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Men's Emphasis Sunday
WHEN MEN STAND FOR RIGHT
~Amos 5: 24~
In-person service at
Second Baptist Church
2412 Griffith Ave.
Los Angeles
Rev. Albert Starr, Jr., Guest Preacher
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"Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Amos 5:24
Amos’ message echoes throughout history as one of the most powerful voices ever to challenge hypocrisy and injustice. This sheep breeder/prophet brings strong indictment against kings, priests, and leaders. In a time of relative prosperity, Amos stands up and stands out as a clear voice that “religion” that is void of a clear commitment to justice will always fail to please the God of righteousness and peace.
Amos’ contemporary, the prophet Micah, was proclaiming a similar message a just about the same time in history.
(Reading Micah 6:8 from the Amplified Bible)
“God has told you, O mortal, what is good; And what does the Lord
require of you Except to be just, and to love [and to diligently practice]
kindness (compassion), And to walk humbly with your God
[setting aside any overblown sense of importance or self-righteousness]?”
So we consider this theme, “When Men Stand for Right" not just as a matter of celebration and recognition of men in our community, but as a call to stand for right even in the context of relative prosperity for many, even while in perhaps the most prosperous economy in world. We must acknowledge just as Amos did, that there are some who “…trample on the poor “ (Amos 5:11) and those who “...push aside the needy in the gates". We live in times when exploitation of the most vulnerable among us seems to go unhindered.
Consider what it means to let justice roll down like waters and
righteousness a mighty stream.
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Marian Wright Edleman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, tells the story of being a little girl, a little black girl, growing up in the Jim Crow south under rigid segregation laws. She remembers wanting to go play in a well-equipped public recreation area but being denied because the parks and playgrounds were only for white children. So, her father (and men of her community) built a playground for her, for the children, on the grounds of the church.
Similarly, there were no facilities that cared for elderly black residents, so again, her father led the way in building a care facility on the grounds of the church. She grew up helping her father and mother cook, and feed and care for the elderly residents of that community who would have otherwise been left to perish simply cause of their black skin.
While establishing a home for the elderly may be considered by some as a more substantial achievement than building a playground, what must be truly considered is the mindset and determination that both demonstrate as matters of resistance and determination. Both creating the playground and the home for the aged (as Marian Wright Edelman calls it in her book) are a matter of creating a safe space, welcoming space, a space and place were children are cared for, where they can explore and grow and imagine. Space where elders can feel safe and cared for and loved, even when they’ve often outlived their own family.
If it is true that the real measure of a society is how it cares for its most vulnerable citizens, then there is no higher call than caring for a society’s children, and giving those who have given of themselves to the point of old age, places of respect and value.
Consider what it means to care for the most vulnerable following
the example and supporting the organizations that do just that; organizations such as the Children’s Defense Fund, The NAACP Legal Defense Fund,
Bread For The World and the like, as well as individuals who do the same.
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The prophet Amos as a sheep breeder was most likely an ordinary working-class man. He knew hard work, he knew the power of standing determined in the face of threats. Herds of sheep were always vulnerable to attack by predatory animals, or disease, or thieves. He knew something about staying determined, even when by societal standards you are counted among the less than respected.
Contrary to “Hallmark" cards and made-for-TV Christmas specials, shepherding was most often hands on, dirty work and because of the close interaction with the animals, shepherds were in many situations that caused them to be considered by religious laws “unclean.”
But Amos, through prophetic eyes, saw well beyond the scope of religious legalism, seeing corruption and an absence of compassion that rendered the very temples of Israel themselves “unclean.” And Amos began to call it out, naming the corruption, naming the careless mistreatment of the poor and pushing aside of the needy in the gates.
There comes a point when singing songs isn’t enough. The so called “Civil Rights Movement” in this country has been the model for revolts and revolutions all around the world. The songs of the movement have been adopted and adapted, borrowed and echoed all around the world, and many of those songs were born from the cries of ancestors who took to prophetic voice to cry out, “...and before I be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave and go home to my God and be free.” Through resistance and determination, there comes a point when what the songs inspire has to become the course of action taken.
Consider what it means to address the issues of injustice in an
appreciably responsible manner to alleviate what produces the
injustice systemically in order to eradicate injustice at its source.
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The prophetic words of Amos remind us that there comes a point when God is weary of a kind of singing, a kind of religiosity that sounds pretty, but rings hollow.
We’ve seen what happens when a so-called war on poverty becomes a war on the people who suffer most from the inequity of access to socioeconomic resources.
We’ve seen what happens when politicians can find everything to campaign on except the eradication of poverty.
We’ve seen what happens right here in this Crenshaw Baldwin Hills district, when gentrification in our community sets the stage for the literal displacement of generations of homeowners who have grown old, ineligible and unable to hold onto homes and property that has been in their families - for some as many as four or five generations.
Consider what it means to justify victimizing the victim by devaluing
their humanity, denigrating their lives and demonizing their existence
rather than seeing them as fellow citizens, human beings and persons with
the same unalienable rights (type of human rights that cannot be taken
away from them under any circumstances) among which are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness.
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Nicole Hannah-Jones the creator of the The 1619 Project tells how her dad, (an army veteran born and raised in a family of black sharecroppers in Greenwood, Mississippi) always kept an American flag flying in the front yard of their corner lot home in
Waterloo, Iowa. She tells how her dad, like many black men and their families, had fled the Jim Crow south, “where black people couldn’t vote, couldn’t use the public library, couldn’t find gainful employment other than work in the cotton fields or white people’s homes.” In her book the The 1619 Project (a chapter called Democracy) and in a recent appearance at the Miracle Theatre in Inglewood, Hannah-Jones tells how her dad, like many black men of his generation joined the army hoping to escape poverty but also as a stand for right. “Dad hoped that if he served his country, his country might finally treat him as an American.” She says, “My father knew exactly what he was doing when he raised that flag. He knew that our people’s contributions to building the richest, most powerful nation in the world were indelible, that the United States simply would not exist without us.”
The great historian John Hope Franklin, in his autobiography “Mirror to America” in a chapter entitled “A Duke Affair” tells of being welcomed to the campus and faculty of Duke University in Durham North Carolina as a part of Duke’s effort to address its historical denial of admission of black students or the employment of black faculty.
In 1987, during his time as a professor of history at Duke, Franklin and two other colleagues took the stand to testify before a Senate Judiciary Committee in opposition to the nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the United States Supreme Court. In 1991 Franklin was invited to speak before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the nomination of Clarence Thomas. Though he declined to speak, he did write an
:p-ed piece in the New York Times. Franklin wrote, ‘The “Negro” seat on the Supreme Court, so recently vacated by Thurgood Marshall, would shortly be “bleached white” by Thomas.
Consider what it means to “fight the good fight of faith” as those whose legacy and example makes it clear justice needs to roll down like waters
and righteousness as a mighty stream.
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More than ten years before Dr. Franklin came to Duke, my father, Albert Starr, Sr., was hired as a barber/hairstylist at the Duke campus barber shop. This was in 1969, not long after the university integrated, an intentional effort in response to the needs of black students.
In an article about my father, University president Richard Brodhead said, “Albert quickly became an important part of Duke in ways that reached the wider community, and with getting a haircut, clients would hear some news, receive some advice, share some laughs, and that was true whether you were a homesick freshman or the university president.”
I have to admit that as I read Franklin’s chapter about his years at Duke, I kept watching for some mention of him meeting my dad, but there was none. During his nearly forty years at Duke, my dad was clear about his opportunity to make an impact on students, faculty, other employees - anyone with whom he came in contact.
Four years prior to coming to Duke, my dad’s own shop, our barbershop, was forced out of business because his policy of welcoming and serving any customer -black or white - violated the Jim Crow code preventing black people from receiving services “downtown” or alongside “white” customers.
When men take a stand for right, that testimony, that witness, that “stand” is not always recognized and certainly not always celebrated. Amos was chased out of the temple.
When men stand for right, the call is clear.
Consider what it means to stand up for what is just and right because it is the right thing to do and let the rippling effects of your stand produce what it is that will have others stand for too - for equity, fairness, justice and righteousness.
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To Do justice, not just call for it, not just hold justice as a philosophical value.
To Love kindness, and let that love be the motivation for showing kindness;
a quality of kindness that is reflective of the mercies of God.
To Walk humbly with our God. Here is a call to humility that recognizes the value, worth and dignity of every human. We are no greater nor lesser than any other person, created in the image of the Most High God.
To Let Justice roll down like waters. We have some agency, some capacity, some ability for influencing how justice manifests in society.
To let Righteousness like an ever-flowing stream, be ceaseless in our partnership with justice and our alignment with a God-given capacity to demonstrate and build up where others would simply tear down, demean and destroy.
Let this celebration of “When Men Stand For Right" be your opportunity to name some of the men you know personally who stand for right. Have some conversations about when, where and how such men have impacted your life, your community, society, the world.
Let a man know he is recognized and appreciated, respected and loved by God.
Consider what it means to think of justice acrostically:
Justice
Unified
Selflessly
Thoughtfully
Ingeniously
Collectively
Everywhere
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