January 31, 2005

“Black History Sunday At ABC”
by Pastor George Van Alstine

A recent survey of college freshmen indicates that 80% of them believe that racial discrimination is a thing of the past and that racial considerations do not directly affect their lives.

There’s much that should encourage us in this survey. Real progress has been made in our society to overcome the segregation and discrimination that were echoes of the sad days of slavery. It’s wonderful that some young people are able to grow up to the age of 18 or 19 with little consciousness of racial disparities. The obvious evidences of inequality, that fifty years ago were in our face on a daily basis, have been eliminated by law. Some young people today grow up in integrated communities where constant exposure to people of various races can be experienced with no sense of class distinctions. The majority still grow up in racial isolation, but they receive continual messages that all people in America have equal rights and opportunities, and that the organized discrimination of the past has been eliminated. They believe the struggle for civil rights is a battle of the past that has been won. Many of them think it’s a useless exercise to go over all that again, by emphasizing Dr. King’s Birthday and Black History Month.

To the point for us at ABC, why do we have an annual Black History Sunday in February? Doesn’t this just reopen old wounds? Shouldn’t we simply put all this behind us and move on into the more promising future?

What comes to my mind as a response is that the Israelites were in a similar position when they were about to enter the Promised Land. God had led them out of slavery, and they had become solidified as his people by going through struggles in the desert and by receiving God’s Law at Mount Sinai. Now they were on the verge of a brand new life with limitless possibilities—freedom!

Before he allowed them to enter the Land, the Lord repeatedly warned them how important it was that they remember their former slavery and how God had delivered them. He knew that they would become complacent and even a bit proud once they began to experience the “milk and honey” of their new life. He instructs them that they must pass the stories of slavery and deliverance to “your children and to your children’s children” (Deuteronomy 6:1-6; see also Deuteronomy 5:15, 6:20-25, 9:4-7, etc.).

In a much more recent time, the existence of the Jewish people was threatened by Nazi extermination policies during the Second World War. Out of this awful experience, Holocaust survivors came up with the powerful slogan “Never forget!” Some aging concentration-camp survivors struggle valiantly today to keep that memory alive among their grandchildren, who live in material comfort and security.

The Apostle Paul had to remind members of the church of his day where they came from:
“. . . not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth . . . .” (1 Corinthians 1:26)
By this reminder, he made them realize that they had not come into the “promised land” of faith because they had these qualities, but that
“. . . God is the source of your life in Christ Jesus.” (verse 30)
All believers need to be reminded repeatedly that everything they are and have is a gift of God’s grace. Without remembrance there is no appreciation. Remembering the struggle and how God’s grace overcame human weakness is essential to continued faith and confidence.

This year’s Black History Sunday will feature a speaker whose artistic work illustrates this point. For nine years, Sherry Simpson-Dean’s life was dominated by the production of a documentary film. It’s entitled Amandla! which means “Power” in the Zulu language, and its subtitle is “Revolution in Four-Part Harmony.” The film reviews the developments from 1948, when the policy of Apartheid was established in South Africa, through all the years of struggle for equality, to the present government and social order in which all races are to receive equal treatment. And, as the sub-title indicates, it tells the story through the music the common people used to express their aspirations.

Thanks to a unique process of reconciliation, systematic racial discrimination in south Africa has been replaced by a surprisingly harmonious cooperation among the various racial groups. But the film Amandla! will help us all remember the years of suffering and struggle, heard through the music sung during the darkest days of apartheid.

Come and remember with us.