The Time Is Now
Notes
Transcript
The Time is Now
The Time is Now
Last November, I read a book by Dr. James Cone called “The Spirituals and the Blues.” In this book, he talks about the context surrounding the birth of these styles of musical expression. The Spirituals were produced during times of slavery, while the blues were produced during the reconstruction period. In essence, each form of expression stands on each side of the Civil War.
In this book, Cone brings W.E.B. DuBois into the conversation because his essay “Of Sorrow Songs” was the first significant interpretation of slave spirituals[1].” In his work The Souls of Black Folk, we can see that DuBois “was fascinated by the tension in the spirituals between hope and despair, joy and sorrow, death and life, and by the slaves' ability to embrace such polarities in their music[2].”
I find this beautiful for the same reason the Cone and DeBois does, for a people who were forced to live in such a dehumanizing predicament, through their songs were able to communicate that “Through all of the Sorrow of the Song there breathes a hope-a faith in the ultimate justice of things[3].” In other words, they were able to embrace hope without falling into despair.
As a group of people living under the harsh reality of slavery and segregation, the spirituals and the blues tell what black people did to keep together and endure. Therefore it is through this hermeneutical lens that I will attempt to preach and teach from a spiritual ethic with a blues sensibility.
Ethics are a set of moral principles that need to be guided by a spiritual perspective, while the blues sensibility speaks to the nature of the complex emotional influences that are demanding a response.
When an unarmed black man can be gunned down while eating ice cream in his apartment, and the perpetrator is sentenced to only gets five years. We need a set of spiritual ethics with a blues sensibility to navigate our way through this cultural mess.
Collectively and individually, we have been going through some painful seasons that have lasted for years. But we must recognize that painful seasons are seasons of preparation, which means that in spite of what is going on around us, we must continue to feed our faith and cultivate our patience.
In many ways, we as a nation, a church, a people, and as individuals are at a watershed moment. Something has to give, and we must handle this moment appropriately, to see God move in a mighty way. Let’s look at a watershed moment that came at the end of an extended period of painful suffering where God moved in a mighty way.
(Go with me to 2 Chronicles 23:1. I am only going to use the first part of this verse, and I am going to use the NLT of the scriptures.)
2 Chronicles 23:1 (NLT2)
1 In the seventh year of Athaliah’s reign,
[1] Cone, James. The Spirituals and the Blues @ 1991. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY pg. 12.
[2] Cone, James. The Spirituals and the Blues @ 1991. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY pg. 13.
[3] Cone, James. The Spirituals and the Blues ©1991. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY pg. 13.
I. The Situation: The books of first and second Chronicles:
I. The Situation: The books of first and second Chronicles:
While the books of first and second Chronicles retells a lot of the history that is given in the writings of Samuel and Kings, it is still important to let these narratives stand on their own for two significant reasons.
The first reason is that Chronicles is written to a different immediate audience. The audience has recently returned from being exiled to Babylon. Which means the author is attempting to answer a different set of questions. The author of Kings wants his audience to understand why they were exiled to Babylon. But since these people have returned, Chronicles is answering the questions “are we still the people of God’ and “what do God’s promises to David and Solomon mean to them in their current context[1].”
The second important reason we need to let these historical narrative stand on their own is because of the perspective the author takes. The author is taking a priestly view as means of reinterpreting the events found in Samuel and Kings. This means he is trying to encourage the faith and hope of the returning exiles by showing them that God has not abandoned them but continued to be with them during a difficult time in history.
One thing is apparent in all of this, and that is the “chronicler was writing to explain how a people who found themselves as part of a catastrophic event manages to survive whole, find freedom, and rebuild their lives. They were not content to let their oppressors have the last word or define their history[2].” They had an optimism that used the pessimism of life as raw material to create their own strength[3]. It is through our spiritual ethics and blues sensibility, that enables us to remember that the absurd, oppressive, and destructive nature of our current context will not have the last word. Remember that Jesus said that upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail!
(Let’s zoom in a little closer and move from the situation to the problem.)
[1] Page, Jr., Hugh R. The Africana bible: reading Israel’s scriptures from Africa and the African diaspora. Fortress Press, Minneapolis, MN pg.287.
[2] Page, Jr., Hugh R. The Africana bible: reading Israel’s scriptures from Africa and the African diaspora. Fortress Press, Minneapolis, MN pg.288.
[3] Cone, James. The Spirituals and the Blues ©1991. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY pg. 87.
II. The Problem: “In the seventh year of Athaliah’s reign.”
II. The Problem: “In the seventh year of Athaliah’s reign.”
Athaliah was the mother Ahaziah, who was the grandson of King Jehoshaphat and the son of King Jehoram. Jehoshaphat was a mighty man of God and did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. But somehow, those qualities were not passed down to Jehoram. The Bible says that no one was sorry when he died, and therefore they chose not to bury him in the royal cemetery.
After the death of Jehoram, Ahaziah was installed as the King of Judah. Now when the bible gives a summary of the kind of king, he was it says, he followed the evil example of King Ahab’s family, for his mother encouraged him to do wrong.
This is interesting because Ahaziah is the king of Judah, the southern kingdom, and Ahab was the king of Israel of the northern kingdom. Where is the connection between them? The link is Athaliah, whose father was Ahab, which means that Jeezabell was her mother!
Since we are aware of the caricaturing of Black women through using the term Jeezabell, I need to say that in this message, I am using Jezabel the way that the Bible uses her, which is as an example of a particular kind of evil. I am not using the term as defined by Bishop Joey in his Wednesday night series “If It Wasn’t for the Woman and the Silent Crisis between Black Women and Black Men.”
From the way the Bible uses Jeezable, we understand that Jeezabell was a murderous and conniving kind of person, which provides us with valuable insight into the type of person Anthaliah was. Furthermore, she used her influence on Ahaziah by encouraging him to partner with king Joram and it was this partnership that resulted in Ahaziah’s murder.
Here is where things go from bad to worse. When Athaliah finds out her son has been killed, she goes on a killing spree and begins taking out her grandchildren to take control of her son’s throne and begins ruling in Judah.
With this being how her reign started, it gives a clear indication of what life was like in Judah with a woman like this on the throne. The kind of woman who would kill her grandchildren for an opportunity to sit on the throne. This woman wanted something so bad that she was willing to sacrifice her grandchildren to get it.
As a parent, I find the queen Athaliah’s actions both appalling and convicting because I have to wonder if there are ways that I am sacrificing my children to fulfill something missing in myself or for personal gain.
At a fundamental level, Athaliah used her son and her grandchildren to create an opportunity for her to fulfill something that was unfulfilled in her life.
Are we doing this when we force sports on our children because we want them to be the star that we were not able to be?
Are we doing this when we force and push our children toward the career that we want and not where our children are uniquely gifted?
Are we doing this when we won’t support our children’s interests, not because it’s wrong, but because we don’t understand?
When the text says that in the seventh year of her reign, it is telling us that for six years, the nation of Judah has been living in a painful reality, this reality was painful nationally because when Athaliah killed her grandchildren, it would have appeared that she had also killed the promise of God!
Remember, God had promised that a descendant of David would always be upon the throne. But if Athalian had killed all of her grandchildren, that would also meant that she killed off the line of David!
The nation is already experiencing a decline in temple worship. Since the death of king Jehoshaphat. Additionally, at the time of this passage, they are going into their sixteenth year of living under an evil government. And now, they have to live with the reality of there being no hope of restoration.
(But thank God, this isn’t the whole story. God has a solution for this problem.)
III. The Solution: Let me introduce you to Jehosheba.
III. The Solution: Let me introduce you to Jehosheba.
Jehosheba, is the wife of the High Priest Jehoiada, was the sister of Ahaziah, and when Athaliah began killing off the royal family, she was able to rescue her nephew Joash and his nurse by hiding them in the temple.
Consequently, for six years, when most people thought that God’s promise had returned void, God was working in the church. When society was going crazy, and a spirit of murder was running wild, God was working in the church through a woman who was functioning out her spiritual ethic, and a blues sensibility who knew she had to do something because The Time is Now!
When we look at this from a deeper perspective, we can see that when society was going crazy, and the future of the nation was a risk, it took an older person risking their neck to save an infant. In saving the infant, she was protecting the children. In saving the infant, she was protecting the young adults. In saving the infant, she was protecting their future.
Considering where we are as a church, I can’t rush past this point. In the actions of Jehosheba, we can see the importance of intergenerational connections. The nation’s future was connected to the life of the infant. While at the same time, the infant’s life was connected to the covering of an adult who understood. The time is Now!
I have to say that we are living in a similar place in our country right now and where the future of the church is connected to our children and young people. But our children and young people need the covering and protection that only a saint older than them can give.
We are living with a corrupt government where our children are in danger of being swept away through mass incarceration and police brutality.
Our children are in danger of being swept away by school systems that are financially segregated and systemically racist.
We are living in an environment where our children are in danger of being swept away by the false promises of love and loyalty from drug dealers and gang members.
We are living in an environment where our young girls and boys are in danger of being drugged and forced into sex trafficking.
What I find particularly interesting is that the baby Joash didn’t know the level of danger he was in. But God providentially had someone in the right place and at the right time who could see what baby Joash wasn’t aware of and knew that the time to act is now. There are times when God will place us in someone’s life because we can see things they are not able to see!
(Now that we have appropriately contextualized this text, we can add some contemporary application to Jehosheba’s solution. By looking at Jehosheba’s motivation.)
IV. Jehosheba’s motivation.
IV. Jehosheba’s motivation.
First, we must consider the strength and influence that flows out of family ties. Jehosheba was the half-sister of Ahaziah. This means that her father’s wife, Athaliah, was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. This also means that Jehosheba was regularly exposed to the idolatry of both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.
Furthermore, this suggests that she was exposed to a lot of violent experiences growing up in a family devoted to evil and idolatry. But somehow, Jehosheba was able to escape those evil and influences marry a priest and now stands out as a heroic daughter of a wicked father! This is very significant because this is the only place in scripture where someone who was an Israelite princess marries a high priest.
There appear to be both natural and spiritual motivating factors.
From a natural perspective:
Could it be that Jehosheba saw herself in her nephew Joash and since someone reached out and saved her, she knew the importance of reaching out and protecting the next generation.
Could it be that Jehosheba understood that growing up, her life was also in danger because of the family that she born into. Therefore, she could not see her nephew in the same situation and not do anything about it.
Then from a spiritual perspective:
As the wife of the high priest, Jehosheba would have known about God’s promise as it relates to the descendants of David.
Jehosheba was a woman of deep spiritual convictions who rather die than stand by and watch the Athaliah kill the royal seed.
From a spiritual perspective, we can see her functioning out of the faith of Moses, who chose to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasure of sin.
As we engage Jehosheba’s motivation, we are, by default, exposed to the power that resides at the intersection of our testimony and our ministry! In this heroic act, we can see how her testimony produced her ministry. Hearing this should challenge all of us to take another look at our testimony and gain a sense of how God wants to use that to influence our ministry.
Herein is why it’s not good for us to forget where we came from! Because we can begin to look at people doing the same things we used to do with contempt instead of looking at them with compassion. This is why we can’t live lives that are so insulated that we forget the miraculous deliverance that God has done in our lives.
The fact of the matter is that most of us would not be sitting here today, on a Wednesday evening looking to hear a word from the Lord, if the Lord had not done something miraculous for us at some time in our life. Many of us would not be sitting here today if God had not placed someone in our life that was able to cover us when we were on the verge of being destroyed!
There was a friend who called right when you thought you were going to lose your mind.
There was a church member who answered their phone when you called them instead of calling the dope man.
There was the accountability partner who stopped you from making that late-night phone call in a moment of weakness.
There was the preacher, who preached a word of hope when you were ready to take your life.
This is worth giving God some praise. Is there anybody who knows that God is a way maker and a miracle worker? Is there anybody who knows that the keeper of your soul never slumbers or sleeps?
I am reminded of an old story about a famous painting called Checkmate. Checkmate is a term used with people play Chess. In Chess, a player is in checkmate when one player has put the other player in a situation where they can't win. Because no matter what moves the player makes, the other player will be able to capture their king and therefore win the game. In Chess, the King is the most important piece on the board.
This famous painting is now part of a private collection, but at one time, this painting was on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The picture depicts a king having a chess match with the devil. The devil has a smug, pleased look on his face while the man has a very disturbed look on his face. This is because the pieces on the chessboard make it appear that the devil has the king in checkmate.
The story goes that a tour guide was leading a group through the museum, and they came across the painting. The tour guide explains the meaning of the picture and moves one. But there was one man who stayed behind staring at the picture. The man was staring at the painting because, as a professional chess player, he saw something that could not be seen by the untrained eye. It wasn’t long before the man begins yelling, “That’s a lie! The king has one more move!” To the untrained eye, it appeared that the king was in checkmate, but when the picture was viewed by someone who had eyes to see, another reality emerged.
When Athaliah murdered her grandchildren and took the throne of Judah, to the untrained eye, it looks like the devil won. To the untrained eye, it seems like the bloodline of David had been destroyed. It seems like the family line that was supposed to produce Jesus had been killed. To the untrained eye, it looks like the devil had God in checkmate.
But in the actions of Jehosheba, we can see that the King had one more move! This story is showing us that no matter what’s going on in your life, always remember that the King has one more move!
When we think that all hope is lost, remember the King has one more move.
When it looks like you are going down for the count, remember the King has one more move.
When it looks like the devil is getting the victory, the King has one more move.
When you look at the politics in Washington DC, remember the King has one more move.
When you’re ready to give up, remember the King has one more move.
(In closing, there is one more detail I need to bring to our attention.)
V. Jehosheba’s method.
V. Jehosheba’s method.
In closing, we must give words to the method used by Jehosheba to save the life of her nephew. The bible has a way of making weighty and profound statements in such a way that it can make it easy for us to miss the significance of what was stated.
The bible tells us that she hid her nephew in the temple. Consequently, at the time of our text, “In the seventh year of Athaliah’s reign.” Joash has spent the last six years hiding and being cared for in the temple. Or better stated, when Joash’s life was in danger, and he was unable to comprehend the dangerous nature of his situation. His aunt recognized it and hid him in church. The church was a place of refuge and protection.
There is something inherently beautiful, that engages us on a very emotional level when we think about the places Jehosheba could have tried to hide her nephew. But she chose the church. Jehosheba’s method speaks volumes to her faith in God’s ability to cover and protect Joash in a way that only he could.
At the same time, Jehosheba’s method should serve as a reminder to those of us currently living out the gospel. In the current climate of American, now is the time for the church to be the church. But that can only happen when we respond like Jehosheba and are willing to take the same risk.
There are so many people of all ages and races and genders that need a place of safety, refuge, and protection. Unfortunately, they are looking everywhere else but the church. Which is why:
The time is now for us to put love for God and each other above political platforms.
The time is now for the church to walk in compassion and not spiritual pride.
The time is now for the church to be light and salt in the earth.
The time is now for us to stop fighting each other and begin laying down our lives for each other.
The time is now for the church to stop being silent on issues of race, misogyny, and injustice.
The time is now for the church to be a place healing and restoration that is was created to be.
The time is now for us to reclaim the power of the Spirituals and the Blues we talked about earlier. We need a spiritual ethic and blues sensibility, that will empower us to take the same risk as Jehosheba.
Which will open the door for us to bring people who are suffering under the weight of painful circumstances to the church. This will open the door for the church to return to being a place of safety and refuge.