April Week 4 — Mission Cleveland Parish

Virtue: Hope
Resolution: I choose to hope in God’s promise that all broken things will be made new.

Human Story: Frederick Douglass (1818 – 1895)

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a 4th of July speech to a sizeable gathering of abolitionists. He was baffled by what he felt was blatant support of slavery in the church:

We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the poor heathen!... The slave auctioneer’s bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in religious shouts of his pious master.

He was just as maddened by passive support of slavery in the silence of the church. If Christians were not directly involved in savage acts of slavery, they were, by and large, standing by in silence. Douglass rightly observed that the American church could, by herself, overthrow the terrible system of slavery:

Let the religious press, the pulpit, the Sunday school, the conference meeting, the great ecclesiastical, missionary, Bible and tract associations of the land array their immense powers against slavery and slave-holding; and the whole system of crime and blood would be scattered to the winds; and that they do not do this involves them in the most awful responsibility of which the mind can conceive.

Douglass, born the son of a slave and her white master, became both a voice of hope and fear. He eventually escaped slavery and taught himself to read and write. He became a voice of hope for the millions suffering under systemic oppression and a voice of fear to those who were perpetuating it. He was one of the most visible and outspoken leaders in the abolitionist movement, a leader in championing women’s rights and the first president of the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company. Before the end of the 1800s he became known as the “lion of black America.”

Douglass’s faith in Christ led him to be bold and outspoken and to bring hope to thousands and possibly millions. D. H. Dilibeck said of Douglass, “Yet there’s a side of Douglass that’s not often remembered or celebrated: his radical Christian faith. Douglass was a kind of prophet crying in the wilderness of Christian slaveholding America.”

References:
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july
Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass 1854 by Frederick Douglass

Lesson: Isaiah 50:4 (NRSV)

The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens – wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.

If there is a word to describe much of our world today, it could be “weary.” People are busy, stressed, cynical, and separated on virtually every topic. In America the response to the question, “How are you doing?” is often “Busy.” The truth is that we are a weary people.

The world of Isaiah was no less weary. The people of Israel were exhausted, living in exile, and trying to make sense of their circumstances. This passage was promising a “servant” that would eventually arrive and be able to sustain the weary with a word. They wanted someone who could deliver a message of hope in the midst of their situation. Jesus eventually came as the ultimate servant predicted in Isaiah and delivered the ultimate message to the weary: I am the resurrection and life! As His followers, Christians must now carry the mantle of pedaling hope in our world. If we don’t, who will?

The world is in desperate need of people who can simultaneously learn humility and speak hope boldly. This rare combination of attributes can be like water on a dry desert, especially in our cynical and polarized country. This balance of humility and hope can be seen in this passage, in Christ, and in healthy Christ followers throughout history.

This passage says that the servant awakens every morning determined to listen. This is a posture of humility, listening and learning. As a result of this posture, the listener has been given the wisdom and ability to speak a word that sustains the weary.

In our human story, Frederick Douglass is a great example of this process. He listened to his people and he listened to God. He spoke out powerfully on behalf of those being oppressed by the evil system of slavery. He delivered a message of hope for hundreds of thousands which resonated with the weary. He spoke up against injustice with boldness and humility which ruffled the oppressor and was a balm to the oppressed.

In many instances, when we speak hope, it won’t resonate with everyone. When we speak hope to the weary, it may agitate others. May we be Christians who mimic the servant in Isaiah by daily listening and learning so that we can understand the world and our culture to such an extent that we can speak words of hope that sustain those who are weary.

Remembrance

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 – 1906) was a brilliant author and activist who was a close friend of Douglass. Dunbar wrote this poem to eulogize Douglass after his passing.

A hush is over all the teeming lists,
And there is pause, a breath-space in the strife;
A spirit brave has passed beyond the mists
And vapors that obscure the sun of life.
And Ethiopia, with bosom torn,
Laments the passing of her noblest born.

She weeps for him a mother’s burning tears--
She loved him with a mother’s deepest love.
He was her champion thro’ direful years,
And held her weal all other ends above.
When Bondage held her bleeding in the dust,
He raised her up and whispered, “Hope and Trust.”

For her his voice, a fearless clarion, rung
That broke in warning on the ears of men;
For her the strong bow of his power he strung,
And sent his arrows to the very den
Where grim Oppression held his bloody place
And gloated o’er the mis’ries of a race.

And he was no soft-tongued apologist;
He spoke straightforward, fearlessly uncowed;
The sunlight of his truth dispelled the mist,
And set in bold relief each dark hued cloud;
To sin and crime he gave their proper hue,
And hurled at evil what was evil’s due.

Through good and ill report he cleaved his way.
Right onward, with his face set toward the heights,
Nor feared to face the foeman’s dread array,--
The lash of scorn, the sting of petty spites.
He dared the lightning in the lightning’s track,
And answered thunder with his thunder back.

When men maligned him, and their torrent wrath
In furious imprecations o’er him broke,
He kept his counsel as he kept his path;
‘Twas for his race, not for himself he spoke.
He knew the import of his Master’s call,
And felt himself too mighty to be small.

No miser in the good he held was he,--
His kindness followed his horizon’s rim.
His heart, his talents, and his hands were free
To all who truly needed aught of him.
Where poverty and ignorance were rife,
He gave his bounty as he gave his life.

The place and cause that first aroused his might
Still proved its power until his latest day.
In Freedom’s lists and for the aid of Right
Still in the foremost rank he waged the fray;
Wrong lived; his occupation was not gone.
He died in action with his armor on!

We weep for him, but we have touched his hand,
And felt the magic of his presence nigh,
The current that he sent throughout the land,
The kindling spirit of his battle-cry.
O’er all that holds us we shall triumph yet,
And place our banner where his hopes were set!

Oh, Douglass, thou hast passed beyond the shore,
But still thy voice is ringing o’er the gale!
Thou’st taught thy race how high her hopes may soar,
And bade her seek the heights, nor faint, nor fail.
She will not fail, she heeds thy stirring cry,
She knows thy guardian spirit will be nigh,
And, rising from beneath the chast’ning rod,
She stretches out her bleeding hands to God!

Challenge

1. Read slowly and intentionally Douglass’ speech about the 4th of July and open your heart to new insight. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth of-july/

2. Choose to allow God to awaken your heart to be taught by Him. Select a passage to meditate on, asking God to help you listen to His teaching. Write down what He says to you. Here are some suggested passages or choose your own:
Psalm 103:13-14 Romans 12:2 1 Corinthians 1
2 Corinthians 5:21 Philippians 4:8 1 Peter 2:16-17

Reflection

What does weariness look like for you? When you feel overwhelmed by circumstances or the state of the world around you, how do you process these feelings? As Isaiah 50:4 states from our lesson, morning by morning God will waken our hearts to listen to Him. May we invite Him into our weariness, and may we continually awaken to His goodness.

Further Growth

Virtue: Hope Resolution: I choose to hope in God’s promise that all broken things will be made new.