God is Here - Rev. Al Sharpton

giving honor to God at this hour and certainly to Minister Amy and the ministerial staff here at Riverside to our friend and social and religious prophet of our time Reverend James Falls there's not a minister that I know held in higher regard with more respect than Reverend James Forbes who I'm on it came today to introduce my being here and I don't think we ought to take the men of his commitment for granted give a big hand to Reverend James I'm proud to be joined by many from Nash Action Network cluding my daughter Dominique and companion aja and others but I must acknowledge the presence of our congressman the Dean of the House of Representative congressman Rangel and one of the profound thinkers of our times I call them the Socrates of our time Reverend dr. Michael Eric Dyson in wood and I can go on and on Michael Hardy my attorney others that are here the other evening I was in Washington and went to Nevada for an appearance and I began working in my mind on the plane for today's message I was told that Riverside is celebrating today the thing God is here and as I thought about it I said let me address the theme of today and my message when I landed in the bar I got a call from the head of Staten Island chapter Nash Action Network Cynthia Davis telling me about Eric and how he had been choked by New York City policemen and proclaimed dead at a hospital my mind went back 20 years ago where I went to the same Staten Island same prisa young man named Ernest Seong had been killed by policemen in an altercation very similar the March that weekend was led by myself and others the March yesterday led by myself and others 20 years ago the mayor's name was Giuliani the commissioners name was Bradley twenty years later the man's name is de Blasio the commissioners name is Brett there's a lot different 20 years later yet we will see if a lot remains the same one thing that is different is there's a video this time and as America watched this video aside from the legalities and aside from the parliamentary procedures that police do process calls for aside from the fact that the mayor reached out to the family whereas 20 years ago the mayor did not aside from the fact that there's a different tone what bothers me is that the nation watches a man saying I can't breathe and the choking continues I can't breathe and it continues I can't breathe then police surround him and none of them even say wait a minute stop he can't breathe even if police procedure doesn't kick in when does your sense of humanity kick in when does our consideration of human beings kick in have we gotten so cold and withdrawn and inflexible - even people fighting for their breath does not appeal to something inside of us and does the faith community this morning churches all over the city of New York gather do we deal with this moment with impeccable laryngitis by not even addressing with children in the street see God is here well maybe the reason people doubt it is those of us that claim to represent God show up missing in action but it's two sides to this because not only do we need to see Bratton do things 20 years differently last week in New Jersey man ambushed two policemen and his loved ones said he should have killed more cops that is just as wrong and just as Bratton must deal with police Chokin the Sharpton's must deal with those that want to take cops out both sides are wrong we cannot have a society where people are on polar opposites defending police being killed on one side and defending chokeholds by police on another 21st century and we're still having these arguments we come to church this morning while in Malaysia they're hiding evidence on how almost 300 people died that had nothing to do with what they are debating about no one on that plane had anything to do with Ukraine Russia European nations or the United States but we have just like Staten Island becomes so detached two people are collateral damage to our political views yet the faith community has not raised this voice the faith community has not said let's go and see where this happened why this happened and appeal to all sides there was a time that would ever happen in the world we had men and women of faith the modern kings the William Sloane coffin the sister Campbell's that would lead the way just setting a moral tone Israel in Gaza that would have been those delegations they're raising their voices today 17,000 people water cutoff in Detroit cuz they didn't pay the water bill on time seniors can't take their medicine mothers key bought water for their babies can't even flush etad in Detroit Michigan not in the Middle East not in Africa in Detroit down the block from where GM and Ford are recording their profits to cut off water while major corporations are delinquent in their water bills and they can turn on the faucet all day long where are the voices of faith God is here well where are the representatives of God Chicago one weekend 82 shootings next week in 38 gun violence everywhere we are comparing notes like we're in some Olympic competition of murder seeing which city has the worst gun violence yet the people of faith have not challenged gun manufacturers have not challenged Congress that will not even pass have not challenged the Congress that will not even pass background checks can you imagine members of Congress that want photo ID to vote but no background checks to buy a gun something strange about that we're going leaving NASA Action Network this week going for our 2014 Freedom Summer where 23 states have changed voting laws not because there's fraud the Justice Department under Bush said there was zero point zero zero zero three percent fraud there's no fraud but they want to change so we cannot have government photo ID to vote cut down on early voting days stop Sunday go to the polls why well it's a solution looking for a problem why because the forces that want to limit people the fossils that want to stay in power know if they make it more difficult for people to vote that had been denied to vote that they can stay in power and we're going to make sure that that doesn't happen because do not forget voting was not donated to us people died to get us the right to vote black and white and they came from the north to the south and some came back in coffins Goodman Chaney Schwerner Viola Louisa the problem is that not only do we not have enough of us that will come with the moral imperative to go to the South today they're not enough of us in the north dealing with the bigotry and bias in the north dr. Forbes in his introduction of me talked about some of the controversy controversies and rejection I faced but some of it was because had I marched and agitated and did the things that I did in the South the northern liberals would have loved me but how dare I challenge your image that we were able to so carefully build that all was well here when it was not so rather than deal with the message you mess with the messengers but the message will outrun the myths we've got to deal with these issues whether it's police misconduct whether is income inequality we've got to deal with how on designer' Manhattan one side Wall Street is booming and the other side Washington Heights in Harlem is starving same island yet we take our Bibles on Sunday morning and we get our favorite hymns ready and we sing to a god beyond the sky but I come to tell you God is not up there he's down here God is not removed he's present you can't deal with the existential questions of God but also deal with his practical application I've come to believe the reason that people love God beyond the sky is because the further removed he is from us the less accountable we are to him if he's up there maybe he didn't notice one or two things we did if he's up there maybe we can slip and slide a few things but if he's right down here he knows what we did and what we didn't do all of us have sinned some of our sins public some private many things I've done then focus on some stuff wouldn't rub the side then some stuff was publicized that I never did doesn't matter but you and I know that there is a difference if we believe that God is right here and will hold you accountable just like we love history not is instructive but we leave it there so it is great to talk about the leaders of yesterday but what about right now yes it's with great pride that our standing this historic pulpit but our all those that stood before me to stand and deal with the challenges of today it is the height of hypocrisy to stand in this and start appropriate where dr. King took on the war and Vietnam and for me not to talk about Aragog and not to talk about voting rights it is hypocritical to hide behind the cloak of your deity of your religious formalities rather than the application of what religion ought to be about God is here but are you here with God and if you are how is that demonstrated in your life what have you done to enhance social fairness social justice and equality what can you say to God there is investment of life and heart beats and breaths has returned to him do you think that you glorify God but getting a promotion on your job don't you grab my God by the assets in your bank account or your portfolio that's good for you but God gave you life so you could bless other lives you I often say the hardest job of a minister the most difficult task and it is true I've been preaching since I was a kid and I can say with some authority that the most difficult task of a minister is to preach the funeral of an irrelevant person does a hard job they rolled the body down the sundial they lay it before the altar choir gets up and sing great numbers and then we supposed to get up and hallucinate a life for you you never live I mean most folks shouldn't even have a few most folks should go right from the morgue to their cemetery place cause they're really not much you could say oh they did all right for themselves but who cares the house you bought will be on sale by the end of the week the car you drove will ride up and down the West Side Highway we're changing the title sooner or later the only thing that will matter two minutes after you gone is what you did for more than yourself think about this think about if today is your last day if this is your last service what can they say about me and if you're not satisfied with your own answer you should leave here today working on yourself and building on what you need to build because God is here he's available to you if you but use what he's giving you to be more than self indulgent now I know many of us come with reasons we won't step out but I come to tell you that's why God is here God takes the ones that are the least like and gets the most done as I have seen in my life people that will be unexpected and rejected are the ones that end up the greatest so don't let whatever mistakes or whatever trends that may be in your past hold you back God is not trapped in your past God is there for your future and he's bad that every day you wake up was a divine decision he made to give you another opportunity to serve you know I travel a lot Asians so tell my daughters and staff members Rachel darling is healed quickly to went on the high pastures in City Hall one of my joys in life as I could watch on her she used to March with me they would tell you I'm fly travel a lot Reverend Forbes out go early in the morning late at night good weather bad weather the only time I won't get on the plane is if they tell me it's the pilots first trip they standing against a reven we check he's passed what he supposed to pass has his pilot's license he's been certified and I get on to that but just the thought that this first time he's in charge on the radar and he never figured out clouds before I don't wanna be up there with or the first time he was in charge of the powers when we go through turbulence what am I saying a lot of people got the dicen they only want friends that are clean and pristine and no smears no questions never had a bad day never had their credibility questioned I don't hang out with folk like that because if you have never been through anything I'm not sure if you could get to something I like to hang out with folk that been knocked down that's been talked about and scandalizing dragged through the mud and muddied up and somehow God picked them up and clean them off and stood them up and despite all odds made a way for if you've never been through trials and tribulations you're just guessing what God can do but if you've been through the fight if you've been through the flood if you've been through what people felt you never make it through if you conquered your own anxieties and your own insecurities and somehow God made a way for you you can worship Him today not cause of what's your hair but because of what you know I know that God is here because I look at the wave of history and even with the difficulties I see how God's hand is moving us forward I know God is here because when dr. king came in this pulpit in 67 to come out against a wall no one in that time would have ever thought that we would be sitting here today with a black president and a black Attorney General can't sunshine I know God is here because in 1969 an activist disrupted two services at Riverside talk about reparations the president was missing in 2014 the morning preachers and activist named shot to the president is Obama I know God is here I said on the fourth row on the platform and watched President Obama was been inaugurated for the second time last January and I will never forget they brought out two Bibles there were senator about two rows behind me set out isn't this an awesome moment I said yes he says and he's going to be sworn in for the second term put his hand on Lincoln's Bible and dr. King's box isn't this breathtaking I said yes it is but don't be confused those are two Bibles same amount of books same amount of dresses same amount of chapters but those two Bibles took different roads and different routes to get here Lincoln's Bible was on the mantel place in the White House heads of states and captains of industries and leaders of the military looked at that body but dr. King's my became a different route it came through the backwoods of Mississippi the bayous of Louisiana the jail houses of Birmingham if you open up the front cover there's a cell number in dr. King's Bible from when he went to jail in Birmingham and they took his Bible as properly and checked it in for him to take it when he got out little did the bailiff know when he was writing the cell numbers and Kings back that that same Bible would be on the steps of the Capitol sweating the president of the United States I know God is here I'm reminded in closing there was a high school then South Carolina they used to have a singing contest every year at the end of the school semester they would give a song and the student that gave the best rendition would win the contest there was a lot of tension because for three years this same young lady won nobody could beat her in the school or even the surrounding community they gathered in the auditorium that night and took the volunteers and it was this same young leaf and only two people would challenge her when they got them on the platform and said to Mike out for them to step forward one at a time they said to Psalm this year that you must sing is the Lord's Prayer first contestant went forth did the best she could step back then a young man step forward did the best he could they applauded he stepped back then the champion came forward and she sang the Lord's Prayer and when she got finished collodion stood up and applauded it appeared that she had again won for the fourth consecutive year the judges were just exasperated they said well wait a minute is anybody wanna try we opened to the community and to their surprise a little lady raised her hand and she walked up on the platform and people started smiling and grinning and crapping cuz it was the music teacher the one that taught that young lady had a say and she got up on the platform and she held ahead to the same side the same way the young lady did and held her shoulders back and she sang the Lord's Prayer when she finished the same audience got up and gave a longer stronger ovation to a music teacher and it appeared after three years streak she's been defeated by home teaching the judges almost as formality said well does anybody else want to try and as he got ready to quickly close the contest a voice rang out from the back said wait a minute let me try and when they looked around a man started walking down the I had a pail and a broom in his he he put down the pan to put down the broom the students recognized him he was the school janitor he stepped up on the stage still with Daddy overalls on tilted his head to the right and he sang the Lord's Prayer when he finished nobody clapped nobody stood up but as they looked around the auditorium there was tears streaming out everyone's cheeks and when the vote came in the janitor won the contest as he took his trophy and walked out to greet all of those that were there to congratulate him young man ran over from the school newspaper and said mr. janitor mr. janitor I need to interview you explaining your victory you never been to music class you never had voice training you've never even been in a contest how do you explain winning against the best student singer and the music teacher he looked at him and said his very supple son they know the words to the Lord's Prayer but I know the Lord they singing about I came to Riverside today to tell you I don't know all that others have come and said I don't master homiletics I don't have a doctorate in theology but I know to God that they were studying he walks with me he talks with me he tells me I am his own I know God get this done you

Channel: The Riverside Church

Views: 52,976

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Keywords: Rev. Al Sharpton, The Riverside Church in the City of New York

Id: n_mtPg7CQ88

Length: 36min 17sec (2177 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 21 2014