I didn’t plan this. I woke early around 6:30 am. Couldn’t get back to sleep. Thank you Mr. Prednisone for that. So I climbed out of bed, and I remembered that yes, Rochester, NY has an African Methodist Episcopalian Church – Baber African Methodist Episcopalian Church. Indeed, the interim minister for Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal, the scene of the massacre, is Reverend Norvell Goff, a former minister of Baber, and the former head of Rochester’s chapter of the NAACP. My wife got to know him quite well when she worked at Eastman Kodak in their Diversity Management Department. The current minister at Baber AME, a very charismatic preacher, as I would come to discover for myself, is the Reverend James C. Simmons.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Since I had all morning to myself I checked the website for when services would be held. Ten am. I had plenty of time. Normally, if I feel well, I attend the First Universalist Church of Rochester, where I have been a member for several years now, with many wonderful members dedicated to social activism. Indeed the credo of my church is:
Love is the doctrine of this church.
The quest for truth is its sacrament
and service is its prayer.
To dwell together in peace;
to seek knowledge in freedom;
to serve humanity in fellowship;
to the end that all souls shall grow into harmony
with the source and meaning of life;
thus do we covenant with each other and with All.
Today, however, I felt the need to go to Baber AME. I’m sure you can imagine why. Charleston, of course, where the AME mother church was the scene of that horrific terror attack which took the lives of nine good people for no other reason than they were African Americans. I thought about why I made this decision as I drove there this morning. Shame? Guilt? No. Not for what Mr. Roof did. But slavery and racism is the fundamental stain that flows through our nation’s history – and a topic that white people, including myself, have not done enough to change. I went to show I was stood with the people who literally face risks to their lives and the lives of their loved ones every day in this country because of the racism, hatred and bigotry of people who share one attribute with me – they are designated as “white” in our society. These fellow “whites” may come from Northern Europe, Southern Europe or other parts of the world, but because they are not the descendants of former slaves from Africa, because they have skin tones of a lighter hue than our African American brothers and sisters, people like me receive benefits and privileges that the people we designate as “blacks” are denied. Blacks who white Americans have demonized, exploited, cheated, and murdered for centuries.
Indeed the service at Baber AME (after a musical prologue of some truly stirring gospel music and much welcoming and hand shaking by the church members) opened with a call and response reading, as follows verbatim:
Leader: We were considered 3/5ths a human by the United States Constitution, and often dehumanized, segregated and treated like cattle.
People: But we were made in your image. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful (Psalm 139)
Leader: Middle Passage, Slavery, Jim Crow Laws, Poll Taxes, fire hoses, dogs, lynchings, the KKK, illegal choke holds, right wing rhetoric, racial profiling, mass incarceration and the list goes on and on and on.
People: If it had not been for the Lord at our side they would have swallowed us alive when their anger flared against us. Praise the Lord, who has not let us be swallowed by their teeth. (Psalm 124)
Leader: From the outhouse to the statehouse, to the courthouse – and in 2008 – to the White House.
People: For with God nothing shall be impossible. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
Leader: Sing a song full of faith that the dark past has taught us, sing a song full of hope that the present has brought us;
People: Facing the rising sun of the new day begun, let us march on till victory is won.
Nothing could have stated the gulf between the white churches I grew up in as a child, and even the wonderful Unitarian Universalist faith that I practice now as an aging adult, than this opening message. Filled with the long history of oppression, I was struck immediately by the power of that beginning, and how important the message and community of African American churches have been and still are. Many times over the course of the service I was moved to tears, both of joy and sorrow. Joy from the sheer exuberance and grace and celebration of faith among these people who have endured so much hardship. Sorrow at the reason I finally landed in their midst on this Sunday morning – one more mass slaughter of African Americans at the hands of people who believe that a “white race” exists and that it deserves to reign supreme over all others, but most especially over the people who surrounded me today and embraced me with their love and kindness.
Everywhere I turned, I was met by a smile and a thank-you, though it was I who owed them thanks. Reverend Simmons several times thanked those of us who were there today “in solidarity” but in truth it was an honor to be among such gracious and loving people.
This is not to say that their anger and frustration and righteous fury were repressed or denied. Rev. Simmons sermon was so powerful because he admitted that he had to ask for help to find the love in his heart for the murderer, Dylann Roof, and for the all the white people in America who have cost him and his congregation and black members of AME and other Black denominations across the country so much hurt, so much terror, so much ruination of so many lives. He stated flat out that his initial reaction was not one of love or to turn the other cheek, but instead a desire to curse Dylann Roof and all the other white racists who have killed and murdered African Americans for so long in this country. But he kept coming back to one message, from the text of Paul’s second letter to Timothy, which he repeated over and over.
Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. 2 Timothy 4:2
And what was the word? The word was love. Do not to fall into the trap of committing the sins of hate and anger and murder that your enemies commit. Do not let their hatred engender hatred in return. No eye for an eye. No revenge seeking. No killing of others as “payment” for the crimes of those who practice evil.
Meet hatred with love, and love will find a way. Even in the face of the deaths of nine beautiful, wonderful innocent human beings and the grief of their families. Even after so many wrongs that have been committed by people who look like me against people who look like Rev. Simmons.
I’m sorry I do not have a video of his sermon to show you. My description of it here is a poor summary and an inadequate reflection of the moral authority and charisma he displayed. And I wish I could show you video of the members of Baber African Methodist Episcopalian Church this morning – their singing, their dancing, their laughter, their grace and the friendship and fellowship they showed to me, a stranger among them, a person they had every right to fear and mistrust.
These are brave people. They are true followers of the gospel of love and forgiveness that Jesus is purported to have preached 2000 years ago. I admire the hell out of them. I was blessed to be in their presence. And I am thankful that I decided to spend this Father’s Day worshiping with them. My religious and spiritual beliefs are not theirs, but I was more than happy to be with them as they showed me what true Christians could be.
Finally for the record, let it be known that AME is a welcoming church to all people, regardless of race, creed, nationality sexual orientation, gender identity or any other “difference” that the worst among us use as an excuse to discriminate and hate those who are not like us. How do I know that? Because Rev. Simmons told me so in front of his entire congregation. Pictures of the rainbow flag were flashed upon the walls at the front of the church numerous times.
When I left the church the last person I spoke with was Rev. Simmons. He thanked me for coming and gave me a hug, and I thanked him.
Amen.
