you can go home again...

Worship with two sermons, music and testimonies that lasted three hours, felt like one hour and I was being transformed by the Spirit that came to rest on us all in that vast gathering. The preachers and speakers were some of the best and brightest Baptists in our world... Marian Wright Edelman, Tony Campolo, Senator Charles Grassley, John Grisham, Dr. Charles Adams, Julie Pennington Russell, Hanna Massad, David Satcher, Naw Blooming Night Zan, Bill Clinton and Al Gore... and all of them laying their lives down for the least of those among us. Marian Wright Edelman told us what was wrong with the children in our country was the adults... adults who refuse to be grownups with their own children and refuse to take responsibility for those children who are without... without parents, health care, supervision or love. Tony Campolo shared stories of young men and women following the radical call of Jesus by living with the poor in Haiti, working to eliminate poverty and heal bodies. Senator Grassley is now and has been for years working to help eliminate hunger. As a midwesterner, he knows the abundance of our food supply here in the United States and is called to work through the government to help farmers and consumers alike. Julie Pennington Russell, red Bible held high in one hand, preaching on diversity, rephrased familiar verses..."God so respected the world that He gave... Now abideth faith, hope, and respect... Respect God and respect your neighbor as yourself... Respect is not the answer for living with diversity. Love is." Hanna Massad, trained and served as a pastor in California, returned to his people in Gaza, told us of his peoples struggles to live. His family’s farm taken away in 1948, his church bookstore bombed twice, the young associate pastor kidnapped and murdered in October, the sadness and grief in his voice as he stood before us, a living testimony to the bruising power of hatred and love. Naw Blooming Night Zan whose family lived in the jungles of Burma for the first four years of her life fleeing the brutal military, stood before us telling the stories of her people. Women raped, children killed, her ethnic group living in spite of the horrible atrocities. Some of these life and faith stories wrung me out. I could not begin to imagine living as Hanna Massad and Naw Blooming Night Zan do every day. And yet there was even in the grief and anger, a solid rock of faith. All the speakers affirmed their faith as the anchor that holds them steady.
One of my favorite speakers was David Satcher, M.D. Ebony skin, snow white hair, a calm twinkling presence on stage, he told us his story. One of nine children born to a farm family in Anniston, Alabama, he nearly died of whooping cough when he was two. A doctor came, told his parents they might lose him but gave them instructions on how to keep his chest clear and his fever down. He lived and as a child of five felt the call to be a doctor. No one in his family had ever graduated from high school much less college. As a student at Morehead he participated in the civil rights struggle and was arrested along with A.D. King, Martin’s brother, and other students. They were trying to integrate a restaurant. A white man sprayed them with fly spray as they lay on the floor waiting for the police. Not only did the police arrest the students, they arrested the man who sprayed them. When President Kennedy called Mayor Ivan Allen asking for the release of Dr. King, the students were released as well. Dr. Satcher tells how A.D. King, as they were leaving the jail, turned around and led them back in to gain the release of Mr. Spayberry, their tormentor. As Mr. Spayberry came out, he shook A.D. King’s hand and friendship came into being through the power of forgiveness. This man became Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary for Health 1998-2001. A memory picture... Dr. Satcher told of following Rosalyn Carter when she was First Lady of Georgia working together on immunizing the children of the state, following her as First Lady of the Nation in Washington where they held the first national conference on mental health at the White House, and following her now as she is First Lady to the world. She blew him a kiss. Their relationship is a powerful image of the beloved kingdom. These two people who came from such opposite ends of the earth, bound together by a shared faith and love that shines through their black and white skin. Once again I was weeping.
On the last night Dr. Charles Adams was the first preacher. He is pastor of Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit and has preached at Harvard, the United Nations, and the World Council of Churches. He serves the Baptist World Alliance, the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches and is the chairman of the Harvard Divinity School Black Alumni Association. He is no slouch in the pulpit. The sermon, The Bible Speaks About Setting the Captive Free, began slowly and deliberately. His words were well crafted and captured our minds. Then he began to catch our spirits. The speed and fervor increased as he began to list all our captivities from which we need to be freed... Don’t you tell me you can’t stop smoking, don’t you tell me you can’t stop doing crack cocaine... don’t you tell me you can’t go to school and make good grades... the whole congregation began to move. He named our differences... race, gender and sexual orientation, nationalities, economic levels, theological divides, educational achievements. He named all the theologians and their particular ways of viewing God. And as one people, we were caught up in a vision of a world where we could all be freed from whatever held us captive. I have never seen so many white people get happy in worship before. Revival... To be continued