WE NEED TO TALK!
Jesse Semple, a Harlem cab driver, asked Derrick Bell, a profound Black author, “Tell me what’s to celebrate about the condition of Black people who die too soon, go to prison too long, and come to know life’s blues far too early? Tell me how a holiday for Dr. King or a month of Black History helps the poor, the ignorant, the out-of-work, and hungry Blacks all over this racist land?” And to which Derrick Bell had no answer! And neither do I!
Yet in this special period celebrating our Culture and Ethnicity, I thought it would be helpful as well as honorable if we would dwell on THE REDEMPTIVE ROLE OF PERSONS OF AFRICAN DESCENT IN THE ECONOMY OF GOD. And so, I want to highlite this headline in our little chat tonight. I want to talk about: “THE REDEMPTIVE ROLE OF AFRICANS”
The Text I have tagged and targeted for Teaching is FIRST SAMUELS 30: 11-19.
My Friends of African Descent, I submit that for the past 30 years, the American culture in general and the African community in particular has Lived thru a Litany of Losses! Strides once made and Gains once achieved have steadily and slowly been rescinded, redefined and modified, and even temporarily Lost.
I believe verses 3 and 4 of chapter 30 express succinctly the List of Our Temporary Losses.
For in verse 3, here comes David and his 600 men borne along by the out-flowing upness of exuberance, anticipating the embrace of love from their wives, the joy of playing with their children, and the pride of recounting the mighty acts of God in preserving and granting them victory over their enemies. But when they neared the city, they saw the flames and down came their jubilant expectation, and life once overflowing was now reduced to an occasional trickle. Verse 3 says: “So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire.”
Thus the Burning City, “The Mississippi Burning,” epitomizes the Loss of Our Labor! The City of Ziklag represented 16 months of Hard Labor in building the Institutions of Home, Businesses, Schools and Social Centers for Communion, Dialogue and Recreation. And suddenly Their Labor was absorbed in Fire!
For the past 30 years, we have had to deal with Pyromaniacs who are bent on Destroying the Institutions of Our Hard Labor. For verse 3 seems to suggest that these Amalekian Pyromaniacs of the Flesh are the one who are constantly starting Home Fires trying to destroy the Institution of Family. Many of our Homes Are on Fire! Stats cannot begin to express the havoc wreaked on the Black family as a result of joblessness and poverty: broken homes, anarchy in the community, futility in the public schools. All are the bitter harvest of race-determined unemployment in a society where work provides sustenance, status and the all-important sense of self-worth. Coupled to this is divorce and separation caused by adultery that results in rebellion, independence and strife in the home.
For the past 30 years, these Pyromaniacs have ignited School Fires in hopes of collapsing our Institutions of Learning. We have lost so many of our colleges, private and public schools due in part to greed and theft, due partly to politics and due in large measure to our own non-support. And now our kids are suffering Smoke Inhalation, inhaling the obnoxious fumes of racism, inferior labeling status, a sub-par curriculum, and gangs and violence. They literally have to Fight to be educated!
These Pyromaniacs are the instigators of Political Fires; for we are constantly battling the flames of sexual and financial scandals, battling unjust city/state/national ordinances, codes and propositions; battling malicious police abuse, racial profiling and judicial rape. And yes, these
Amalekian Pyromaniacs are even behind the plethora of Church Fires instigated by the Fire Bugs of hatred, contention and strife. Oh yeah, many of our churches are on fire! James was right when he wrote: “Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!”
Perhaps David and his men could have handled the Loss of their Labor if that were the totality of their woe; but when they ran with hasty feet to rescue their families from the “Mississippi Burning” only to find “their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captive” that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back! Therefore, for the past 30 years there has been an orchestrated attempt to Take Possession of Our Hearts. Attempts have been made to bring us back into bondage to the flesh; so, Our Love has been taken captive, meaning, Our Wives/Husbands!
Ah yeah, many have come home only to find their Wife/Husband has gone! Or, if not gone physically then gone morally, mentally or emotionally; for they are under the dominion of some Fleshly Man/Woman. It could be their parents who mean well but their intentions end in evil or a concerned brother/sister. Or it could be some old man/woman who wanders about from house to house spreading gossip and insinuating lies. Or it could be a so-called friend or a psychic connection. Or it could well be a wicked wolf who wears the preacher’s garb who has crept into households making captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts. Sin and Society wants Your Love, for in controlling your Love it can have Dominion Over You!
Our Legacy has also been taken captive, Our Sons. Oh, so many of our Sons have been captured by the Amalekian Gang Culture, the Corinthian Drug Circle, the Western Occult of Materialism and a worldly lifestyle. But if we Lose our Legacy, we Lose Our Future, for Who shall carry on Our Name? Who shall carry on Our Work and Perpetuate our Principles and Practices? We need Our Name Preserved Not Stolen! And I’m persuaded the Shakespearean character Iago in “The Tragedy Of Othello” was right when he said:
“Good Name in man and woman … is the immediate jewel of the soul.
Who steals my purse steals trash …
But he who filches from me my good name robs me of
That which enriches him not and makes me poor indeed.”
Yes, the captivity of Our Sons, our Good Name - Our Legacy, makes us poor indeed!
Not satisfied with having Our Labor, Love and Legacy, evil forces also take captive Our Laughter - Our Daughters.
Our Daughters, polished cornerstones sculptured in palace style;
Our Daughters, heirs of Sarah, chaste conversationalists and fearers of God;
Our Daughters, displayers of meek and quiet spirits;
Our Daughters, modelers of the hidden person of the heart;
Oh Our daughters are vulnerable to the chains and curses of Amalek! A daughter is the apple of a father’s eye, the beauty of his bosom, his gladness in gloom and the Laughter of his heart! For a father, then, to see his daughter under the dominion of an unsaved male is sorrow indeed! Yet, so many of Our Daughters are taken captive by Men of the Flesh!
Thus, with the Temporary Loss of Our Labor, Love, Legacy and Laughter we, like David and his men in verse 4, for the past 30 years have lifted up our voice and wept until we have no more power to weep.
When strong men break down and cry like babies, that’s a Great Loss!
When our pain and grief outweigh our ability to express it; when our complaints out number our commendations, that’s Great Loss!
When we can’t adequately express our pain or when our afflictions outweigh our ability to express our sorrow is a Great Loss!
When your pain and anguish is so great, so intense and unbearable, that words fail to adequately express your suffering so that, as a consequence, moans and groans are the content of your conversation is a Great Loss!
When you exhaust your ability to shed tears, that’s sho-nuf a Great Loss! I wonder, can anyone out there relate?
Therefore, in verses 8 and 10 David and his men are Pursuing the Promise - You Shall Recover. In verse 8 God’s promise to David was: “Thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail Recover All.” YOU SHALL RECOVER! The Lord’s will is for us to Pursue the Promise of Recovery. He says:
‘You shall recover from your loss;
You’re gonna get back on your feet;
You’re gonna be up again!
You’re going to Recover your Labor, Love, Legacy and your Laughter.
But you must Pursue the Promise!
No matter what it looks like, You Shall Recover!
Regardless of present hurt and distant disappointment, You Shall Recover! Just Pursue the Promise!
So as David and his men are pursuing the promise verse 11 says: “And they found an Egyptian in the field …” Which leads me to submit in -
I. The First Place, that in both the past and present, for the most part, People of African Descent Have Been Found in the Field.
In the 17th and 18th hundreds a few Africans Were found in the House. A few of our forebears were brought into the plantation house of slavery to serve as butlers, cooks, maids and baby sitters. And in this 21st century, an increasing number of us have made it to the House of Opportunity and Upward Mobility. An increasing number of Africans have made it to the House of Business, Politics, Academics, Sports, Medicine and Entertainment. But for the most part, People of African Descent have been found disenfranchised in the Filed of Poverty and Pessimistic Predicaments.
C. Eric Lincoln in his book “Race, Religion and the Continuing American Dilemma” said: “The common experience of Black america is that the formidable conglomerates of power which structure American society conspire to insure their retention in an excluded caste at the bottom of the racial and ethnic heap and farthest from the realization of the benefits to be derived from being American.” Derrick Bell in his book “Faces at the Bottom of the Well” said: “Black people will never gain full equality in this country. Even those Herculean efforts we hail as successful will produce no more than temporary peaks of progress, short-lived victories that slide into irrelevance as racial patterns adapt in ways that maintain white dominance. This is a hard-to-accept fact that all history verifies. We must all acknowledge it, not as a sign of submission, but as an act of ultimate defiance.” Yes, the majority of Black Americans are still At The Bottom of the Well, Still in the Field, still looked upon as “hewers of wood and drawers of water.”
Our Brother in the text Was Found in the Field. This was a cultivated field where crops of some kind were grown but was harvested and left bare; perhaps a field of grain or wheat. Thus, I deduced that he was looking for something to eat, something to sustain his life; he was trying to survive! For verse 12 says: “he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights.” Our brother was found at the point of death, starving and dehydrated! So much so that he was reduced to scrounging the earth on his hands and knees until he passed out and lost consciousness.
My honorable friends, I contend that Many of our Black Brothers and Sisters Are Found in the Field of Hunger in this land of plenty. Mind you, not because they are too sorry or lazy to work. No, they are working! Working on dead-end jobs in a prosperous economy of down-sizing and corporate greed and profits that pay just enough to keep them in poverty. They earn just enough to pay rent and perhaps their utilities, but not enough to feed their families; therefore, many days of every month they go hungry!
Our Brother was also found in the Field Forsaken. For in the last part of verse 13 he told David: “my master Left Me!” Hungry then Forsaken, left behind like some wounded animal to die! The sad fact is that so many of our folk have been Forsaken, Left Behind to Die in the Field of Poverty!
Forsaken by a greed-driven, profit-hungry capitalistic society!
Forsaken by a heartless, unchristian, racist congress!
Forsaken by a callous and cruel yet patriotic Vanilla suburbanites!
But worst of all, Forsaken by Us, the Black Church, the Black Community!
We have Forsaken Our Own Hungry, Homeless, Hurting, Poor Black Brothers/Sisters!
What benefit is it to say to the naked and hungry, ‘Warm yourself and be filled or feed by someone,’ but we do not supply those needful things? Yet, that is exactly what we have been doing! Do we not know that God chose out for Himself in the distant past the Economically Poor People? The economically poor are God’s Choice. That’s James argument in James 2:5-6. There he argues that the economically poor are special to God and enjoy His Favor and special providence. James argues that God chose the economically poor for two purposes. The one that is relevant here is that they are abundantly supplied in the realm of faith. Being rich in faith, the economically poor are not a burden but an invaluable asset to any authentic local church. The poor have ready access to spiritual riches in heavenly places. I dare say that the reason for the success and power of various ministries and churches is due in large part to their acknowledgement and esteem of the Poor in their midst! How can we prosper and advance as a people when we despise those whom God has chosen?
Our Brother was found in the field hungry and forsaken yet Stood Weak or Sickly! In the last part of verse 13 he said to David: “my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick.” However, the Hebrew and Greek Text says “I Stood Weak!” He was Weak from Hunger, but yet He Stood! His master treated him worse than a dog because the implication is that his master refused to feed him before he left him. He served his master yet his master fed him not. But I admire his fortitude because though weak from hunger, yet he said “I Stood Weak. I Served Weak. I would not Fall Down. I Stood Weak!”
Are not many of our Brothers/Sisters hungry and forsaken, yet are they Not Standing Weak? Yes, they are working weak; toiling weak; serving weak; persevering weak; hoping weak; believing weak; worshipping weak; living weak! They Refuse to Fall Down; refuse to Give-Up - THEY STAND WEAK!
I have no admiration for those of us who are middle-class, well-paid, well-fed comfortable Blacks. I admire that poor humble saint who withstands all kinds of pressures, stress, snide and degrading remarks and mistreatment at work, on the streets in the hood but yet Still Stands although weak, hungry and tired; Stand long enough to make it home and fall to the floor. Yes, I admire them and for them, there shall be peace in the valley some day. Though tired and weary yet they travel on till the Lord calls them away!
My friends, the Hungry, Forsaken, Standing Weak in the Fields of our Hoods MUST BE MINISTERED TO! We must find them, pick them up, carry them, feed them! We must RESTORE THEM TO HUMNANESS! For when they found our Brother, he could Stand No Longer, SO HE FELL: fell in the field, fell at the point of death. His Humanity had almost left him, for verse 12 says: “And when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him.” His spirit denotes his earthly life was restored; he regained the power to think, to feel, to will, to decide. You can’t think reasonably, feel emotion, choose or decide to act rationally when you are unconscious!
Therefore I submit to us that we need to stop criticizing and asking what’s wrong with our hungry brothers/sisters in the field. They are so hungry, hurt and forsaken that they have lost the power to think straight, to feel any emotion and to make any decision - FEED THEM! They only desire the CRUMBS that fall from our tables - FEED THEM AND RESTORE THEIR HUMANNESS! They have suffered dehumanization long enough at the hands of the majority; we must not adopt that mentality toward our own! They are flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone and blood of our blood. WE MUST MINISTER TO THEIR HUMANITY!
The reason being simply this: though dehumanized and disenfranchised in the field, yet THEY ARE STILL AWARE OF THEIR ETHNICITY.
II. Thus Secondly, I allege that Africans who are used Redemptively ARE STILL AWARE OF THEIR ETHNICITY!
Notice in verse 13 the Questions asked of Dehumanized and Disenfranchised Africans.
The KJV translates David’s first question as “To Whom belonged thou?” That to me has a racial connotation to it; as if to imply that David viewed all Blacks as inferior, less than human and therefore slaves in need of and belonging to some superior white master! And so, I could not accept that translation. I could not accept the implication offered by the translators of KJV that David was a racist! Especially when I considered the fact that he married a woman of African descent. You remember Bathsheba, that fine woman who caused David to have her husband killed in order to have her? Well, she was of African descent on her mother’s side. So I couldn’t accept the insinuation that David was a racist; especially when I considered the fact that his son, King Solomon was part Black being the son of Bathsheba.
So I got my Septuagint, my Greek Bible, and where the KJV has the Dative “to whom” the Septuagint has the Genitive of Source “Of Whom or Of What Are You?” In other words, “Who are your folk? Who are your parents and forefathers? Of what tribe or race are you?” And his second question is in line with that ‘ “From where are you?” What country, where do you come from?
I tell you, God uses those who are not ashamed of Their Roots! This young man answered David saying: “I am a young Egyptian man.” Well, to those who believe the Bell-Curve Theory and would label us as less than human and the property of a superior race, we must Declare Our Personhood - “I am a Man!” I am a person of consequence, a creation of Almighty God. As such I am An Expression of God’s Person, An Extension of God’s Presence and An Exhibition of God’s Power - I AM! Like the philosopher Rene’ Descartes we must assert “I think, therefore I am!”
He Owned His Ethnicity - “I am a young Egyptian man.” he did not try to deny his roots or to deny his race in favor of being accepted or affirmed by the majority race. No! He Owned Up to the fact of being from the Tribe of Ham, a Hamite, a descendant of Cush - “I am a young Egyptian man!” You ought never dent who you are! Don’t renounce your Blackness in the face of Whiteness! To do so is to deny the wisdom and purpose of God: you are who and what you are by the will of God. Celebrate God’s gift - Yes, I Am A Young Egyptian Man!
He not only Owned His Ethnicity, he also Declared His Heritage - “I am an … Egyptian.” Contrary to popular belief, Egypt is part of the continent of Africa. Egyptians are Africans! And the reason that is important and relevant is because much of the activity in the earlier sections of the OT is set in North Africa. The Garden of Eden is said to have been located in North Africa, the home of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve.
Now these facts are scarcely mentioned in the majority of commentaries written by European and American biblical scholars. However, the writers of the OT underscore the importance of Africa in many places. For instances, both Abraham and Jacob sojourned in Africa. Joseph rose to power and prominence under a Pharaoh in Africa. The so-called “Table of nations” in Genesis 10 provides the universe of the early Hebrew trepidations, and in that universe “the sons of Ham” (i.e., the Egyptians) are major actors. It was the 12th Dynasty of Egypt’s Middle Kingdom that dominated Syria and Canaan. This Egyptian culture is the mother of modern civilization. Law and order, Government, architecture, the sciences, medicine and the arts all owe their origins to Egypt. So we need not be ashamed of our heritage, for it is a noble and unparalleled one!
My friends, it is important to Link Our Identity To Our Ethnicity; for if we establish our heritage then no one can identify us by our Social Status. This young man said: “I am a young Egyptian man,” that’s My Identity. I just happen to be “a Servant to a certain Amalekite.”
Stolen from my homeland, sold into slavery - A Servant!
Stripped of my name, denied my heritage, raped of my rights - “A Servant!”
A servant of no consequence: for I served but was not Fed!
I served to the point of collapsing, yet Stood Weak!
A deserted, dehumanized, disenfranchised Servant!
For the most part, Persons of African Descent have not been assimilated into this society. All Black have been condemned to quasi-citizenship as surely as our parents were segregated and their forebears were enslaved. The fact is, despite what we designate as progress wrought thru struggle over many generations, we remain what we were in the beginning: a dark and foreign presence always the designated other. Tolerated in good times, despised when things go wrong. As a people we are scapegoat and sacrificed as distractions or catalysts for compromise to facilitate resolution of political differences or relieve economic adversity. We are now, as our forebears when brought to the New World, objects of barter for those who, while profiting from our existence, deny our humanity
We will not be assimilated; for we are always identified by a qualifying adjective: a Black man/woman, a minority, those people! Never referred to as Mr./Mrs. So and So, but always as a Black preacher, a Black nurse, a Black teacher, a Black actor, a Black athlete, a Black citizen, a Black student: We Shall never Be Assimilated! If you join a White congregation, you shall be referred to as the Black member. If you are elected to congress or to public office, you are the Black congressperson or the Black mayor. And since the majority shall never let you forget it, then YOU MUST BE AWARE OF YOUR ETHNICITY!
III. For I contend THIRD and Lastly that Unknown, Unnamed Africans Have, Are and Shall Play A Key Role in the Redemptive Work of a Holy God!
We must be ever mindful of the fact that God is at work in every detail and juncture of our pursuit. He providentially places people in our way who, regardless of their race, gender, social status or physical condition, holds the Key to our Success. And by taking out time to bless them, we discover that God has purposed and planned to bless us.
Our Egyptian Brother in our text is a case in point. For on their way, David’s men found this despised, deserted, disenfranchised African. You never know thru whom God has determined to bless you. Daily we pass by hurting human personalities in the fields of our Chocolate Cities and leave them hurting, hungry, thirsty and hopeless because they are not the kind of folk we like to help. For we have our own criteria for helping folk. They must look a certain way, be in fairly good physical condition, have a respectable social status in the ‘hood,’ be of a certain Ethnicity or skin color, and must be a member of somebody’s church. That’s our own standard of righteousness and not God’s. And I fear we have bypassed certain people whom God has strategically placed in our way to help us; and we have flunked and are still pursuing these many months and years a promise that should have been realized a long time ago!
Yeah, we need to take time out and help someone else who is down on the path we trod! For after David had questioned him as to his Ethnicity and country of origin, he found out in verse 14 that this Black Man was the Very Person who Could Help Them Recover All they had lost.
If we take time out to minister to someone else’s needs and then spend a little time talking to them, we just might discover The Key to our soul’s desire! For God sometimes works out the details of answered prayer thru the lives and lips of discarded and disenfranchised folk!
Folk that you think have no resources to help;
Folk you think have no answers to give;
Folk who have no clout in the community;
Folk with no standing in the Hood;
Folk who live in Section 8 houses and buy their food with Welfare resources - ARE THE VERY FOLK GOD HAS CHOSEN!
For don’t you hear the apostle Paul in I Corinthians 1:25-29 saying to us:
“Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called: But God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, has God chosen; yea, and things which are not to bring to nought things that are.”
So David asked this weak, foolish, powerless, despised Black Man whom God had chosen: “Do you think that you can bring me down to these plunderers? Would you help us in our pursuit?” And he did help for in verses 18 and 19 “David recovered all … his two wives (his Love … their sons (Legacy) and daughters (Laughter) … David recovered all.”
Yes, GOD USES NAMELESS, DESPISED, DESERTED,
DISENFRANCHISED AFRICANS AS KEYS IN THE REDEMPTIVE STORY!
For in the desolate desert of Shur when hope unborn had almost died, God spoke to and used the Black Egyptian Queen, Hagar, to establish the Arabian nation.
When the prophet Jeremiah’s life hung in the balance as he sunk in the mire of a dungeon, God used Ebed-Melech the Egyptian eunuch to draw up Jeremiah out of the dungeon.
When the continent of Africa needed the redemptive light of the Gospel to shine upon its inhabitants, God saved the first Gentile convert in the desert of Gaza. From a chariot to a church, God took Candace’s secretary of treasury, an Egyptian eunuch, and used him as Africa’s first Evangelist!
It was during the dark 5th century B.C of Judah’s history that God raised up a prophet who exhorted the people to repent and assured them that God would dwell in the midst of a righteous remnant following repentance, and that a time would come when worshippers of Yehovah would come from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia and would bring offerings. That prophet was the only Black prophet to the nation of Israel. In case you are interested, his name is Zephaniah. When you have a moment, turn to the Book of Zephaniah and check out his lineage in verse 1. His genealogy, unlike that of any other prophet, is traced back over four generations from his father Cushi to one Hezekiah. Zephaniah was Black thru his mother, related to King Hezekiah thru his father, was a native Judahite, Black in color. God spoke thru the prophetic Black mouth of the prophet Zephaniah!
Amid the smeltering heat of segregation and Jim Crow, God used a woman whose feet were tire and hurting to ignite the Civil Rights Movement in the person of Rosa Parks.
And in Philadelphia on a fateful Sunday in November of 1787, God used a small group of Black Methodists who were pulled unceremoniously from their knees while inadvertently praying in a segregated section of a gallery in St. George’s Methodist Church; who after being informed of St. George’s racial policy and after being denied their request to be allowed to finish their prayers, organized the First African Methodist Episcopal Church under the leadership of Richard Allen and Absalom Jones.
T.D. Jakes, C.A.W. Clark, Tony Evans, Noel Jones, Paul Morton, E.K. Bailey, Carlton Pearson, Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, Ward Connelly, Congresspersons John Lewis and Sheila Jackson-Lee, Johnny Cockran and Bill Cosby are certainly spot-lighted; but I don’t believe these are the Keys to Redemptive Recovery in our time! I do believe God shall use an UNKNOWN, UNNAMED AFRICAN WHO IS STILL IN THE FIELD OF POVERTY AND PRESSURE.
Perhaps an African whom you have seen often and have written off as insignificant and worthless. Peradventure an African who is yet on crack. Possibly an African who is a member of the Gang Culture. Mayhaps an African who is hiding by some Cherithian Brook. Perhaps some African who is being groomed in some prison cell - FOR GOD LOVES TO USE THINGS WEAK, FOOLISH, DESPISED AND NOTHING!
I suggest to us that the Church of African Descent Is Destined For A Key Role in The Redemption of Western Civilization and the World. Despite being dismissed as an improbable force and institution by those who say that neither the Black Church nor the Black experience has ever been a matter of serious consequence from the American perception of reality, we Shall Rise! WE have been written off as irrelevant and inconsequential.
But oh, when I read the redemption story, I find clues of future usefulness. For the majority culture has dismissed Jesus of Nazareth as a joke. They asked, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Nazareth was considered a Ghetto. So they called Him lazy, crazy, a wine-bibber, a sinner, a deceiver, a traitor, a devil, a blasphemer and a curse. So they condemned Him to die, not knowing He was God’s Plan of Redemption.
They led Him to the Killing Field, compelling Him to carry His cross. And when He needed a little relief from carrying His burden, when He fell down under the weight of the cross, look at God giving future indications of His Plan for Africans. For God had strategically placed in the crowd of on-lookers, an African by the name of Simon from Cyrene. Simon was just coming out of the Field! And so the soldiers saw this despised Black Man, drug him from the crowd and made him carry the Cross of Christ for awhile. Even in the Redemptive Story of the Cross, God Used An African!
There was Jesus the Jew and Simon the African linked together in partnership with the Cross. Yeah, God Is Not Through Using Us Yet!
Our Destiny Is Linked To The Cross Of Christ, for there is Jesus and Simon!
Who better to carry the cross than those who are despised and rejected by men.
Who better to carry the cross than those who are people of sorrow, acquainted with grief!
Who is better fit to carry the cross of Redemption than those who have suffered police brutality, racial profiling, tried and sentenced in unjust courts. Oh Our Destiny Is Linked To The Cross Of Christ. We who die too soon, go to prison too long and come to know life’s blues far too early are Linked to the Cross of Christ!
We Are Linked to the Cross of Christ!
He wore my crown of thorns, I shall wear His crown of glory.
He wore my nakedness when He hung on the tree, I shall wear His Royal Robe
He bore my shame, I shall bear His honor.
He endured my suffering, I enjoy His Joy.
So Africans, TAKE UP THE CROSS! For when you come to the end of your journey, weary of life and the battle is won; carrying the staff and the cross of redemption; He’ll understand and say “Well-done.”
So in this sanctuary tonight, I exhort you to--
“Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us.
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.”
