Saturday, December 29, 2007

In 2008 -- KULIBAH! KULIBAH! KULIBAH!

IN 2008 – KULIBAH! KULIBAH! KULIBAH
Let them go, up on high, let them go!
Fly!


Isaiah 40:31
They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles.
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.


Today we honor our high school graduates. We are also celebrating the graduations of various college and graduate students among us. At a time like this, all of us are pondering how to deal with the transitions in our life. How do we deal with change? How do we cope with the movement from one season of life to another---from spring to summer, from student years to work years, from living at home to heading off to school?

In all transitions there is a combination of gratitude and grief. As Dag Hammarskjold said, “For all that has been thanks. For all that will be yes.” Today we stand between what has been and what will be. So this is a good time to pause and reflect on how our faith helps us to navigate through these in-between times. Do you remember what Adam is reported to have said to Eve as they left the Garden of Eden? “My dear, we live in times of transition.”

We’re all graduating from something, or commencing to something. We may be moving from 3rd grade to 4th grade, middle school to high school, high school to college, college to work, youth to adulthood, mid-life to senior years, from one job to another job. We’re always in process of moving from one point to another.


Transitions are times when we move from one chapter to another chapter in our story, from a finish line to a start line. These are times when we shed some tears at leaving the former place, while getting excited about the new place. Its a lot like being a trapeze artist. We’ve seen them in the circus. The person swings out; and at just the right moment she or he must let go of one trapeze, hover there for a moment in the void, and then catch hold of the other trapeze. Its a tense moment. There is exhilaration, but also anxiety and even fear. At our graduations we let go of one place as we reach out and take hold of another.

So what can we say today that might help all of us graduates as we swing out from our trapeze? We first have to learn to let go and trust the training we’ve received from teachers, parents, church, and friends. For some of us it may be a bit like the young bird standing on the edge of the nest, ready to fly. But some of our young people have already said to us, But I’m already flying. Learning to fly is a good image for this moment. Can we mount up with wings like eagles, as Isaiah says? We’ll come back to this image a little later.

What do we say to each other at the points when we’re learning to fly, as we’re taking a big leap, as we say into new territory? Is there a word from the Lord that will give us courage for this transition? We all can remember the pithy sayings that folks have uttered at times like these. Winston Churchill once spoke wisdom when he told some young people, as they were poised to launch into life: “I have three things to say: Never give up. Never give up. Never give up.” And he sat down. I like what Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund added to Churchill’s words. She said, “Never give up no matter how hard it gets. And when you get to your wits end, remember that’s where God lives.”

Or we could offer the wise statement from Oscar Wilde who said, “There are two tragedies in life: not getting what you want, and getting what you want. And the greater tragedy is the latter.” The point is that the real meaning, the real adventure, is found not in the getting, but in the process. Trust the process. Trust your process. Trust God, who is weaving and working through the process of your life.

Or we could tell you that the greatest wisdom of the Gospel is found in the paradox: Gain your life by losing it. You gain your life by giving your life away. Let service guide you, not success or greed. As Christine Stocks has told us here, “Do something for somebody else.”

We could also tell you not to forget the remarkable power that one individual has. We could remind you of the enormous influence of people like Mother Teresa or the lesser-known Quaker John Woolman. In the 19th century Woolman personally brought about the abolition of slavery among Quakers in the US. He did it by visiting them and persuading them that holding slaves was wrong. By the time of the Civil War, there were no slaveholders among Quakers in this country.

We could remind you of the great satisfaction gained in taking a stand for what is right even if you get criticized. Jesus said, Love your enemies. He did not say, Don’t make any. As Marian Wright Edelman said, “If you don’t want to be criticized, don’t do anything, don’t say anything, and don’t be anything. Take a stand for your convictions.”

At times like this some say that the most important thing is to be happy. But happiness is not the goal; its a by-product of doing what you feel called to do. As someone said, The purpose of life is not to be happy. The purpose of life is to matter, to be productive, to have it make some difference that you lived at all.

For our graduates and all of us in transition, we could pass along these wisdoms and more. We hope that there has been sufficient coaching to get us ready to swing out from one trapeze to the other. Our hope is that you and we are ready to fly.

It has often been said that the purpose of parents and teachers is to provide our children with roots and wings. All of us need roots, a solid foundation and strong nutrients to feed our root system, our values, our faith. Once we have roots, we can get ready to fly.

There’s an old folk song that says, Jesus, he did not doubt his gifts, though he knew that he had not long to live. He took care of the business of teaching us how to fly. Then he bowed his head and laid down to die.

Jesus took care of the business of teaching us how to fly, teaching us how to mount up with wings like eagles. Its figurative speech, but it tells us of God’s desire that once we are rooted in God’s love and grace, then we are ready to take off. We’re ready to take the leap, to rise and head over the treetops to see the wider vistas of possibility.

Jesus took care of the business of teaching us how to fly. Let me tell you a story about learning to fly or re-learning how to fly. It’s a story that comes from African folklore. It’s a story that speaks of faith, flying, and resurrection. It’s a story of roots and wings.

There was a time when all Africans could fly. But somehow, through lack of trust in the Great Spirit and through human shortcomings, we lost the capacity to fly.
We forgot how to fly.

There was a plantation on John’s Island where there was a cruel master and a slave driver who worked the people mercilessly. He worked them so hard that the people would die. Then, the master would just go out and buy new slaves to replace the ones who had died.

One day the master brought in some brand new slaves, and put them to work in the cotton field. The slave driver worked them with unsparing harshness men, women and children from sunrise to sunset, through the scorching heat of midsummer sun, not even allowing the slaves to rest in the nearby shade. They were not even allowed to stop and get a drink of water.

Through the hardest hours, the master’s slave driver pushed them along without a moments stop for breath, and they all grew weak from the heat and thirst, and the children whimpered and cried.

There was among them a young woman who had just had her first baby a few days before. Though she wasn’t recovered from bearing the baby, she was forced out into the field, her baby on her hip, and made to work as hard as all the rest. The baby began to cry. She spoke to quiet the child. But the driver yelled, You get back to work! She took the baby and gave the baby her breast so that the baby would be quiet, and then she went back to work. But being so weak from having the baby, she became sick with the heat, and she slipped and fell. The driver came at her, slashed at her with his whip, and kicked her till she rose and staggered on. She turned and spoke to an old man near her. He was the tallest and strongest of all the people in the field. He replied, but the slave driver could not understand what they said.

Get back to work! he yelled. She returned to work.

But, in a little while, she fell again. Again, the driver lashed her with the whip till she got to her feet. Again, she spoke to the old man. Turning to him, she said, “Father, is it time yet?” And he said, “No, not yet, my daughter. Not yet.” So, she went on working.

Again she stumbled and fell. Again the slave driver came at her with the whip. She got up and said, “Father, is it time yet? And he said, “Yes, my daughter. Now it is time. Go.” And he stretched out his arms and he cried, Kulibah!At the sound of the word, the young woman with her baby at her side leaped up into the air and flew off in the sky.

The slave driver was furious, and he ran after her with his whip, but she was up above his head, flying over the field and woods.

Then the driver, to make up for the loss of the woman, worked the people harder than ever before. Soon a man fell in the heat. The driver took his whip and lashed at the man’s feet. As he got up, the old man again stretched out his arms, and called out Kulibah! Kulibah!

And the slave turned and laughed at the driver, and then leaped into the air, like a sea gull, and flew away.

Then the master yelled to his slave driver. Beat that old devil. He’s the one that’s doing this! And they came at him with clubs and whips to kill the one who had taught them to fly.

But the old man laughed, and he looked at the blacks in the field. He stretched out his arms and cried out Kulibah! Kulibah!


And as he spoke to them, they all remembered what they had forgotten. And then, all the workers in the field, old and new, stood up together, and the old man stretched out his arms, and they all leaped up into the air with a great shout: Kulibah! And in a moment, they were gone, like a flock of crows, over the field, over the fence, over the top of the world, the men clapping their hands, the women singing, the children laughing. And they were not afraid anymore. And behind them flew the old man.

The word Kulibah means, Let them go, up on high, let them go!

God loves each one of us with unconditional love. God has loved us and set us free to struggle against every obstacle, every injustice. We have been given the roots of faith. And by the power of the resurrection, Jesus took care of the business of teaching us how to fly.

In this time of transition, they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. With God’s love surrounding us, with the power of the resurrection infusing us, let us all rise up with wings like eagles. Kulibah! Kulibah!


Amen.

(A sermon by Mel Williams of Watts Street Baptist Church to High School Graduates on May 25, 2003)

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