can you imagine the
trunk of a tree cut down so that it is 16-by-
16 or 18-by-18 inches all way around?
And they put two of these together so that
there was an upright and a cross beam; and
they made Jesus and two criminals carry
that thing weighing 300-plus pounds. And
Jesus tried to carry it, but he was too weak
to carry it. He’d been up all night. He had a
crown of thorns on his head. He had been
whipped with a cat-of-nine-tails. He was
covered with human waste. He was a mess.
So he couldn’t carry that cross, and he fell
down. Some of the Roman soldiers saw in
the crowd a big muscular black man from
Africa. You know Africans have always had
strength. And so they asked this black man,
“Help this man carry this cross.” So Simon
the Cyrene came over to help Jesus to carry
the cross up that hill of Golgotha, the place of
the skull.
As he carried that cross up the hill and as
the two criminals who were going to be cru-
cified with him also carried their crosses up
the hill, Jesus continued to bleed. He was
bleeding because of those splinters on those
beams while his blood continued to gush out
of the many wounds that he had that were
now opened.
Then when they got to the top of the hill,
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
as difficult as it was to get to the top of the
hill, they laid these three men down on those
three crosses. And when they laid them
down, they then began to nail them to the
cross. But it wasn’t nails. When you think of
nails, you think of something that you buy
at the hardware store—maybe an inch long
or three inches long. These were not that
kind of nails. If you can imagine the spikes
that are used by the railroad; these were
spikes. And while they were lying down on
those crosses, they drove those spikes
between the metacarpals of the hands and
the metatarsals of the feet. So that while 49
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S WI LLIAM A. LAWS O N
they drove those things through, more
blood, more spurting, and Jesus still never
complained. He had told his Father, “Not
my will but thine be done,” and he was not
going to complain.
So then they lifted those crosses. And if
you can imagine what it must have been to
be nailed to those crosses and then the
crosses were dropped down into a hole
almost ripping off the hands and feet of
these three men—a pain that is incalcula-
ble, indescribable. While they hung there,
the two criminals began to tease Jesus,
taunt him. And they say, “If you are the
Christ, get us down out of this mess.” And
Jesus never responded. But while they
taunted him, one of them said, “There’s
something different about this man. He
doesn’t act like somebody who’s dying on a
cross. He acts like he’s suffering for some-
body else.” And so this one said to the
other thief who was taunting him, he said,
“You fool, don’t you even respect God?”
He realized that there was something dif-
ferent about this man in the middle.
So he turned to Jesus and he asked him,
“Master, when you come into your kingdom,
remember me.” Jesus turned painfully to look
at this man, blood pouring down his face into
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
his eyes, and he said to him, “I say unto you,
today you will be with me in paradise.”11
While they hung there, the sky grew dark;
and it was like midnight—a darkness that
you could almost feel with your hands. No
explanation for that. This was not a cloudy
day. This was not some sudden covering of
the sun. Whatever this was, it was unlike any
darkness that anybody had seen before. And
in that darkness, you could hear the voice of
Jesus saying, “I thirst.” The soldiers figured
it would be kind of a good joke to laugh at
if they could take a sponge, fill it with vine-
50 gar and hyssop, and then hold it up to his
mouth. “Let him drink that.” He drank it
and never complained.
Then finally Jesus, in the midst of the dark-
ness, realizing that he was going through a
pain like he had never felt before—like most
of us could never feel—but not just the pain
from the outside, but a pain from the inside.
And he screamed out, “My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?”12 He was a
human being. He felt pain. Right now he felt
forsaken. But then he realized his Father had
not forsaken him. His Father was with him
all the time.
Struggles strengthen us. Jesus realized that
what he was going through had been pre-
dicted even from before the foundations of
the world. There was something that could
charge the battery that was already there. So
when Jesus cried out, he then bowed his
head and said, “Father, into thy hands I com-
mend my spirit.”13 And there he died with
clotted blood, but he died. And when he
died, they said that dead people got out of
the ground. They said all kinds of miracles
took place when he died. He did not die
because of his crimes. He did not die even
because his enemies wanted him to die. He
died because you and I needed somebody to
redeem us.
It doesn’t matter how bad your sins are. It
doesn’t matter what you have done or what
you’re going to do; the fact is that God
redeems us anyway. The only thing we have
to do is to accept him. The Scripture says that
if you confess Jesus with your mouth and if
you believe that God has raised him from the
dead, you shall be saved.14 Whatever your
sins are, God blesses us with salvation.
When Jesus died, the centurion who was at
the foot of the cross said, “Surely, this man
was the Son of God!”15
Now, I think back to that Thursday night
when Jesus said, “Eat my flesh and drink my
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S WI LLIAM A. LAWS O N
blood”—blood and guts so it is. But when
Jesus died, those who were religious leaders
said to the Roman soldiers, “You just can’t
stay here with these men still on the cross.
They have to die before Passover, and
Passover begins at 6:00 tonight. So you have
to kill them right now before Passover comes.
You know, when Passover comes we have to
put on our Sunday best. We have to speak in
tongues. We have to beat our tambourines.
You’re going to have to get rid of this man.”
So they told the Romans, “Kill these men
before Passover begins.” The soldiers went
over and they broke the legs of those two
criminals. They were just about to break the
legs of Jesus, and then one of the soldiers
said, “We don’t need to break his legs; he is
dead already.”
The fact is he didn’t die when they wanted
him to die. He died when his Father wanted
him to die. So the Roman soldier said, “Well,
just to make sure he’s dead, why don’t we run
him through with a sword?”
So they pierced his side. Rammed it
between his ribs and once again something
spurted. But John said that what came out
was not simply blood. John calls it “blood
and water.”16 You remember that when he
was in the garden, Luke described his
sweat as blood kept falling down on the
ground. Sweat and blood; blood and
water. And when he died and when the
Roman soldier rammed him in the side and
saw these two fluids coming out, they
called it “blood and water.”
When I read from a physician’s confession
about Jesus, this was not blood and water. It
was blood and lymph. Lymph is a clear fluid
that represents a rupture inside the body. So,
Jesus’ heart had ruptured. Jesus really died of
a broken heart.
And right now I wonder: How much is
Jesus in pain because you and I do not
accept the presence and the power of God?
How much is Jesus hurt because we think
that he is worth 25 dollars? How much does
Jesus hurt because we are more concerned
about the St. John’s that we wear than we
are about worshiping him? How much does
he hurt because while we are glad to come
to church and look good and sound good,
we may say some pretty bad expletives
while we’re in the car on the way to and
after church?
The problem is that we often don’t realize
that we are breaking Jesus’ heart just by our
faithlessness and by the fact that we don’t
revere God enough.
The death of Jesus was not a pretty picture;
it was a bloody picture. It was a picture of
blood and guts, but it was a picture that
means that God loved us so much that Jesus
died while we were yet sinners. Aren’t you
glad that he subjected his Son to that kind of
misery for you and me?
The climax of this worship service is on
that table. When we eat that bread and drink
that wine, we’re doing what Jesus told us to
do: “Remember me.” We are commemorat-
ing his death for us. A blood and guts story,
beautiful story. Remember it, and look for-
ward. Amen. |
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
NOTES
1. See John 12:20-22.
2. John 12:23, paraphrased.
3. John 12:32, paraphrased.
4. Mark 14:6, 8, paraphrased.
5. Mark 14:18, paraphrased.
6. See Isaiah 55:9.
7. Luke 22:44, KJV.
8. See Mark 14:35.
9. Mark 14:36, paraphrased.
10. Mark 14:37, paraphrased.
11. See Luke 23:43.
12. Mark 15:34, NIV.
13. Luke 23:46, KJV.
14. See Romans 10:9.
15. Mark 15:39, TNIV.
16. See John 19:34; 1 John 5:6. 51
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S E LLI OTT J. MAS O N S R.
From Praise
to PRAISE
ELLIOT T J. MASON SR.
Psalm 30:6, NRSV
As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall
never be moved.”
T his psalm begins with these words: “I will
praise you LORD,” or “I will extol you O
LORD.” It begins with a praise of God. And
just reading that first praise sometimes will
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
52
mislead you; because if you haven’t read the
rest of the psalm, you don’t know where that
praise comes from. Even the person who is
not a Christian can utter a word of praise
from his mouth. The carnal Christian, the
Christian who is not fully yielded to Christ,
can utter a word of praise. And then the Holy
Spirit in the surrendered Christian is always
uttering praises. There are levels of praise.
Thank you, Jesus.
I cannot tell whether this is a serious word
of praise coming from the heart of one that
has only known the blessing of God, which is
a wonderful and acceptable word of praise,
but it’s one level of praise. If you’ve only
known the blessings of God, your heart is
filled with one kind of praise. But when I read
this psalm, I find that the praise that arises in
the heart of the psalmist comes from another
ELLIOTT J. MASON SR. is currently co-
director of World Renewal Ministries—A
Ministry of Prayer and Encouragement.
He served for 23 years as pastor of Trinity
Baptist Church in Los Angeles, California,
and retired as pastor of Trinity in 1985.
He graduated from Dillard University in
1942. He earned the Bachelor of Divinity
from Oberlin Graduate School of
Theology in 1944 and became the pastor
of Third Baptist Church of Ohio the same
year. He later earned the Master of
Sacred Theology from Oberlin. In
1955–1956, he was awarded the honor
of Fulbright Scholar to study at the
University of Edinburgh in Scotland. In
1968, he received his Ph.D. from the
University of Southern California in New
Testament Language and Literature.
Throughout his pastorate at Trinity, Dr.
Mason pursued scholarly interests by serv-
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S E LLI OTT J. MAS O N S R.
place. For this psalmist has not only known
the blessings of God, this psalmist has gone
through an experience of deep darkness. He’s
gone through such pain and suffering that for
a time he lost the sense of God’s presence.
But the psalmist does not start with the
pain and suffering he has gone through; he
starts with the blessing. As I read the whole
psalm, I concluded that he was always a man
who took God seriously and was fully dedi-
cated to God all of his life. He was not in and
out of the church. He was not in and out of
the temple. He took God seriously and he
served God with all of his heart. He begins
the psalm with the blessing for prosperity. It
was probably in his early life, and he says in
verse 6 of Psalm 30, “Now in my prosperi-
ty,” meaning only when God was blessing
me, “I said I shall never be moved.” I shall
ing as a professor at area institutions of high-
er education. From 1971–1975, he served
as faculty consultant for the Martin Luther
King, Jr. Program in Black Church Studies,
which was sponsored by the Colgate-
Rochester Divinity School. As part of this
professorship, he traveled and studied the
traditional religious practices throughout the
African Diaspora, including in places such as
West Africa, Jamaica, and Haiti. In 1979,
Dillard University conferred upon him the
Doctor of Divinity honorary degree.
Upon retiring from the pastorate in
1985, he formed World Renewal Minis-
tries, a ministry of prayer and encourage-
ment. He serves as the ministry’s Director
along with his wife, Geraldine. The primary
focus of World Renewal Ministries is to
help and encourage persons to daily live
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and
the teachings of the Bible.
never be moved. He does not say that out of
pride. He says that in deep humility. He gives
God all the credit for his prosperity. He
knew that no flesh should glory in the pres-
ence of God. This man was truly a dedicated
man of God. He says, “I give God the cred-
it.” He addresses God. He says, “LORD,
by your favor, by your grace, you have made
my mountain to stand strong.” You’ve made
me what I am. You’ve brought me my pros-
perity. You supplied my need. You blessed
me. You were kind to me. You were a God
I could look to and I could trust. My life
was life of well being. I had a song that I
could sing.
I heard a song sung by a choir this morning
over the radio: “The Lord is blessing me right
now.” And this psalmist could sing that song:
“The Lord is blessing me right now.” That
was my psalmist’s testimony that the Lord
was blessing him. He had a strong faith in
God. Praise his name! He was giving a testi-
mony that he was trusting God and walking
with God and gave everything he could to
God, including his tithes, offerings, and his
family. Praise God for this psalmist. He was
prosperous, and there’s nothing wrong with
prosperity because God wants us to prosper.
He desires our prosperity as we yield to him
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
and allow him to have his way in our lives.
He wants to bless us and to prosper us and to
keep us by his power. Thank you, Jesus. The
psalmist in his prosperity, in his blessings
could say hallelujah every morning. He rose
up every morning saying: “Hallelujah!” He
rose up every morning saying: “Praise the
Lord.” He woke up every morning saying: “I
will extol you O God.”
God was pleased with this man’s life, but
God had a deeper ministry for him. You
know sometimes, especially in your young
life when you’re on fire for God and every-
thing is going well, you might have a 53
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S E LLI OTT J. MAS O N S R.
marvelous ministry with God and for God
and serving the church and ministering in the
world. But God says, “I want to take you to
a deeper place. I want you to know me at a
deeper level. I want the world to know what’s
in your heart and what I can do with you.”
And then God takes you through the dark-
ness until there’s no self-life in you. Do you
understand what I mean? I’m not just talking
about sin, but I’m talking about self.
Sometimes in my self-life I do what I want to
do in my own way; I want to do some great
thing for God that God never told me to do,
and I get in trouble by doing something that
God didn’t tell me to do.
I tell ministers how in my early life, when
I was in Toledo, Ohio, I became sick. I had
tuberculosis and almost died, but God
renewed my life and God began to show me
things. God said, “Now what got you in
trouble was your dedication.” He said, “I
tell you to make six sick calls, but you want-
ed to do more than I told you to do and you
went and made ten sick calls. And if you
made ten sick calls, you broke your rela-
tionship with me—at least your fellowship
with me. Yea, I know you love me, but you
were trying to work your way where you
wanted to be.” God says, “It’s not only your
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
unrighteousness that has to be judged, but
your righteousness has to be judged.”
Everything you do without the leading of
the Spirit has to be judged before God,
whether it’s good or bad!
He said, “Now I want to get the self-life out
of you. I want you to put you on the cross
and stay on the cross until there’s no more
Elliott Mason—only Jesus! And when people
come to hear you preach, they’re not looking
for you; they’re looking for Jesus! They’re not
looking for a man! They want to hear from
the living God! Many of your great sermons
54 stand in my way!”
That’s the trouble today. We want to
preach great sermons, embellished but sound
good! O praise the name of Jesus! But the
Lord says, “You stand in my way when you
try to preach a great sermon. Only Christ
must be seen. My word must come through.
You may fail, but I will succeed!” My wife
said to me before I left, she said, “You know
I used to pray that you preach a good ser-
mon.” She said, “But I don’t pray that any-
more. I pray that only Jesus will be glorified
because people need to see Jesus! Only
Jesus!” Hallelujah! Only Jesus! You preach
great sermons and we publish great sermons
so that they will read well. But whether God
is heard remains to be seen. Thank you,
Jesus! You see that’s what God wants. He’s
trying to conform me to the image of Jesus so
that Jesus is seen and I am hid. Thank you,
Lord. Thank you, Jesus.
And the psalmist said in verse 7, “In the
midst of my blessings, God hid his face.” He
said, “You hid your face and I was troubled.
I wondered what happened. I woke up one
morning and found that my blessings were
not there. You were not blessing me as
before. You hid your face and I was troubled
because I live by your face. I live by your mer-
cies. I live by your blessings. What’s happen-
ing?” Enemies rose up against him. As I read
the psalm, “My so-called friends became my
enemies. My health failed and I was sure that
I was going to die. I almost did die. I lost my
song. I had been singing, but I lost my song!”
Now, if you haven’t been there, I’m not talk-
ing to you. You may not have been there yet,
but you may get there—where you lose your
song. The praise that comes out of that is a dif-
ferent kind of praise! Hallelujah! You insert
your own experiences. Maybe it’s a marital
breakup. Maybe there’s trouble in your mar-
riage. Maybe your children are on drugs. I
don’t know what your night is. Maybe your
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S E LLI OTT J. MAS O N S R.
heart is breaking this morning. Maybe you’re
weeping bitterly because you know you’re in
some dark place and you can’t find your way
out. Thank you, Jesus! But the psalmist says,
“Through it all, there was one flicker of light
left. O praise his name.” He said, “In the midst
of it all; in the midst even of the darkness, I saw
your face. I kept my eyes on the Lord. In the
midst of the darkness, I was troubled but I kept
my eyes on the Lord! I didn’t have much faith,
but with the little faith I had,” the psalmist says
in verse 8, “I cried; I cried to you. Oh Lord,
Lord have mercy on me!”
It was a cry of desperation. I don’t know if
you’ve ever been there, but it is a cry that
comes from deep down in your heart that you
groan. It’s a moan! Hallelujah! Thank you,
Jesus. “Hear O Lord and have mercy upon
me. Hear me Jesus!” Have you ever cried like
that to God? Have you ever cried out of the
depth: “Hear O Lord and have mercy upon
me. I live by your mercies every day”?
I know when I came up as a young child, as
a boy in New Orleans, I came to Jesus when I
was 8 years old; and I didn’t get into much
trouble throughout my life, and I went to
school. And at 21 years of age, or 22, I was
pastoring a church of fifteen hundred, and I
thought maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe God
selected me because I wasn’t such a bad fellow.
That maybe there was something he saw in
me. That’s what I used to think. But I came to
the place where I found out that I live only by
his mercies—every day! Only by his mercies!
Only by his grace! Nothing, nothing in my
hand I’ve raised. Simply to the cross I cling.
Nothing in me is worthy. “I chose you because
I love you!” That’s what he told Israel. “You
were not any better than any other nations of
the earth! I chose you only because of some-
thing in my heart—not something in you!”
The psalmist’s disorientation drove him to
his knees. Oh thank you, Lord. It is why I
thank God for his judgment. You know I did-
n’t always thank God for that. I didn’t want
any judgment from God. But I thank him for
his judgment because his judgment—even a
loving judgment—comes to correct me.
Thank you, Jesus. When I go before the Lord
in prayer, to pray for others, he points to my
heart. He says, “Now what’s that there in
your heart? What’s that there in your heart?
Is any resentment there? Is there any unfor-
giveness there? Is there anyone that you don’t
like, like you ought to like? You can’t pray for
them until you love them. You cannot inter-
cede. You don’t know what intercession is
until you identify with them in their need!
You have to feel their pain like I feel your
pain.” Oh thank you, Jesus! Thank you,
Jesus! Your mercy; your grace! God kept the
psalmist there for a while, for the deeper the
darkness the greater the joy that arises from
that darkness—when God gives you a new
song. You thought you had a song. You
thought you had a song when you were being
blessed! But God gives you a new song when
you come out of the darkness! Hallelujah! It’s
a new song. A new song!
I thought that a Christian should never be
depressed. You know I was strong in my faith.
I thought a Christian should never be dis-
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
tressed. I had said that whatever happens to
you, you shouldn’t lose your joy. Someone
came to me in 1987 during a period of depres-
sion and told me you should never lose your
joy. I didn’t tell them anything because that’s
just the problem. That’s why I’m depressed—
because I’ve lost my joy! I’m glad to tell it
because this psalmist told it. He said, “I’ve lost
my joy! Hallelujah! I’ve lost that first song you
gave me.” Oh, but then one day, one day, one
day! I don’t know where it came from. My
wife prayed for me. My son prayed for me.
Every night my son would come over and sit
with my wife and they prayed. Hallelujah! 55
S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S E LLI OTT J. MAS O N S R.
They prayed! I would try to pray and that’s
when I learned that prayer doesn’t come from
the lips, but it comes from the heart. No, I
want to put that another way. I had been
praying from my heart all my life, but let me
tell you what I mean by that. I mean that you
don’t pray until the Holy Spirit prays. Do you
understand? It is the Spirit of God. He says,
“You don’t know how to pray as you ought,”
but the Holy Spirit on the inside of my heart
begins to pray. That’s why I say hallelujah!
That doesn’t come from me! That comes from
God inside of me! Hallelujah!
Announcing the 2009 African American
Pulpit Seminarians’ Contest
2009 Seminarians’ Contest Information—www.TheAfricanAmericanPulpit.com
Submit your sermon to The African American Pulpit Winter 2009 seminarians’ issue
contest with the opportunity to receive a cash prize and publication of your sermon!
FOR THIS SPECIAL SEMINARIANS’ ISSUE, The African
American Pulpit is offering three cash prizes of $500,
$300, and $100 for the top three sermons chosen by
the coexecutive editors and selected advisory board
members. The top twelve to fifteen sermons will be
published in the Winter 2009 Seminarians’ Issue of The
African American Pulpit Journal.
CRITERIA
Sermons will be judged based upon:
Length: sermons should be no longer than eight dou-
ble-spaced pages (using size 12 font)
Focus: how well the sermon concentrates upon the
text(s) selected by the seminarian
Flow of the sermon: how well the sermon naturally
moves from one point to the next
Creativity used in approaching the text
GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION
All participants must be eighteen years or older. *All
participants can have no more than five years preach-
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must be received by The African American Pulpit no
And then one day faith rose up in my heart.
God said, “That’s not your faith. That’s not
your faith; that’s my faith! That’s the faith of
Jesus!” There comes a joy in trouble. There
comes a joy in the fire! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Oh thank you, Jesus! The
psalmist said in verse 5: “Weeping may
endure for the night, but joy comes in the
morning.” In verse 11 the psalmist says:
“You have turned my mourning into danc-
ing; you have taken off my sackcloth and
clothed me with joy.…” O Lord my God, I
will give thanks to you forever. |
later than 5 p.m. EST April 30, 2009. (No exceptions.)
*Only one (1) sermon per seminarian will be accepted.
*All sermons must be sent as attachments via e-mail to
mcgoeyeditor@comcast.net. *Along with your submis-
sion, please include no more than a 6-sentence biogra-
phical summary and a recent photograph. A résumé or
vitaé in place of the 6-sentence biographical summary
will not be accepted. Please also include the name of the
seminary you attend and their phone number and your
complete contact information: mailing address, home
phone, cell phone, fax, and e-mail address. *Any mate-
rial that you submit must be your original work and
not published previously. *All quoted material, espe-
cially songs and poems, must be properly cited. *As
with all material submitted to The African American
Pulpit, the editors may edit your work and all sermons
submitted become the property of Hope for Life Inc.
(the owners of The African American Pulpit).
*Submitted material will not be returned. *Please be
advised that we will notify in October only those sem-
inarians whose sermons are selected for publication.
Please e-mail sermons, materials, or questions to
Victoria McGoey at mcgoeyeditor@comcast.net.
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS JAMES EARL MASSEY

A Grand 1 Timothy 1:12-17, ESV

I thank him who has given me strength,
Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me
Word about faithful, appointing me to his service, though
formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and
a GREAT insolent opponent. But I received mercy
because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,

SAVIOR and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me

with the faith and love that are in Christ
Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserv-
JAMES EARL MASSEY ing of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
the foremost. But I received mercy for this
reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus
Christ might display his perfect patience as an
example to those who were to believe in him
for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal,

JAMES EARL MASSEY, minister and

educator, holds emeritus status in three
institutions: He is Dean Emeritus and
Distinguished Professor-at-Large of An-
derson University School of Theology;
Dean Emeritus of the Tuskegee University
Chapel; and Pastor Emeritus, Metropolitan
Church of God, Detroit, Michigan. In 2006,
in celebration of its 50th anniversary,
Christianity Today International named him
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

one of the “25 most Influential Preachers

[evangelical preachers who have signifi-
cantly affected many others through
preaching] of the Past 50 Years.”
Born in Detroit, Michigan, he is the son
and grandson of ministers and was
ordained in 1951 as a minister in the
Church of God (Anderson, Indiana). He
graduated from Oberlin Graduate School
of Theology, with further studies com-
pleted at the University of Michigan,
Pacific School of Religion and Boston
College Graduate School. In addition to
58
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS JAMES EARL MASSEY
invisible, the only God, be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen.
L iving in our nation’s “Bible Belt” across
several years now, I am accustomed to
the large, lighted signs churches there use to
draw attention to their services. Some signs
even offer a concise message—a saying to
prod thought and promote faith. One church
sign I saw stated “Satan Subtracts and
Divides, God Adds and Multiplies.” Another
sign warned “Forbidden Fruit Creates Many
Jams.” Another sign promised “God
Answers Knee-Mail.” Still another sign
advised “Read the Bible: Prevent Truth
Decay.”1 What a worthy message when so
many unbiblical notions are widely voiced
the Doctor of Divinity Degree from Asbury
Theological Seminary (1972), he has
received honorary degrees from seven
academic institutions.
He served as pastor, from 1954–1976,
of Metropolitan Church of God in Detroit.
During three years of that pastorate, he
was on-leave to serve under missionary
appointment as President of Jamaica
School of Theology in Kingston, Jamaica,
West Indies. Beginning in 1977, he became
a Professor at Anderson University School
of Theology. In 1984, he became Dean of
the Chapel and University Professor of
Religion and Society at Tuskegee, In 1989,
he became Dean of the School of
Theology at Anderson University. In 1982
and 1987, he was Visiting Professor of
Preaching at Princeton Theological
Seminary. He currently serves as an
adjunct Professor of Preaching at Beeson
Divinity School.
He has been a guest preacher and lec-
and steadily promoted in our self-centered
and religiously muddled society.
Our textual passage shares a saying first-
century Christians joyously voiced as they
worshiped, grateful for grace; and it was their
word of witness as they evangelized. Paul has
preserved that saying here, and he commend-
ed it as “sure and worthy of full accept-
ance”—“Christ Jesus came into the world to
saver sinners.”
We are all familiar with “sayings,” those
maxims which hold true-to-life insights
gained by human trial and error, wisdom
from life shared and taught to guide our
behavior. But the saying in our text is no trial-
and-error truth; it is a revealed truth that God
disclosed “from above.” Remember the
turer at more than 140 colleges, universi-
ties, and seminaries in the United States, in
addition to preaching in pulpits in England,
Egypt, the Caribbean, Australia, and Japan.
He has been honored in two festschriften:
Sharing Heaven’s Music: The Heart of
Christian Preaching, Essays in Honor of
James Earl Massey (1985) and A Mighty
Long Journey: Reflections on Racial
Reconciliation (2000).
He has authored 25 books, including his
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
autobiography (2002), and more than 500
articles in both scholarly journals and popu-
lar magazines. His book The Burdensome
Joy of Preaching (Abingdon, 1998) won
Preaching Magazine’s 1998 Book of the
Year Award. He was also a contributing
writer and editor for the 12-volume The
New Interpreter’s Bible and a contributing
editor for the first Norton Publisher anthol-
ogy of Black Preaching: Preaching with
Sacred Fire: African American Sermons
1750 to the Present (2009).
59
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS JAMES EARL MASSEY
angel’s informing word to Joseph: “[Your
wife Mary] will bear a son, and you are to
name him Jesus, for he will save his people
from their sins.”2 And remember what Jesus
said about himself to Zacchaeus: “The Son
of Man came to seek out and to save the
lost.”3 Yes, “Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners.”
The Prophet Isaiah said this about humans:
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
all turned to our way.”4 The result has been
vast lostness and many fated ills.
The salvation Jesus came to offer rescues
us from two life-threatening realities. The
one reality is God’s wrath, his indignant
anger against sin. Sin angers God because it
violates God’s righteous will and spurns
God’s wisdom, causing bitter-lived conse-
quences as the end result. Some of those con-
sequences are sad, here-and-now outcomes
from selfish, foolish choices—occurrences
for which we have sayings such as, “You
reap what you sow” and “No one can do
wrong and get away.” There is always a con-
nection between sinful choices and sad out-
comes, between sowing and reaping,
between disobedient actions and inevitable
disorder and dis-ease.
But God’s wrath includes more than sad,
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
here-and-now consequences. A life of sinning
invites eternal consequences, too—conse-
quences the Bible refers to as “the wrath to
come.”5 My God! Jesus warned that whoso-
ever disobeys the Son will not see life, but
must endure God’s wrath.6
Jesus came into the world to save us, not
only from the wrath of God but also from the
waywardness which makes us deserve that
wrath. I speak of “waywardness” because
that word, though dated, best describes the
conditioning selfishness breeds in us, and that
word also embraces the gamut of deliberate
60 human failures. It covers a multitude of sins.
Waywardness involves wrongdoing, and
Scripture has explained that all wrongdoing
is sin.7 “Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners” from God’s wrath and from the
waywardness that makes one merit the
effects of the wrath.
The text reports Paul’s testimony about
how he came to experience being saved from
sin. Four words stand out boldly in his testi-
mony about what came forth from Christ to
change his life and destiny: mercy, grace,
faith, and love.
Like every other human of age, Paul had
a sinful past that needed to be remedied, and
he had a flawed personality that needed to
be corrected and redirected. He was well-
educated. He was extremely gifted. He was
a tough-minded person whose tremendous
energy and personal forcefulness had gained
him notice, and he was valued. He had ded-
icated himself to the service of a religious
system, and he was doing well by its stan-
dards. But although well-educated, highly
gifted, tough-minded, personally forceful,
and intensely religious, Paul was a sinner
who needed to be saved from his sins and
from himself.
Paul tells us in this passage how that
much-needed change in his life took place.
Looking back on his life before conversion
and remembering what he had slanderously
spoken against Jesus, Paul confessed: “I was
formerly a blasphemer.” Remembering how
he had zealously sought out and arrested fol-
lowers of Jesus, he admitted: “I was a perse-
cutor.” Remembering how he had ordered
the torture of Christians and the undeserved
death of Stephen which he helped direct,
Paul lamented: “I was a man of violence.”
Paul has been a religious zealot, an eager
enthusiast for a system, but he was sinfully
wrong because through it all he was oppos-
ing the Son of God.
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS JAMES EARL MASSEY
Although now years beyond the past he
mentioned here, and despite the incredibly
active and fruitful life he had lived since
experiencing conversion, Paul still felt a
stinging shame from his past, a shame so
deep that he considered himself “the chief
among sinners.” So deeply did Paul regret
his past, that even the Lord’s honoring sum-
mons for him to be one of his apostles did
not make him feel worthy. “I am the least of
the apostles,” he told the Corinthians, “unfit
to be called an apostle, because I persecuted
the church of God.”8 But what he lamented
about his past was all in the past. Jesus
Christ had saved him from his sins and he
had harnessed his selfhood for right living.
He was busy witnessing across the then-
known world about Jesus as Savior and was
making what became an indelible imprint on
Christian life and thought.
Twice in his testimony Paul stated, “I
received mercy.” He mentions this first in
verse 13, concerned to explain how, despite
his past, he had been divinely appointed to
serve Jesus. Due to God’s mercy, the triadic
magnitude of Paul’s sinfulness as a blasphe-
mer, persecutor, and a man of violence had
been matched and exceeded by the grace,
mercy, and love found in Christ Jesus. As
for that “grace,” Paul spoke of it as an
abundant quantity of favor sent in his
direction, a gift Jesus Christ personally
addressed to him: “the grace of our Lord
overflowed for me.”
I do not want to come across as pedantic
or bookish at this point, but the Greek term
translated here as “overflowed” (huper-
pleonazo) is so pictorial and was so person-
al to Paul that I must say something more
about it. It is a compound term that means
“to be plentiful, great in quantity, to be in
surplus.” Paul himself coined that term in
seeking to express adequately what he had
experienced of God’s grace; he added the
prefix huper, which means “over, above,” to
express the notion of superabundance! If
used with reference to pouring liquid into a
vessel or to a river at spate, the word means
“to run over, to be in such abundance as to
overflow.” That is the way Paul understood
God’s grace, and that is actually the way it
operates: It is sufficient, it is efficient, and it
is abundant. God’s favor toward us is always
offered in an abundant measure, and that
favor is always more than a match for all
aspects and stages of our human condition.
The songwriter expressed it well:
“Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, freely
bestowed on all who believe!”9
“I received mercy,” Paul further explained,
“so that in me, as the chief among sinners,
Jesus Christ could display the utmost patience,
making me an example to those who would
come to believe in him for eternal life.” These
are the words of a grace-claimed person. This
is the testimony of a Christ-captured life. This
is the witness of one who had experienced
what salvation does, and this remains an exul-
tant message about what salvation means and
that it can happen for all others.
Saving people, changing lives, is what Jesus
came into the world to do. He saves us from
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
the wrath of God, and he saves from the
waywardness that makes one a candidate of
that wrath. By saving us, Jesus gathers us into
his purposed life, renews us, and sets us on
the right path. This is all motivated by his
mercy, grace, faith, and love.
“O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Spread His praise from shore
to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth,
Changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches o’er His
loved ones, 61
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS JAMES EARL MASSEY
Died to call [us] all His own;
How for [us] He intercedeth,
Watching o’er [us] from the
throne!”10
Those who have experienced such mercy,
love, and grace will readily understand why
Paul broke into praise as he concluded his tes-
timony to Timothy about his conversion and
call to service: “To the King of the ages,
immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor
and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Sinners
order their own lives and understandably
lament their fate, singing the blues; but the
saved offer praise, grateful for a loving Savior,
and their gratitude shows in how they live.
The psalmist exhorted his fellow wor-
shipers: “Let the redeemed of the Lord say
so.…”11 George Fox, the Quaker leader,
understood that injunction to involve much
more than speech, so he advised: “Let your
lives speak.”12 That is no simple matter, nor a
spasmodic event; it is the business of a lifetime.
It is the necessary undertaking of everyone
who, like Paul, has been forgiven and knows
Christ as the saving change-agent that he is.
The legendary song writer and singer
Fanny J. Crosby knew something about the
“faith and love that are in Christ Jesus,” and
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
she said so in the many poems she wrote that
became gospel songs. Through those songs,
her name became prominent in late nine-
teenth-century urban revivalism. Although
blind since she was eight weeks old, Fanny
Crosby nevertheless grew up equipped with
spiritual insight, and she let her life resound
as a hallelujah chorus for Jesus. She consid-
ered her poems and hymns about salvation as
the great work of her life. Thank God for her
witness the next time you sing “Saved by
Grace” or utter the words to “Blessed
Assurance” or hum “Savior, More Than Life
62 to Me.” Thank God for her witness when
you sing the exultant lines of “To God Be the
Glory” or the invitational lines of “Raise
Him! Praise Him!” or pray the plaintive
prayer “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross.”
These are all songs of simplicity and emo-
tional depth, but behind them was not only a
concern to fashion songs worshipers could
use but also a heart that had been set ablaze
by gratitude for God’s grace. As one
redeemed, like Paul, Fanny J. Crosby had
ready words to say about her Savior.
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners.” Like Paul and the many others who
have testified to this truth, I conclude by shar-
ing my witness to it. Having experienced the
mercy, grace, faith, and love that Jesus pro-
vides, I, too, know what it means to be saved:
“I heard the voice of Jesus say,
‘Come unto Me and rest;
Lay down, thou weary one,
lay down
Thy head upon My breast.’
I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary, worn, and sad;
I found in Him a resting place,
And He has made me glad.”13
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners,” and he still does! Spreading this
word is the central issue in preaching, and
gaining its acceptance is every true preacher’s
major concern. With the Apostle Paul, I glad-
ly and gratefully thank “Christ Jesus our
Lord, who has strengthened me, because he
judged me faithful and appointed me to this
service.” And I am ready—anytime, any-
where, to tell anyone:
“I know a great Savior, I do;
don’t you?
I live by His favor, I do; don’t you?
For grace I implore Him, I worship
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS JAMES EARL MASSEY
before Him,
I love and adore Him, I do;
don’t you?
I need Him to lead me, I do;
don’t you?
Heav’n’s manna to feed me, I
do; don’t you?
In mercy to hide me, I do; don’t you?
I want Him to use me, I do;
don’t you?
For service to choose me, I do;
don’t you?
I want Him to bless me, to own and
confess me,
Completely possess me, I do;
don’t you?”14 | Celebration (Waco, Tex.: Word Music), 1986.
NOTES
1. See Markeshia Ricks, “Divine Signs,” Tuscaloosa News
(2 April 2005), section D-1.
2. Matthew 1:21, paraphrased.
3. Luke 19:10, ESV.
4. Isaiah 53:6a, paraphrased.
5. See 1 Thessalonians 1:10.
6. See John 3:36.
7. See 1 John 5:17.
8. 1 Corinthians 15:9, NRSV.
9. Julia H. Johnson, “Grace Greater Than Our Sin,” in
Hymns Tried and True (Chicago: The Bible Institute
Colportage Association), 1911.
10. Samuel T. Francis, “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus,”
Hymn No, 238 in Worship the Lord: Hymnal of the Church
of God (Anderson, Ind.: Warner Press, Inc.), 1989.
11. Psalm 107:2a, KJV.
12. See Margaret Hope Bacon, Let This Life Speak: The
Legacy of Henry Joel Cadbury (Philadelphia: University of
Philadelphia Press), 1987, 218.
13. Horatius Bonar, “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say,”
Hymn No. 414 in The Hymnal for Worship and
14. Melville W. Miller and E.O. Excell, “I Do, Don’t You?”
Hymn #17 in Gospel Pearls (Nashville, Tenn.: Sunday
School Publishing Board, National Baptist Convention,
U.S.A.), 1921.
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S OTI S M OS S J R.

TRUST and the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not
unto thine own understanding.” Think about
three words: trust and commitment…trust
Commitment and commitment. Trust in the Lord with your
whole heart and do not depend upon your
(Part 1) limited understanding. Trust in the Lord from
the bottom of your heart and do not rely on
your limited knowledge. “Trust in the LORD
OTIS MOSS JR. with all thine heart; and lean not unto thy own
understanding.” Trust and commitment.…
Now without trust, there can be no true com-
Proverbs 3:5, KJV mitment because you cannot fully commit your-
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and self to that which you do not trust. And you can-
lean not unto thine own understanding. not be fully committed to him or her in whom
you have no trust. You cannot easily digest food

Iwant to ask you to repeat Proverbs 3, verse 5

from the King James translation: “Trust in
when you have no trust in it—even if it’s pretty
good food. Your stomach will not cooperate.

OTIS MOSS JR., preacher, theologian,

pastor, and civic leader, has long been
one of America’s most influential religious
leaders and highly sought-after preach-
ers. He was born in LaGrange, Georgia, in
1935 as one of five siblings. His mother
died when he was four, and his father
died when Otis was sixteen.
Reverend Moss attended Morehouse
College (Bachelor of Arts 1956) where he
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

was mentored by the distinguished Dr.

Benjamin Mays; he received a Master of
Divinity from Morehouse School of
Religion/Interdenominational Theological
Center (1959) and gained his Doctor of
Ministry Degree from United Theological
Seminary in Dayton, Ohio (1990). Dr. Moss
was a founding member of Operation PUSH
(People United to Serve Humanity), the eco-
nomic justice organization that emerged out
of SCLC’s Operation Breadbasket.
From 1954 to 1975, Dr. Moss pastored
several churches. In his early days in min-
64
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S OTI S M OS S J R.
Trust and commitment go hand in hand.
You cannot give full commitment, I say again,
to that which you do not trust. And trust, faith,
and commitment are inseparable. Some people
stumble through life because they have no com-
mitment, and they have no commitment
because they have no faith. And they have no
faith because they have no trust. And where
there is no faith and no hope and no commit-
ment, there is no love. So, if you do not trust,
you cannot have profound commitment. And
if you don’t have profound trust and commit-
ment, you cannot have great accomplishments.
Trust and commitment are inseparable. And
you know, you can ask: How can we do great
things? How can a faith-less person do great
things? How can a hope-less person do great
istry, he worked with Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC) and years later briefly
co-pastored the historic Ebenezer Baptist
Church in Atlanta with Martin Luther King
Sr. before returning to Cincinnati where he
served Mount Zion Baptist Church. In 1975,
he moved to Cleveland to pastor Olivet
Institutional Baptist Church, from which he
retired in 2008. Dr. Moss led Olivet
Institutional in developing programs of spiri-
tual and social renewal. Olivet provides edu-
cational programs and services to the
Cleveland community and offers healthcare
services through the Otis Moss Jr. University
Hospital Medical Center, which is a partner-
ship between the church and University
Hospital of Cleveland.
Alongside his pastoral duties, Dr. Moss is
currently a member of the Board of
Morehouse School of Religion and the
Board of Directors of Morehouse College.
His ministry also extends to the political
things? How can a trust-less person do great
things? How can a love-less person do great
things? How can an uncommitted person do
great things? Life at its highest and best requires
a kind of seven-fold Amen: trust, commitment,
faith, hope, love, labor or service, and then great-
ness. So greatness is born where there is great
trust, great commitment, great faith, great hope,
great love, great service, and then greatness. And
often we want greatness without faith, without
hope, without love, without labor, without com-
mitment; for commitment requires struggle,
struggle, struggle. And struggle says, “It might
happen this year, but if it does not I’ll keep on
struggling. It might happen year after next, but
I’ll keep on struggling. It might happen 10 years
from now, but I will keep on struggling.”
sphere: President Carter often consulted
Dr. Moss on moral and social issues facing
America; and in 1994, President Clinton
invited him to Camp David to witness the
signing of the peace treaty between Israel
and Jordan. Hailed as one of the greatest
preachers of the twentieth and twenty-first
centuries, Dr. Moss was invited to deliver
the Lyman Beecher Lectures at Yale
University in 2004. He was also named one
of the top 15 preachers by Ebony in 1993.
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
He has received honorary degrees from
Myers University, LaGrange College,
Cleveland State University, Shorter College,
Morehouse, and Temple Bible College.
Otis Moss Jr. has been called a regal
preacher because of his continuous pos-
ture of calmness under fire including while
working in the trenches as an activist. With
humor, stories, and impeccable, passionate
delivery, Reverend Moss has served as a
Christian standard bearer for preachers
and parishioners for more than 50 years.
65
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S OTI S M OS S J R.
How long did it take you to get grown? Now
suppose you had said at 3 or 4 or 5, “I’m going
to quit! It’s taking too long.” How long did it
take you to get grown? And then after you got
grown, how long did it take you to get some
sense? Wisdom does not fly in from outer space
just because you had a birthday. You can do a
whole lot of crazy stuff even when you are 3
times 7. As a matter of fact, you can do more
crazy stuff at 21 than you did at 10 because you
have a little more power, a little more license,
and a little more opportunity.
Faith and trust and hope and commitment
and love and labor bring forth greatness. And
some things you struggle for will not happen
while you are alive. So, you ought to struggle
for something that is bigger than you are,
something better than you are, something that
will live longer than you will live. For if your
life is only organized around how long you
live, your life is too small. If your God is small
enough for you to manage, your God is too
small. If your God is so small that you can
wrap your God up in a creed or in a denomi-
nation, your God is too small. Jesus didn’t say,
“I will build my church on the Baptist
Covenant,” as much as I love it. You know,
“Having been led as we believe by the Spirit of
God....” We recite it every first Sunday. But
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
don’t you know that Jesus is bigger than that?
Some folk get confused—I’ve said this
many times in Bible class—some folks get
confused on the King James translation; they
think John the Baptist was the preacher of a
Baptist church. The real translation is John
the Baptizer. You know, John wasn’t the pas-
tor of the First Baptist Church of the
Wilderness. Jesus didn’t say, “I’m building a
Presbyterian church” or “I’m building the
up-and-coming mega church.” He said,
“Upon this rock I will build my church; and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”1
66 Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And in
order to do that you’ve got to have trust, com-
mitment, faith, hope, love, service, and out of
that comes greatness. And you know I’m glad
that you can trust in the Lord. Because when
you trust in the Lord with all your mind, with
all your heart, and with all your strength, that
means that you have committed—you have
committed everything to God. And you can
trust God. You see, when you pray, you don’t
have to say anything—you don’t have to say a
word in order to pray. All you have to do is
acknowledge that here I am, a sinner in the
need of prayer. And I’m glad you don’t have to
say anything because folk are always listening
to see what you’re going to say. And in this day
of technology and eavesdropping, you might
want to make a confession and somebody has
a mike on and catches what you are confessing
and puts it in the “Plain Dealer” Newspaper
the next morning. But you can trust God. You
can talk to God, and even the angels won’t
know about the conversation. They have to
wait until God directs them, and God can
direct an angel to do something on your behalf
without even telling the angel what the conver-
sation was between you and God.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and
lean not unto your own understanding. Now
this is just the first half of this, and I’m going to
deal with the other half later on. But I want to
say a word about “lean not unto your own
understanding.” You know when I was a
young man—I still ain’t so old—when I was a
young man, I got my first automobile and it
was a used automobile. They don’t call it that
now; they say “pre-owned.” It was a used
automobile. I got it from the used lot, and I
was happy and proud about it. And it ran well,
but there was something wrong with it. There
was something wrong in the electrical mecha-
nism, and the lights would just go out without
permission. I was driving one night between
Athens and Atlanta, and the lights just went
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S OTI S M OS S J R.
out. I was on a dark road in Ku Klux Klan ter-
ritory and the lights went out, and I didn’t
want to stop because I didn’t trust my sur-
roundings. I didn’t want to ask anybody. So I
got behind a car whose lights were on, and I
stayed behind the car because somebody
ahead of me had lights on. I stayed behind the
car with lights. And after a while, my lights
came back on. But I don’t know what would
have happened to me that dark night if I had
not followed somebody ahead of me whose
lights were on. Now, I don’t know the name of
the person, never met the driver, but I followed
the lights. And if you can just follow the light
of Jesus when your light goes out—your light
is dim, your battery has been exhausted, but
just follow the light of Jesus. And after a while,
there will be light all around you, but most of
all, light in you. But the point I want to make
is I bought that car; I paid for it. The notes
were $37 per month; I paid for it on install-
ments. But there was something wrong with it.
It was flawed. So I could not put my whole
trust in a used automobile. So many of us have
deposited our future in things that are just like
used automobiles; believe me they will not get
you to your destination.
And then I bought another car…that time I
moved up. I checked Consumer Reports. And
they said the best economy automobile that year
was a Falcon. They had just come on the mar-
ket. So I went and traded in the used car, and
this time I got a brand new car—no stopping on
the highway…no lights going out…I got a
Falcon. It was pea green…a Falcon. I was mov-
ing from Atlanta to Cincinnati, and I drove my
Falcon all the way. Didn’t have any trouble, but
guess what? One day I was driving down the
road and without notice, without warning the
Falcon caught fire! My Consumer’s Guide said
that it was the best on the market…but it caught
fire! It was brand new, I had a guarantee, but it
was faulty. I could not trust the used car totally,
and I could not trust the new car totally.
I got rid of the Falcon, and then I really
moved up. I got a Grand Prix…saddle brown
and beige, with bucket seats and air condi-
tioning. I knew I was sharp! Air condition-
ing—I didn’t have air conditioning at
home—so it was cool in the car; and you
won’t believe it, but I was cool! I was on a
long trip one hot summer day, and the air
conditioning went out. All the windows
steamed up and I had to stop, cut off the air
conditioning, and clean the windows so I
could see. Now, here I’d had three experi-
ences: one with an old car and two with new
cars, but each one was flawed. I couldn’t trust
the used, and I couldn’t trust the new.
Some people are trusting in the wrong
things and the wrong stuff. But Proverbs says,
Trust in the Lord and the Lord won’t desert
you on some dark highway of life. Trust in the
Lord and your trust will not be burned up
because of fires that come out of nowhere.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean
not unto your own understanding. Amen.
TRUST AND COMMITMENT (PART 2)
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do
not depend upon your own strength. This is
part two of what I started earlier. Trust in the
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
Lord, says another translation, from the bot-
tom of your heart and do not depend upon
your limited resources. Trust in the Lord with
everything you have and do not depend upon
your personal strength to carry you through
time and into eternity. Trust in the Lord with
all your mind, your heart, your strength, your
soul, and never depend on who you are to
make it in this world. And, if we have trust,
commitment, faith, hope, love, labor or serv-
ice, out of these will flow greatness. And with
trust, commitment, faith, hope, love, and serv-
ice plus greatness, we can live, in the words of
one popular pastor, “a purpose-driven life.”2 67
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S OTI S M OS S J R.
The psalmist or the writer of the proverb in
Proverbs chapter 3, verse 5 is right: “Trust in
the Lord.” Amen. Make a commitment.
Amen. Have faith. Amen. Live a life of hope.
Amen. Love as Jesus taught us to love. Amen.
Spend your life in labor and service. Amen,
again. And out of these will flow greatness—
that’s a seven-fold Amen.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and
lean not unto your own understanding. Now, I
have learned some things across the years from
my elders. I remember as a teenager that an
elder in the ministry said to me, “Son, the ques-
tion is never: Can you trust God? The real
question is: Can God trust you?” Can God
trust me? That’s a deep question. It’s a simple
question. It is so searching that it calls to the
altar all of our theology, our sociology, our psy-
chology, our economics, our science, and our
ethics. Can God trust us? That is the great ques-
tion. Can God trust us with God’s creation?
And maybe you didn’t quite catch it. God
made us in God’s own image, but can God
trust us when the lights are out? When nobody
is looking, can God trust us with God’s image?
After giving us the image of God and placing us
in a garden and the psalmist said we were
“made a little lower than the angels.”3
Now, now, think about this: God created us
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
in God’s own image and after God’s own like-
ness and then gave us everything we needed. A
garden that was full, plentiful, everything we
needed, and then Adam and Eve put their trust
in a snake. Here is a powerful challenge: Do I
trust a snake more than I trust God?
Can God trust us with God’s creation? Can
God trust us with a river? When I first came to
Cleveland, I heard about the Cuyahoga River
catching on fire. Why did it burn? Because
God could not trust us with a river—one river.
We polluted it so with all kinds of inflamma-
ble chemicals that the river rebelled and caught
68 fire. Can God trust us with a lake to the extent
that we will not dump toxic waste in the lake,
endangering all marine life and endangering
our own lives for years to come? Can God
trust us? Let me back up for a moment.
Can God trust us with our innocence? I
would say, especially to the younger genera-
tion, do not turn over your decision-making
responsibility to anybody but God. Now, I
agree with Harvey Cox who wrote a book
several years ago with a strange title but a very
challenging title: On Not Leaving It to the
Snake.4 He said that Adam and Eve made a
great mistake when they turned over their
decision-making power to a snake. Now, how
does that apply to me? Do not turn your inno-
cence over to a snake. You still didn’t catch it.
Let me borrow from Otis III: Do not turn your
sacred self, do not turn your sexuality over to
snakes. Do not turn your dignity and your
integrity over to a snake. I don’t care what the
snake promises you! A good time, a good ride,
a lot of “bling-bling,” whatever. Do not turn
the best of your years over to a snake.
The question is not “Can I trust God?” but
“Can God trust me?” And I can never put my
total trust even in myself because I am often
wrong. I agree with Gibran who said,
“Government is an agreement between you
and myself, and you and myself are often
wrong.”5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not unto your own understanding.
When I first came to Cleveland, there was a
great company named Republic Steel. But— you
help me out—where is Republic Steel? When I
came to Cleveland, there was a great bank called
Ameritrust. It was first Cleveland Trust and then
it became Ameritrust. But where is Ameritrust?
When I first came to Cleveland, there was anoth-
er bank called Central National; but where is
Central National? There was another bank called
Society National. Where is Society National?
There was another bank we owned called First
National Bank Association. Some of you all were
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S OTI S M OS S J R.
on the board. We were all great customers. We
could walk in the bank and say, “I want to see the
president—right now.” But we never did that at
Ameritrust. You went to Ameritrust saying, “Yes
sir. Yes ma’am.” But at First National Bank we
could say, “I want to see the Chairman of the
Board right now! Don’t tell me—I’ve known him
since he first came to Cleveland.” You never did
that at Central National. That’s a subject for
another meeting. But where is that bank?
There was a hospital named Forest City. I
went to Forest City to see a member. They
were eating neckbones, candied yams, pork
chops (they had sent out for food). “Brother
Pastor, I just can’t stand this hospital food,
and I want you to pray for me!” There was
another hospital called Mt. Sinai and anoth-
er hospital called St. Luke’s. Where are they?
But let me tell you, the same Jesus, the same
Jesus who gave the blind man his sight, the
same Jesus who made the lame to walk, the
same Jesus who fed 5,000, the same Jesus who
gave Simon Peter a new name, the same Jesus
who rescued John Mark, the same Jesus who
turned Saul of Tarsus around on the Damascus
Road, the same Jesus who took care of John on
the Isle of Patmos, the same Jesus who took
care of Frederick Douglass from slavery to free-
dom, the same Jesus who took care of Mother
Teresa, the same Jesus who took care of grand-
mother and grandfather, the same Jesus that I
called on this morning—he never goes out of
business. He never goes bankrupt. He never
runs out of resources because he’s the same yes-
terday, today, and forever.6 Therefore, trust in
the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto
your own understanding.
After while, my steps will get short. After
while, my hearing will get limited. After
while, my eyesight will grow dim. After
while, my voice will grow weak. But I trust in
the Lord with all my heart, all my mind, all
my strength. Yes, I trust him! Because one
day when I can’t do for myself, when I fall
down…when I fall down…all the way down,
the Lord will pick me up. Somebody told me,
“When my mother and father forsake me,
the Lord will take me up.”7 Somebody told
me, “I was young, now I’m old, but I’ve
never seen the righteous forsake nor his seed
beg bread.”8 Somebody told me, “Every
mountain and every hill shall be made low,
every valley shall be exalted, and the glory of
the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall
see it together.”9 Somebody else told me, “He
is the Alpha and Omega. He’s the first and
the last.”10 I trust in God—not in govern-
ment, but in God. Jesus is the ultimate candi-
date! He’ll never leave you. He doesn’t have
to run for office—every 4 years or every 8
years, because from everlasting to everlasting
he is God.11 I know what I’m talking about.
I know what he’ll do for you.
About 12 months ago almost, I went to the
hospital. But I came out, and now I can tell
you, I feel good. I feel good in my soul!
Trust in God with all your heart, all your
mind. I don’t care where you are in life. If
you’re addicted, trust in God. If you’re on
crack cocaine, trust in God. If you are sick,
trust in God. If you don’t have a friend, trust
in God. He has more friends than you can
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
ever count!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! |
NOTES
1. Matthew 16:18, KJV.
2. Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Life (Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Zondervan), 2002.
3. See Psalm 8:5.
4. Harvey Cox, On Not Leaving It to the Snake (New York:
Macmillan), 1969.
5. Kahlil Gibran, “Sand and Foam.”
6. See Hebrews 13:8.
7. See Psalm 27:10.
8. See Psalm 37:25.
9. See Isaiah 40:4-5.
10. See Revelation 1:8; 22:13.
11. See Psalm 90:2. 69
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S J. D EOTI S R O B E RTS
Tambourines
J. DEOTIS ROBERTS
This sermon was preached circa 1948.
Romans 7:19, KJV
For the good that I would I do not: but the
evil which I would not, that I do.
T he literal description of the conversion of
the Apostle Paul is like the familiar saying,
“I want to be a good person. I would like to
be serene, but my feet keep dancing to a far-
off tambourine.”
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
70
This thought is indicative of conflicts that
terrorize humankind. Hate versus love, con-
sumption versus production, destruction
versus creation.
Such conflict began in antiquity between
evil and good in “Paradise Lost,” but poet
John Milton wrote also “Paradise
Regained.”1 Good is always victorious.
In the Garden of Eden, strife became a
domineering reality in the life of all
humans. Cain killed Abel, and strife took
its seat among humankind. Popes struggled
with powers culminating in The Crusades.
There was aroused commotion between
Catholicism and Protestantism.
Thus, we can see the contentions of this
world have grown in number and ferocity.
But in our day conflict has climaxed. This
is the most chaotic era in the history of the
J. DEOTIS ROBERTS has served both
the church and the academy for more
than 5 decades. He graduated from
Johnson C. Smith and Shaw universities
and completed advanced studies at
Hartford Seminary (S.T.M.) and the
University of Edinburgh (Ph.D. and LL.D.).
His travel and teaching have taken him
across the country and around the globe,
including Europe, Africa, the Caribbean,
Asia, Australia, and Latin America. He has
taught at Howard University, Eastern
Baptist Theological Seminary (renamed
Palmer), Claremont Theological School,
Yale Divinity School, and Duke Divinity
School. He is the former president of the
International Theological Center in Atlanta
and the former dean of the Virginia Union
Theological School in Richmond.
Dr. Roberts is the author of about 20
books and hundreds of essays. He is a
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S J. D EOTI S R O B E RTS
world. Science has given humans uncon-
trollable powers. The atom bomb is a good
example; after this terrorizing monster fell
in Hiroshima, never before had
humankind realized the need of together-
hood as then. Even those who made this
bomb were frightened, lest the enemy
should seek revenge with a weapon equal
to their touch of scientific genius. Humans
are adolescent; they have a dim vision.
Their troubles involve the misuse of wis-
dom that God has given them to build his
kingdom here on earth.
Ours is a glorious era of evolution of wis-
dom and knowledge; but hanging heavily in
the atmosphere we can see a fearful mas-
querade, the cries and shrieks of world sui-
cide, the total annihilation of humankind
from the face of earth by its own wickedness.
member of numerous organizations includ-
ing the American Academy of Religion and
the American Theological Society. He is a
former member and trustee of the Martin
Luther King Jr. Center for Social Change
and is a 50-year-plus member of the
Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.
Dr. Roberts is founder and vice presi-
dent of The Foundation for Reconciliation
and Dialogue Inc., established in 2007
out of a growing concern for understand-
ing difference and otherness in an
increasingly global and multicultural
world. In his memoir, The Seasons of Life:
By Grace with Gratitude (Charp
Communications, 2007), he shares his
80-year journey from his modest North
Carolina roots to his lifelong career as an
internationally known theologian. He lives
in Maryland with his wife, Elizabeth, and
has three daughters.
Humanity is the problem unsurpassed by all
other oppositions. The weather, the change of
seasons, the supply of raw materials, the
chemistry of industrial processes, the control
of elemental forces all together occasion less
anxious thought than the question, What can
we reply upon in the sphere of human con-
duct? Organization is puzzled by personnel.
The nightmare of the employer is his labor.
The riddle of the common human is the man-
ager or boss.
At the spearhead of practically every enter-
prise appears the opposing spearhead of
sharper and sharper competition between
personalities and ideas.
Social friction is prevalent in human affairs,
depressing spirits and increasing skepticism
of the worth of human motives.
We hear people say, “We want vision,”
“We want control,” and “We want peace.”
Why can’t we obtain the virtues? Because the
conflict is between light and darkness, health
and disease, purity and sin, spiritual and car-
nal, divine and sensual forces baffling within
the hearts of humans.
Freud has said that within each individual
is the basic conflict, the struggle between con-
structive and destructive tendencies of per-
sonalities as similar forces in chemistry and
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
biology, purposed to create and to destroy, to
build up and tear down. Yes, the conflict is
between duty and interest, pain and pleasure,
indulgence and self-denial, popularity and
criticism, right and wrong, between destruc-
tion and eternal life.
Socrates, an earnest seeker after truth, said,
“Control thyself.” Greater still are the words
of Jesus: “Give thyself.” He gave himself.
“Give thyself.” Thy heart, thy mind, thy
soul, thy strength. Give thy all. We sing, “I
surrender all, all to Thee, my blessed Savior, I
surrender all.”2
World War II took place visibly on Flanders 71
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S J. D EOTI S R O B E RTS

The good life is a conflict—a struggle to

become better, to overcome the forces of evil with
good, to annihilate the evil temptations of this
world by growing in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Field in France, in Russia, in far-flung corners
of the world, but there was a greater conflict
more destructive than these in the hearts
and minds of humans. Yes, we say, “I want
to be a good person. I would like to
be serene, but my feet keep dancing to a far-
off tambourine.”
“For the good that I would I do not: but
the evil which I would not, that I do.”
The good life is a conflict—a struggle to
become better, to overcome the forces of
evil with good, to annihilate the evil temp-
tations of this world by growing in the
grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
Augustine writes: “I lusted to thieve, and
did it, compelled by no hunger, nor pover-
ty, but through a cloyedness of well-doing,
and a pamperedness of iniquity. For I stole
that, of which I had enough, and much bet-
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
within our members? Or yet what virtue will
annihilate vicious hate from within? Our
answer is the love of God.
“Love suffereth long, and is kind, love envi-
eth not, love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed
up, doeth not behave itself unseemingly,
seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,
thinketh no evil. Love rejoiceth not in iniqui-
ty, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things;
love never faileth.”5
O, my friends, if we were possessors of
such love, we would no longer fight among
ourselves but would lay aside every weight,
and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and
let us run with patience the race that is set
before us.6
Yes, we say: “I want to be a good person. I
would like to be serene, but my feet keep
dancing to a far-off tambourine.”

ter. Nor cared I to enjoy what I stole, but I had a classmate who started out good,
joyed in the theft and sin itself.”3 Decades but fell by the wayside.
later, this sin haunted Augustine. It preyed “I want to be a good person. I would like
upon him as a moral crisis. He realized he to be serene, but my feet keep dancing to a
could not be his own moral master and was far-off tambourine.”
consoled and converted when he read the You have seen couples who say they are
words of Apostle Paul: “Put ye on the Lord righteously joined together in holy matrimo-
Jesus Christ, and make not provision for ny; the “new broom sweeps well for a
the flesh.”4 while,” but they drift away from each other.
Like Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, we ask: “I want to be a good person. I would like
“How we may endure the whips and coils of to be serene, but my feet keep dancing to a
time… that mortal flesh is heir to?” What far-off tambourine.”
weight will balance this unstable course of You have seen people profess religion,
72 equilibrium between hate and love that wars join the church, start off good, fighting the
 S E R MON S FROM TH E E LD E R S J. D EOTI S R O B E RTS
good fight of faith, potentially earnest sol-
diers of the cross. But Satan gets on their
track; they lay down the weapon of prayer,
give up their armor of truth and righteous-
ness. They say they were unable to subdue
the flesh, to undergo the trials and tribula-
tions of this world, that they could not keep
the faith.
“I want to be a good person. I would like
to be serene, but my feet keep dancing to a
far-off tambourine.”
What does this matter? They didn’t tarry
long enough to be endowed with power from
on high. Jesus asked his disciples to wait in
Jerusalem until empowered.7
We all have sinned and fallen short of the
glory of God.8 We all have seen the time
when “I want to be a good person. I would
like to be serene, but my feet keep dancing to
a far-off tambourine.”
“The good that I would I do not: but the
evil that I would not, that I do.”
“The good which I will, I do not, but the
evil which I do not will, this I practice.”9
“I want to be a good person. I would like
to be serene, but my feet keep dancing to a
far-off tambourine.”
Decisions! Tambourines! Decisions!
Distance lends enchantment of evil. The
magnetic power of evil possesses our lives by
remote control.
“Know thyself” is the summons of
Socrates and Plato.
Control thyself. Overt and covert actions
are but the objective expression of motives
Socrates, an earnest seeker after truth, said,
“Control thyself.” Greater still are the
words of Jesus: “Give thyself.”
He gave himself.
and dispositions of heart, so self-control is
essential.
“O wretched man that I am! who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?”10
Give thyself. Jesus gave himself. The evi-
dence of a Christian life is in the power to
overcome evil.
Those of us who have been born again
have tarried and have been endowed with
power from on high. We know of the per-
sonal power of a personal Savior, who lifted
us up from our fallen condition, by the
power of the cross, by the power of his
divine love and mercy, by the power of his
resurrection, by the power of his spirit work-
ing within our hearts.
Let Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, har-
monize your life. “I want to be a good per-
son. I would like to be serene, but my feet
keep dancing to a far-off tambourine.”
The Deliverer is Christ Jesus. We must fol-
low him to victory over ourselves. |
NOTES
1. “Paradise Regain’d” is a poem by the seventeenth cen-
tury English poet John Milton, published in 1671.
2. Hymn “I Surrender All,” words by Judson W. Van
DeVenter and music by Windfield S. Weeden, 1896.
3. See “St. Augustine: Confessions, Book II,” available in an
on-line reprint at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/augus-
tine/Pusey/book02 (accessed October 10, 2008).
4. Romans 13:14, KJV.
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
5. See 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
6. Hebrews 12:1b, KJV.
7. See Luke 24:49.
8. See Romans 3:23.
9. Romans 7:19, Recovery Version.
10. Romans 7:24, KJV.
73
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS FRED L. SHUTTLESWORTH
A Blueprint
for LIVING
or a Pattern
for Dying
FRED L. SHUTTLESWORTH
This sermon was preached in 1968 at a memo-
rial service for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Micah 6:8, KJV
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good;
and what doth the LORD require of thee, but
to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with thy God?
2 Timothy 4:7, KJV
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith.
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
G
od has always tried to reach and speak
to his people through love. They oftimes
have really listened to him only during
moments of tragedy and calamity. Through
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., God was again
calling upon Americans, white and black,
and to the world to “Come now and let us all
reason together”1 and though the sins of your
society be as scarlet,2 with works of love,
mercy, atonement, and justice—not with
your so-called “law and order”—you could
purify and get for yourselves a oneness in
74 spirit and community.
FRED L. SHUTTLESWORTH was born
Freddie Lee Robinson in 1922. Howard K.
Smith, commentator for the May 1961
nationally televised documentary “Who
Speaks for Birmingham,” called Rev. Fred L.
Shuttlesworth “The man most feared by the
Southern racist” and further said of him: “No
history written on the Civil Rights Movement
would be complete unless it included the
name of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Pastor of
the Greater New Light Baptist Church in
Cincinnati, Ohio. Rev. Shuttlesworth has
given more of himself for the ‘Cause of
Freedom’ than any man living today.”
In May 1956, Alabama politicians, desper-
ate in their efforts to hold back the future,
outlawed the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People. A group
of ministers in the City of Birmingham
immediately came together under the lead-
ership of Rev. Shuttlesworth and organized
the Alabama Christian Movement for
Human Rights (A.C.M.H.R.). As President of
this newly organized movement, Rev.
Shuttlesworth said, “They can outlaw an
organization, but they cannot outlaw the
movement of a people determined to be
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS FRED L. SHUTTLESWORTH
free.” Rev. Shuttlesworth had his home
bombed twice, was beaten by mobsters, and
was jailed more than 35 times. He has been
involved in more than 40 criminal and civil
actions related to his fight for civil rights.
He was one of five organizers and the
first Secretary of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (S.C.L.C.) and
served as its President for several years.
For many years, he was also a member of
the National Advisory Board of the
Congress of Racial Equality.
He was the Pastor of Everdale Baptist
Church (1948–1950); Mt. Zion Baptist
Church, Potters Station (1948–1950); First
Baptist Church in Selma, Alabama
(1950–1952); Bethel Baptist Church in
Birmingham, Alabama (1953–1961);
Revelation Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio
(1961–1966); and he formed the Greater
New Light Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio,
in 1966, from which he retired in 2006.
In 1988, the Shuttlesworth Housing
Foundation was established by Rev. Shuttles-
worth to give grants of $500– $2000 to
poverty-level families to help with down-
payments toward the purchase of a home.
As of 2006, more than 600 low-income
families have become homeowners through
the program.
He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree,
Alabama State College in Montgomery,
Alabama; did post-graduate work at
Alabama State College; seminary training at
Cedar Grove Academy in Mobile, Alabama;
earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from
Selma University in Selma, Alabama; and
received numerous honorary degrees.
In June 1988, the City of Birmingham,
Alabama, by unanimous vote, renamed
Huntsville Road to F.L. Shuttlesworth Drive.
He was honored as “Birmingham’s Civil
Rights Leader” in June 1992. In November
2002, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
established the Fred Shuttlesworth Award,
an annual award presented to an individual
for outstanding leadership in Civil Rights.
Rev. Shuttlesworth is featured in the Spike
Lee movie Four Little Girls. In September
1998, he received the A. Phillip Randolph
Institute Award. In November 1998, the
Birmingham Historical Society published A
Walk to Freedom, a book about Rev.
Shuttlesworth and the work of the A.C.M.H.R.,
1956–1964. In the summer of 1999, two
books were released on his life: Step by Step,
written by L.D. Ervin and A Fire You Can’t Put
Out, written by Dr. Andrew Mannis.
In January 2000, Rev. Shuttlesworth
received the Presidential Citizen’s Award
from President Bill Clinton. That same year
the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce also
named him one of the “Greatest Living
Cincinnatians.” In June 2004, Rev.
Shuttlesworth received the second highest
award given to a private citizen, the
Jefferson Award, in Washington, D.C.
Despite his undisputed life-long fight for
civil rights, Reverend Shuttlesworth upset
many—although he also had many allies—
when in 2006 he participated in commer-
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
cials to help defeat Gay Rights legislation
being voted on by the people of Cincinnati
in 2006. He appeared in many commer-
cials with the underlying message that
gays did not deserve the kind of civil rights
that he had fought for all his life.
On July 16, 2008, the Birmingham
Alabama Airport Authority approved chang-
ing the name of the Birmingham
International Airport (U.S.) to the Birmingham
Shuttlesworth International Airport in honor
of Rev. Shuttlesworth. If approved by the
FAA, the name change will become official.
75
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS FRED L. SHUTTLESWORTH
Today, that eloquent and appealing voice,
which should have been eagerly welcomed
and vigorously supported, has been stilled;
and because of strife in the land, we fear that
we may indeed become men of death’s sec-
ond empire.
The plight of the country has been dram-
atized in two symbolic cartoons, one
drawn in Cincinnati, and another in an
Atlanta daily paper. One, representing
shame, showed a clear outline of the map
of the United States with a blackened fig-
ure of a man superimposed upon it, with
one of his feet in Maine and the other in
Florida, his prone torso reaching across the
width of the country, his one hand in the
state of Washington and the other in the
southern top of California. In the center,
they simply wrote his name: Martin Luther
King—Murdered. The other drawing
showed the danger of the collapse of
American society. It simply had the beauti-
ful Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
bursting asunder and falling down. In the
center of the crumbling structure was one
word: VIOLENCE.
The now-stilled prophetic voice had
been warning our society of its own sick-
ness and violence to its citizens—the vio-
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
lence of neglect, rejection, oppression,
withdrawal, economic exploitation, legal
suppression of lawful privileges, the killing
of hope, the silence of too many in the
white community, and the maiming of
conscience. Oh, that today’s editorial had
been yesterday’s preachments! Would to
God that today’s sense of urgency had
been yesterday’s movement to action! Oh,
that today’s official proclamations and
promises may be speedily translated into
programs of progress!
The sickness in our society is adequately
76 described in Isaiah:
“Their works are works of iniquity, and
deeds of violence are in their hands.
Their feet run to evil, and they rush to
shed innocent blood; their thoughts are
thoughts of iniquity, desolation and
destruction are in their highways. The
way of peace they do not know, and
there is no justice in their paths. Their
roads they have made crooked; no one
who walks in them knows peace.
Therefore justice is far from us, and
righteousness does not reach us; we wait
for light, and lo! there is darkness; and
for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
We grope like the blind along a wall,
groping like those who have no eyes; we
stumble at noon as in the twilight,
among the vigorous as though we were
dead. We all growl like bears; like doves
we moan mournfully. We wait for jus-
tice, but there is none; for salvation, but
it is far from us. For our transgressions
before you are many, and our sins testi-
fy against us. Our transgressions indeed
are with us, and we know our iniquities:
transgressing, and denying the LORD,
and turning away from following our
God, talking oppression and revolt, con-
ceiving lying words and uttering them
from the heart. Justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands at a distance;
for truth stumbles in the public square,
and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is
lacking, and whoever turns from evil is
despoiled. The LORD saw it, and it dis-
pleased him that there was no justice.
He saw that there was no man.…”3
But there was such a man! King’s prophet-
ic voice was for our age. In the dedication and
commitment of his life to principles, he
spelled out in action our first text: “He hath
shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS FRED L. SHUTTLESWORTH
doth the LORD require of thee, but to do just-
ly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with thy God?” In his death he re-spoke the
concluding valedictory of Paul: “I have
fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith.”4
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is being memo-
rialized these next few days by men of all
faiths, all races, all creeds, all regions, and all
positions. His earthly life was cut short by an
assassin’s bullet at the young age of 39 years,
but his immortal spirit goes marching on.
His was an unusual ministry. He walked
and sat where men walked—from the lowest
to the highest of them. He slept and ate with
them—from the most exalted head to the
most unheard-of pauper. God gave him to
this generation for this hour; but this genera-
tion either understood him not, or mistook
the words he spoke.
Being a prophet of God, he foresaw and
began warning his countrymen of today’s
wrath and strife 12 years ago. His was a
Moses type of leadership, with a
Philadelphia-Boston education, and a John
the Baptist ministry. He was not at all
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ which
appealed to men’s reason while condemning
their prejudices. He coined a phrase
“Creative Tension” to expose the deeply
embedded hatred of America’s racist society;
and developed to a high degree the Non-
Violent philosophy, which challenged evil
without destroying life, which loved while
being hated, which gave defenseless men,
women, and children the courage to stand
firm where brave men fled—a philosophy,
some say; to him a way of life, which will live
to see racism dead.
But prophets always love their people and
suffer the wrath of their fellow men because
of the truth they bring. God always has
prophets to speak about injustice. He had
Moses for deliverance out of Egypt. He had
an Elijah to challenge Baal on Mt. Carmel.
He had a Daniel for the lion’s den; David, the
shepherd boy, to meet Goliath; John the
Baptist for Herod; a Paul for the Early
Church; a John for Patmos Isle; and his own
Son, Jesus, for the sins of the whole world.
God had a Mahatma Gandhi for India and a
Martin Luther King Jr. for twentieth-century
America. These and many others have
offered a blueprint for living and exposed the
pattern for dying.
King was accused of “turning the world
upside down” when he was only trying to turn
it “right side up.” His daily fare was the drum
of the critics, the threat of danger, the hope of
friends. A mortal bullet pierced his frame; he is
away now—and how we all wish him here!
The music of his voice and the wisdom of his
words escape us. How we wish how we had
heeded his voice; and how the nation cries
today, “Is there no balm in Gilead?”5
I’m glad I knew King well. He is still with
us in spirit, saying in faith, “We shall over-
come; the Lord will see us through.” Yes
there is a balm in Gilead to make the wounds
of centuries whole. There is a physician there;
and his prescription is to build lives and
hopes rather than rockets only. In his death,
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
he speaks even more loudly and clearly. He
would say to whites and Negroes alike that
words alone no longer soothe or suffice.
Either we take the non-violent love ethic and
live, or we keep on hating and die. He would
say we have the resources but lack the will to
make the wilderness of our ghettoes blossom
out as a rose. Suburbia must open her doors
and her arms to her brothers and sisters and
receive them as children of God. He would
remind us that white racism must indeed die;
but it must not be replaced by ultra-black
racism. For on life’s keyboard, the black keys
and the white keys must be played together 77
SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS FRED L. SHUTTLESWORTH
to have the music of harmony. No man has
the duty nor the right to tell his neighbor you
can’t live here, you can’t walk through here,
you can’t be, or you cannot become.
White and black preachers must speak the
whole truth to their congregations. We must
say that there is no salvation either in black-
ness or whiteness; but there is beauty in
everything God has made. God is not dead!
He is still able to move men to action. Awake,
and put on thy beautiful garments, O
Jerusalem. King would remind those whose
frustrations would move them to violence
that those who take the sword shall also per-
ish by the sword, that there is no future in
madness alone, and that whom the gods
would destroy they first make mad.6 Let the
legitimate anger of the ghetto be channeled
constructively to quickly set up banks and
other service institutions, supplied with the
very funds which daily leave the ghetto to
enrich the suburbs.
Finally, King is saying in his death that time
is short, and that the day of either progress or
decay is at hand, that in our greatest crisis is
also found the greatest opportunity to do
good. It takes only a few days to build a sky-
scraper or to throw up a super highway in
our society while it takes months—even
years—to build adequate parks or other facil-
ities for those who have no hope. A society
that can spend twenty billion dollars a year
for a war ten thousand miles away should
also be able to spend ten billion to rebuild its
ghettos and bring its educational standards
up to the level of the twentieth century. “For
these things I have given my life,” says King.
“I have traveled the length and breadth of this
land and the world in the interest of men and
women speaking the truth one to the other. I
have been fighting in the game of life. I have
not been a spectator watching the wrongs
and cursing the darkness; rather I have been
an active participant in the struggle to make
men free. I have fought a good fight. I have
kept the faith; I have finished my course. I
leave you the legacy of Non-Violence. Let
those who love America, white and black and
all, join together in non-violent progressive
action that the works that you now applaud
may not die with my body.” |
NOTES
1. Paraphrase of parts of Isaiah 1:18.
2. Ibid.
3. Isaiah 59:6b-16a, NKJV.
4. 2 Timothy 4:7, KJV.
5. Jeremiah 8:22a.
6. This statement by Shuttlesworth is a paraphrase of the
statement “Those whom the gods wish to destroy they
first make mad,” which is an anonymous ancient proverb,
wrongly attributed to Euripides.
 S E R M O N S F R O M T H E E L D E R S C . B . T. S M I T H
The PROOF
of His Sonship
C. B. T. SM ITH
Mark 15:39, KJV
And when the centurion, which stood over
against him, saw that he so cried out, and
gave up the ghost, he said, Truly, this man
was the Son of God.
E ver since the angel announced to Mary
that the child should be called the Son of
God, there has been great controversy over
this matter. There seemed to have been no
hang-ups with other names that they called
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
80
Jesus. We never heard of any hang-ups with
the names Jesus of Nazareth and the
Messiah. We’ve heard them call him the
Savior, the Son of Man, Jehovah, the Lamb of
God, the Lord of Righteousness, Counselor,
Mighty God, Prince of Peace, Everlasting
Father, and even Alpha and Omega. But
when they hear the words “Son of God,”
that’s when they really wanted to kill him.
Well, you see the Son of God has all the
perfections of God. When you call him the
Son of God, it makes Christ equal with God.
He was subordinate in the mode of his oper-
ation, but he was not inferior. But being equal
with God is the thing that drove him to the
cross. They said, “He claimed to be the Son
of God.” And of course, they really charged
him with blasphemy. The title “Son of God”
gave him heavenly connections and they
couldn’t cope with that.
Many times the attempt was made by
heaven to clear the air on this disbelief about
the Son of God. Jesus announced his rela-
C. B. T. SMITH was born on January 18,
1916, in Lavernia, Texas, which is located
outside of San Antonio, Texas. His formal
education began at Phyllis Wheatley High
School and St. Phillips Junior College in
San Antonio, Texas. He earned a
Bachelor of Arts Degree from Bishop
College, matriculated at Prairie View
A&M, and did his post-graduate work at
Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth.
Reverend Smith received a Honorary
Doctrine of Divinity Degree from
Guadalupe College in Sequin, Texas, as
well as from Union Theological Seminary
in Houston.
He is a former member of the Dallas
Council of Churches and has served on
the Advisory Board of Dallas
 S E R M O N S F R O M T H E E L D E R S C . B . T. S M I T H
tionship to his Father even when he was 12
years old and said to his mother, “I must be
about my Father’s business.”1 He tried to
clear it up even when he was a boy so it
wouldn’t come back to haunt him as he
become a man. And then when he was bap-
tized, heaven claimed the Sonship. And the
announcement came, “This is my Beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased.”2 Heaven
did its best to clear the air concerning the
Sonship. I remember so well when Peter
walked on the water and when Peter got to
the boat and there was a great calm. And
Peter looked at the rest of them as the storm
overshadowed them; Peter looked backed
and said, “Truly, thou art the Son of God.”3
They went upon the mountain of transfigu-
ration and he was transfigured there before
them. And while they were there they saw
Moses and Elias standing up talking with
him. And there a cloud overshadowed them,
and a voice came out of heaven and said,
“This is my beloved Son; hear ye him.”4
Independence School District. He is
the Pastor Emeritus of Golden Gate
Missionary Baptist Church, where he pas-
tored for more than 44 years. He has held
office in district, state, and national reli-
gious bodies.
At present, he is called to preach and
lecture for conferences, retreats, and
revivals throughout Texas and national-
ly. Videos of his dynamic preaching have
been widely disseminated on YouTube.
Reverend Smith is considered one of
the grand gentlemen of the African
American pulpit and continues to serve
as a ministerial model for preachers
around the country. Reverend Smith
was married for over 62 years to the
late Mrs. Rosa Lee Smith.
Heaven has always tried to clear the air on
this question about the Son of God, but there
has always been some question and even
many of us have some doubt about Christ in
here this morning. With all the things that are
happening in our world today, there are still
some folk who question whether or not he is
the Son of God!
Well, I think this Friday evening clears that
up! On that dark Friday evening, that centu-
rion settled the question. Am I right about it?
He was a sinner and he had crucified many
men for a long time. But when this man died,
there was something so strange about his
death that he could only conclude, “Truly,”
without a doubt, “this man was the Son of
God.” Help me Lord Jesus. Truly, this man is
the Son of God.
On that cross, Jesus proved his Sonship
with the Father—not in the dying but how he
died and what he died for. There were a lot of
men who were crucified. He’s not the first
one. Am I right about it? And he was not the
last one that was crucified. But not only just
for dying, but what he died for is really the
thing that proved his Sonship. He died for a
cause; and whenever you die for a cause, you
will cause some things to happen. Nobody
dies for a cause and nothing takes place. Any
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
time you die for a cause, some things are
going to happen that you never got a chance
to see or that you didn’t think were going to
happen. We look at one young man now: the
late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who died for
a cause. And just about every big city now
that you get in you’ll see Martin Luther King
Drive. Something will happen when you die
for a cause! Something happened! He just
didn’t die. Jesus just didn’t put his head in the
locks of his shoulders and then die and that
was the end of it! But there was something
that accompanied his death that made the
centurion take another look! 81
 S E R M O N S F R O M T H E E L D E R S C . B . T. S M I T H

There is a saying that says, “What’s done in the dark will be

brought to light.” But it looked like Jesus reversed that saying
on the cross. It looked like he said this: “What’s done in the
light is going to be brought out in the darkness.”

First of all, it got dark. That’s strange. It got It stayed like that until three in the evening.
dark at 12 noon. That’s the sixth hour Three hours of darkness. There is a saying
Roman time. Am I right? It got dark at 12 that says, “What’s done in the dark will be
noon and listen—it stayed dark three brought to light.” But it looked like Jesus
hours—from 12 noon until three in the reversed that saying on the cross. It looked
evening. Help me, Lord Jesus! Now that’s like he said this: “What’s done in the light is
strange. That’s strange for it to get dark like going to be brought out in the darkness.”
that. If it had gotten dark maybe in the Help me, Lord Jesus.
evening around about 5 or 6:30, then we He’s going to bring it out in the darkness.
could say, “Well, the day is shortening,” but And I don’t know about you, but I’ve wit-
it was 12 noon! Help me, Lord Jesus. And it nessed him bringing a lot of things out of the
stayed like that for three hours. darkness. Am I right? It just looks like he spe-
There’s something just strange about it. cializes in walking in darkness and bringing
Children, I’ve seen it get dark, but it was just out things. Am I right? I believe that, chil-
some dark clouds. But as soon as it got dren. I believe that. I’ve seen him turn a light
through raining and the clouds passed away, on in darkness. Isn’t that right? And there’s
the sun came out. But here it got dark at 12— another thing. He brought me out of the
high noon. Am I right? Someone said it got so darkness into the marvelous light.5 He just
dark that you could just reach over and feel specializes in walking in darkness and bring-
the darkness with the palm of your hand. Am ing things out. Help me Lord Jesus.
I right, children? That’s not in the Bible now, There were three hours of darkness. Isn’t
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

but they said that. They said it got so dark that right, children? There was something
that you could feel the darkness with the happening in three hours of darkness. When
palm of your hand! That’s strange! Help me, he was on that cross, he would strengthen
Lord Jesus. the very bond of human suffrage. He had to
I know that centurion knew something was go through the veil of human suffrage. He
happening. He was standing there. He was had your sin and my sin on his shoulders;
the hand man. He was guarding the tomb, and when the Father saw the Son with the
guarding the grave to make sure nobody sins on his shoulders, the Father couldn’t
could come through. But when it got dark, he look at him so he blacked it out. Help me,
forgot about who he was! Help me, Lord Lord Jesus. He let him stay there and suffer
Jesus. And let me tell you, children—when until he underwent your sins and mine! Help
the Lord starts moving, you forget about me, Lord Jesus!
what you’ve been doing. Am I right? Oh, children, I’m glad. I don’t know about
82 It got dark. I said it got dark at high noon. you, but I don’t have to go through that dark-
 S E R M O N S F R O M T H E E L D E R S C . B . T. S M I T H

They had the S-o-n on the cross and the s-u-n

in the sky. And the s-u-n said I can’t shine when
the S-o-n isn’t shining. So I’m just going to veil my
face and wait until this event is over.

ness now because I had somebody to go
through it for me. He’s already gone through
it. The only thing I have to do is to believe in
him now and when I walk through it I say—
“Yea, though I walk through the valley and
the shadow of death, but I don’t have to fear
evil because of the man who died on the
cross.” Thank God it wasn’t me!
That’s strange. The centurion was just still
standing there—standing there in the midst
of darkness. Am I right, children? And then
at the end of that ninth hour, Jesus cried out.
Am I right, children? The Bible says that he
cried out with a loud voice: “Eli Eli lama
sabachthani? My God, My God, why hath
thou forsaken me?”6 The Father didn’t for-
sake him, but he refused to turn the light on.
He refused to turn on the light in order that
he might be able to bring me to Christ. Am I
right, children?
He passed through the veil; and when he
God.” They said, “We’re just going to wait
here and see who’s coming after him.” Help
me, Lord Jesus.
That centurion was just standing there.
And then that centurion looked up and he
saw the sun and that sun refused to shine.
And then he just kept on standing there and
the moon wouldn’t rise. The moon said I’m
just not going to come up at all. The sun
said I’m not going to shine today. Am I
right, children?
Because you see they had two sons. They
had the S-o-n on the cross and the s-u-n in the
sky. And the s-u-n said I can’t shine when the
S-o-n isn’t shining. So, I’m just going to veil
my face and wait until this event is over. Isn’t
that right, children?
The centurion kept on standing there. Then
the veil began to rent in the temple. Am I
right, children? In other words it was split in
half. Therefore, you could see the priest who
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

got through crying, the centurion was just
standing there—just standing there looking
at him. He just didn’t know what happened
because after the ninth hour it got bright
again and the day broke. He had been in that
three hours of black darkness and he was just
standing there. I guess he was spellbound.
And then when he heard him cry, the rest of
them who were standing off looking said,
“Well, we’ve heard him cry now and it looks
like he said Elijah.”7 They said, “Let’s wait
and see if Elijah will come get him.” They
said, “Maybe his Father will come get him
because he declares himself to be the Son of
stood behind the holy of holies. Jesus was
telling them that you don’t have to go to the
priest no more. You don’t have to give the
priest your sins and wait for him to wash
them away. But you can come boldly before
the throne of grace and find Me in the time
of trouble. Am I right children?
And then they said the rocks split and
went and started rolling. The centurion was
still standing there. And then there was a
mighty earthquake. The centurion kept on
standing there. And then he looked and the
graves opened up. I’m talking about some-
thing happening when Jesus died for a cause. 83
 S E R M O N S F R O M T H E E L D E R S C . B . T. S M I T H

The graves opened up and the saints that opens doors. When I turn around, I don’t see
slept got up out of their graves. You know no hands that pull the door. But the only
they didn’t give no names of who got up, but thing I know is that he opens the door for me,
I know a few who died before Jesus came on and when I walk in that door, I say: Surely!
the earth. Surely, surely, this must be the Son of
So, let me surmise some of them that got God! Am I right, children? I don’t know
up. I believe Abraham—I believe Abraham how he gives me friends. I really don’t see
got up. I believe Abraham said, “That must my friends. I don’t know where they are but
be that lamb that was held back in the thick- one thing I know. I see a friend coming to
et.” I believe Ezekiel must have got up. And me and throwing his arms around me. Am
Ezekiel said, “That must be that wheel I saw I right, children? And when he does that, I
turning in the middle of the air.” Am I right, say: Surely! Surely! Surely! He must be the
children? I believe Jeremiah got up. Son of God! I know he is! He’s the Son of
Jeremiah said, “It must be that hammer that God when he feeds me the way he feeds me,
I saw.” But then I believe Daniel got up. the way he opens doors, the way he gives
Daniel said, “That must be that stone that me bread, the way he heals me, the way he
was hewn at the mountain rolling down gives me life, the way he wakes me up in the
through Babylon.” morning.
But anyway, the saints got up and I’m glad this morning he’s the Son of God;
walked into the streets of Jerusalem. Am I and with him being the Son of God, it makes
right, children? But anyway, they got up me a joint heir. Am I right, children?
and the graves were opened. All of this Whatever he owns, I’ve got stock in the busi-
happened and the centurion was just still ness. I’ve got a part of where he lives. I own
standing there. He was guarding the crowd a little bit of heaven. I own a little bit of grace.
the best he knew how. Just standing there I own a little bit of salvation. I own a little bit
looking at what went on. of happiness. I own a little bit of what he has.
And when he saw all of this, the Scripture I own a little bit of God. I own a little bit of
said he cried out, “Surely, this man was the heaven; and when I get there, all I’ve got to
Son of God.” I know he must have been. do is talk to my brother, Jesus, and tell him I
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

Anybody that dies like that must have had want my part and to give me my crown. And
some connection with heaven and glory. Any I’ll wear my crown!
man that died like that ought to know the Surely, surely, surely, surely; he is the Son of
man named God. Any man that died like God. God bless you! God bless you! I know
that ought to know the Prince of Peace. he is! I know he is. You don’t have to tell me!
Surely, this man must be the Son of God. Am I know he is! |
I right, children?
Now, let me close this morning. Jesus
NOTES
proved his Sonship with his Father when he 1. Luke 2:49, KJV.
died like that. Am I right, children? He dis- 2. Luke 3:22, paraphrased.
turbs me when he walks like he walks; when 3. Matthew 14:33, paraphrased.
4. Matthew 17:5, KJV.
he acts like he acts. He disturbs me when he
5. See 1 Peter 2:9.
opens doors for me just like that. I can’t 6. Matthew 27:46, KJV.
84 understand it. I can’t understand how he 7. Mark 15:35, paraphrased.
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS J. ALFRED SMITH SR.

PREACHING Stand in the court of the LORD’s house, and

speak to all the cities of Judah that come to
worship in the house of the LORD; speak to
to the Cities them all the words that I command you; do
not hold back a word.

J. ALFRED SMITH SR.

W e live in the present and dream of the
future, forgetting that wisdom for liv-
ing is taught by the past. Ancient stone
tablets and written scrolls remind us, in the
words of New England poet James Russell
Lowell:
Jeremiah 26:1-2, NRSV “Truth forever on the scaffold,
At the beginning of the reign of King Wrong forever on the throne—
Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this word Yet that scaffold sways the future,
came from the LORD: Thus says the LORD: and behind the dim unknown,

J. ALFRED SMITH SR. is pastor emeri-

tus of the historic Allen Temple Baptist
Church in Oakland, California.
An erudite sage, Dr. Smith serves as
Distinguished Professor of Christian
Ministry and Preaching at the American
Baptist Seminary of the West and the
Graduate Theological Seminary in
Berkeley, California. Dr. Smith is a past
national president of the Progressive
National Baptist Convention (PNBC) and
a past president of the American Baptist
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009

Churches of the West (ABCW).

In April 2007, Dr. Smith lectured in
Cambridge, England, at St. Andrews
Baptist Church for the 5th Annual
International Conference on Preaching. In
August 2004, he was one of the featured
eminent guest lecturers at the Oxford
University Roundtable Conference in
Oxford, England.
Dr. Smith champions the causes of the
poor, the downtrodden, the left-outs, and
the left-behinds. He is a voice for the dis-
86
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS J. ALFRED SMITH SR.
Standeth God within the shadow,
keeping watch above his own.”1
God is in the facts of history as truly as God
is in the march of the seasons, the revolutions
of the planets, or the architecture of the
worlds. Therefore, we turn to the past to
study the tracks of God in human history.
Shall we trace those tracks by traveling back-
ward in time to 626 B.C.E., the time of
Jeremiah? He was a priest, a member of the
priestly household of Hilkiah. I am intrigued
that this priest became a prophet. Both
prophets and priests were a disappointment
to their callings in Jeremiah’s day. Jeremiah
tells us, “A horrible and shocking thing has
liked, the disaffected, the displaced, and
the disdained. He uses the pulpit to uplift
the poor in spirit, the broken-hearted, and
the afflicted. He also challenges and
afflicts the rich and comfortable to get up
and get out of “their lazy chairs of religion.”
He is a “fish of many waters” and a
“bridge builder” who feels comfortable and
at home with ordinary “everyday” people as
well as the movers and shakers of the
society. A renowned scholar and an
accomplished author of more than 16
books, Dr. Smith has a voracious appetite
for reading. His most recent book, Speak
Until Justice Wakes: Prophetic Reflections
from J. Alfred Smith Sr., was released in
2006. On the Jericho Road, a biography of
his life in the ministry, was released in
2004. Dr. Smith has penned several publi-
cations, including: “Giving to a Giving God,”
“Basic Bible Sermons,” a prayer in 9.11.01:
African American Leaders Respond to an
American Crisis, a sermon “Facing the
Insufficiency of National Security with the
happened in the land: The prophets prophesy
lies, the priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love it, this way.”2
False prophetic speech is lying speech. False
priestly ministry abuses authority—but the
people love it that way. False prophetic
speech is popular, partisan, patriotic, and
pleasing to priest, prophet, and people. False
priestly ministry is governed by the self-inter-
est of maintaining institutional survival at all
costs; but the God-called prophet proclaims,
“Thus saith the LORD” at any price. How sad
that professional malpractice of priests and
prophets becomes status quo religious prac-
tice that the people love.
Jeremiah makes himself unpopular by
Sufficiency of Faith in the November 2001
Special Supplement of The Living Pulpit,
and his essay “Lamentations in the City” in
the April 2002 edition of The Living Pulpit.
His work also appears in The Encyclopedia
of African American Christian Heritage by
Dr. Marvin McMickle and Power in the
Pulpit: How America’s Most Effective
Black Preachers Prepare Their Sermons
by Dr. Cleophus LaRue.
On August 12, 2006, Mrs. Joanna
Goodwin Smith, who had been married to
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
Dr. Smith since their college days, went
home to be with the Lord. On July 4, 2008,
Pastor Smith was united in holy matrimony
to The Reverend Bernestine Farley.
Dr. Smith is a distinguished winner of
numerous awards and commendations for
his leadership in ministry. Following signifi-
cant contributions to affordable senior
housing, scholarship, and other meritorious
activities, Dr. Smith received the American
Baptist Homes of the West Affordable
Housing Award in May 2007.
87
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS J. ALFRED SMITH SR.
becoming an ecclesiastical whistleblower.
Jeremiah is disloyal to the priestly tradition
that he inherited from his father, Hilkiah. He
angers his prophetic peers who attend the
same prophetic preaching conferences that he
attends. Jeremiah says, “For who has stood
in the council of the LORD so as to see and
hear his word? Who has given heed to his
word so as to proclaim it?3
The council is where the word of God is
given to the prophets. The word is not the
word of culture, the word of current popular
theological, sociological, or political opinion.
The prophetic word of truth comes from
standing in the council of the Lord.
Jeremiah had seen kings come and go. He
was not mesmerized by the charisma of
kings. He had seen the rising and falling of
empires. He saw the fall of Assyria, the
destruction of Nineveh, the devastation of
Egypt, and the arrogant rise of Babylon. He
knew that Judah contained within herself the
germs of her own downfall. Jeremiah knew
that the political careers of kings are, to par-
aphrase English poet Alfred Tennyson, “little
systems that have their day, and they cease to
be,”4 such as Josiah, who ruled 640–609
B.C.E.; Jehoiakim from 609–598 B.C.E.;
Jehoiachin, 598–597 B.C.E.; and Zedekiah,
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
597–587 B.C.E.
Jeremiah’s call by God helped to stabilize
the stress and the strain of being a faithful but
unpopular prophet in the time of national cri-
sis. Jeremiah was unappreciated by family
members, unrecognized by prophetic peers,
and unaccepted by the power politicians of
Judah. God’s hand upon Jeremiah’s life guid-
ed him through the rejection, the persecution,
and the loneliness of prophetic ministry.
During such times Jeremiah could only reflect
upon his call:
“Now the word of the LORD came to
88 me saying, ‘Before I formed you in
the womb I knew you, And before
you were born I consecrated you; I
appointed you a prophet to the
nations.’”5
“Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for
you shall go to all to whom I shall
send you and you shall speak what-
ever I command you. Do not be
afraid of them, for I am with you to
deliver you, says the LORD.”6
But sometimes God’s call is not enough to
console the prophet. Sometimes the inner
rewards for prophetic ministry fall short of
bringing inner satisfaction. Can you hear
Jeremiah crying:
“My heart is crushed within me, all
my bones shake; I have become like
a drunkard, like one overcome by
wine, because of the LORD and
because of his holy words.”7
To make matters worse Jeremiah says that
he feels the pain of social ostracism. He is
shunned, cut off, rejected, and abandoned by
former friends.
“I have become a laughing-stock
all day long; everyone mocks me.
For whenever I speak, I must cry
out, I must shout, ‘Violence and
destruction!’”8
Jeremiah engages God in a lover’s quarrel
over his call. Jeremiah accused God of very
serious charges. The New International
Version weakens the complaint. “O LORD,
you deceived me, and I was deceived; you
overpowered me and prevailed.”9 The trans-
lation from the Hebrew Bible uses two verbs
patah and hazak. The first verb denotes the
seduction of a woman to consent to sexual
intercourse before marriage, and the second
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS J. ALFRED SMITH SR.
False prophetic speech is lying speech. False priestly ministry
abuses authority—but the people love it that way.
verb indicates rape. Seduction does not
involve violence; whereas rape forces sexual
intercourse against the will of the woman. So
the Hebrew Bible says: “O LORD, Thou hast
seduced me, and I am seduced; Thou hast
raped me, and I am overcome.” The New
Revised Standard Version comes close to the
Hebrew Bible in saying, “O LORD, you have
enticed me, and I was enticed; you have over-
powered me, and you have prevailed.”
So Jeremiah’s telling of God’s truth to
the cities brings him hatred and hostility
from his associates. It robbed him of joy
because he preached a tough-love message
of judgment and doom to the people he
loved. He said:
“I did not sit in the company of mer-
rymakers, nor did I rejoice; under the
weight of your hand I sat alone, for
you had filled me with indignation.”10
Would Jeremiah be as welcome in today’s
cities as mega church television preachers
who fly in privately owned jets to preach to
full-capacity audiences in the coliseums
where professional athletes perform? Would
Jeremiah be welcome in today’s cities if he
preached the arrogance of greed, the
immoral use of brutalizing power on the
poor and the powerless? Would Jeremiah be
welcome in today’s cities to talk about a free-
dom of speech that promotes unholy speech
while frowning upon holy speech? Would
groups that promote abortion in today’s
cities applaud Jeremiah for saying that God
formed him in his mother’s womb?
Hear us, Jeremiah. Jeremiah, you have
been invited to speak to the cities here in
America. You have been asked to speak in
one of the richly endowed chapels at a
prestigious Ivy League University. Your
audience will be made up of the earth
shakers and world movers of society. A
chauffeur-driven limousine will meet you
at the airport to drive you to your destina-
tion. En route to your speaking engage-
ment you will pass through neighborhoods
of crime-filled, drug-infested communities,
where little children live whose parents
cannot provide for them dental and med-
ical insurance. You will notice the substan-
dard housing, where these people live and
the run-down school buildings where their
children study.
I am sure, Jeremiah, that you will wonder
why most of the people in this community
are people of color. Jeremiah, when you
arrive at the Ivy League chapel to give your
prestigious lecture on the assassination of
Gedaliah, can you work into your lecture
somehow your words:
“Thus says the LORD: Do not let not
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
the wise boast in their wisdom, do
not let the mighty boast in their
might, do not let not the wealthy
boast in their wealth; but let those
who boast boast in this, that they
understand and know me, that I am
the LORD; I act with steadfast love,
justice, and righteousness in the
earth, for in these things, I delight,
says the LORD.”11
The cities’ wealthy, the wise, and the
mighty seldom trace the source of their
wealth to God’s grace. They argue that they 89
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS J. ALFRED SMITH SR.
obtained their status by the merit of hard
work. What about the single parent who
works two minimum-wage jobs, barely mak-
ing enough to survive? These people make
our beds in hotels. They wash our dirty laun-
dry and they wait our tables, praying that
they will earn enough money in tips to pay
their inflated utility bills. They miss paying
one bill in order to have enough money to
purchase a few gallons of gasoline to bring
them to and fro from home and work.
The power elite, who control the cities’ eco-
nomic systems and who feel no guilt in send-
ing working-class jobs overseas, enjoy the
arrogance of power. As British Lord John
Acton said, “Power corrupts, and absolute
power corrupts absolutely.” It is also true
that the already corrupted seek power. People
who are not able to grow tall from their own
ethical efforts seek to restrict the growth and
development of others who only need an
opportunity to succeed. Raising the tuition
costs far above the ability of the poor to pay
while freezing the wages so that inflation can
eat up their puny wages with a hungry cost-
of-living index is how the already corrupted
manage power. All the while, the frustrated
poor wonder if God loves them because pros-
perity gospel preachers proclaim, “God pros-
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
pers the righteous.” Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. in Stride Toward Freedom reminds us:
“Any religion that professes to be
concerned with the souls of persons
and is not concerned with the slums
that damn them, the economic con-
ditions that strangle them, and the
social conditions that cripple them is
a dry-as-dust religion.”12
These words of Dr. King are prophetic in
the tradition of Jeremiah and the eighth-cen-
tury prophets. God’s prophet does not preach
90 to the cities a timid, smiling, and entertaining
gospel. God’s prophet speaks passionately. As
the late Professor H. Richard Niebuhr of Yale
Divinity School used to tell us, only a false
prophet would preach “a God without wrath
brought men (persons) without sin into a
kingdom without judgment through the min-
istrations of a Christ without a cross.”
Where are the prophetic pulpits in our cities?
America loves to live in denial of the existence
of the poor. In 2005, the number of people
without health insurance in the United States
increased by 800,000, reaching 45.8 million.13
Is it easier for us to give mission handouts to
the poor than to become advocates for them?
In the central city area of Oakland,
California, where I serve as pastor, I have seen
jobs flee from the city not only to suburbia
but also overseas where labor is cheap. I have
seen the supermarkets, banks, and businesses
leave the central city. I have seen the trans-
portation system decay so that the central city
poor have no way of traveling to where the
jobs are located. Through the declining tax
base, the failed educational system, the lack
of jobs that pay living wages, the shortage of
affordable housing, and the foreclosures of
homes due to the sub-prime loan crisis caused
by greedy investors, I hear the cries of the
people. I hear their sighs of grief. So now I
repeat to you Jeremiah’s words:
“For the hurt of my poor people I
am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has
taken hold of me. Is there no balm in
Gilead? Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of my poor
people not been restored?”14
Jeremiah soon learned what our elders
learned. He learned that there is a balm in
Gilead. Sometimes, we may feel discouraged.
We may think that our work is in vain, but then
the Holy Spirit revives our souls again; there is
a balm in Gilead. God says: “Go to Anathoth.
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS J. ALFRED SMITH SR.
Resurrection comes to pass. Listen to sounds of joy and gladness.
The old is passed away. The new explodes at springtime.
Go to the territory of Benjamin. Buy a field.
Sign the deed of purchase. Give the deed to
Baruch, your trusted scribe in the presence of
the witnesses who must sign the deed. Put the
deed in a clay jar so the sealed and unsealed
copies will last a long time.” How long is a long
time? “Bury the clay jar for 70 years. After 70
years redemption time will come.”
Redemption time did come.
Resurrection comes to pass. Listen to
sounds of joy and gladness. The old is passed
away. The new explodes at springtime.
Thawing ice turns into running waters from
winter’s last snow. Birds pierce the air with
song. After the trees awaken from a long
winter’s sleep, flowers bud on the branches.
But the best is yet to come.
“The days are surely coming, says
the LORD, when I will fulfill the
promise I made to the house of Israel
and the house of Judah. In those
days and at that time I will cause a
righteous Branch to spring up for
David; and he shall execute justice
and righteousness in the land.”15
Prophetic preachers of the twenty-first cen-
tury, speak to the cities; speak to America
about this branch. Speak about this branch
or this root who emerged out of dry ground
until America the ugly becomes America the
beautiful. Lift up your voice, prophetic
preachers, so that ears deafened by sin will
hear clearly good news for a bad news world.
Speak until a war-intoxicated world will
sober and turn homesteads of hatred into
continents of calm, presided over by the
Prince of Peace. Speak until demons tremble,
angels rejoice, and the crooked places are
straight and the glory of the Lord stretches
from shore to shore.
Stand on your tiptoes and speak and gaze
into the future until you can see the majestic
coming of the Lord, as King of kings and
Lord of lords.
Stand on your feet and proclaim, “Thus
says the Lord” until the rhythm of violence
loses its hold on our youth.
Stand on your feet until frozen snow of
injustice melts and streams of justice rush
down slanting mountainsides to nourish flo-
ral fields of beauty. No matter how rough the
way, stand! Standing with us is Jesus:
He speaks to all conditions!
He guides in every crisis!
He fights in every battle!
He moves in every difficulty! |
NOTES
1. James Russell Lowell, “The Present Crisis,” written in
1844.
2. Jeremiah 5:30-31a, NIV.
3. Jeremiah 23:18, NRSV. All Scriptures are from the New
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
Revised Standard Version unless otherwise noted.
4. Alfred Lord Tennyson, “In Memoriam,” written in 1850.
5. Jeremiah 1:5.
6. Jeremiah 1:6b-8.
7. Jeremiah 23:9.
8. Jeremiah 20:7b-8.
9. Jeremiah 20:7, NIV.
10. Jeremiah 15:17.
11. Jeremiah 9:23-24.
12. Martin Luther King Jr., Stride Toward Freedom: The
Montgomery Story (New York: Harper and Brothers),
1958, 21.
13. “U.S. Census Bureau News,” http://www.census.gov/
Press-Release/www/releases/ archives/income_wealth
/005647.html (accessed October 16, 2008).
14. Jeremiah 8:21-22.
15. Jeremiah 33:14-15. 91
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS HARRY S. WRIGHT
A Day for US
HARRY S. WRIGHT
Exodus 31:13, KJV
Speak thou also unto the children of Israel,
saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for
it is a sign between me and you throughout
your generations; that ye may know that I
am the LORD that doth sanctify you.
S ome time ago a young lady asked me if I
believed that God requires Sabbath wor-
ship. Is it required? Can I not stay home in
the privacy of my own apartment, run up an
antenna heavenward, read my Scriptures,
and pray and worship in solitariness? Do I
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
92
have to get up and get dressed and find the
house of prayer on the Lord’s Day? Does
God require that? Does heaven mandate it?
Does my salvation depend upon congrega-
tional worship? And she said it again turning
up the volume on that phrase, “Do I have
to?” I thought for a moment, and I said to
this young lady, “No, I don’t believe that you
have to, but you ought to and beyond that
you need to.” But wouldn’t it be wonderful if
she could come up to a higher altitude and
live at the level of want to rather than under
the compulsion of have to?
There is a word that speaks to me out of
this inquiry from this young sister in this
harsh, hard Exodus 31:13 text. God had
called Moses upstairs to Mount Sinai in
the clouds to spend some time with him as
he laid out his divine design and roadmap
for the creation of a conspicuous and dis-
tinctive covenant community. God wrote
with his own fingers and etched it on two
tablets of stone known as The Ten
HARRY S. WRIGHT received his
Bachelor of Arts from Morehouse College,
a Bachelor of Divinity from Colgate
Rochester Divinity School, a Master of
Sacred Theology from Southern Methodist
University, and a Doctor of Ministry Degree
from Southern Methodist University. He
was an early Fellow of the Fund for
Theological Education (1961–1962).
From 1954 to 1967, Dr. Wright served
as Senior Pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church
in Bennettsville, South Carolina. From
August 1967 to 1979, he served on staff
at Bishop College in Dallas, Texas, in var-
ious capacities including: Dean of Chapel;
Professor of Religion and Philosophy;
Director of the Lacy Kirk Williams
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS HARRY S. WRIGHT
Commandments, with a particular empha-
sis on the Sabbath day: “Speak to the
Israelites, Moses, for me and tell them to
keep my Sabbaths, for they are a sign
between me and you unto all generations.”
Moses is the architect of Old Testament
Sabbath decorum, and God says to him,
“Moses, speak to the Israelites for me.”
You do that, Moses. You tell them I said
keep my Sabbaths. Tell them to preserve it.
Tell them to keep it because I want them to
be a distinctive flashlight to the nations—
distinctive by standing out by your behav-
ior on the Sabbath day. Speak to them,
Moses. You tell them for me to keep
the Sabbath day, for this day is a sign of
the covenant between me and you unto
all generations.”
And so, I want to reflect on the greatness of
God. God created creation in six days and
then rested. You remember the source of the
Sabbath is Genesis 1–2 where in six days,
God created the heaven, earth, and the sea
Ministers’ Institute; and Chair of the
Division of Religion, Philosophy and
Christian Education. From 1979–1982,
he served as President of Bishop College.
Dr. Wright is legendary for his service as
a professor and mentor to preachers dur-
ing and after his tenure at Bishop
College. From 1982–2003, he served as
Pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in
Brooklyn, New York, and in 2003,
became Pastor Emeritus of Cornerstone.
For more than 50 years, Dr. Wright has
preached throughout America, Europe,
North Africa, and the Middle East. His
sermons have been published in
Christianity Today and in Outstanding
Black Sermons (Judson Press, 1976).
and all that is in them. On the seventh day, he
rested and was refreshed. On this Sabbath
day, which is a day for us, I want to pause
and remember God’s greatness. I want to imi-
tate my Creator on the Sabbath day. I want
to pause and think on God’s greatness and to
be refreshed. For my God is a great God. It is
a day for us to pause and remember the cre-
ation and the hands of our Creator. Out of
elementary reverence and respect for what
God did in creating and then resting, I want
to imitate my Creator today. What a mar-
velous, thoughtful inquiry from this young
sister that I opened this sermon with: “Do I
have to?” And wouldn’t it be wonderful if
she and we all could cruise at a higher spiri-
tual altitude at the want to level?—the level of
“A Day for Us,” a day for us to reflect on the
greatness of God.
Do I have to? No, I don’t have to. I don’t
live under Mosaic Law. I don’t live under
the tablets of stone. I don’t live under a
threat of capital punishment if I don’t kneel
on Sunday. Do I have to? Naw, I don’t have
to, but I ought to. Naw, I need to. Naw, I
want to. In light of the greatness of God and
what the Creator has done, I want to kneel
on Sunday. Perhaps, the greatest Protestant
thinker in the last century was Karl Barth
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
and his voluminous work, Church
Dogmatics.1 Barth lays out a very simple,
ordinary day-to-day prescription on Sabbath
decorum: “One day out of the week find a
Sabbath day to be still and to desist from
your own labors.” The word Sabbath means
to quit, to cease, (and) to desist. Find a day
to be still and quiet. Run up your antenna
toward heaven and worship God and spend
time with family, neighbor, and friend. Do I
have to? Naw, I don’t have to, but I ought to.
Naw, I need to. Naw, I want to. This is a
hard text. I don’t live under the threat of cap-
ital punishment—naw, naw, naw, naw. I 93
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS HARRY S. WRIGHT
don’t live under Moses. I live under grace.
I live under Calvary. I live under love, and
if you ask me whether or not I have to
gather on Sunday, naw, I don’t have to.
Roll over and sleep if you want to, but you
ought to. God rested on the seventh day
and was refreshed. And so, this day is a
day for us. It’s a day for us to reflect on the
greatness of God.
Second, it’s a day for us to celebrate the
goodness of God. God is a good God.
Deuteronomy chapter 5 recounts: “Rem-
ember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
Once you were slaves in the flesh pots of
Egypt and God with a strong arm and an
outstretched hand broke you out from the
flesh pots of Egypt and for that reason you
ought to remember the Sabbath day and
keep it holy.”2
Now you ask me if I have to. Naw, I don’t
have to; but in light of the goodness of God
and what God has done for me, I want to
kneel on Sunday. I have on—and forgive me
for this personal reference—I have on a new
shirt today. I wanted something new so I
have on a brand new white shirt—tone-on-
tone, French cuffs, brand new. I bought it in
South Carolina. Early this morning as I was
touching up this shirt, ironing a few little
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
wrinkles out of it to put it on, I had a flash-
back to an early Sunday morning way back
in my yesteryears. I was getting dressed for
Sunday school in Bennettsville, South
Carolina, my hometown, putting on that
white shirt that mama had fixed up. It was
a hand-me-down shirt. My older brother
Junior had worn it, and mama had fixed it
up. Turned the collar and it was just my size.
So, I was putting on this white shirt and I
noticed when I got the shirt almost on that
there was a hole in it down below the waist-
line. And when I saw that hole, I ran into
94 mama’s bedroom and I said, “Mama, this
shirt has a hole in it!” And mama didn’t
seem alarmed. She said, “I know it, Harry,
but it’s clean.” She said, “Tuck it in and run
on to Sunday school.”
Now, this morning putting on this tone-on-
tone French cuff white shirt from Lourie’s—
and it’s paid for—and I had this flashback.
Here was a hand-me-down white shirt.
“Mama, this shirt has a hole in it.” Mama
said, “Harry, I know it, but it’s clean. Tuck it
in and run on to Sunday school.” Now, do I
have to kneel on Sundays? As I think about
the goodness of God, naw, I don’t have to. I
can stay in bed on the Lord’s Day. I can roll
over for another nap on the Lord’s Day. But
I ought to—naw, I need to. Naw, I want to—
in light of the goodness of God, I want to
kneel on Sunday.
You may have read Randall Robinson’s
book The Debt.3 He sets forth the fact that
America owes us as a people slave wages.
We are past due reparations, wages, and
benefits. We may or may not get our checks.
Don’t get your deposit slips ready. But it is
no doubt about it that we owe God. Now
America owes us, but we are as a people
heads over heels in debt to God. We owe
him. We are a hundred and forty three years
out of slavery. Somewhere in between
1863–1865, God snatched us out of the
flesh pots of Mississippi. One hundred and
forty-three years later and an Ebony sister
asking me, “Pastor, do we have to go to
church on Sunday? Do you think God
requires it? Does my salvation depend upon
it? Do I have to?” Slavery is stamped on our
passports. And this is a day for us. This is a
day for us, God’s gift to us. Jesus says, “You
were not made for the Sabbath; the Sabbath
was made for you.”4 This is a day for us to
reflect on the greatness of God and on the
goodness of God.
And third, this is a day for us to be a wit-
 SERMONS FROM THE ELDERS HARRY S. WRIGHT
ness and sign for him. “Moses, speak to the
Israelites for me….You do it, Moses. You
tell them I said keep my Sabbaths.” A
whole lot of things we as a people may
want to jettison and leave behind, but don’t
leave the Sabbath behind. Keep the
Sabbath. For the Sabbath is a day for us to
remember our Creator and to remember
our liberation and our salvation. And then,
God says to Moses, “You are a sign.” God
says to Moses, “The Sabbath day is a sign.
And you are a sign. You are an arrow on
the Sabbath day pointing straight towards
transcendence.” I like that.
When you get up on Sunday morning and
get dressed and make your way to the house
of prayer, Sabbath on your mind, Bible in
your hand, song on your lips, you are a sign
all by yourself. You are a sign of the
covenant. Do I have to? Naw, I don’t have
to. But I tell you what: I want to be a sign. I
want to be a witness. Don’t ever underesti-
mate the impact and influence of one boy,
one girl, one man, one woman dressed up
on the first day of the week—Bible in your
hand, song on your lips, Sabbath in your
heart, finding your way to the church that
has no walls. You are an arrow all by your-
self pointing towards transcendence. “Tell
them, Moses. You do it for me, Moses.
When you come down from the clouds, tell
the Israelites to keep my Sabbaths, for the
Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between
me and you unto all generations.” Now, do
I have to? Naw, you don’t live under com-
pulsion, but you ought to. Naw, not ought
to—I need to. Naw, I want to. God is great
and God is good, and I want to be a sign
and a witness for him.
Now—this now and I’m through—my
wife and I have four children, four wonderful
children. I was on the campus of Spelman
College several days ago and I went in Sister’s
Chapel. Two of our girls finished Spelman.
My son finished Morehouse. The firstborn
finished Harvard. I’m not bragging; I’m testi-
fying. And I was in Sister’s Chapel and as I
stood in Sister’s chapel, my mind flashed back
to 1987 when our last daughter finished
Spelman. What a happy day! Our last child
finished Spelman in 1987. I thought of some-
thing Wonnie said to me in 1987 after
Baccalaureate. She said some wonderful
things to me. She kissed me and hugged me
tightly and she said, “Daddy, I’m out of
Spelman now. I’m going to work. I’m going
to get a job, and I’m going to pay you back
for everything you’ve ever done for me.”
That was wonderful. She meant well. She
was intoxicated with commencement eupho-
ria. And she said, “I’m going to pay you back,
daddy, for everything you’ve ever done for
me.” And I simply kissed her and I didn’t say
anything, but I haven’t forgotten it. I just said
to myself: How? I didn’t say this to her. How?
What kind of currency would you use? What
kind of currency are you going to use to
refund the Eternal for his amazing grace?
What can you go downtown and pick up as a
gift to express your love to God for Christmas
and for Good Friday and for the blood that
trickled down Golgotha’s cross? I’ll tell you
THE AFRICAN AMERICANPULPIT SPRING 2009
what I’m going to do. I’m not under compul-
sion and I don’t live under Moses. There is no
capital punishment threat hanging over my
head. Tell you what I’m going to do. On the
Lord’s Day as long as I’m able I’m going to
kneel. Now, I don’t have to, but I ought to.
Naw, I need to. Naw, I want to. |
NOTES
1. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (14 Volume Set), (New
York: T. & T. Clarke Publishers), 2004, vol. 4, chap. 3.
2. Deuteronomy 5:12, 15, paraphrased.
3. Randall Robinson, The Debt: What America Owes to
Blacks (New York: Plume), 2001.
4. See Mark 2:27. 95