Jesus Fought Injustice, He Did Not Join It —Rev. Dr. William Barber "Story of America"

it's good to be with my wild goose family you all have a strange way of making people feel really at home even in the middle of the woods and so it's good to be here I want to get down to the task the day of what I've been asked to do and that is to preach to this grand assembly of people of faith lord help me today for I recognize that whenever you call men and women children to declare what thus saith the Lord you take the risk of putting treasure and trash treasure in an earthen vessel the excellency of the power might be a being out of us so hide us behind your cross covers in your blood for we ask it in thy name come Holy Spirit come in the name of Christ amen one reaches something out this little black book the Bible Ezekiel chapter 2 and he said unto me son of man stand upon thy feet and I will speak unto thee and the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me and set me upon my feet that I heard him speak to me and he said to me son of man I send thee to the children of Israel a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me they and their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very day for they are an impudent children and stiff hearted I do Cindy anyway to them and thou shalt say unto them thus saith the Lord and they whether they hear or whether they will forbear for they are rebellious house yet they shall know there have been a prophet among them today I want to talk some about speak up anyhow Ezekiel was thirty years old when he received his prophetic preaching assignment I don't know if it was at a Wild Goose festival I don't know if it was at moral Monday I don't know if it was in the temple or outside of the temple in fact well I do know that because he was in a foreign land he was in exile and Ezekiel's primary audience likely consisted of his fellow exiled from Judah and the people that had been snatched from their homeland but it also included other members of the larger diaspora one writer says Ezekiel was called to preach in a place where the voice of oppression was the dominant voice the dominant voice the people of God their bodies and their voices were held captive they had been torn away from their land and they were under the oppression of Babylonian the Babylonian deportation policy one of the reasons I'm so against folk being deported and it was designed to serve several objectives one writer says the first thing of captivity was the dissolution of one's nationality the second was the removal of all the people of scale wisdom and ability in order to avoid a political resurgence and a backlash against oppression and the third thing was to provide conscripts for to serve in the Babylonian military machine in other words to make those who were now slaves serve the war machinery of the occupying of the dominant culture and then the purpose of did this this deportation was to bolster the local economy to make money off of other people's oppression captivity was the dominant force the oppression was the dominant voice and the voice of justice and the voice of righteousness seemed to be silent in fact of the matter is the whole point of this oppression was to cause the people to forget what the Lord had said at Sinai to forget the things God had promised in the Davidic covenant they were not exhale exiled no temple no land all of it destroyed and one writer says that to explain the people's existence in Ezekiel's time would be to call it theological shock they couldn't believe where they were they couldn't believe what they were hearing people in power say they couldn't believe how religion was being used to oppress people and they found themselves in theological shock and because the dominant voice was the voice of oppression it caused the people of faith to question the power and the faithfulness of Yahweh their own God in other words the voices of oppression had just about made them give up on the voice of God they had reached the point of utter despair and in the midst of their oppression and the propaganda of oppression God initiates a conversation with Ezekiel and God says I need you you thirty year old young man to speak for me he's Iike said he was somewhere beside a river a canal he actually describes it maybe it was dis yonder River we just crossed over and maybe God's calling somebody here today the word of the Lord came to him he had been a priest the son of a priest but now he was in the land of oppression and yet in the land of oppression God put his hands on him you know there was this tradition in that ancient world that God was confined to certain places in certain times and God puts his hand on his ETO and says the time is over for you to be bowed down the time is over for you to let the forces of oppression dominate the microphone the time is over for you to be silent the time is over for you to wonder if the god of justice is still alive God initiates a conversation in the midst of all the noise of oppression God initiates a conversation and a call in the midst of popular propaganda justifying injustice God initiates a conversation and a call in the midst of the gloating and bragging of those in political power who focus on greed and exploitation God initiates a conversation and a call in the midst of formulas of religious construction that are used to wrongfully consecrate man's inhumanity to man God initiates a conversation and a call when oppressive forces think they have won everything and they have all the political power and all the economic power and all the resources and when they feel as though they have taken all the hope and the faith from the people who once believed and changed the world in the midst of that moment of despair God initiates a conversation and a call in the midst of that God says come to our goose in Hot Springs North Carolina because I am steel Yahweh and the God of justice steel has something to say and he tells Iike to speak prophetically and dare to declare the word of the Lord in other words he calls Ezekiel to be a moral dissenter he says he goes look I know the odds against you I know that you don't have all the money I know that there's some powerful forces I wonder did the Koch brothers have a grandfather back then but there's some powerful forces I understand that it looks like the forces have you hemmed in they're blocking everything but I need you to raise a voice that is kind cherry to the voice of oppression contrary to the voice of hate contrary to the voice of injustice I need voices that will descent from the popular propaganda and the myth of the powers that be I told you our last year at wild goose that I was a conservative Christian and some of y'all looked at me cross-eyed until I explained at you what that meant and one of the reasons I said that is because I believe we must stop allowing people to hijack language that really belongs to us so you invited me back so let me tell you that when I say I'm a conservative Christian I don't mean this brand of ultra conservatism paraded by the ultra-right that is actually liberal because it leaves out so much of what the tenets of God's righteousness really says I'm not talking about that version of Christianity that says so much about what God says so little and so little about what God says so much I'm not talking about that brand of Christianity that takes issues like abortion and homosexuality and private prayer in the school which is between you your God your priest or rabbi your email and they try to make that the center of discussion in public I know I'm a conservative because I believe conservatism means to hold on and preserve I want to hold on and uplift the major themes of God I want just to grab hold of God's prophetic lexicon I want us to take the language that allows us to be moral dissenters in this earth I want to hold on to love and hold on to justice and hold on the righteousness and hold on to treating people right and hold on to lifting up the poor I want to concern those things and refuse and disallow anybody from engaging in a parasitical hypocrisy by taking our faith the faith that is transformed so much and turning it merely into the tool of domination and in every age of my friends you need the centers you remember when William Lord garrison was thrown into jail because of his abolitionist work in 1835 and William Gore Lord gas and put this on his cell he said October 21st 1835 Lord garrison was put into this cell to save him from the violence of a respectable and influential mob who sought to destroy him for preaching the abominable and dangerous doctrine that all men are created equal PS I will not stop preaching remember when Henry David Thoreau was protesting the war with Mexico and he refused to pay a poll-tax because he could not in good conscience support imperialistic government that sought to expand the institution of slavery into the new territory he was arrested and after his release he wrote an influential essay on resistance to civil government when there is an unjust law Thoreau wrote like laws legalizing the institution of slavery that it is the duty of every man every just man to break that law Thoreau had a friend named Ralph Waldo Emerson and Ralph Waldo Emerson visited him in jail one night and said Henry what are you doing in there and Henry responded to his friend Ralph what are you doing out there Ezekiel is called to raise a dissent against what is popular the domination of his time and it has meaning for us today because in my community two old preachers used to say this if you're going to preach if you're going to walk in this faith you have to be willing to do it in season and out of season when it's popular when it's not when people are with you when they are not when it's politically acceptable and when it's not you have to preach in a how you have to speak in a house and not just where you're comfortable like it wild goose you have to be willing to be a sign to dangerous territory stand up that's in essence what Ezekiel said God says you think he said son of man I've got something to say to you the moment I heard the voice of spearing enemies he can say it put me on my feet son of man I'm sending you to a rebellious nation they've been rebellious from the beginning to the present they are a hard case I'm sending you to their harder but you tell them that this is the message of God they are defiant and whether they listen or not at least they'll know there has been a prophet among them don't be afraid of them don't be afraid of them yes they may be a bunch of rebels but your job is to speak to them whether they listen is not your concern say something something is not an option you can't see injustice and say nothing you can't see exploitation and say nothing you can't see systemic poverty and say nothing you can't see an abuse of other human beings God's creation because of their race their creed or their sexuality and not say something you can't watch religion be used as a tool of hate and say nothing the prophetic called then and now demands that we say something not based on popularity not based on whether you're going to be heard but based on God's initiation and God summons to speak it seems as though amidst all the myths and the lies God demands a contrast we must engage in the risky business of debate and differing with the powerful forces of our day dr. William Turner one of my great professors at Duke said to be born again to be saved to be a person of faith whatever you want to call it means at its core to have a quarrel with the world as people of faith we're not allowed we're not allowed to enter into a depressive silence we're not allowed to go somewhere and hide and try to create some utopia down here with just us we're not allowed to walk away from the world and find someplace and just allow wrong and injustice to have absolute control over the mic there must be a dissenting voice in every age as Walter wing says we must name the powers in the face of the powers not just name it in comfortable conferences not just name it wherever people agree with us but we must die in the face of the power to name it not for the powers to be destroyed but in hope that the powers would be transformed and redeemed but if they don't listen we are not allowed to check out just because Fox News has the microphone and the money to pay for it we're not allowed to stand down and retreat son a man son a woman stand up on your feet is the call of God you know think about it how will the haters know that their hate is wrong unless we raise the word of God's love remember how Jesus is described the word made flesh a lot of time for God's me well what do you do well if you aren't talking that's the first thing you got to do the first thing is the behavior is to dare to create a different conversation how will those who perpetrate injustice know that they are perpetrating injustice if we don't talk about God's justice how will those engaged in oppression know about deliverance if we don't talk about deliver how will those who have engaged in dividing God's family know anything about the Beloved Community if we don't talk about it how will people who are doing wrong know they're wrong unless we raise the question of what is right I had a look different I love my brothers and sisters and the Council of Churches and one day we had look difference and I'll be honest with you I'm not putting them putting them on blast I'm just saying I struggled with this because one day we were writing a resolution and everybody wanted to find the best way to taper it down so it didn't offend anybody how in the heaven can you serve the God and not offend somebody that's impossible he says I need a boss that will dissent Stanly hogwash says we we're supposed to be a counter cultural phenomenon counter cultural phenomenon right out there in the midst of the challenges Howard Thurman long before hiawatha said in his book Jesus and the disinheritance where you stand and where who you speak for in terms of the dissing disinherited is the question the moral question for every believer in every age where did you stand and for whom did you speak read sometimes Psalm 94 one of the some of the saddest Psalms in all the Bible when God asks the question through the psalmist who will stand for the poor and who will speak up for those suffering injustice and you keep reading the psalm and it says that God had to step in because none of his priests his people would step up the Word of God is for public discourse more and more I believe in my life that that that the Word of God is for the public square not just for church pulpits that's part of the problem that's what we found with moral Monday that's why some folks keep coming because they understand we've got to get the word out of the safety of the pulpit and get it in the street where we can develop a contrast son a man son a woman stand on your feet and our speech is not better promised instant instant success or receptivity we have to preach we have to speak we have to write until we've done it as long as God demands it true for the matter is you might want to tell your neighbor say neighbor you haven't really no no tell them tell them really say neighbor you you haven't really professed your faith until you've done it in hostile territory you you haven't really talked about what you believe until you talked about it in the face of that which is diametrically opposed we haven't been Church until we've been Church in hostile territory and you can't judge the success of a prophetic preaching or prophetic movement or the Church's Proclamation based on public opinion polls Noah had to preach 120 years Isaiah was told you remember that day Isaiah got caught up you know how some of y'all getting caught up out here when they start singing the song and all these speakers are going and the bands are going and you just get to wave your hand we're here today like that he said he was in the Lord's in the year Uzziah died I was in the Lord temple and I saw the Lord High and lift it up and he had and in the middle of getting and all that extra that God tricked him God said whom will our sin and whom will go for me and Isaiah said me Lord meal or coz you know his hands were already up because he was drunk you know the angels and everything he was hands on me Lord and to keep reading though when he calmed down I said wait a minute what did I just agree to do and then he looked at he said God oh how long am I supposed to do this God said unto you what no no I need you know cuz I got something I want to do with the kids next week no until well well what if they don't like me oh I'm telling you up front they're not gonna like you in fact Isaiah let me just go ahead and tell you the moment you start speaking this truth 90% of the Fogo leave you I the only people are gonna listen you out 10% but the 10% will be the remnant that will transform the world and speak against oppression and transform the systems of injustice speaks son of man speak son of man what did Gandhi say first they ignore you then they ridicule you then they fight you and then you win but the dr. King say in the last speech win when the young foot were trying to push him to be violent he said I say to you today this was his last SCL speech I stand by non-violence I'm still convinced I'm convinced that it's the most potent weapon everybody else can do what they wanted to do but I've decided to stick with love I've decided to speak love and I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go that's what God is calling us to in this moment let me contextualize Ezekiel - and then I'm going to my seat recently here in North Carolina about 960 of us have been arrested for lifting up this moral call of God's vision people keep asking me how did it happen I tell them well we've been working for seven years working together but they said what about moral monday I said we just did what God said he said go right into the hostile territory and speak I was arrested in the state legislature on April 29 we went in because God said go in Bob Zellner was there and some others were there Nelson Johnson Mendez and others I won't call all the names our legislature is under the leadership of extremists who on the one hand try to use the Bible to justify their exploitation God says you got to raise the contrast you can't you can't let them get away with that even if they're going to do what they do they can't get away without a contrast they've used their power to attack the poor to attack the sick to attack children to attack the unemployed to attack the LGBT community to attack women and even to attack voting rights so we went in hoping that we could speak to their conscience instead of listening they ordered us arrested it first time we went in they arrested a woman with cerebral palsy who could barely make it they've arrested women on a man on breathing machines but but God said they may not listen but just because they won't listen does not give you the authority to quit my arrest she says arrested for praying singing and talking loud in other words preaching the call to Ezekiel and the call to us is not to declare what will always get applause I appreciate an audience like this so I can stand in audience that are not like this in fact the warning is if you truly speak God's justice they will refuse to hear you it's not that they just won't listen that first they will refuse to hear you and you and I have to understand that the refusal is the sign of God's presence with you the refusal is the Holy Ghost lord have mercy I'm going mostly in Pentecostal like my upbringing you got to know when God is in your miss God is not always in your miss when everybody is agreeing God is in your miss when you're in the midst of hostile situation you're in the midst of wickedness and high power high places and yet you and I have the ability to declare God's love and God's truth and God's wisdom in that context and nobody applauds but the Holy Spirit applauds you on the inside and say stand up the second reason that we must speak is because you can never become what you hate so you must speak always in the hope that people will change and then third that you got to speak as my grandmother used to say because you got to ensure that people don't have an excuse for not know III don't know where you are but but but where I am is I don't believe we get to go through all of this and do all the wrong where you're gonna do and then we don't have to face it one day and the old folk used to tell me you got to make sure folk don't have an excuse they won't be able to stand before God and said we didn't know no better we didn't know it was bad to hurt the sick we didn't know it was bad to hurt the poor I wish the legislators in Raleigh would recognize we really are trying to save their soul because I don't think they understand I don't think people in power realize how dangerous it is to hurt people I've been in the room I've been at the side of people dying that bits using abuse people with their lives and see that ugly scale of fear come over because they wonder what now what now and so whether the opinion polls ever come on your side whether men hate you whether the power forces choose to listen speak don't give up on God's Way God's love God's justice God's mercy God's power and then finally there's one other reason we have to receive God's call to speak it's not found in the second chapter of Ezekiel David is found in the 37th chapter y'all read it sometime God tells Ezekiel again to speak but before he tells him to speak and we got to speak even when there's noise so you don't stop just because there's another there's other noise rumbling so in the 37th chapter of Ezekiel God says the Ezekiel what do you see and Ezekiel says I see a valley of dry bones and they're just laying around and listen how God says it in the message about it says God grabbed me God God's Spirit took me up and set me down in the middle of a plain of dry bones and he led me around there were a lot of bones and there were bones all over the plane bones bleached by the Sun and he said son of man can these bones live and I said god I don't know that they're there dry I don't know only you know God and God said alright preach what to a dry dead congregation preach you just speak and watch me bring breath to the bones you just speak and watch me use your words to be water on these dry bow you just speak well how are you going to don't worry about that you just speak well how you going to change the nation Martin just speak Martin just speak watch what I do in zika says so I began to preach and the breath entered the bones they came alive they joined together and they were a huge army and God said I told you I will dig up the graves bring out my people I will cause resurrection of faith if you will just down to speak my kind of truth over against the lies of domination and oppression these bones in the text represent people bruised and battered and beat down by the oppressive forces of this world people who believe the forces of injustice have won have you met any dry bones lately peoples whose spirits of life has been taken out of them by the constant battering of language and actions of hate have you met any dry bones lately people that just look like they're always down because they see so much injustice and they see so much money being used and so many perverted and perverse ways that they wonder if there's any hope have you seen in the dry bones lately the poor who have been told that their poverty is their own fault and if they just more model they wouldn't be so poor have you seen in it dry bones lately children among us who have been discounted and criminalized because of the color of their skin or the economic location of their families have you seen any dry bones lately children got a bullet because they're different and they're beat down and they they don't feel like they fit in have you seen in the drop bones the sick who have heard mean politicians the clown that giving people health care is unamerican in the kind of form of socialism and have you heard those who claim they follow Jesus who set up health clinics everywhere he went for free I argue that is against our way to help those that are sick have you seen have you looked in the eyes of somebody who doesn't have health insurance and wonder how you're going to have you seen dry bones have you seen those who've lost their unemployment because their politician in our state who are so mean that they'll give raises to their cronies while they cut unemployment for those that are heard have you seen it try bones have you seen any workers beat down by the battering rams of anti-union forces and the greed of corporate manipulation have you seen the dry bones immigrants who've been called aliens aliens you call a creation of God an alien how dare you rename God's creation have you seen in the drop bones have you seen gay people who've been told in so many ways that they are to be hated and despised and treated as something other than God's creation have you seen those who've not even been taught that it was the eunuch that helped spread the gospel to the land of Africa one whose sexuality was different have you seen the tears are you one of those that feels like a dry bone and you came here to wild goose to see if the word still works have you seen African Americans who see mean and power-drunk politicians working to take their voting rights won only through sacrifice and crucifixion and blood of the martyrs have you seen the look on my mother's face whose bones were dry a few weeks ago when she said I never thought I would birth a child August 30 of 1963 and 50 years later you would have to fight to preserve the very things we want dry bones all around us they were in Ezekiel's day and they're in our but God said somebody must speak to the dry bones because while there are some people that won't hear you dry bones have no other option lord have mercy and so dry bones are looking for a word and if it's the Word of God when God's words are in our mouth it will be like living water to their burn when they hear the words of justice when they hear the words of mercy when they hear the words of love it will bring them together I know it's so because I've seen the dry bones these last 14 weeks and Morrow Monday I've seen the unemployed come and joined together with business and join together with the sick and say we don't have to fall out and be nothing if we come together we will be a mighty har man I've seen gay and straight folk coming together I've seen people of faith and people wrestling with faith come together I've seen politicians change their party and say I'm not going to be in cahoots with those that would use power to hurt people our words have the power when anointed by God to bring them together and I just want you to know the bride dry bones need a word all of this great congregation of wild goose you did not come here just to be spoken to you came here to receive an ordination you came here to be consecrated you came here to hear that God is be calling you and you and you and you to death in your place to go into hostile territory and speak the Living Word of God the word of love the word of truth the word of mercy and the power may not hear you but I declare under God the dry bones will 14 weeks ago in here North Carolina we began something that has become known moral Monday and we started what some say was church at the legislature they told us it wasn't make a difference but now a thousand people have been arrested they called us morons but that just made more folk coming to the phone they said we were outsiders but we all insiders because anybody that believes in justice is an insider when we started the legislature was here we were here now the polls say the legislature is less is one less than one out of five North Carolinians agree with them and more money is more popular than the legislature oh don't tell me but you got to be willing to speak my god no matter what the force you got a dare to speak God's truth you got a dare to speak love you got a dare to the cloud vision of community and when the dry bones come together from 17 on April 29 to over 10,000 and Raleigh and then 10,000 and Asheville last week to hundreds of thousands by the social media and around the country the bones are coming together the Word of God is bringing life to the bold those of faith those wrestling with faith Jews and Christians Gentiles black and white Latino Native American Asian coming together gay and straight coming together unemployed and businessmen coming together teachers and students coming together women and men coming together even people of different political power coming together speak the word because faith comes by hearing hearing by the Word of God and we need an army to come together I close with this testimony if you ever thought speaking God's Word was of null and void hear me because an army is coming together she wrote me the other night I won't give her name but this is what she said we've met several times before pastor Barbour but now I'm and I know you meet many people I know what a busy person you are and I know that you may not see this letter for a long time but it was laid on my heart to write this to you I could tell my friends and the families the thing but I can't they wouldn't understand it so I'm here to tell you before my Monday I was a militant atheist but now you have helped me to see faith before moral Monday I thought you had to dismiss logic and dismiss justice in order to be a Christian but now I've seen it in a new way and so if you've ever thought that what you're doing didn't make a difference let me tell you that before I heard you all speak I had hate and injustice lodged in my heart but now I've been changed forever and I'm here to join the army because somebody dad to speak the truth god bless

Channel: StoryofAmerica

Views: 75,596

Rating: 4.8262172 out of 5

Keywords: rev. dr. william barber, Wild Goose Festival, rev. william barber, naacp, moral monday, moral mondays, mountain moral monday, North Carolina (US State), Asheville (City/Town/Village), Religious Text (Literary Genre), Ezekiel (Saint), Christianity (Religion), Conservatism (Political Ideology), story of america, Tim Scott (U.S. Congressperson), dummy, barber, Meet The Press (TV Program)

Id: 68-2ZuvHyDU

Length: 38min 25sec (2305 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 12 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Okay, I have now watched (although multitasking) the entire thing. It's a pretty good sermon. But it kinda... stops there. It's a sermon, and if you don't think that Christians are the new Ezekiels called to preach to the fallen and lost, well, it's not for you. I appreciate the Christian Left folks and I'm friends with a few. But at the base line, they're advocating religious belief as the only way to ground yourself morally and to be a good, upright person. That's probably the only way they can look at it, as Christians. Atheists are, if not their enemies, at least "struggling" or "lost" - and I don't welcome being identified as either.

So, good for Christians if they're behaving more compassionately. I know many are and I think it's fantastic. But as long as I'm a lost soul to them, they can't truly be my allies, because they can't see themselves as my equals.

[u/JasonMacker]

I couldn't get past one minute. Sorry.

[u/BestFriendWatermelon]

Atheist's alway seem surprised when Christians/ muslims etc aren't being complete arseholes about politics.

Keep in mind though, the American Indians were driven to destruction after signing treaties with genuinely compassionate Christians, only for those treaties to be violated by wicked men who believed they had a mandate from the same god to slaughter them, give them smallpox infected clothes, etc.

All around the world, religious groups have well meaning lefties ready to talk down the baying mob; but the mob itself is religious and dangerous as ever. In this world there are moderate conservatives, moderate communists, moderate nationalists, moderate outlaws, moderate congolese militiamen, moderate dictators and moderate preachers. But that doesn't make the whole tolerable just because a few of its parts aren't toxic.