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The Blessing of Belief Luke 1:39 – 55; Micah 5:2 – 5a A tall, slow-speaking Georgia young man attended Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville. This white boy started befriending people in the crowded shanties of that city and inviting black families to his modest apartment on campus. The seminary professors rebuked him for such activities. Citing Biblical teachings to support his actions, he could not convince his professors from objecting. The head of the seminary claimed “you are supposed to minister to these unfortunate people, not entertain them in your home. It is just not done.” The young seminarian went on to settle back in Georgia and in 1942 developed a demonstration project where he and his young wife could live their faith and combine their practical knowledge of agriculture to help the rural poor — black and white. Koinonia opened in Americus, Georgia, by Clarence Jordan. It was attacked by the government, the Baptist church and the people living near the project. Race-mixing was not allowed in this country at that time. Jordan asked for help from the U.S. President, and rather than help the President turned the case over to the FBI, which investigated the activities of Koinonia on the basis of race mixing and communism. Bombs, shootings and boycotts (aimed at preventing businesses from selling groceries, gas, medicines or agricultural goods) carried on for years. Jordan never gave up. He even wrote a southern translation of the New Testament, which Harry Chapin made into the Broadway hit, The Cotton Patch Version of the Gospel. Koinonia’s strength waned, however. People were tired of always living against the grain. Jordan died too early of a heart attack at the age of 59. The people of Americus tried to humiliate him in death as much as they did in his life by having the coroner refuse to go to Koinonia. So his dear friend had to carry his body into town and then endure allowing them to do an autopsy. Someone said “they cut out Clarence’s heart, but they could never cut out his soul.” One of his most devoted disciples, Millard Fuller, went on to create what has continued to be an extremely successful demonstration project — Habitat for Humanity. This enterprise is based on the same values of the dignity of all people and that working together for that is the basis of community life. Just in St. Louis last week the 200th Habitat for Humanity home was completed. (H. Jordan. No Such Thing As a Bad Day. Marietta, Georgia: Longstreet Press. 2000. P130-142) What kind of messenger went to Clarence Jordan during his days at seminary? Could it have been the angel, Gabriel that gave him the word of what he was charged to do in this life? Was it the same squadron of angels who sang to the shepherds, or the one who spoke to Mary and Elizabeth? Clearly, Mr. Jordan received a good education and Biblical foundation from his seminary days, but how is it that he heard something different from his professors and even that seminary president? And then there is the question of follow-through. Even though there might be many, many people who actually hear something as outrageous as Clarence Jordan did, what is it that gave him the power to act and continue to live on it? We have the privilege of focusing on Mary this Sunday morning as we did last Sunday. She is such an important figure for us to consider. Her willingness to listen and to respond are such courageous models for our own lives. I have wondered if God’s outrageous call to Mary was the first one attempted. Certainly not everybody would have responded like she did. Not everyone COULD have responded as she did. Do you think God got a wrong number before Mary answered? How many others hung up on God? The poignancy of this situation is precisely in the extreme circumstances. The request was absurd. The promise was preposterous. The petition from God was really quite unbelievable. And, yet, Mary believed, and as Elizabeth claimed:“Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” She did not discount the call as craziness. Mary believed. Whether God called on several other candidates before Mary, we don’t know nor does it really matter. When God called on Mary — she believed. The Benedictines consider humility one of the greatest gifts of the spirit of God. Benedict — as their great founder and teacher — illuminated this virtue by naming 12 steps. The first is to always remember that God is God, and that, therefore, WE are NOT God. Working through the 12 progressive steps learners are taught to accept what has been given to them and yet to always know they can become more. They can grow, but never to replace God’s position and always to find the place to which God has called them in this world. This virtue of humility is precisely what I believe Mary has to offer us. Grounded in knowing that God was God she was able to hear what had been given to her, specifically to her, and never be in danger of assuming more than her share — taking on what did not belong to her or becoming prideful of the honor bestowed on her. In fact, we have no evidence that she slipped over the line on that one. It was the church in later years who gave her all the titles and glory. All she did was hear and believe. Clarence Jordan did the same. Some 65 years ago he heard not from his teachers but from God — and amazingly he believed as well. As our sister denomination, the United Church of Christ, has now proclaimed over and over and over — God is still speaking. Of that there is no doubt. The questions are twofold: Who is hearing and who is believing? God has been speaking to us through this season — nibbing into our conscious and unconscious thoughts hoping that we would be getting ready for the gifts of the season. But longer than just these weeks of Advent. God has been speaking to every one of us, asking simple questions like: God asks every morning: How long — for how many hours — can you remember that I love you, and that the gifts you have were given by me and those gifts are supposed to be shared? Those are the simple questions God asks each of us. Some of the more outrageous ones are: Would you (asks God) accept the gift of courage that I have which will allow you to live passionately and fearlessly today and tomorrow and tomorrow’s tomorrow? Child, will you listen and hear as I tell you — just you — what I want you to do with your life…what I have dreamed for you…what I believe you can do and achieve for me and my world? God spoke these questions to Clarence Jordan. He heard, and he believed. God spoke these questions to Mary. She heard, and she believed. God has spoken these questions to many, many people from the beginning of time. Some have heard and a few have believed. It never means that the task will be easy. It doesn’t mean that you will be popular, revered, honored. In fact, it often means just the opposite. But it does mean you will be a blessing to and be blessed by God. God is still speaking…to you and to me…to all God’s children. May we be ready to hear; may we be ready to believe. We will be blessed in the hearing and the believing. SW |
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