Sermon

O Nineveh

June 22, 2014
Jonah Chapters 1-4
Speaker:

At a Crossroads

Stuck at a fork in the road between God’s call and fear

We meet Jonah

You met me

But what fear?

To go, I think not

He went – the opposite way

Much like Jonah, give me adventure

I am not afraid to go anywhere

Give me a journey

Give me a challenge, just not Nineveh

God, why there?

It is reported by the NAACP, 1 in 3 black men between the ages of 20 and 35 were behind bars in 2012, and far more were under some form of penal control – such as probation or parole

By the time I was in 6th grade I was desensitized to the police

It is not uncommon for young black teenagers living in the [‘hood] to be stopped, interrogated, and frisked numerous times in the course of a month, or even a single week, often by paramilitary units

God, you can’t send me there

Blackness

[The] child of twilight and night, choose intricately curly hair, black eyes, full and luscious features; and that air of humility and wonder that streams from moonlight

O Nineveh

I remember learning about you

I remember hearing of your majesty

Do you remember the days of 6th grade biology?

When frogs were either exciting or gross

When the person you had a crush on was the best thing that ever walked the earth

Learning that from the hand of God everything was created

From Earth, comes beauty and all that we see

Moving from simplistic understandings to complexities of reality

Bodies changing and hormones raging

A world built on the struggle for equality

A world of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

Our world

Full of Love

Full of Beauty

What happened?

Where did it go wrong?

Where’s the harmony, unity, oneness?

No one told me this beauty and love became toxic with greed and racism

Privilege

Those who benefit, define, fit, and enforce the processes, attributes, perspectives, standards, and ways of relating that characterize the traditional and dominant paradigm

Power

The ability to influence the behavior of others with or without resistance

Balancing both

We are gifted with each

But Nineveh, these are unproportional and oppressive

Too many stories of black bodies being exploited by a system that was not for us

Too many stories of brown children being pushed through school just to enter into the prison system

Too many stories of being pulled over while driving while brown in a beat up car

Too many stories of stop and frisk

God, what am I to say?

There have been and continue to be people who are greater than I, more intelligent than I who have said better more creative things than I

Moses asked the same question,

“How am I to speak to them? How am I to get them to listen?”

He heard,

“I will be with you. Tell them, I AM sent you.”

The Prison Industrial Complex will laugh at your name

The School-to-Prison pipeline doesn’t care about names

They won’t hear me; God do something else, send someone else

I pause

I remember

Was it not God that liberated Israel time and time again?

Yes

Is it not God that holds the stars and the cosmos in place?

Yes

Is it not God that calls and gives revelations?

Yes

I hear the words of Joel, the Prophet, speak the words of God echoing in the distance

“Then after you go I will pour out my spirit on all flesh,

Your children shall prophesy

your elders shall dream dreams

and those in their youth shall see visions.

Even the people on the margins – people of color, queer folk, differently abled, poor folk – in those days, I will pour out my spirit.”

God’s spirit has come

God’s spirit is here

Oh Nineveh

When did your children stop prophesying?

Or are we not listening?

When did your elders stop dreaming?

Or have we disposed of them?

When did your youth stop being visionaries?

Or do we not believe them?

God’s dream for the world has already begun

With Christ we dream

As Christ we dream

We dream when our brown communities are saying no to oppressive voices

When no more brown bodies are being exploited

When our school are reopening and our prisons are downsizing

When our borders are a means to give order and structure not to keep people out

When race is longer about positions of power

When cultural difference can truly bless the land

I dream of a Nineveh

I dream of peace being a full table

I dream peace being a way of life and practice

Hyattsville was built on dreams

Hyattsville continues to thrive on dreams

Let Nineveh be the dreams dreamers dream

Come to this table and dream

Go out and let your dream be so