The Redemptive Role Of Africans

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 Strides once made and Gains once achieved have steadily and slowly been rescinded, redefined and modified, and even temporarily Lost.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!