WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
February 14th 2010
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“A Jubilee from Fisk”
Philippians 3:17-4:1
It was a horrible discovery. Her own daughter had been taught to spy on her. The mistress of the house was turning the child of Sarah Hannah Shepherd against her. Faced with this awful reality she grabbed the child and headed to the river to drown her own child. But God had other plans. Ella Shepherd would recall later that day;
She caught me in her arms, and while rushing to the river to end it all, was overtaken by Aunt Viney who cried out, ‘Don’t do it, Honey. Don’t you see the clouds of the Lord as they pass by? The Lord has got need of this child. My mother took courage... and walked back to slavery to await God's own time.
Because Sarah Shepherd listened to the voice of the wise aunt, Ella Shepherd went on to have audiences with kings and rulers in palaces and cathedrals. Truly God had a plan.
At emancipation came enormous challenges existed. At the top of the list was education. The hunger and passion for education meant that many teachers would be needed. The rise of freedman’s schools filled this need. One such school was Fisk University in Nashville. It has been said that Fisk was truly a university in name only. Meeting in an abandoned army hospital barracks, the new school faced serious financial difficulties in its early years. Facing these challenges the school’s treasurer, George White found a way.
George White was a member of the American Missionary Association from New York. He was brought in by the Association to keep Fisk viable. Unfortunately his qualification did not seem to meet the task. What’s skill set was that of choir master and band leader who’s true passion was music. Hardly the skills one thinks about when thinking about fiscal responsibility. But, these were just the skills needed. After months of writing letters to churches and trying to collect back tuition White realized that the school choir might just be the answer.
The Fisk choir was a talented group that was officially led by White. However, in practice the heart and soul of the group was a young teacher who had become the first black instructor at Fisk University. Her name was Ella Shepherd. White noticed Shepherd’s gifts for music and passion for education and at the age of only eighteen she became the assistant choir director. Together both Shepherd and White prepared the choir for a tour with the repertoire being white European Classical and other popular music of the day. Taking every last dollar in the school’s treasury they set out for a tour along the former Underground Railroad, beginning in Cincinnati
While the singers were well received, the offerings they collected were not even enough to cover expenses. Despite facing hardships, threats of violence, and little hope of success the choir kept on with one mission in mind, save Fisk University. As the journey continued something began to happen. With about seventeen numbers, mostly “white man's music,” the group would occasionally add a spiritual as encores. For these northern white audiences this was something that they had never experienced. When the choir noticed how people responded to the music they made a decision to arrange the music. That is where Ella Shepherd came in. While White would travel ahead to find lodging and drum up support, Shepherd would teach the singers, arranging new melodies, teaching them, practice the spirituals, and all the while they are performing night after night.
For the choir, the decision to include the spirituals was not an easy one. After all, as Ella Shepherd put it
The slave songs were associated with slavery and the dark past, and represented the things to be forgotten. They were sacred to our parents. We did not dream of ever using them in public. It was only after many months that gradually our hearts were opened to the wonderful beauty and power of our songs.
And it is because of this decision that the spirituals were first put down on paper. Before then they only existed in the collective memory of those who were formerly enslaved. If her mother had not listened to the voice of the prophet, who knows what might have happened to this treasury of great music.
Late in the fall, the choir found itself scheduled to perform at Oberlin College in Ohio in front of a national convention of influential ministers. At this gathering they left behind the cantatas and ballads and presented to that group the secret music that before this day had only been sung behind closed doors, the sacred songs of their mothers and fathers. It is recorded that when the singers began to sing their version of “Steal Away” something powerful happened.
And all of a sudden there was no talking. And then they said that you could hear soft weeping and the faces of the people reddened. And I'm sure that the Jubilee singers were joining them in tears, because sometimes when you think about what you are singing, particularly if you believe it, you can't help but be moved.
After that night the invitations came pouring in. Until this time they had not had an official name. On that night the decision was made to call them the Jubilee Singers, which was taken from Leviticus chapter twenty five. The Year of the Jubilee occurred every fiftieth year, and in the year of Jubilee were provisions for debt relief, provisions for redemption of property and for emancipation of slavery.
The Jubilee singers continued to face opposition and the school faced struggle but that was not the end of the story. Not only did the money come but the recognition led them to perform for President Grant, and even the Queen of England. And Missouri’s own Mark Twain said of their music: "I don’t know when anything has so moved me as did the plaintive melodies of the Jubilee Singers." They too performed throughout Europe and everywhere they went this new music moved people to tears.
What had once been the song that sustained behind closed doors became the very heart of the faith which turned humiliation into glory. The power of these songs to sustain the faithful in the most desperate times was made clear because of the gift of Ella Shepherd and the Jubilee singers from Fisk. In the end they sacrificed their health and well being. They suffered humiliation and hardship but pressed on for the goal to provide education and to sustain the faith. Their witness lives on in the songs but even more so in every person who has heard these songs and heard a word that kept them going another day. It is for that reason we have much to be thankful for to Aunt Viney who had a message from the Lord. And that is why we can join in the Jubilee. Amen.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Monday, February 08, 2010
John Gloucester and the First African Presbyterian Church
WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
February 7th 2010
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“John Gloucester and the First African Presbyterian Church”
Matthew 13:44-52
The names that often stand out when talking about the development of the black church in North America are Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. In talking about denominations we hear about the organic growth of the Black Baptist church, the various wings of the Methodist and Episcopal churches, but mention the Presbyterian churches and most folks will think we are making things up. But in speaking about the growth and development of the black church in North America to leave out John Gloucester is a grave oversight. With over a two hundred year history, the Presbyterian Church is a part of the fabric of the black church, even if the story is seldom told.
John Gloucester was born in 1776 in Tennessee. If I was to tell you that a gifted young preacher from Tennessee came to become one of Philadelphia’s most prominent ministers you would not assume he was Presbyterian. Because his parents were enslaved, so was John. But a young Presbyterian minister crossed his path and noticed his keen intellect and love for theology. In fact, even before the church officially recognized his ministry, Gloucester had converted many black and white people to the Christian faith. Gideon Blackburn was a Presbyterian pastor who evangelical and abolitionist leanings led him to purchase Gloucester’s and helps him seek his freedom. He petitioned the state of Tennessee for his freedom.
The Tennessee legislature was not keen on the idea. Their concern was that Reverend Blackburn was not only going to free Gloucester but train him to become a minister. The idea of preaching to those who were enslaved was fine if the preacher was white or enslaved himself. But, if the preacher was a freedman then those who were listening might hear that freedom in Christ might mean freedom in life. It does sound as if they understood the Gospel quite well and were afraid. Undeterred by this setback, both Blackburn and Gloucester moved to Philadelphia.
It was there that life began to change for John Gloucester. This time it was due to a relationship he found in the pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. The Reverend Archibald Alexander, one of the founders of Princeton seminary was not only a pastor and professor of Theology but an ardent abolitionist. Alexander was a son of the south who had left his native Virginia and become a force in the movement. His impact has repercussions even in St. Louis. One of his other students came here to lead the abolitionist movement and was eventually martyred because of his ideas. His name was Elijah Parish Lovejoy. But that is a sermon for another day.
With the support of Alexander, John Gloucester was freed and entered the process to become ordained as a Presbyterian minister. It was the plan for Gloucester to become the pastor of the first Presbyterian Church for free men and women in Philadelphia. But the road to the establishment of First African church was not easy. Gloucester was undeterred by the many roadblocks. His first challenge was the unwillingness of the Presbytery to ordain him. Despite having the support of such a significant figure in the person of Rev Alexander, the Presbytery decided that Tennessee would have to ordain him. Gloucester moved confidently through the process and was ordained after having to travel all the way back to Tennessee.
First African church began with John Gloucester preaching on the street corners. The first members of the church moved from the street and become a house church. At Gloucester’s first sermon to the church there were one hundred and twenty-three people. When the house could no longer hold them they were finally able to get enough support to build their own church. With the support of the Presbytery of Philadelphia that is exactly what happened.
Throughout the journey to start this church John Gloucester was fighting a very personal battle. Having found freedom himself, Gloucester’s wife and children were still enslaved. As he raised money to build the church he was also personally raising money to get freedom for his family. When the cornerstone of the First African Presbyterian church was laid on May 31st 1811, he had won the freedom for his family. There was no hurdle that kept him from pressing on to his calling from God.
In Philadelphia Gloucester was part of the elite Committee of Twelve, which consisted of Philadelphia's most prominent African American ministers. He was also associated with the Free African Society which was the first black rights organization in the United States. Many of his children joined the struggle for justice and his entire son’s become prominent Presbyterian ministers in their own right.
And while his life was cut short in 1822 after struggling with tuberculosis, John Gloucester’s impact was tremendous. He was indeed like the householder who brings out what is old and what is new. Becoming part of a tradition which had come from Scotland, he learned that freedom in Christ means freedom in life. He was able to take what was old, what had been handed on to him and understood how it could be a word of liberation for others. Gloucester had found his home and knew others would to and his evangelical passion and passion for justice walked hand in hand. John Gloucester’s story is our story. The story of First African Presbyterian church is our story. It is part of the old that we need to recover so that the new we are creating right here, by the Spirit of God, is tied to the rich history of liberation that truly is a Presbyterian story too. Amen.
February 7th 2010
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“John Gloucester and the First African Presbyterian Church”
Matthew 13:44-52
The names that often stand out when talking about the development of the black church in North America are Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. In talking about denominations we hear about the organic growth of the Black Baptist church, the various wings of the Methodist and Episcopal churches, but mention the Presbyterian churches and most folks will think we are making things up. But in speaking about the growth and development of the black church in North America to leave out John Gloucester is a grave oversight. With over a two hundred year history, the Presbyterian Church is a part of the fabric of the black church, even if the story is seldom told.
John Gloucester was born in 1776 in Tennessee. If I was to tell you that a gifted young preacher from Tennessee came to become one of Philadelphia’s most prominent ministers you would not assume he was Presbyterian. Because his parents were enslaved, so was John. But a young Presbyterian minister crossed his path and noticed his keen intellect and love for theology. In fact, even before the church officially recognized his ministry, Gloucester had converted many black and white people to the Christian faith. Gideon Blackburn was a Presbyterian pastor who evangelical and abolitionist leanings led him to purchase Gloucester’s and helps him seek his freedom. He petitioned the state of Tennessee for his freedom.
The Tennessee legislature was not keen on the idea. Their concern was that Reverend Blackburn was not only going to free Gloucester but train him to become a minister. The idea of preaching to those who were enslaved was fine if the preacher was white or enslaved himself. But, if the preacher was a freedman then those who were listening might hear that freedom in Christ might mean freedom in life. It does sound as if they understood the Gospel quite well and were afraid. Undeterred by this setback, both Blackburn and Gloucester moved to Philadelphia.
It was there that life began to change for John Gloucester. This time it was due to a relationship he found in the pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. The Reverend Archibald Alexander, one of the founders of Princeton seminary was not only a pastor and professor of Theology but an ardent abolitionist. Alexander was a son of the south who had left his native Virginia and become a force in the movement. His impact has repercussions even in St. Louis. One of his other students came here to lead the abolitionist movement and was eventually martyred because of his ideas. His name was Elijah Parish Lovejoy. But that is a sermon for another day.
With the support of Alexander, John Gloucester was freed and entered the process to become ordained as a Presbyterian minister. It was the plan for Gloucester to become the pastor of the first Presbyterian Church for free men and women in Philadelphia. But the road to the establishment of First African church was not easy. Gloucester was undeterred by the many roadblocks. His first challenge was the unwillingness of the Presbytery to ordain him. Despite having the support of such a significant figure in the person of Rev Alexander, the Presbytery decided that Tennessee would have to ordain him. Gloucester moved confidently through the process and was ordained after having to travel all the way back to Tennessee.
First African church began with John Gloucester preaching on the street corners. The first members of the church moved from the street and become a house church. At Gloucester’s first sermon to the church there were one hundred and twenty-three people. When the house could no longer hold them they were finally able to get enough support to build their own church. With the support of the Presbytery of Philadelphia that is exactly what happened.
Throughout the journey to start this church John Gloucester was fighting a very personal battle. Having found freedom himself, Gloucester’s wife and children were still enslaved. As he raised money to build the church he was also personally raising money to get freedom for his family. When the cornerstone of the First African Presbyterian church was laid on May 31st 1811, he had won the freedom for his family. There was no hurdle that kept him from pressing on to his calling from God.
In Philadelphia Gloucester was part of the elite Committee of Twelve, which consisted of Philadelphia's most prominent African American ministers. He was also associated with the Free African Society which was the first black rights organization in the United States. Many of his children joined the struggle for justice and his entire son’s become prominent Presbyterian ministers in their own right.
And while his life was cut short in 1822 after struggling with tuberculosis, John Gloucester’s impact was tremendous. He was indeed like the householder who brings out what is old and what is new. Becoming part of a tradition which had come from Scotland, he learned that freedom in Christ means freedom in life. He was able to take what was old, what had been handed on to him and understood how it could be a word of liberation for others. Gloucester had found his home and knew others would to and his evangelical passion and passion for justice walked hand in hand. John Gloucester’s story is our story. The story of First African Presbyterian church is our story. It is part of the old that we need to recover so that the new we are creating right here, by the Spirit of God, is tied to the rich history of liberation that truly is a Presbyterian story too. Amen.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
“Why Are We Doing This?”
WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
January 31st 2010
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“Why Are We Doing This?”
Ephesians 2:14-20
Did anyone hear the story about a Lt. Governor from a small southern state who compared welfare recipients to stray dogs? I wish that was a set up line for a joke in poor taste, but it is not. The Lt. Governor from South Carolina, who is seeking to run for Governor, this week, shared a story his grandmother used to tell him. It was meant to teach him how to deal with stray dogs. She said; if you feed them they will keep coming back and breed more strays. The Lt. Governor tells this story as a reason why there should not be government subsidies to people in need. But what was barely below the surface was this age old trick where white politicians say welfare recipient when everyone knows he intended to say black.
If you think I overstate that consider, how Ronald Reagan coined the phrase “welfare queen.” This political trick was as successfully as it was sick. It imbedded the belief in white and middle class communities that only black people are on welfare. Despite the majority of people on welfare being white, politicians continue to use this language to stoke racial hatred. We see it today with words like “real American,” or “the America we grew up with.” The coding of suck language is intended to feed racial fear in the white community and unfortunately it is working extremely well these days.
This week I heard an FBI agent talking on National Public Radio about the growing popularity of hate groups in the United States. Most disturbing, he said, was that the language once used exclusively in white supremacists circles is now being used by the likes of Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and other popular talking heads. He also pointed out that rhetoric coming out of the Tea Party movement also incorporates some of this same language. Speech that was once only coded or left for the fringe groups has gained new footing in our culture and it is disturbing to say the least. But, I believe there is hope not hope that someday it will change but hope that the grandson of a former clansman can grow up to turn from his own history. Hope that he comes to know that God does indeed break down the dividing wall of hostility. Let me share a personal story.
Why are we doing this? This is the question that came up in my mind as I sat in the morning assembly. The year was 1987 and I was a sophomore in high school. And for twenty minutes I listened to a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others who had struggled for civil rights. Though I never shared my question with anyone else I was confused and wondered: “What is the big deal? And, why are we doing this?” Despite growing up in the church what I knew of Martin Luther King was that he was a communist who sought to destroy our country. So as I sat through the assembly I was confused and uncertain about what was happening. Because the history I learned had been so whitewashed that to talk about the contribution of African Americans felt like someone was revising what I just knew was fact. Fortunately, that was not the end of my story. In fact, that was the beginning of my own questioning of everything I understood and believed. My questions ate at me and left me searching for more.
This week the world lost a powerful teller of truth in the person of Howard Zinn. His most well-known work A People’s History of the United States is without a doubt the best correction to the whitewashed history I and many others received. But his is not the only needed correction to the limited stories of history many of us receive or have received. Each one of us is called to be bearers of the story that is seldom heard. And I believe that calling is just as critical today. We have not reached a time where the contributions of African Americans have become part of the history told in our classrooms or are public knowledge. In fact, there is a growing backlash to the hard fought gains and we must continue to seek out and understand history all of it. We cannot talk about peace until we do so. And so that is why we, Westminster, will continue to highlight the life and witness of people of African Decent in the life of the faith community. We must continue to stand up and testify to the truth.
As followers of Jesus we have an ever greater responsibility. The growth of ignorance, arrogance and hostility cannot be allowed to go unchallenged by Christians.
For Jesus is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to God. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
Those are not simply words but the lifeblood of our faith. The peace found in Jesus Christ is a peace that comes through the telling of our stories. It comes when groups of people begin to share the deepest parts of their histories and lives. It is a peace that comes when the stories of our faith show that there is more to the short stories we have too often been fed as the whole story. So we are going to share stories. We are going to remind one another that the faith we share in Jesus compels us to look deeper and share the deeper stories.
And in doing so, who knows the lives which will be changed. It was a simple celebration in a school assembly that planted a seed in the heart of the grandson of a former clansman putting me on a journey that had brought me to this place. So as we cringe at the ignorance and evil coded language sure to continue in the coming days, let us not recoil or underestimate the threat. What we do in this place matters, the stories we tell matter, the history we have matters. It matters to us, to our children and even those we think are least likely to stand shoulder-to-shoulder as witnesses to the one who brings down the walls of hostility. It is not only possible but it is God’s plan. Amen.
January 31st 2010
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“Why Are We Doing This?”
Ephesians 2:14-20
Did anyone hear the story about a Lt. Governor from a small southern state who compared welfare recipients to stray dogs? I wish that was a set up line for a joke in poor taste, but it is not. The Lt. Governor from South Carolina, who is seeking to run for Governor, this week, shared a story his grandmother used to tell him. It was meant to teach him how to deal with stray dogs. She said; if you feed them they will keep coming back and breed more strays. The Lt. Governor tells this story as a reason why there should not be government subsidies to people in need. But what was barely below the surface was this age old trick where white politicians say welfare recipient when everyone knows he intended to say black.
If you think I overstate that consider, how Ronald Reagan coined the phrase “welfare queen.” This political trick was as successfully as it was sick. It imbedded the belief in white and middle class communities that only black people are on welfare. Despite the majority of people on welfare being white, politicians continue to use this language to stoke racial hatred. We see it today with words like “real American,” or “the America we grew up with.” The coding of suck language is intended to feed racial fear in the white community and unfortunately it is working extremely well these days.
This week I heard an FBI agent talking on National Public Radio about the growing popularity of hate groups in the United States. Most disturbing, he said, was that the language once used exclusively in white supremacists circles is now being used by the likes of Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and other popular talking heads. He also pointed out that rhetoric coming out of the Tea Party movement also incorporates some of this same language. Speech that was once only coded or left for the fringe groups has gained new footing in our culture and it is disturbing to say the least. But, I believe there is hope not hope that someday it will change but hope that the grandson of a former clansman can grow up to turn from his own history. Hope that he comes to know that God does indeed break down the dividing wall of hostility. Let me share a personal story.
Why are we doing this? This is the question that came up in my mind as I sat in the morning assembly. The year was 1987 and I was a sophomore in high school. And for twenty minutes I listened to a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others who had struggled for civil rights. Though I never shared my question with anyone else I was confused and wondered: “What is the big deal? And, why are we doing this?” Despite growing up in the church what I knew of Martin Luther King was that he was a communist who sought to destroy our country. So as I sat through the assembly I was confused and uncertain about what was happening. Because the history I learned had been so whitewashed that to talk about the contribution of African Americans felt like someone was revising what I just knew was fact. Fortunately, that was not the end of my story. In fact, that was the beginning of my own questioning of everything I understood and believed. My questions ate at me and left me searching for more.
This week the world lost a powerful teller of truth in the person of Howard Zinn. His most well-known work A People’s History of the United States is without a doubt the best correction to the whitewashed history I and many others received. But his is not the only needed correction to the limited stories of history many of us receive or have received. Each one of us is called to be bearers of the story that is seldom heard. And I believe that calling is just as critical today. We have not reached a time where the contributions of African Americans have become part of the history told in our classrooms or are public knowledge. In fact, there is a growing backlash to the hard fought gains and we must continue to seek out and understand history all of it. We cannot talk about peace until we do so. And so that is why we, Westminster, will continue to highlight the life and witness of people of African Decent in the life of the faith community. We must continue to stand up and testify to the truth.
As followers of Jesus we have an ever greater responsibility. The growth of ignorance, arrogance and hostility cannot be allowed to go unchallenged by Christians.
For Jesus is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to God. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
Those are not simply words but the lifeblood of our faith. The peace found in Jesus Christ is a peace that comes through the telling of our stories. It comes when groups of people begin to share the deepest parts of their histories and lives. It is a peace that comes when the stories of our faith show that there is more to the short stories we have too often been fed as the whole story. So we are going to share stories. We are going to remind one another that the faith we share in Jesus compels us to look deeper and share the deeper stories.
And in doing so, who knows the lives which will be changed. It was a simple celebration in a school assembly that planted a seed in the heart of the grandson of a former clansman putting me on a journey that had brought me to this place. So as we cringe at the ignorance and evil coded language sure to continue in the coming days, let us not recoil or underestimate the threat. What we do in this place matters, the stories we tell matter, the history we have matters. It matters to us, to our children and even those we think are least likely to stand shoulder-to-shoulder as witnesses to the one who brings down the walls of hostility. It is not only possible but it is God’s plan. Amen.
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