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In the beginning, God created (Genesis 1:1) ….. and never stopped creating
Africans were brought to America in 1619 to be subjected to the cruel and evil institution of slavery. From 1619 to 1865, the brutal system of slavery was the law of the land, and then came years of Jim and Jane Crow.
For African Americans it was God and the church that fueled our imaginations of freedom. It was our imaginations that empowered us to see ourselves as Africans and not slaves.
We were not slaves, we were enslaved.
We would gather together to pray, sing, testify and preach of a God who loved us, valued us and was on the side of the oppressed. We honor the Black theologians and womanist theologians for codifying our theology in books, please note our theology was not made in books, it is not meant to be studied in schools, it is a lived theology.
A theology that sees God as a God of justice. It isn’t a theology that embraces the lie of separation between Church and state because it knows that the state is controlled and by the Church. It is a theology that knows that God is concerned about our life in the state.
Our preachers cross boundaries that the oppressors said they shouldn’t because they knew that this crossing leads to lifting up the cross of Jesus as a tool of liberation.
Our preachers refuse to be slave preachers, they are freedom preachers.
I was reminded of this lived theology as worship led us to the polls to vote on Sunday, October 12, 2014, at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Congressman Rev. John Lewis was the preacher for the day, and Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, pastor and future United States Senator, presided.
The seamless integration of a theology of liberation and a prophetic future was unfolding right before my eyes.
I looked through the viewfinder of my camera and I saw the past, the present and the future of our struggle for freedom. On this day Congressman Lewis would preach the word and I would capture the moment for posterity.
This Sunday, the Men’s Choir was featured. African American men, all dressed in black suits, white shirts and black ties. It was Men’s Day, an annual celebration in most Black churches that also features a complimentary Women’s Day when the women of the church lead in a similar fashion as I witnessed on this day.
To see this choir in sync, singing the gospel, was a testament in itself. A testament to who Black men really are, the ones I grew up around and see myself reflected.
On this day my camera was a mirror, and a prophetic witness of who God is and how God acts.
In the middle of the worship experience, Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock dedicated a baby. It was moving to hear him speak over this child and pray for her as he lifted her to the heavens.
The men in the choir looked on and one raised his hands in affirming worship. I was reminded of the scene from the television mini-series Roots that premiered January 23 – 30, 1977, for over eight consecutive nights, when in episode three, Kunta Kinte raised his daughter Kizzy to the sky and dedicated her back to God, and told her the story of her African roots.
I witnessed the lived theology of my people before me that day, where we were once again imagining freedom and seeing ourselves as Africans who are to be free in America.
As the late Congressman John Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) stood to preach, he looked back at the future. He looked to Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock and prophesied that he would be our next great leader. Little did we know that Congressman Lewis’s prophesy would come true in 2021 as Rev. Dr. Warnock would become a duly elected United States Senator.
Congressman Lewis saw, proclaimed in worship and then preached about our people’s future. A future constructed by God, led by God’s people and prophets like Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock. I believed that prophesy on Sunday in October 2014 and saw it realized seven years later (seven the number of completion).
After the sermon, the doors of the church were opened, and people were invited to join the church. Then after the invitation to become a member of the church, we were off to get on buses to take us to the voting polls.
The seamless transition from inside the church to being the church outside was a continuation of worship.
This is the Black church, this is how the God we serve leads us, frees us and uses us as instruments of God’s will to make the world a more just place.
Congressman Lewis was clear in his sermon that the vote was our number one tool to make this world a more just place.
“Exercising your vote is an act of worship, it is living out your faith.”
The buses were loaded, and we arrived at the polling place to join Congressman Lewis, Rev. Dr. Warnock, and sister of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Christine King Farris (September 11, 1927 – June 29, 2-23).
They all rode on the bus together, with members of Ebenezer Baptist Church, and would hold a news conference upon arrival. They stood before the cameras and took what was done inside the church to the worldwide cathedral and exhorted all our people to vote as an act of faith in a God who was still yet creating a more just world.
Congressman Lewis spoke on that Sunday and pointed us to our future. We see our future in persons like Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock and you, and those like you who are committed to doing God’s will in the world.
God never stopped creating. God is yet making the world a reflection of God’s will and the Black Church is calling us to move from pulpits to polls and advocate for a world that reflects the love, radical inclusivity, freedom, justice and love of God.
In the beginning, God created, and God continues to create!
You are the leader, the creative we have been waiting for you. You are our future, the future creative power of a God who is on the side of the oppressed!
-Words & Pictures by Rev. Ralph Basui Watkins, MFA, DMin, PhD
Peachtree Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth, Columbia Theological Seminary
