Sunday, November 2, 2008
“A Black Man is Coming”
Text: Hosea 11: 1 – 11
Have you ever sat on the doorstep of expectancy waiting for a hope of a better tomorrow?
It may have been as a child unable to sleep because your imagination is running wild as a holiday approaches with dreams of sugar pops dancing in your head.
Have you ever sat on the doorstep of expectancy waiting for a hope of a better tomorrow?
It may have been on the night before your wedding as final preparations seemed unfilled and the anxiousness of what could possibly go wrong, as well as all that can go right disrupts your sleep such that counting sheep does you no good.
Have you ever sat on the doorstep of expectancy waiting for a hope of a better tomorrow?
It may have been on the Eve of a long awaited graduation when after many nights of burning the midnight oil the elusive prize is within your grasp, and tomorrow all your family will display their pride as you walk across the stage into a new future.
Have you ever sat of the doorstep of expectancy waiting for a hope of a better tomorrow?
I believe that our ancestors sat on the doorstep of expectancy as they waited for the hope of freedom.
When the Proclamation of Emancipation was read and the dark clouds of slavery and its brutality were being blown away, still the freedom message was delayed for our ancestors in the west, but they met and waited in church basements watching the dawn of a new day as they rang out the past, because for them their legal freedom was finally becoming a reality.
Have you ever sat on the doorstep of expectancy waiting for a hope of a better tomorrow?
In 1968 African Americans sat on the edge of their seats as a preacher from Atlanta stood in the pulpit of Mason Memorial Church of God in Christ in Memphis, Tenn., and painted in their mind's eye what it meant to stand on a mountaintop and to look over the horizon of time and see the Promised Land.
Oh what a beautiful picture – freedom!
Their spirits were lifted but quickly dashed because the next day a sniper bullet ended the melodious voice who had captured the imagination of the world and ignited the fires of freedom in the spirits of people.
To have to wait 40 years is nothing compared to the reality our people have had to wait over 400 years for the singular truth of our Constitution to ring that all men and women are created equal, and that they are endowed with inalienable rights.
Have you ever sat on the doorstep of expectancy waiting for a hope of a better tomorrow?
I know what Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008 means to people who for so long have experienced the brutal task of having to make bricks without straw, of having to compete in life’s race from an unfair start, of having to fight every battle for rights that should have been guaranteed, of having to experience the weight of segregation, Jim Crowism, separate but definitely unequal.
I know the symbolism. I know what the accomplishment will mean. I know that people all over the world will perceive that something is happening in America that will send seismic shock waves all over the world. I too feel the source of pride. As a decedent of slaves and free persons that worked long and hard to ensure that their children and grandchildren would one day be able to stand on their own two feet as full citizens of this country.
Is it possible? Is it true that a Black man is coming?
Have you ever sat on the doorstep of expectancy waiting for a hope of a better tomorrow?
If you can sense that feeling,
if your nervous system can experience the tingling,
if your imagination can soar,
if your pride can heighten,
if your mind can grasp the meaning,
the significance,
the awesomeness,
the boldness,
the realization that no longer do we have to have a dream deferred;
then you can sense, then you can understand.
What the ancient Hebrew people felt each time they heard this proclamation: “out of Egypt I will send my son.”
For centuries, they sat on the doorstep waiting for their Moses, waiting for their King David, waiting for their King Solomon, waiting for the liberator, the messiah – the one who would unify Israel and Judah.
Is he the one? Is that the one? Who is the one?
The one who would bring the people back together again and restore to them the prominence that God had promised!
When is a Black man coming to fulfill the prophecy that “out of Egypt, I will send my son”?
When you look closely at the text, not only is there prophesy; but there is also a problem.
Why did the people have to wait so long for deliverance?
1. Admah and Zeboim where cities where the people acted just like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. In other words, the moral fiber of the people was so detestable to God that God was willing to allow generations to be lost in the hope that a new generation would emerge who would worship him in holiness and truth.
Why did they have to wait so long for deliverance?
2. The people violated the commandment that thou should have no other gods before me. We serve a jealous God that only asks for one thing that he is given first place in your heart. However, people create images. People create idols. People place things before God: wealth, prominence, status, position, ethnicity, racial differences, - their houses, their cars, and their stuff. If you honor your 401(k) more than God, if you honor your stocks and bonds more than God, if you honor the things of this world more than God; God, just like in Sodom and Gorrorah, just like in Admah and Zeboim can destroy that which you honor and reduce it to nothing.
Why did they have to wait so long for deliverance?
3. We have gotten drunk with the wine of the world and forgot God. A God who has loved us, a God, who has cared for us, a God, who has taken us into his bosom and held us with the tenderness of mother who holds her child: this is the God we have forsaken, this is the God, who we have backslid from, this is the God, who we have despised and disdained. And God looks at our waywardness, looks at our unfaithfulness, looks at our fallen state and withdraws his presence from us. When God withdraws his presence, he leaves you to your own devices. So people burn incense to graven images, seek their own counsel instead of praying to God, turn to earthly, political and economic power, instead of acknowledging the Most High God.
Why have we had to wait so long for deliverance?
4. Do you not fear God’s power? Do you not hear his roar? Do you wish to kindle his anger?
I’m so glad that God speaks a word.
I’m so glad that integral to God’s nature is his grace and mercy.
I’m so glad that God is not through with us yet.
I’m so glad that in spite of our problem, God’s still speaks his prophesy.
Out of Egypt, I will send my son. “A Black Man is coming!”
5. He comes because there is still a remnant. He comes because there are still some saints who call on his name. He comes because there are still some people who honor God’s name. In the text, he calls it Judah, in the text he speaks of those who are still faithful. In our lives God’s word is still true: If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, turn from their wicked, seek my face; then I will hear from heaven and will heal their land.
6. I know there is political anticipation in the air. I pray that the aspirations of so many come true. However, I’m here to say without a shadow of a doubt that it really doesn’t matter who is in the White House. It really doesn’t matter who is in the State House. It doesn’t even matter who is in the jail house. For as long as God is in the Light House, we are going to make it home.
That’s why my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus's name, on Christ the solid rock, I stand all other ground is sinking sand.
7. To fulfill the prophesy of Hosea, the New Testament text of Matthew's records that to avoid the edict of King Herod all children under two must be killed, Joseph and Mary escape with Jesus to Egypt and do not return until an angel informs them King Herod is dead. They return to Nazareth to fulfill the prophesy of Hosea, that out of Egypt, I have called my son.
Some may say I thought you were going to preach about the Democratic candidate.
No, I preach Jesus the only one who can save your soul. He is the only one who can make you whole.
I preach Jesus, who John the Revelator says has hair like wool and feet like fine brass.
I preach Jesus the one who was sent into the world not to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved.
I preach Jesus for those who are weak and weary. He will give you rest.
I preach Jesus because under his feet every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord.
Let me close by saying: we are on a dawn of a new day. However, I here to say that we can’t approach life the same old way. We will need people who are faithful. We will need people who are righteous. We will need people who love the Lord. We will need people who follow Jesus Christ. We will need people willing to sacrifice, willing to suffer, willing to share, willing to save, and willing to take up their cross, take up their bed, and follow the savior.
Are you ready? Are you willing to go the last mile of the way?
Are you ready? Are you willing to see the dawn of a new way?
Are you ready? Are you willing to follow Christ all the way?
Then God’s prophesy will overcome our problem, and we will step into the promise of God.
“A Black Man is coming to cause us to revive our faith in God
and to restore us into a right relationship with God.”
That’s the promise the prophets spoke of:
Micah said “what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”
Amos said, “Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”
Jesus said, “I am the truth and the light, no man cometh unto the Father but by me.”
Out of Egypt, I will call my son, who will revive our faith in God and will restore us into a right relationship with God.
