Today Is The Tomorrow We Feared Yesterday

when the righteous are in authority the people rejoice but when the wicked bear rule the people mourn today is the tomorrow we feared yesterday just before o 800 on sunday morning december 7th 1941. the imperial japanese navy air service launched a surprise attack against the united states naval base at pearl harbor in honolulu territory of hawaii in one hour and 15 minutes four battleships were destroyed and four was sunk in the pacific fleet anchored on battleship road over 2 400 americans were killed and 1178 were wounded drawing the united states into world war ii and evoking from president franklin d roosevelt in a joint session of congress that this was a date which will live in infamy almost 80 years later on wednesday january 6 2021 there shall be another date which will live in infamy the world watched in anguished disbelief as terrorists inside our own borders attempted a coup d'etat what should have been a perfunctory episode in our post-election civility turned into an anxious and grotesque display of the lost cause of white supremacy codified in a thuggish incivility not since the british set fire to the capital in 1840 during the war of 1812 has the country witnessed such a scene at the hallowed citadel of the world's most enduring democracy the jolting phrase from president trump's inaugural address has become a self-fulfilling prophecy this was and is indeed an american carnage hoarding mobs of disillusioned trump supporters desecrated the republic's noblest building in a failed attempt to prevent the completion of a constitutional process inside the venerable walls of that vaunted institution in a joint session of duly elected senators and representatives were mike pence nancy pelosi and charles grassley second third and fourth in the line of the succession of the presidency of the united states of america and upon donald trump's ludicrous fairy tales of winning an election that he clearly and decisively lost make america great legions of crazed doomsday cult members laid siege to the capital as though we live in the banana republics of paraguay and peru the temple to democracy was defiled by thugs and despite the mob's extraordinary disregard for the rule of law law enforcement and social norms regarding government property and processes and almost mythical graciousness was shown to these insurrectionists their fear of diminished power lost privilege and having to share space and primacy in the american narrative is so ghoulishly terrifying to them that they laid waste to the claim that african americans are monkeys and savages because in scaling the walls of the capitol building and pillaging congressional offices and destroying federal property like wild animals they not only imitated but escalated what they falsely claim to have repudiated when i speak of an almost mythical graciousness i do not editorialize i merely report the news when black lives matter protesters were in washington d.c to protest the heinous murder of george floyd they were confronted by well-armed police paramilitary units national guardsmen unmarked troops and unrestrained vigilantes they were teargassed and assaulted in lafayette park so that mr trump could pose with a bible that he would never think to open and read primarily because there's no mention of him in the bible but not only did the capitol police allow them to come on the grounds and walk through statuary hall on their way to wreak havoc in the world's most deliberate body they posed for selfies with them and allowed the inmates to run the asylum they walked out as they walked in unmolested by law enforcement brothers and sisters if the capitol police can't keep the crowds out of this building i can send ushers from lilly grove south union church without walls wheeler avenue to show them how to keep people out of a building anyone who has ever visited a black baptist church will let you know that you have a better chance of getting in a nuclear facility than getting in the black church while somebody's praying this illustrates this illustrates to everyone prescient enough to design what time it is how ingrained systemic racism and white privilege is in this country the sean hannities and tucker carlson's and hugh hewitts and rush limbaugh's of the world see white violence as protests and black protests as violence let me run it by you one more time they see white violence as protests and black protests as violence because black lives matter less than making white people feel comfortable i was halted in my steps the other evening when some african-american clergy made mention of a call to national prayer by a group from the national baptist convention and some african-american pastors and clergy from around the country now listen no one believes in the power of prayer more than i do and i believe that every word of sacred scripture is inspired inerrant and infallible but i do not recall our white evangelical brothers and sisters calling for a time of national prayer at the killing of tamir rice trayvon martin michael brown ahmad aubrey andre hill richard brooks tatiana jefferson george floyd daniel prude or tony mcdade since when does the locus of white angst and frustration must become the focus of black prayer and supplication be content if innocent black men were treated like guilty white men i don't want them to treat them like they treat us just treat us like you treat them dr martin luther king jr in his dynamic letter from a birmingham jail lamented that white christians have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows the recent statement by the presidents of the six southern baptist seminaries in the baptist standard that critical race theory and intersectionality is incompatible with the gospel or that there is no systemic racism in america is further truth that white christian theology has developed to render black claims to justice invisible while protecting white economic and social interests all the while assuring them of their own moral purity we must never forget that the main reason the southern baptist convention was organized in the first place was over the issue of slavery and white protestants left the democratic party in mass during the 60s over the issue of civil rights baron tunde thurston an activist and a social commentator and author mentioned on the other night that black people consistently show up for a country that consistently tells us we do not belong what happened this past wednesday was about pennsylvania it was about wisconsin it was about michigan and about georgia they are saying black people you have no right to decide who's going to be the president of these united states black people consistently show up for a country that consistently tells us that we do not belong black people showed up and saved joe biden and commoner harris's candidacy while they were doing that while they were jumping like monkeys on the capitol steps and climbing like apes to get inside the senate chambers it just so happened in their spare time that black people elected of two people from georgia changing the landscape of america's democratic process because black folk are always showing up for a country who tells us you do not matter brothers and sisters let us move away from what professor of african-american studies at princeton university dr eddie glaude jr calls attenuated citizenship attenuated citizenship is the notion that we ought to be glad that white people allow us to have what we have and white people allow us to live where we live and white people allow us to go where we go that's attenuated citizenship as if we are strangers in our own country my paternal great-great-grandmother was a pure choctaw indian so jim bob and him were tearing up a building that my ancestors built uh these people who were tearing up uh walls and and and stealing stuff out of the nation's capital and having their feet on the desk of uh the speaker of the house uh they were not breaking in walmart these hillbillies were breaking in the capital of this nation and they brought the confederate flag the violence symbol of white supremacy inside the sacred space of the capitol dome something so reprehensible that it never touched those grounds not even during the civil war they even had the temerity to try to take down the american flag to raise the trump flag in obeisance to this narcissistic megalomaniac who would not even be seen with these hillbillies except for the safe distance afforded him behind bulletproof glass at his mother rallies this cult of ignorance and this strain of anti-intellectualism which has become a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life is a result of what some psychologists have called identity fusion identity fusion in this psychological conundrum once a person is fused with a leader followers seem tied to them in such a way that things are true because the leaders said that they are true and as dystopian as that may seem it can be a coping mechanism and because it makes not because it makes sense but because it ameliorates the cognitive and emotional burden of thinking white people had us fooled forever that they were smart and they made us believe that our schools were inferior and our way of life was inferior and we saw the other day that jim bob and them are so ignorant that they will follow like lemmings this megalomaniac over a cliff and he wouldn't give him a ride if they were walking in the rain donald trump is not interested in solving america's divisions he's interested in exacerbating them to his own advantage he has no interest in helping the country to meet its challenges he only wants us to be afraid of our challenges and to the everlasting shame of his republican enablers let me call them by name ted cruz josh hawley lindsey graham james lanksford devin nunes kevin mccarthy and mitch mcconnell it's too late to jump ship in the waning days of a lame duck presidency your schizophrenic attempt to be both arsonists and firefighter have been found wanting and weighed in the balance trump may have lit the flame of last week's conflagration but you let a man-child play with matches uh to those of you perhaps worried that this has gone too political unlike diplomats whose criticism of their country's leaders politics stopped at the water's edge prayer for leaders and criticism of their sinful practices are not mutually exclusive both have biblical warrant because protest is not unbiblical moses going in front of pharaoh was a protest somebody ought to help me talk it elijah on mount carmel was a protest john the baptist at the jordan was a protest jesus calling herod a fox was a protest protest is not unbiblical it is a manifestation of our analysis of the human condition considering the word of god and it also includes bearing witness to a different and better way of ordering our societies in a world whose default instinct is oppression there were some black people in that crowd unfortunately because black people for some reason that eludes me have learned how to give their fruits to their oppressors and their swords to their liberators peace making cannot be separated from truth-telling peacemaking cannot be separated from truth-telling this is no time brothers and sisters for moderation or seeking the middle ground housing discrimination must be named unequal sentences and unfair policies must be named different standards of policing in communities of color must be named disparities in access to health care and the poor and inadequate treatment of black and brown patients once in the healthcare system must be named reinhold niebuhr said man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary but is there any word from the lord and the word from the lord is when the righteous are in authority the people rejoice but when the wicked rule the people mourn brothers and sisters the word for us this morning from the word of god is if we're not going to change this world by criticism of it nor by conformity to it but by the combustion within it of lives set on fire by the spirit of the living god and so we have to engage we have to be engaged with the culture we cannot get in our holy huddles on sunday morning and divorce ourselves from the culture we are in the world but we are not of it we we got to come out from among them and be separated but separated does not mean better it means different god has made a difference in our lives everybody who's been saved everybody who's been brought out of darkness into the marvelous light is a different person because the power of the holy spirit has made us different and then once we are saved we are to go back and get engaged with the culture paul said i've become all things to all men so that by any means i might save some you're not going to save them away from them you're not going to make a difference away from them we have to be engaged with the culture we have to and we're not able to do it now because of of this global pandemic but but when the lord allows us to get back as the body of christ that needs to be a new attitude in how we worship a new attitude in how we give god thanks and praise and not only are we to thinking inside a building but we ought to take it outside this building we need to be engaged with the culture and then we need to be informed on the issues um uh uh winston churchill who was a very thoughtful prime minister in the 1940s and in the late in the early 1950s uh winston churchill said the greatest argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with an average voter you're gonna get that on the way home the greatest argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter because most people are just average when it comes to thinking that they don't think any further than what they're going to eat at noon today all they think about is right now there's no thought about a rainy day there's no thought about a future there's no thought about retirement there's no thought about what you're going to do because people rarely are informed and that's why these politicians uh capitalize on our being uninformed as a matter of fact trump said himself he loves the uneducated he loves people who are not sinking these politicians get back in office over and over and over again because we don't think about what their stance is on any issue we just recognize their name and since we voted for them last time we vote for them again and then they stay in the office year after year after year and they don't care anything about the poor they just want to stop that gravy train long enough to hop on people are uninformed and listen if the devil can keep you ignorant he can keep you impotent if the devil can keep you ignorant he can keep you impotent now everybody in that crowd was not a fool just like everybody when jesus came into the city of jerusalem everybody was shouting hosanna everybody didn't mean that on friday when everybody said crucify him everybody didn't mean that they just got caught up in the crowd but you need to be so individual in your thinking and so informed on the issues that people ought not be able to take advantage of you with this crowd mentality when you think for yourself when you stand on your own when you have your own opinions and you are informed on the issues it keeps you from being taken advantage of jim jones was able to take over 900 people to guyana because they they believed without examination there's some people still holding on to this fact that donald trump has been cheated out of the election because of identity fusion they are still holding on to the idea that he is our man but they are uninformed and when you're uninformed on the issues you don't care anything about the righteous increasing because then the wicked bear rule and when the righteous are in authority people rejoice when the wicked bear rule people mourn we ought to be engaged with the culture we ought to be informed on the issues and brothers and sisters as our herds are closed we ought to be imbued with the gospel it's hard for people to misuse you when you know who you are and when you know whose you are when you belong to the lord jesus christ when you know that your name is written in the lamb's book of life when you know that your candidate is not up for re-election my hope is built on nothing less than jesus blood and righteousness i dare not trust the sweetest frame but holy lean on jesus name on christ not donald trump on christ not joe biden on christ not kamala harris on christ not the democratic party on christ the solid rock i stand all of the ground is sinking sand and i want to say somebody who's watching us on facebook or watching us on the live stream that get your eyes off these people in washington and get your eyes off these people in austin even get your eyes off these people in [Music] downtown [Music] is you

Channel: lillygrovembc

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Id: CV8iFOQQ9ZM

Length: 27min 35sec (1655 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 01 2021