Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] May 9, 2021 “The Three Mothers” 1st John 5: 1-6 Before I read today’s text from 1st John, it’s important to recognize that all of scripture was written in a context. Years from now when we watch re-runs of old TV shows, we will see people wearing masks and say to ourselves, oh, that was shot during the pandemic of 2020. It will make sense to us. And when today’s school children are grandparents, they will show pictures to their grandchildren and tell them stories of lockdowns and going to school online. But eventually those stories will fade. Things so easily understood in 2021 won’t be in 2221. All of that is to say, we are so far removed from the time of the Johannine community of 1st John, we don’t know exactly what the big deal was. It made sense to those who lived it; but to us? Before I read the text, I want to share what one scholar said: “Anyone hoping to track by means of linear reasoning through these few verses in 1st John is likely to emerge seriously frustrated – the author certainly seems to be going around in circles.” And then questions whether this is a “vortex of sentimental religious jargon, sucking its audience down in a rhetorical swirl.”[1] OK, ready? Listen for the Word of God: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey [God’s] commandments. 3 For the love of God is this, that we obey [God’s] commandments, [whose] commandments are not burdensome, 4 for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. 5 Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” Perhaps I should just leave it there and affirm that, yes, this is a “vortex of sentimental religious jargon, sucking its audience down in a rhetorical swirl.” We could approach these texts, as well as the whole Bible, literally or we could take them seriously. It sounds literally as though those who do not believe Jesus is the Christ are not born of God. To take the Bible seriously, however, means we have to question the context. What’s going on in the rest of the book? We know it’s about a divided community that needed encouragement to love one another. We also need to know, what else is going on in the rest of the world? A major issue in the late first century was whether Jesus was real or just seemed to be real. The big word for that is Docetism (doe-SEE-tism) which comes from a Greek word that means “seems” or “appears.” As Marcus Borg said, when this is applied to Jesus, “it means that though he seemed and appeared to be human, he was not really human but divine.”[2] But 1st John refutes this tendency among some in the Johannine community by countering with the final verse from today’s reading. Following the words “Jesus is the Son of God,” verse 6 continues: “6 This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.” The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. (Really?) Yes. Because essentially, the author argues, Jesus was real – water and blood. Not water only. Which likely refers to his baptism and crucifixion. But it might also refer to what later theologians described as the idea that Jesus was both human and divine. Not just an apparition or an idea. Not merely an object of our collective consciousness but the real thing. For example, Jesus was physically on the street, among the people. Not simply preaching liberation for the captive but participating in the liberation of the captive, or alongside the captive. Just like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X and James Baldwin who didn’t just speak ideas about liberation but put their real flesh and blood bodies on the line for it. But on this Mother’s Day, I wonder, who were the women before the men. Who first taught them to do this? I read a fascinating book earlier this year called The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs.[3] It’s the first and only book of its kind, but part of an emerging genre of literature that attempts to fill in the male dominated stories of the Civil Rights Movement. Can you name these three mothers? Alberta Williams King, Louise Little, and Berdis Baldwin. I want to tell some stories from the book about them. Each one helped their sons make ideas about liberation real with their own bodies. Mama King filled her children’s minds with endless possibilities, especially at the family dinner table where she and Reverend King spoke truthfully with their children about the injustices of segregation and taught them the importance of doing their part to change such inequities. Martin’s big sister Christine said, “People seem to think he came fully formed from the womb, ready to change the world.” But, “we are products of a long line of activists and ministers. We come from a family of incredible men and women who served as leaders in their time and place.” But it was also personal. When Martin was young, he would play with the children of the white family who ran the corner store. They were inseparable for years but as they grew older, his friends’ parents started to create distance between the children. And when they were of a certain age, it was no longer acceptable for them to be friends and eventually prohibited. Martin was terribly hurt. Mama King felt her son’s agony and encouraged him to feel his pain and turn it into something positive. She did the same thing when she met Michael, her husband who later adopted the name Martin Luther after a trip to Germany. Alberta was a college graduate but when they met, Michael (Daddy King) was barely literate.[4] And he spoke with such a terrible stutter he was barely understood. She tutored him, helped him get through college, and achieve all that he became. The figure of Daddy King was bigger than life. But not without her. And did you know that Ebenezer Baptist Church was her father’s church? Her father didn’t think that highly of Michael, yet he became the famous pastor after her father’s death. She lived an exceptional life focused on family and church and community service, but it was tragically cut short. I’m not sure everyone knows that she was shot to death by a deranged man while playing organ during a church service, 6 years after her son. In comparison with the other two mothers, Alberta lived a quite privileged life, afforded many opportunities, and able to provide many opportunities to her children. Louise Little, on the other hand, was committed to a mental institution for nearly 30 years, consigned there by a system of white supremacy that tried to destroy her. Louise was born on the island of Grenada. She later moved to Canada and discovered the principles of Marcus Garvey.[5] As a young woman, she became a fiery grassroots activist promoting Black economic independence, self-help, and unity among people of African descent around the world. She met her husband, Earl, and they dedicated themselves to the Universal Negro Improvement Association. They moved frequently while serving the cause, often forced to move. Because she was so outspoken, she was repeatedly a target. One day while they were living in Omaha, Earl was out of town when a mob of angry white men showed up at their house. They came with shotguns and rifles, shouting threats, and shattering windows. Louise stood fearless, calm in the midst of the chaos, and placed her hand on the pregnant belly holding Malcolm, comforting her other children. When her children came home from school, Louise would reteach them what they learned from the white teachers. She refused to let her children fall victim to a mentality that told them they were inferior to anybody else. She taught them the French alphabet, made them read Black newspapers out loud, and kept a dictionary nearby. She wanted to expose her children to various religions, so they attended Catholic mass, congregated with Baptists, and learned from Hindus. And then they went home to discuss their thoughts. When Earl died, she attempted to hold the family together, but with eleven children, she needed help from social services. A Black single mother in a predominantly white area of Michigan, she was increasingly visited by welfare workers who seemed more interested in taking her children and the land she owned than with helping her. They started planting seeds in her children’s minds that she was crazy and told Malcolm how much more he would like it if he lived with a stable family. Louise saw a psychologist who said that “there was nothing wrong with her that rest and better nutrition could not cure.” He told this to a welfare doctor who got the psychologist to recant his statement in order to place her in the Kalamazoo Mental Hospital, where she was kept from 1939 to 1963 and not allowed to see her children but a few times a year. Despite the trauma, when she was released, she hadn’t forgotten who she was and remained strong and reconnected with her family. But without Louise Little, there wouldn’t have been Malcolm X. Not simply because of her role as his mother, but because she provided the critical thinking of his Black, Pan-Africanist worldview. Much less is known about Berdis Baldwin. When she gave birth to James, Jimmy, in New York City, she had absolutely no family support or extended circle. They moved from apartment to apartment trying to survive. Jimmy picked up odd jobs, shining shoes, running errands. One day when he was 10 years old, Berdis sent him out to find firewood. He was walking down the street when suddenly he felt hands on him. Two white police officers pushed him into a vacant lot and searched him because he “looked like a suspect.” When they didn’t find what they were looking for, they left him lying on the ground. James once wrote that he had no childhood. As a poor Black boy in America, he was already “born dead.” Berdis tried but could not shield her son from racism and poverty. Nor from her husband, whom she called Mr. Baldwin. Jimmy’s step-father was a preacher and terrifyingly abusive. As the oldest, Jimmy had to help raise the eight younger children of the man who beat him and his mother. James did get one particular gift from his mother. An amazing intellect, a love for words, and the ability to write. His biographer once said, he would take care of one of his siblings with one hand and read a book with the other. Berdis was not able to pursue those skills for herself, but she did everything she could to nurture them in James. And when he decided he needed to escape America and could move to Paris on a writing fellowship, despite her needing his help to care for her children, she supported his decision and sent him on his way. That’s where he used the critical distance to come to an understanding of American racism. When he came home, he soon met Martin Luther King, Jr. who had just emerged as a leader following the Montgomery Bus Boycott. I could keep going with more stories, but I encourage you to read this very accessible, very interesting, book for yourself. However, to return to our text from 1st John, my final word of encouragement is to not just read such books but use such books to move from the ideas on the page to a life lived in service of those ideas. The kind of life the very human Jesus taught all of us to live – to put the water and blood of our faith along with our bodies on the line for love. [1] David J. Schlafer, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 2, 2008, p. 491 [2] Marcus Borg, Evolution of the Word, Harper One, 2012, p. 406 [3] Anna Malaika Tubbs, Flatiron Books, 2021 [4] https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/sites/mlk/files/publications/vol1intro.pdf [5] https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/marcus-garvey
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