Excuse Me Pastor, Before You Deliver Your Mother’s Day Sermon…
In the Black Church Season, there are really only three big revenue days: Easter, Mother’s Day and Christmas Eve. Trust me, financially, it’s a long stretch between Mother’s Day and Christmas Eve. In fact, your summer budget and finances is directly tied to the strength of performance on Mother’s Day. This is Money Ball Day and everything must be executed without a hitch. Mother’s Day adds a whole new meaning of being about your “Father’s business”. You have lain out your schedule many months ago. Besides your KJV app, your calendar app is your best friend. On Monday, you met with the ministerial team to make certain that all sanctuary duties have been outlined, rehearsed and prepared for execution and that Wednesday Night Bible Study was covered. You will need time to write your sermon. On Tuesday morning, you met with Deacons and Trustees to make certain that membership invitation system has been operating smoothly for the past two weeks and that all expenses accounted. On Tuesday evening, you oversaw the final practice of the Church’s All-Star Choir and Praise Leaders. There won’t be any surprises from the orchestra this Sunday. On Wednesday morning, you met with the Church Secretary to make certain that the bulletin is without grammatical or context error, flowers ordered, roses for Mothers ordered and that the First Lady’s needs have been attended. Whew! It’s Noon. Everything is covered. You can Rest in Perfect Peace with your Mind Stayed on Him! Off to the Barber after lunch. At 2:59 PM, you step in Raheem’s Hair Cuttery and a seat is made out of no way for you! At 3:00 PM, you sit in the chair of the Master Barber and suddenly, a major News Break hits the TV:
The whole world slows down in front of your face. The entire Barber Shop turns to you. It’s written all over your face. You don’t have to say a word. Surprise, Surprise!
Excuse Me Pastor, Before You Deliver Your Mother’s Day Sermon…
The Black Church has always been the communications bandwidth of the Community. It was the unbridled passion of the Black Church that resisted the confines of slavery and Jim Crow Democrat Laws and pushed for Civil Rights through allegiance with the Republican Party. It was easy to draw upon its heritage as it was founded by radicals like Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. However, time and misery seems to oppress the greatest testaments of time. Hope over time gave way to despair and Change seemed to fall upon the deaf ears of Heaven. Pulpits that once proclaim the Victory of Christ became filled with proselytizers that promoted liberation based on the color of skin and raised the idealism that God would send ONE that would free us from the disdain of our with-holders. Sermons framed in Patriotism, Liberty and Free Markets were replaced professions of Victimhood, Racial Indifference and Class Envy.
By the 1970′s, Conservatives were vilified in the Black Church for the presentation of messages on Family Values. The Republican Party became the enemy and the Democrat Party, the founders of the Ku Klux Klan, for the sake of welfare, entitlements and the redistribution of others wealth, became the friend. However, the friend was merely a wolf in sheep’s clothing. For the sake of a food stamp, a wink and a nod, the Democrat Party seized the liberal Black Church and strangled the Conservative Black Church. Thanks LBJ for the 501 (c) 3. Eventually, it was assumed that membership in the Black Church served as auxiliary membership in the Democrat Party.
Pastor, you soon would only open your pulpit to Democrats. The doctrine of Christ could then, only be heard through the voices of Democrats. The Black Church was no longer about the “Father’s business” but about the “government funding business”. The Message suffered. The Community Suffered. Men Left the Church as Their Goldy responsibilities were Replaced by the “forces and provisions of government”. Soon, limited to the participation of women, the Church became a place that depended on the assurances of government security, of privileges as rights and entitlements as life needs. Morality and character became less of a concern of what is sacred and more of what is culturally convenient. For many that remained, the understanding of Faith and politics became simple in discernment: That which is expedient and affirmed of men is most practical and worthy of God’s Blessing. However, there is something that causes the spirit that pursues the Spirit to become “rocked” in his soul. The spirit that has consumed the Word of God understands the limits of mankind and the eternity of the Living God. Even the heathen understands that there is One whom is Greater and must be confided. This is always why it is most unsettling when Judgement first comes to the House. That silence you heard in the Barber Shop is the moaning and groaning of the world awaiting you to become the Son of God.
Excuse Me Pastor, Before You Deliver Your Mother’s Day Sermon…
There are some things that you do not know that you need to know before you speak from your pulpit on Sunday. Your unrelenting support of Obama has equivocation to that of Jesus Christ in the eyes of even your most devout parishioners. Such an equivocation was given to Barack Hussein Obama when you advised your sheep to vote for him. That may or may not be your fault. However, it is what it is. You see at your pulpit, they first heard the Good News of Jesus Christ. At your pulpit, they accepted His Words as Truth and you as the Messenger of Truth. The Message and The Messenger was seared in their hearts as One. At you pulpit, they were baptized and professed the Holy Spirit. At your pulpit, they heard the moral doctrines of Faith. At your pulpit, they watched the broken become healed and life renewed in your words and hymns. The power God loans to you in the pulpit is held in reverance and awe. Do you understand how important you have been to a liberal movemnet that sought only your power but none of its Godliness?
Many, to this day, have more Faith and Trust in you than the Bible that they carry on Sunday morning. It is sad but true. Yet, the silence you heard Wednesday afternoon, God made certain that they heard too. They are shocked. They are in disbelief. They are hurt. They blame you. I know you did not want to hear that part but it is truth. On Sunday, before you blame men for leaving their responsibilities and putting women in harm’s way, you need to privately and publicly repent. Such repentance should be before your fullest assembly. You ask, “Repent from what?” It is the omitted power of equivocation. Your congregants believe now that you, the Man of God, would not have endorsed a man for public office that believes that marriage is not sacred but irreligious or ungodly. That marriage is subject to human fallacy and interpretation and not origin-ed from the very Words of God. Hence, some believe that there is no doctrinal requirement to promote the sacredness of marriage because there is a separation of Faith and State. Hence, Sunday Only Christianity is acceptable in the sight of God. Yeah, they got all of that and more in a simple statement from the President of the United States. What is more? You may need to prepare them for the unforgivable: the Democrat Party will add Same-Sex Marriage to their Political Platform. Whom will you serve?
I write this knowing that many ministers did not go before the Father to ask for His permission to endorse President Obama. I know this because you have probably done more vetting of an associate minister that will preach in your pulpit than the Press did of our own President. You probably have spent more time designing your new sanctuary. For some, I know that you accepted him because he had a “D” behind his name. For some, it was because of the color of his skin. There is too much at stake in America to keep this charade going. Too many will suffer lack as a result of prideful commitment to false and manipulated allegiances. By the way, Obama did not seek Spritual counsel before he announced what “Mankind” had told him to do. Yeah, he called his Pastor after he made his decsision to “go forth”. I guess you have never done that before. In an unscientific poll taken on my face book website, the majority of persons responded, “Yes, it is wise for Men of God to admit error and to lead his flock in doctrine.” The risk? Already, in barber shops across the country, many are advising that they will not vote in this election. They have the power but will not leave home to express it. Imagine when they employ this silence in your temple on Sunday morning. Voting with one’s morality (feet) can put quite a damper in doing the “Father’s business”.
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