On Good Friday 2018 I was called to Enon Church, Nashville to Deliver The Seven Last Words: Woman, Behold Your Son”. I have now transcribed that Message for such a time as… 2024.
“…will the Lord remember me? When I am called to go.
When I have crossed death’s chilly sea, will He His love there show?
Oh yes, He heard my feeble cry, from bondage set me free.
And when I reach the pearly gates, He will remember me.”
“Father God, I thank you for Your Spirit. Fall fresh in this Sanctuary right now, in the Name of Jesus. Somebody’s body is wracked with pain. Somebody… is in bereavement right now; heartbroken, God. But you already Know. Fill empty spaces tonight. Do what You do. In the name of Jesus. Amen.”
When I was a pastor in New York City I wore a clergy collar. And moving around this City with such a vast number of ethnicities and religious indoctrinations; I found Spanish children would say “Mira! Mommy, Mira. A lady priest!” Raised up in Catholic traditions where not in their lifetime had they seen a woman in a clergy collar; and that ‘Mira, Mommy’, that Look in those children’s eyes was far more than just a look. When you Look with an intensity like you’ve never seen it before it becomes a ‘behold’. “Woman, Behold your son”. “Mira! Mommy, Mira.” Look! Behold …your son!
Critical, for me, as a nation, is the need to come to terms with the fact that we are a killing machine. What since 1776 and it’s now 2018, …242 years in existence as a Nation. And our history records we’ve been at War upward of 225+ of those years. We are a killing machine. All over the world! “Mira! Mommy, Mira.” LOOK! ‘Training up sons’ to go into foreign countries, around the planet to declare war on people that we’ve never met. At that point, no matter what you’ve taught them no matter what ways You’ve trained them up to go …at that point the Rifle becomes their companion …we are a killing machine “Mira! Mommy, Mira.” Behold! Your Son.
Here we are in the week of one of the largest Protests this Nation has seen; all over this country… teenagers marching in the streets of America saying stop these guns from entering our schools. A major contradiction the young folk have when it’s lost on a nation of killers.
After being trained that their weapon is their companion, they are thrown back, into the streets of America where those Foreign Wars become Domestic Wars …even as, sons, now have a very difficult time staying with their families. Dropped back into the streets of America. When was the last time you’ve been to the homeless shelter? Just have a conversation with homeless men; awaken to how many of them are veterans of one War or another. “Mira! Mommy, Mira.” The ‘contradictions’ IS… the mental illness.
When the Foreign Wars become Domestic Wars. I attended two separate conferences this month, women deciding to break free of these domestic violent homes in which they live. Look, See that in the last year in the state of Tennessee 1,200 kindergarten children were suspended from school. And you know whose children they are. When America declares war on its domestic life, you can rest assured the color is black. From slavery, the violence dealt our mother’s wombs …depositing seeds that could never know Paternity. The color of the generations in my family get lighter and lighter and not one ‘Great White Father’ has been identified. “Mira! Mommy, Mira.”…your sons have begun to take on the ways of the people in the land.
One of my program visions for Children’s Ministries is one that is beyond ‘nursery school’; beyond ‘day care’— but a Church program for 4 year olds at risk of this nations systemic destruction of Black Children in ALL of it’s so called ‘Testing-Out’ of the Educational systems. Needless to say, ‘THIS’ IS NOT’ in ‘The Church Budget!!!’ “Mira! Mommy!”
This Domestic War that America has declared on us; ‘3/Fifths’ of a person! It’s being seen as ‘mental health’; but I’m talking about a whole lot of folks that are still missing 2/5ths of their personhood. And we don’t even know HOW to talk about THAT segment of America’s history. Talking about the inability to function in a nation that has a deep Systemic War waged against Black life …in perpetuation. ‘Forces of History’! The Lynching; Jim Crow; Mass Incarceration –all at work in the Soul of a ‘3/Fifths’ of a Black man. “Mira! Mommy, Mira.” Look! Behold! Your Son!
I wish I had time to bring this message but since I don’t, I’ll just leave this with you: Mothers, Woman. Daughters. Don’t send your sons into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through them might be saved.
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