Message at Closing of National Leadership Assembly

Rev. Joseph Ellwanger

Detroit, 12/08/01

“ Go - and Defy American Apartheid”

Isaiah 2:1-5
Isaiah 40:31 

I am honored to be the bookend at this National Leadership Assembly with my friend and bold fellow warrior from the Selma demonstrations, who spoke at the beginning of the assembly: C.T. Vivian.  Now I have the awesome honor of having the closing message. 

I am honored also, to gather with you veterans of the struggle.  I know that some of you are struggling with cancer, emphysema, and other illnesses, but you deem the struggle for justice that makes all other struggles worthwhile. 

I know that some of you have taken risks, are taking risk, have arrested, and have many, many things on your plate.  However, you are on this march to do what is just, because you see that is what makes life worth living.  You agree with Martin Sheen, who after starring in serveral movies had a period of server depression and after much struggle and dialog with people he respected, came to a life-changing awareness.  He said: “ I came to realize I had to stand for something so I could stand to be me.”  He dedicated his life to God and to doing justice and has been arrested 64 times for a wide variety of justice causes. 

As highly motivated as most of us are, we all have those moments when we see the cause of doing justice as just another on of those many things competing for our time, and we think that perhaps justice work should give way to other healthy demands on our time. 

Well, this is where Isaiah’s vision of the kingdom comes in.  Isaiah says: “ Nation shall not lift up sword against nation.  Neither shall they war anymore.  Nations shall stream to the mountain of the Lord’s house.”  This is the vision of the Kingdom of God:  No swords.  No spears.  No walls.  No apartheid.  No gouging.  No prejudice.  No personal racism.  No institutional racism.  No redlining.  No concentrated poverty.  No tuff battles.  No gated communities.  No oppresses nation.  No G7 nation impoverishing any of the 153 other nations.  This is the picture of the “beloved community,” where all the nations are streaming to the mountains of the Lord’s House to be taught God’s ways, to walk in God’s path and in the light of the Lord. 

            That vision of Isaiah is the biblical vision- the vision of God.  If that is the vision that keeps us motivated in faith-based community organizing, that is more than a rinky-dink vision of activism for the sake of activism.  More than an agenda for the politically correct or the intellectual elite.  More than a religious elective for ecclesiastical rabble-rousers.  More than postscript for strange pastors, a weird laid person. 

            This is the vision born in the depth of God’s being.  This is the vision for which Isaiah, Micah, and John the Baptist laid their lives on the line.  As Christians we believe the Jesus invested is whole life for that vision of the Kingdom and the launching of that Kingdom.           

            We may arrive form different angles at the point where that version becomes a fire in our own belly.  But each of us needs to be in touch with those moments where we caught God’s vision of the kingdom of justice and peace and said:  “ This is why I’m here.  This is why I live and breathe.”           

            One of those defining moments for me was sept. 15, 1963, the day four beautiful, innocent girls were killed in the bombing of the 16^th street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.  I was pastor of the Chris McNair, father of Denise McNair, one of the four girls.  Therefore, I visited the parents of the four girls that Sunday afternoon, and then was asked by the McNairs to help lead the funeral service for three of the four girls, along with Dr. King preaching.  The Sixth Avenue Baptist church was filled with 800 plus people, and probably 2,000 overflowed into the street.  After that poignant, dramatic worship, worship with many wails and tears, I saw a fellow white Lutheran clergy who was one of the about dozen white persons who attended the worship.  As our paths crosses in leaving the church he said: “ Joee, I think I see why you are so passionate about all this racial stuff.”  He was right.  He saw one of dozens of vignettes in my life that have ignited a flame in the depths on my being that will not go out. 

            I believe Isaiah’s, Micah’s, and John the Baptist’s and Jesus vision.  All the nations shall stream to the mountains of God.  They shall learn peace and live justice and walk in the light go God.  That is why I commit myself either all my being to defying American apartheid. 

            In addition, I commission you to “Go – and Defy American Apartheid.”

            Go – and defy American Apartheid:

·        Tear down the ramparts of the gated cities and suburbs with no affordable housing.

·        Go – and defy American apartheid!  Secure adequate education for every special needs child’s and every child form a low-income family.

·        Go – and defy American Apartheid!  Empty the prisons of the addicted fathers and mother who are in chains and send them to treatment that they may be healed and become whole persons.

·        Go – defy American apartheid – Get a law passed that guarantees every immigrant humane treatment and due process in the courts.

·        In addition, remember: This is not just grist for an organizer’s mill.  This is the vision of Isaiah and Micah and John the Baptist, Rosa Parks, and Jesus.  Indeed, the vision of God. 

As I close, let me share one story from the 60’s.  We need to do this so that we do not forget some of our roots as faith-based community organization folks.  Moreover, I need to do it so I do not forget my own roots. 

As a Lutheran pastor in Birmingham, Alabama, I took two 15 year-old African American girls, to a white church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 60 miles southwest of Birmingham.  The student pastor and youth there had invited our youth to join them in a Sunday evening of fun, fellowship, sharing, and prayer.  The year was 1963, when things were still very tense between the races in the Deep South. 

We had a great evening, and the two girls, Carolyn Freeman and Betty Wells, were catching the vision of the Kingdom without walls, as they spoke of wanting to do this sort of thing more often.  It was one of those special evenings, rich with experiential insights. 

Tuesday morning after that wonderful Sunday evening, I looked at the morning newspaper and was stunned to see the headlines on the front page: “ White pastor beaten up by KKK and left to walk back to Tuscaloosa on the railroad track at midnight.”  A cross-had been burned on the lawn of the church and our bi-racial youth meeting was cited as the cause of the horrific attack. 

As I was reflecting on the meaning of al this, the phone rang.  A gruff voice on the other end asked: “ Is this reverend?”  I responded: “ Yes, it is.”  The gruff voice came back: “ Well, you and the two girls are next.  Click. 

I will never forget my conversation with Carolyn.  After I told her of the threat we had received, I asked her in a solicitous, pastoral tone of voice: “Carolyn, are you afraid?” Quickly, off the tip of the tongue, but seriously, as though it came form the depth of her being, she responded: “No.  I’m not so much afraid, as I am ashamed.” 

“ Ashamed?  What do you mean you mean you are ashamed?”  I asked. 

Now, you have to remember.  This is a 15 year-old girl.  Again, her response was immediate, as though it had been deep within her for sometime, just waited to get out.  “ Well, others have suffered so much for the freedom of my people, and for all people, and I have suffered so little.” 

This story moves me to the core of my being every time I tell it.  It is part of the roots of my passion for doing justice.  This 15 year-old had truly caught the vision, and I pray the all of us will have that passion burning in our souls.  If you do, the core team meeting may not go the way you want it to.  You may have difficulty, as an organization, to find the right issue to cut.  Nevertheless, you have that fire in your soul; you will keep on keeping on. 

In addition, when you get weary, remember Isaiah’s promise: “Those who wait on the Lord (those who don’t give up the struggle for the vision) shall renew their strength.  They shall mount up on wings as eagles.  They shall run and not be weary.  The shall walk and not faint.  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  

Congregational  development