sermons
Summer at Reservoir
Juneteenth 2004 At Reservoir
Reverend Darrell Hamilton
Jun 16, 2024
Reservoir’s Juneteenth service honored Black American freedom struggles and victories, and our past, present, and future victories and longings for freedom for bodies and spirits. Thanks to our small planning committee who volunteered to shape this time. Below are the in person and online sermons from our guest preacher, Rev. Darrell Hamilton, Executive Pastor at First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain.
In Person Service – The Invisible Man
In this fifth chapter of Mark, Jesus has entered the region of the Gerasenes outside of Judaea, and is approached by an unnamed man, the text reads,
who has been forced to live his life among the tombs.
I say forced because this man does not live among the tombs solely because he has a spiritual issue. But this man lives his life among the tombs because of a more sinister and prevalent set of issues rendering him invisible to the rest of the world.
In Ralph Ellison’s book, The Invisible Man, it is an unnamed, self-professed “invisible man” who is trapped living his life in a sewer beneath the streets of Harlem. This man says he has been made invisible not because of anything he can control about himself, but because when people approach him, they do not see him –
“only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination [do they see], indeed, everything and anything except me.”
Mark, like Ellison, is telling the story of an invisible man. An unnamed man. A man trapped in an abyss. An invisible man whom the world only sees his surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination – presuming him to be the victim of his own spiritual deprivation rather than the byproduct of systemic failures.
During my second year of graduate school, I took my first international trip to Cairo, Egypt. I have many fond memories of that trip like seeing the pyramids. Sailing the Nile. Taking a day trip to Alexandria. Being woken up at 5 a.m. for morning prayers. But one of the most striking memories was seeing off the highway a cemetery where many of the homeless lived. I learned that this was not an uncommon reality in this part of the world for people to build homes for themselves in a cemetery. But for many on the trip, seeing people live in a cemetery was a jarring and shocking experience.
However, if I could talk back to my graduate school self, I would remind him that seeing people live among the tombs is not unfamiliar to me. That whether I am driving to work, walking into a store, riding on the T, there are people all around me living in proverbial cemeteries – forced to live their lives among the tombs.
The 3.1 million people in Massachusetts who are poor or low income. The 365,900 people in Massachusetts who are at risk of losing Medicaid coverage. The 300,000 children in Massachusetts who do not have health insurance. The 62% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck while costs for food, rent, and basic necessities are increasing, and three individuals have wealth equal to half the United States’ population. I would remind my graduate school self that people are living their lives among the tombs every day.
And on this Father’s Day/Juneteenth Sunday, I must name the countless number of black men and boys who are also living among the tombs because of various forms of “lethal violence” that include murder, police brutality, unemployment, as well as child sexual and physical abuse that is inflicted on our flesh.
Black men, a study reports after the murder of George Floyd, that states because of racism, and associated poverty and injustice, life expectancy at birth of black men is 71.9 years, far below white women (81.2), black women (78.5), and white men (76.4) . . . mainly because of black men’s higher risk of dying from several types of cancer, stroke, HIV, and homicide.
[That] Despite overall declining numbers of homicide in the U.S., homicide remains the number one cause of death for black males 10 to 24.
Per ACLU data on mass incarceration, one in three black boys are still expected to go to prison in their lifetime.
And from a young age, black men and boys are said to be like the man from Mark 5, suffering from behavioral and spiritual challenges that brand them for life “as living terrors” or “superpredators” who must be sedated, medicated, or incarcerated in order to be meaningful contributors to the classroom or to society.
This gives a whole new meaning when we say the names George Floyd, Philando Castile, Jonathan Edwards, father’s whose black children must now grow up without. Black boys like Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown who were denied the blessing of living long enough to become.
Yet, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or nation of origin, the truth is that the longer anyone is forced – systemically, spiritually, psychologically, you name it, to live among the tombs, the more it will begin to throw dirt not only on your body but also on your spirit.
Yet, Jesus makes a way for those living their lives among the tombs to be restored into the right community. Jesus makes a way for those living among the tombs by proclaiming freedom and liberation for both our bodies and our spirits.
And this is where we find ourselves this morning. With Jesus encountering an unnamed man living among the tombs. Jesus casts out the man’s unclean spirits, and after tells him to go home to his own people, and to tell them about all the good the Lord has done for him and the mercy that was shown to him.
There are three things we learn from Jesus that I want to invite us to consider as we worship together on this Juneteenth Sunday about how Jesus brings this man freedom and I will get out the way.
First that Jesus sees the man
My daughter, who is two years old now, her favorite movie came out when she was only two months old. Since she was two months old this movie has stayed on repeat at home. She has the toys. She has the bed set. And she loves singing the songs.
The movie is called Encanto, and one of the songs from the movie she loves the most is the same song that topped all the music charts called “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.” And church, this is powerful as well as catchy song because it names for us the need to face up to the Brunos we do not see because we refuse to talk about them.
The estranged cousin or sibling or auntie who never chooses to attend the family functions (Bruno). The gay niece or nephew who moves away so they can be free to be themselves by themselves (Bruno). The “problem child” – whose teachers say they cannot educate, whose doctors try to medicate, and who police then try to incarcerate (Bruno).
The parent who raised you but was emotionally unavailable to you (Bruno). The person who was virtually non-existent in your life, and despite your best efforts all you seem to know about them are the things you pieced together from the pieces of information you would hear said about them (Bruno).
I’m talking about Bruno because until we can talk about Bruno, we will continue to fail to see Bruno. And this is what Jesus teaches us in this text, because by seeing Bruno, by seeing the invisible man, he then can see that there are other factors about him that make him the way he is.
That there are, as the Apostle Paul says, some principalities and powers, forces of spiritual wickedness in both heavenly and earthly places, that make him the way he is. There are some policies and legislation that make him the way he is. There is some unaddressed grief that makes him the way he is.
He is not the way he is because he is bad. He is not the way he is because he does not care. But Bruno may have actually lived through some things, experienced some things, seen some things. And these things may have been imprinted on Bruno in such a way that the version of them we meet may not have been the version of them they’ve always been.
We have to talk about Bruno, because lest we talk about Bruno then we cannot see Bruno.
The second thing is Jesus hears the man.
There are two elements in this we need to unpack.
First, the text says that when the man saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him as an act of worship. Then he shouted at the top of his voice,
“What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!”
And Reservoir Church, I want us to chew on this question of what does it mean about a person’s experience that when they come and approach Jesus, they are fearful they will be tortured? What does it say about a Church that professes to follow Jesus – that when someone comes to worship, they leave feeling protective against being tormented? You have made a ministry out of answering that question.
But while you chew on that, I want us to also think why when Jesus asks this man his name he would say
“My name is Legion, for we are many.”
What I want to suggest is happening in this text is this man has already been tortured and tormented. The text says in verse four,
“4for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains.”
Often means repeatedly.
Thus, Jesus is encountering a man who has been shaped by a torturous cycle of repeated incarceration that has created the conditions for him to be possessed with a legion of unclean spirits.
- That the more an individual is incarcerated,
- The more time they spend in an environment meant to create unclean spirits. And the more they remain in an environment meant to create unclean spirits,
- The more susceptible they become to being possessed by unclean spirits, and the more they become possessed by unclean spirits,
- the more likely they end up being incarcerated repeatedly. And…
Therefore, this man was tortured by a carceral system, an education system, a patriarchal system, that was not meant to rehabilitate nor set people free. But was built to keep people shackled in a never-ending cycle that brutalizes, demonizes, and ultimately traumatizes.
But you might look at the text and ask,
“preacher, didn’t the man break his chains, tear his shackles into pieces, and was no longer able to be subdued?”
Yes! But even though the man had broken his chains, torn his shackles into pieces, and was no longer able to be subdued, the man was still wandering the wilderness and living among the tombs.
Meaning, even though his body was no longer chained/incarcerated his mind was still chained/incarcerated. And because his mind was still incarcerated, instead of going home and to his people, the Bible says,
“5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones.”
Howling because he was trying to be heard. Cutting himself with stones because he was trying to be heard.
And there are folks in church today who, day and night, have been crying out to be heard. You have been crying out from your wilderness. You have been crying out from your pain. You may even know what it is like to turn pain in on yourselves because you have been crying out and made to be invisible.
But I want to encourage you this morning because Jesus hears your cries. Jesus sees where you are. You are not by yourself. You are not uncared about! And it is not your destiny to remain living your life among the tombs.
I know Jesus hears your cries because Jesus heard this man’s cry. And Jesus desires for you to be well, healed, and restored.
Therefore, after Jesus hears the man, Jesus restores the man.
Jesus restores the man by casting out the man’s unclean spirits. Jesus restores the man and puts some clean clothes on his body. Jesus restores the man and sets him in his right mind. Jesus restores the man not only by setting him free, but also by instructing him to go home to his people, and to tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.
In Greek, where it is translated “tell them” the word is apangeilon which means “report” or “share the message.” Therefore, Jesus instructs the man to go home to his own people and tell them (report, share the message to them) how much the Lord has done.
The root word of apangeilon is angellos which is where we get our English word angel (a messenger). So, after restoring the man, Jesus gets in the boat to leave and the man begs Jesus to come with him, but Jesus says,
“no you cannot come with me. Because I didn’t restore you so you could come be like one of my disciples. But I restored you so you could be my angel by sharing the good news so other people can be free.”
And this is the good news today, that Jesus calls the man who had at one time been possessed by unclean spirits to be an angel of the Lord and to go home and to his people to tell them about all that Jesus has done for him.
Tell them about my amazing grace. Tell them all about my goodness and mercy.
Tell them
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Go home and to your own people because you are no longer an invisible man. But you are an angel of the Lord! A child of God. Healed! Redeemed! And set free! 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”
Say a prayer!
Online Service – God in the Ghetto
Antithesis: The gospel is told from the point of view of ghettoized people
As the earliest written gospel, Mark 1:9-15 is the first introduction to Jesus in our Bible. On its face, this may seem like a simple introduction. There is no annunciation of Jesus’ birth. There are no wise men coming from the east or shepherds working in the fields. There is no mention of Jesus as the word (logos) of God made flesh. Who is declared by John the baptizer as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But in a single sentence, Mark says,
“in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.”
Black liberation theologian, James Cone, as written that in those days Nazareth was an “agrarian ghetto.” In the book, “God in the Ghetto,” William Augustus Jones describes how the word ghetto was first applied in the sixteenth century to the section of town where the Jewish colony was located. And since the term ghetto connotes a place of
“racial, social, and economic oppression.”
Therefore, Mark saying
“in those days Jesus came from Nazareth”
connotes that Jesus comes from this type of place in Galilee. A place of low repute. A neighborhood of questionable value and worth. Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
Coming from this place, he is baptized by John in the Jordan. And as he is coming up out of the water, Mark says, Jesus saw the heavens torn apart, the Spirit descending like a dove, and
“a voice came from heaven, You are my Son, the Beloved, and with you I am well pleased.”
In Greek, the phrase “well pleased” comes from a word meaning worthy. In a legal sense, it means that something has met all the standard procedures and has been given a judicial stamp of approval.
Therefore, before Jesus had ever healed any sickness; before Jesus had ever cleansed any unclean spirits; before Jesus had ever walked on water or fed 5,000 men (not including the women and children) with five loaves of bread and two fish. All Jesus has done was come out from Nazareth, baptized by John in the Jordan, and already had God’s stamp of approval on his life!
In his autobiography, Malcolm X told the story of when he was in the seventh grade his English teacher, a white man, asked Malcolm what he wanted to be when he grew up. Malcolm said that he wanted to be a lawyer. But his teacher told him that he had to be realistic about being a n-word and that the only future for black boys was to get a job in manual labor.
And Malcolm said that this “crushed him” on the inside because even though Malcolm had a good reputation among his teachers and peers, that a black boy, because he is black, could never be good enough, never be smart enough, never be worthy enough for a profession where he had to use his mind. He would never be expected to excel intellectually, and he would never be given the opportunity to do something in life that would unlock his full potential and possibilities.
And there continue to be Malcolms and Maxines who are crushed on the inside because they are told they can only aspire to be what the world said they could be. Malcolms and Maxines who are not provided with the right encouragement and resources. Malcolms and Maxines who may not have come from the greatest circumstances. Who may not have come from a literal ghetto, but nonetheless came from an environment of teachers, professors, parents, neighbors, pastors, and where they are crushed by the voices telling them they are not worthy.
But I want us to imagine with me the implications of a passage like this. The implications for all the people who have heard all their lives that they are not good enough because of where they come from. That they are not smart enough. Not worthy enough. Do not have God’s stamp of approval because the Bible says when Jesus came out of the water a voice came from heaven,
“YOU are my Son, beloved, in who I am well pleased!”
And Church, this is good news on this Sunday morning because it was not a voice coming from the world that validated Jesus. But the voice from heaven that validated Jesus. A voice from heaven saying it does not matter where you come from. It does not matter where you may be going. It does not matter if everything in your life is the way you would like it to be. But there is a voice from heaven saying you are enough!
The money in your bank account does not make you enough! The degrees on your wall do not make you enough! You, by yourself, are enough.
It does not matter what folks say about you, you are enough! It does not matter what mistakes you may have made in your life, you are enough.
Therefore, I believe there are two important details about Jesus that we must understand to fully grasp the man and his ministry.
First, that Jesus is the word (logos) of God made flesh. That Jesus came through 40 and two generations and that He would save His people. That Jesus is the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. That he died on a Roman cross, was buried in a borrowed tomb, and on the third day rose with all power in his hands.
Annnnnd this same Jesus was a man from the ghetto of Nazareth. Mary and Joseph’s baby. A man who was heaven sent and heaven approved.
Proposition: Jesus’ life proclaims the story of God by the way he lives his life and speaks a message of hope.
That his 30 years of being raised in the ghetto is what gave him the courage and conviction for His journey in the wilderness after his baptism. That gave him the knowledge and strength to overcome any and all temptation by the devil.
And after Jesus returned to Galilee, he was able to confidently preach the good news of God.
That God lives among those whom Howard Thurman called the disinherited, whose backs are pressed against the wall of oppression.
That God is revealed among those Franz Fanon called the Wretched of the Earth.
That God is whom womanist theologian Kelly Brown Douglas says are
“marked black by oppression.”
And God is among those who Rev. Munther Isaac, pastor of the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, says have their existence within the rubble.
And it was with His ghetto, disinherited, wretched, black, and Palestinian life that Jesus told the story of God and unapologetically, gave a message of hope and liberation to deliver His people.
Thus, on this Juneteenth Sunday how might we respond to this message of hope?
First, we must listen to the voice coming from the ghetto.
In his theological treatise on rap and hip hop, Michael Eric Dyson talks about hip hop as the artform of ghettoized people. Like the genres of the spirituals, blues, gospel, jazz, rock n roll, and yes, even country music, hip hop has its origins in the psalms and hymns of enslaved and disenfranchised people poetically and rhythmically communicating the pleasures and pains of living life in the underground.
In an interview describing his contribution to hip hop, the artist Nas says,
“Really, I saw, like a hole in the rap game, so, if I wanted to put my little two cents in the game, then it would be from a different perspective. I thought that I would represent for my neighborhood and tell their story, be their voice, in a way that nobody has done it. Tell the real story.”
Jay- Z, in the song Renegade with Eminem, says, what I believe, is the essence of what hip hop is, saying:
Say that I’m foolish I only talk about jewels/
Do you fools listen to music or do you just skim through it?/
See I’m influenced by the ghetto you ruined/
That same dude you gave nothing, I made something doing/
What I do through and through and/
I give you the news, with a twist it’s just his ghetto point-of-view/
The renegade, you been afraid/
I penetrate pop culture, bring ’em a lot closer to the block
Therefore, as Dyson again states hip hop is not merely “pavement poetry” but is also prophetic. Prophetic in its proclamation of truth to power. Political in its analysis. Artful in its imagery. Conscience of the realities plaguing its community. Subversive in the ways it comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.
Hip hop has its imperfections that aids and abets in homophobia. Transphobia. Violence. Hedonism. Misogyny. Patriarchy. Capitalism. But the same can be said, and is said, about our Bible. Our Christian tradition. That Christianity today traffics in the abuse and violence of marginalized and oppressed people.
And yet, Jesus, founding member of the hip hop group N.W.A (Nazarenes With Attitude), tells the real story of the people and places from whence he came.
That the gospel is the poetic, prophetic, political, artful, conscience, and subversive message to “bring us closer to the block.” Closer to the margins. Closer to the truth! Closer to the devastation that is left behind when tradition is placed above the commandments of God. Closer by putting his two cents in the game for those who have neglected the weightier matters of justice, mercy, and faith! Closer by revealing God’s plan for the world. Not being bringing us to heaven but by bringing heaven down to the earth
(“Do you [sic] listen to music or do you just skim through it?”)
Therefore, we respond to the message of hope when we remember to listen to the voices coming from the ghetto because the ghetto is where God is often speaking. The ghetto is where God is serving. And the voices coming from the ghetto have the power to save and bring us new life.
But to listen, we must repent to the voice coming from the ghetto.
In Greek, repent means to turn; to turn from or return to. Thus, on this Juneteenth Sunday, how are we invited to consider turning to the voices from the ghetto? How might we need to turn from the things making us deaf to hear the voices that are revealing deep and prevailing truths about our world?
For four hundred years, black people have articulated through our music and art the deep seeded realities that we are faced with. For centuries people have danced to our music, clapped to our art, sung the lyrics of our songs, but never turned to listen!
And now, people are talking about Project 2025 that is described as
“a real threat to democracy.”
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley said about Project 2025 that it is
“a thousand-page bucket list of extremist policies that would uproot every government agency and disrupt the lives of every person who calls America home.”
Key policy proposals include the elimination of the Department of Education that would cut millions of students off from civil rights protections and ending essential title one funding for K through 12 schools. The weaponization and expansion of the Department of Justice. A federal ban on abortion care. As Congresswoman Pressley succinctly summarizes, “If enacted, Project 2025 would destroy the federal government as we know it.”
But are people turning to listen? Because in the ghetto is where these policies are first practiced and perfected before they expand to the rest of the nation. And in these places is where they will have the harshest impact.
Therefore, we must repent to the voices whose ears are to the street. And are sounding the alarm that can hopefully save our nation!
Which is why, finally, we must believe in the voice coming from the ghetto.
We must believe in the voice coming from the ghetto of a black, Palestinian man on whose body the Spirit descended like a dove, and a voice came from heaven
“You are my Son, Beloved, in who I am well pleased.”
A man born from a woman from the ghetto. A man who lived within ghetto community.
A (black) man who did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many! Who shed tears for the city. Who shed his blood because of our sin. Who died and was buried. But after three days has risen so we might rise and live with Him forever!
We must believe in the gospel so the good news of God would be proclaimed throughout the world from Boston to Benin, Atlanta to Angola, Southside Chicago to South Africa, Cambridge to Quincy to Kenya, Jamaica Plain, MA to Jamaica in the West Indies – so that all people will respond to the message of hope that they are beloved, children of God and a part of the gospel story of God.
We must believe in the gospel as good news from the ghetto because
“God’s story is the [ghetto’s] story, and the [ghetto’s] story is God’s story. And that is the Christian story.”
And that, beloved, is hip hop!
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
Amen
(Say a prayer!)