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Sunday, January 14, 2018

"Here I Am: Everyday People Called to Extraordinary Lives"

“Here I Am: Everyday People Called to Extraordinary Lives”
Sermon by the Rev. Caela Simmons Wood
First Congregational UCC of Manhattan, KS
Jan. 14, 2018 - MLK Sunday
​Texts: 1 Samuel 3:1-10, John 1:43-51
What a happy coincidence that the lectionary committee served up stories about everyday people called to extraordinary lives on the same day we observe the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King was many things - prophet, scholar, preacher, ethicist, theologian, activist, courageous peace warrior - and it is good and right that we give thanks for his life and ministry each year. As we do so, it is also important to remember that King, too,  questioned his path - uncertain about whether he was on the right track or whether what he was doing would really make a difference in the world. He died having no idea that we would someday have a holiday to honor him….and I’m fairly certain he’s be mortified if he knew we did.

One of his more popular quotes is the one about “anyone can be great because everyone can serve.” Like Jesus, Dr. King believed those words to be true. We don’t have to be perfect to be of use. We don’t have to quit our day jobs to be in ministry. Samuel shows us we don’t have to be fully grown and self-actualized. Nathanael reminds us that even when we get it wrong at first, God can still use us later.

To help build God’s realm of justice and peace, we simply have to be willing to listen for the movement of the Spirit - that call that might come in a whisper in the night or via an actual phone call from an acquaintance. We have to be willing to say “Here I am, send me” even as our knees quake.

This morning we’ve heard the “call stories” of Samuel and Nathanael, I also want to share with you stories of a few leaders from the Civil Rights Movement. Five everyday people called to extraordinary lives. As I read the name of each person, I will invite the person in the congregation who has their photograph to begin walking it around the sanctuary, eventually bringing it up to place it on the altar. We will honor them by singing one short verse of “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize” - your part is printed in the bulletin - and I will place a symbol representing each person on the table alongside their photo.

Let’s begin, shall we?

Virginia Durr
Virginia Durr was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1903, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. Raised as an affluent white woman in the South, her views on race relations were challenged when she went to Wellesley University where cafeteria tables were intentionally integrated. Durr was initially horrified by this idea but kept an open mind and her views began to change. When she lived in Washington, D.C. she became friends with Eleanor Roosevelt and they worked together to try and end the poll tax in Alabama. After the Durrs returned to Alabama, Mrs. Durr became a “den mother” for many young activists who often stayed in their home.

She also became close friends with Mrs. Rosa Parks. It was through Mrs. Durr’s connections that Parks was able to attend the Highlander Folk School, a key experience in Parks’ development as an activist. The Durrs also helped bail Parks out of jail and worked with her legal team in Montgomery. After Virginia Durr’s death in 1999, Mrs. Parks wrote, “'I will miss you, old soldier, but the rich legacy you have passed to your children, grandchildren and great-grands lives on. We still have a long ways to go, but you, my friend, have made it easier for all of us.''

We place a plate on the altar, a symbol of the way Virginia Durr’s heart was changed at cafeteria tables and the hospitality she offered to others.

Mrs. Rosa Parks was bound in jail
Virginia Durr came with the bail
Keep your eyes on the the prize
Hold on, hold on.

Hold on…..hold on….
Keep your eyes on the the prize
Hold on, hold on.

Septima Clark
Septima Clark was also connected to the Highlander School. Born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1898, her father was formerly enslaved and worked on the docks. Her mother was an immigrant from Haiti. Her road to a formal education was difficult but she did manage to finish high school and began teaching in a rural area on Johns Island. Years later she was able to get a college degree and master’s degree but was still legally unable to teach in the Charleston public schools. She continued teaching in rural areas and was a pioneer in the field of adult literacy, teaching adults how to read in the evenings. She went on to lead literacy intensives at the Highlander School - teaching sharecroppers to read in just one week. Due to Jim Crow laws, literacy and the ability to answer citizenship questions was almost always required for black people in the South who wanted to vote. Clark’s model at Highlander was so successful, it was eventually expanded into Citizenship Schools which were held all over the South.

We place a book on the altar, a symbol of Septima Clark’s deep devotion to literacy.

Septima Clark taught folks to read
To break the chains, it was the key
Keep your eyes on the prize and
Hold on, hold on.

Hold on…..hold on….
Keep your eyes on the the prize
Hold on, hold on.

James Lawson
James Lawson, another important teacher, was born in 1928 and raised in Ohio. Lawson is a third-generation Methodist minister. Lawson was introduced to nonviolent resistance while in college. Later, he was able to travel to India as a Methodist missionary and it’s there that he was trained in the principles of satyagraha. Mahatma Gandhi explained satyagraha as “the Force which is born of Truth and Love or non-violence” and this principle was foundational for Dr. King and others.

When Rev. Lawson returned to the U.S., Dr. King called him and said he was desperately needed in the South because of his expertise with nonviolent resistance. Lawson moved to Nashville where he trained a whole generation of student activists including Diane Nash, John Lewis, and Marion Berry. He was expelled from Vanderbilt because of his activism. He was later pastor of Centenary Methodist Church in Memphis and was leading the sanitation workers’ strike there in 1968 when Dr. King came to Memphis to join them and was assassinated.

We place a salt shaker on the altar, a symbol of the way James Lawson taught the students who led by sitting in at lunch counters AND a symbol of the lesson Rev. Lawson learned from Gandhi and other freedom fighters in India.

Nonviolent resistance was the way
The student leaders sat and stayed
Keep your eyes on the prize
Hold on, hold on.
Hold on…..hold on….
Keep your eyes on the the prize
Hold on, hold on.

Dorie Ladner
Born 1942 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Dorie Ladner came to activism early. When Ladner was twelve years old she was reading an issue of Jet Magazine at the local convenience store and the store’s white clerk came behind her and “slapped [her] on the behind.” Ladner recalled, “I turned around and started beating him with the bag of doughnuts.” A few years later, Ladner was moved to become more deeply involved in local activism after the murder of Emmett Till, who was just a year older than her.

Ladner and her sister Joyce were mentored by Medgar Evers and other local activists who took her on trips to Jackson for state-wide NAACP gatherings. She was kicked out of college for her work attempting to integrate the local public library. Ladner was involved in numerous voting rights campaigns in Mississippi, including participating in the Freedom Rides and working with Fannie Lou Hamer. She was a key leader in the Mississippi Freedom Summer. Eventually, Ladner had a long career as a social worker in the DC area. She is still working for justice today.

We place a bag of doughnuts on the altar, as a symbol of the way Dorie Ladner has spent her whole life resisting white supremacy and patriarchy.

Youth are the leaders of today
With grace and strength they show the way
Keep your eyes on the prize
Hold on, hold on.

Hold on…..hold on….
Keep your eyes on the the prize
Hold on, hold on.

Vernon Dahmer
One of Dr. Ladner’s early mentors was Vernon Dahmer, a local farmer in Hattiesburg. Mr. Dahmer was what we would call biracial today, but when he was born in Mississippi in 1908, he was called “colored.” He was very light-skinned and could have easily moved elsewhere in the U.S. and passed for White. Instead, he spent his entire life in Forrest Co. Mississippi, tirelessly advocating for his community. Dahmer and his wife, Ellie, were farmers. They owned over 200 acres of land and employed many other Black residents on the farm and in their sawmill and grocery store. He was the president of the local NAACP at a time when it was illegal to be a part of that organization. His motto was “if you don’t vote, you don’t count” and he worked tirelessly to secure the vote for Blacks in Mississippi.Vernon and Ellie slept in shifts for many years to protect their family from constant death threats. On January 9, 1966 Mr. Dahmer stated on the radio that he would pay the poll tax of anyone who was unable to do so. Later that same night, a group of Klansmen firebombed the Dahmer home. Vernon Dahmer died the next day. Ellie Dahmer later went on to become the election commissioner in Forrest Co., a position she held for a decade.

We place a candle on the altar, symbolizing those who, like Vernon Dahmer, have lost their lives in the struggle for freedom.

“If you don’t vote, then you don’t count!”
Vernon Dahmer shouted loud
Keep your eyes on the prize
Hold on, hold on.

Hold on…..hold on….
Keep your eyes on the the prize
Hold on, hold on.

Everyday people called to extraordinary lives. Holy One, we give you thanks for those you have called to the service of your people - building a more just and peaceful world brick by brick, step by step. We hear these stories and our hearts are stirred. We wonder what we are called to do, to be. We wonder if we will have the presence of mind to hear your voice when you call. We wonder if we will have the courage to say, with Samuel and Nathanael, with those we honor today, “Here I am, send me?”

Amen.



SOURCES
Virginia Durr:
Myles Horton:
Septima Clark:
James Lawson:
Dorie Ladner:
Vernon Dahmer:


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