OUR REDEMPTIVE CHRISTIAN SOCIOLOGY
Sunday, November 20, 2016
BY REV. DR. LARRY DELANO COLEMAN
Each Sunday morning, all over America, black people drive, arrive, thrive in an anointing spirit of redemptive Christian sociology for burdened masses that speaks, peculiarly and particularly, to their oppressed bodies, yet, ever resilient, ever ebullient, spirits. No drugs, no doctors, no forms, no asylums.
Just Jesus. Just Jesus. Just Jesus . Through it all, Just Jesus is seen!
“At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight. And Now, I am happy all the day.” They say, we sang. I sang. I sing. Then, now, forever!
“I will trust in the Lord until I die.” Song, praise, prayer, preaching, giving, testifying, meeting, greeting, smiling, laughing, shouting, sustained them for yet another week’s journey. “Lord you brought me from a mighty long way.”
Intuitive, communal, connubial, rhythmic, throbbing, pulsing, melodic grace.
Praise and worship brought us from the brush and bush arbors of secret, subversive sorties, into gilded temples and sanctuaries. Our progress is measured by our transformative habiliments. From forests to front street.
Each step of the way we drew renewed strength from Adam, Eve, Nimrod, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; from Moses, from the Hebrew children crossing the Red Sea; from Daniel, Solomon, Samuel, David; from “dry bones” in the valley, from Shadrach, Meshak, Abednego; from Esther, from Rahab, from Ruth, from Mary, mother of Jesus; from Mary Magdalene, from the disciples, Paul; the Ethiopian eunuch in his chariot reading Isaiah.
Each of these sacred symbols, allegories, ideas, is reified, is glorified, is manifest in the sainted, resurrection of Africans in the Americas, across the Atlantic Ocean, “beyond the river,” some 400 years later. We have become a “new people.” As a renewed people, in whose miraculous, divinely-fated redemption, we have descended anew, intact in our disassembled, now reassembled, still dissembled, barely remembered sameness that bids us sing and praise God all the day long. We watch, work and wait until our change comes. “Cheer up my brothers. We’ll understand why by and by. Live in the sunshine. We’ll understand it better, by and by. Farther along.”
“Like Humpty Dumpty fell off a wall; when all the King’s horses and all the King’s men could not put Humpty together again. But, the King came! The King came! The King came!” Hallelujah!” So celebrated the Rev. Dr. E. Dewey Smith of Georgia, who sang, soothed, and who inspired me today!
Such has our redemptive Christian sociology provided for us always.
#30
Sunday, November 20, 2016
OUR REDEMPTIVE CHRISTIAN SOCIOLOGY
OUR REDEMPTIVE CHRISTIAN SOCIOLOGY
Sunday, November 20, 2016
BY REV. DR. LARRY DELANO COLEMAN
Each Sunday morning, all over America, black people drive, arrive, thrive in an anointing spirit of redemptive Christian sociology for burdened masses that speaks, peculiarly and particularly, to their oppressed bodies, yet, ever resilient, ever ebullient, spirits. No drugs, no doctors, no forms, no asylums.
Just Jesus. Just Jesus. Just Jesus . Through it all, Just Jesus is seen!
“At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight. And Now, I am happy all the day.” They say, we sang. I sang. I sing. Then, now, forever!
“I will trust in the Lord until I die.” Song, praise, prayer, preaching, giving, testifying, meeting, greeting, smiling, laughing, shouting, sustained them for yet another week’s journey. “Lord you brought me from a mighty long way.”
Intuitive, communal, connubial, rhythmic, throbbing, pulsing, melodic grace.
Praise and worship brought us from the brush and bush arbors of secret, subversive sorties, into gilded temples and sanctuaries. Our progress is measured by our transformative habiliments. From forests to front street.
Each step of the way we drew renewed strength from Adam, Eve, Nimrod, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; from Moses, from the Hebrew children crossing the Red Sea; from Daniel, Solomon, Samuel, David; from “dry bones” in the valley, from Shadrach, Meshak, Abednego; from Esther, from Rahab, from Ruth, from Mary, mother of Jesus; from Mary Magdalene, from the disciples, Paul; the Ethiopian eunuch in his chariot reading Isaiah.
Each of these sacred symbols, allegories, ideas, is reified, is glorified, is manifest in the sainted, resurrection of Africans in the Americas, across the Atlantic Ocean, “beyond the river,” some 400 years later. We have become a “new people.” As a renewed people, in whose miraculous, divinely-fated redemption, we have descended anew, intact in our disassembled, now reassembled, still dissembled, barely remembered sameness that bids us sing and praise God all the day long. We watch, work and wait until our change comes. “Cheer up my brothers. We’ll understand why by and by. Live in the sunshine. We’ll understand it better, by and by. Farther along.”
“Like Humpty Dumpty fell off a wall; when all the King’s horses and all the King’s men could not put Humpty together again. But, the King came! The King came! The King came!” Hallelujah!” So celebrated the Rev. Dr. E. Dewey Smith of Georgia, who sang, soothed, and who inspired me today!
Such has our redemptive Christian sociology provided for us always.
#30