African American History & Devotions: Readings and Activities for Individuals, Families, and Communities

by Teresa L. Fry Brown, Sharma D. Lewis (Foreword by)

Overview

Foreword by Sharma D. Lewis

Twenty-eight devotions for individuals, families, or small groups, including a scripture verse, a reflection on the scripture, related activities for each day, and a prayer. This intergenerational devotional is great for use during Black History Month, but can be used at any time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501849565
Publisher:	Abingdon Press
Publication date:	01/02/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	260 KB

About the Author

Teresa L. Fry Brown is the Bandy Professor of Preaching at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, where she became the first African American woman to attain the rank of full professor. She holds a PhD from Iliff School of Theology in Denver and is ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

These Are They

Then he said to me, "These people have come out of great hardship. They have washed their robes and made them white in the Lamb's blood. — Revelation 7:14b

Read Revelation 7:13–17

Lying back to front, shackled neck and foot, inhaling odors of decaying flesh and salty tears, hearing groans of captive humanity, gazing into darkness and seeing reflections of hopelessness for 3,700 miles would cause most human beings to focus only on the end of time. During 350 years of fifty-four thousand transatlantic slave voyages, lasting five to twelve weeks each, twelve million North African men, women, and children from many nations floated in terror in the midst of a great crucible called the Middle Passage. Approximately two million died from starvation, malnutrition, murder, and mutiny. Millions of survivors were traded for tobacco, molasses, animals, and cheap labor in North America, South America, and the Caribbean in open-air markets, stripped of the last vestige of their humanity.

An imprisoned John, the writer of Revelation, describes another Middle Passage for seven churches in Asia Minor — Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. John speaks of the promise of ultimate deliverance from persecution to everyone who believes in God regardless of their situation. The faithful will endure accusations, humiliation, beatings, famine, disease, and even death as they await the promise of eternal life. After these catastrophic events, God's promise is that those from every nation will receive a cleansing, healing bath in the blood of Jesus and will never again endure hunger, thirst, heat, or tears. The slavery of sin will be vanquished. All will be welcomed before God's throne of protection. All will worship God regardless of what they have endured.

The Middle Passage of many enslaved Africans ended generations later as sons and daughters became doctors, inventors, teachers, politicians, athletes, entertainers, preachers, and astronauts. The resiliency and character of survivors of the nightmare slavery enabled hope to shine through the darkness of the ships' hulls as they waited on the move of God.

Prayer: Lord of all, enable us to persevere when we do not understand why we are going through situations or when difficulties will end. Amen.

Do: Have participants side by side, head to foot, as close as possible, for about ten minutes on a bare floor, not moving, without laughter or talking. Discuss how it feels to be so confined and imagine how long you would be able to remain in that position.]

Discuss: How do you define resiliency? Where do you see it in our world today?

Dig Deeper: Read Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery and Emancipation, a three-dimensional interactive book by Velma Maia Thomas containing photographs and documents. Consider the impact the lives lost in the Middle Passage could have had on the world. How do we remember and honor them today?

CHAPTER 2

Even If

But if he doesn't, know this for certain, Your Majesty: we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you've set up." — Daniel 3:18

Read Daniel 3:1–30

Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael were young, handsome Israelite nobility who were taken into service in King Nebuchadnezzar's court in Babylon during a period of captivity. Their names were changed to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They, along with their friend Daniel, were stripped of their language, names, families, and identities. They were taught the customs and habits of the Babylonians. Assimilation was the order of the day. But they refused to eat the palace food and ate only vegetables and drank water. They held onto their beliefs and would not violate their dietary rules. They thrived. They were the best and the brightest of all the persons in the kingdom. They were eventually placed in leadership positions over the province of Babylon.

The difficulty arose when the king constructed an enormous golden image of himself and decreed that everyone in the nation should worship it. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah refused to bow down and were sentenced to death by burning in the royal furnace. They told the king that even if God did not save them, they would still believe in their God.

This type of faith was demonstrated by the black worshipers at St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia in 1787. Although freed Blacks worshiped at 5:30 each Sunday, contributed the bulk of the offerings, and constructed even the balconies they worshiped in, during the "regular" service they were not allowed to take communion with the white congregants. In August 1794 Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and eight other men and women attempted to pray at the altar during the worship service and were forcibly removed by a church officer. They rose, walked out of St. George's, and began the Free Africa Society, which led to the establishment of the African Church of Philadelphia. This group eventually split into the Allen-led Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and the Jones-led St. Thomas African Episcopal Church.

Prayer: God of grace and God of glory, help us to continue to have faith in you and to believe even if others do not believe. Amen.

Do: Daniel's friends were renamed by their oppressors. Assign group members new names. For the rest of the session, call one another by their new names. If you are not in a group, write a one-paragraph biography about yourself using your new name. Did you like your assigned name? How did it feel to be called someone you're not? In what ways did it affect your sense of personal power?

Discuss: What does it mean to worship "a God of equal access"?

Dig Deeper: Visit family cemeteries. Share memories of and give libations or honor to your ancestors and share with one another how their lives continue in you.

CHAPTER 3

An Act of Resistance

Now the two midwives respected God so they didn't obey the Egyptian king's order. Instead, they let the baby boys live.

— Exodus 1:17

Read Exodus 1:8–21

Harriet Tubman, Eliza Ann Gardner, William Still, and the other Underground Railroad workers of the nineteenth century were not sociologists with current statistics on population transitions. They were not engineers or explorers with precise instruments predicting how long the road would be or what direction along their journey would be the least difficult or dangerous. Shiphrah and Puah and the other Hebrew midwives knew when to be present with mothers during labor on the birthing stools. They understood breathing, pushing and pulling, and pain. They knew how to catch the babies before they hit the ground, and how to clean them after birth. They helped the babies breathe in their initial breath of life outside the womb. They even knew how to name the child and to teach the mother how to nurture. They were not gynecologists, engineers, or sociologists; but they knew that they had a duty, an obligation to save lives. Shiphrah and Puah defied the pharaoh and refused to kill the baby boys. They lied and said that the Hebrew women were so vigorous during birth that they did not have time to be present when boys were born. They feared God more than the king.

The "conductors" of the freedom train or Underground Railroad, a network of barns, churches, houses, boats, carts, wagons, trains, and footpaths, used any means necessary to assist between forty thousand and one hundred thousand runaway enslaved persons to freedom in the North and Canada. Some were shipped in boxes like Henry "Box" Brown who mailed himself to Philadelphia. Others passed for white disguised as aristocrats. All defied the orders of the master/kings and let the boys and girls, men and women live. Like Shiphrah and Puah they risked their lives to save someone else. God rewarded the midwives' courage with homes and families of their own. God rewarded the surviving courageous conductors with knowledge that they helped somebody breathe freedom.

Prayer: God, give us courage to help somebody even as we risk our own comfort. Amen.

Do: Draw a courage map of your life. When have you had to be most courageous? How did you do it?

Discuss: What would you do to keep others safe? If you have limits, what are they?

Dig Deeper: The Underground Railroad was multiethnic, ecumenical, and spanned ages and economic status. Challenge each person to find seven locations or stops of the Underground Railroad and five persons (other than Harriet Tubman) who participated. What were their motivations?

CHAPTER 4

Look in the Mirror

God created humanity in God's own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them.

— Genesis 1:27

Read Genesis 1:26–28

"God is a Negro" was preached often by Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, startling Black Methodist and Baptist congregations in the nineteenth century. Turner was an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church leader, Reconstruction-era Georgia politician, a staunch defender of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, an outspoken defender of African American rights, prominent leader of the 1870s back-to-Africa and Haiti movements, and supporter of the American Colonization Society. He served briefly as postmaster in Macon, Georgia, and in 1870 was again elected to the state legislature. He ordained Sarah Hughes in 1884, going against the pattern established in the AME Church, and was reprimanded. He worked with President Lincoln to establish the first black regiment in the Civil War and served as the first black chaplain in the military.

An advocate of Black pride, Bishop Turner argued that Blacks should reject any and all teachings by Whites that Blacks were inferior. He said that black people needed to reflect on their identity as people who were made in God's image, therefore God was Black. He believed the Genesis account of God's creative purpose. God created Adam and Eve, male and female, in God's image. We were conceived as mirror images of God, to think about God, to love like God, to act by God's direction.

Turner wrote, preached, and taught that each person, particularly each Black person, looks like God. We are each handmade, God-breathed, earthen miniatures of God — short, tall, young, older, full-figured, thin-figured, athletic, disabled, Black, White, Brown, Red, Yellow — just like God. In a world where people evaluated the worth of others by skin color, Turner was a voice crying in the wilderness. His controversial statements influenced his popularity and eventually undermined his move toward national leadership, but he never backed down.

Prayer: Creator God, we are grateful you fashioned us just as you wanted us to be, wonderfully, marvelously produced sons and daughters. Amen

Do: Draw a picture of God. It can be as abstract or literal as you want. What does it mean for us to be made in God's image?

Discuss: Can you draw parallels between Bishop Turner and any African American public figures today? If so, who? How are they alike? How are they different?

Dig Deeper: Using your collective knowledge and oral history, construct a family genealogy covering as many generations as possible. How far back can you go without consulting other resources?

CHAPTER 5

No Need to Beg

I will put my breath in you, and you will live. I will plant you on your fertile land.

— Ezekiel 37:14a

Read Ezekiel 37:1–14

Ezekiel 37 is one of the classic texts preached in Black churches. By the power of the Holy Spirit the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel relays a message to the faithful remnant of God's people, sanctifying and replenishing authority years after the fall of disobedient Israel. In the vision the remnant of Israel is forced to walk miles into captivity and death in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. The rich imagery of God's Spirit reconstructing bone fragments in anatomical order, foot to head, is captivating. The ground of hope is that God can take nothing and make it something. God will make life appear in death-defined situations. God is able to infuse even the direst situations with new opportunities. God sends the four winds of the Spirit to activate the bodies representing Israel's demise. God opens graves of despair, disappointment, and disenfranchisement with a promise to bring the disenfranchised back to their land. God, and God alone, will supply each person with his or her own soil, own place in this world.

The settlers and founders of Black townships must have understood what Billie Holiday would sing years later "God bless the child that's got his own." God gave them their own soil as they set out to establish cities where they could experience the dignity of their person-hood. There were hundreds of Black townships established between the late sixteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many were destroyed by militant Whites, dwindled by economic downturns, or suffered limited sustainability due to insufficient planning. The first, for free Blacks who converted to Catholicism, was established in 1562 just outside St. Augustine, Florida. Princeville, North Carolina, was established in 1865 by the formerly enslaved after the Civil War. It was the first independently governed Black community. Joseph Clark purchased 112 acres of land from Josiah Eaton in 1887, and Eatonville became the first incorporated Black municipality in America. God provided the space and fulfilled the promise for their faithfulness.

Prayer: Help us, God our Provider, to receive your promise of a place in this life, which no one can take away. Amen.

Do: Listen to or read the lyrics of Billy Holiday's "God Bless the Child." Would you say you've "got your own"? Why or why not?

Discuss: Describe what you think Ezekiel saw when the dry bones came alive. Now describe what that might look like in someone's life today. Share examples you have seen of new life coming to dry bones.

Dig Deeper: Explore the history of the first Black church in your city. Explore deeds or public records, news clippings, obituaries, websites, or interviews with members to find out as much as you can about its history and current status.

CHAPTER 6

Pass It On

One generation will praise your works to the next one, proclaiming your mighty acts.

— Psalm 145:4

Read Psalm 145

It has been said that music is the universal equalizer. Each culture has a body of music that defines who they are, distinguishes what they believe, delineates their sense of beauty, and may determine how they pass their experiences on to the next generation. The corpus of music known as Negro Spirituals is unique to the Black experience in America. It includes themes of escape modalities, protest against oppression, human relationships, God's promises, the life and death of Jesus, eternal life, and earthly freedom.

Psalm 145 is part of a corpus of music sung by ancient people of faith with themes similar to those in the spirituals. God's mercy, grace, greatness, works, faithfulness, glory, and acts are to be proclaimed forever and ever. Each person has a duty to tell someone else about what God has already done and what God will do. God's acts and actions do not change. Every generation is required to teach the succeeding one about God. Music is one way of teaching and expressing.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers, beginning in 1871, launched a worldwide tour lauding God's works in song. Abolitionist and music lover George White and nine students traveled the North and made three tours of Europe garnering $150,000, a significant amount even by today's standards. Some were hesitant to share the music of their ancestors, but it was well received. Standards included "Steal Away," "Ain't Got Time to Die," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "This Little Light of Mine." They encountered all types of prejudice and personal difficulty. What started as a fundraiser for the school became a diplomatic means of teaching often-forgotten spirituals to an international audience. The spirituals were a way to keep the relationship between God and enslaved persons alive.

Prayer: Lord, put a song in our hearts and on our lips so that we can tell others about who you are and whose we are. Amen.

Do: What are your favorite spirituals? Pick one to sing.

Discuss: Who taught you the songs of faith? What's your earliest memory of singing the faith?

Dig Deeper: Have a young person interview an elder, at least twenty years older. Ask questions about their childhood, family, hopes, regrets, and dreams. Video the interview. Edit each clip down to five to ten minutes and hold a viewing party.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "African American History & Devotions"
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Table of Contents

Foreword,
These Are They,
Even If,
An Act of Resistance,
Look in the Mirror,
No Need to Beg,
Pass It On,
My Soul Has Got to Move,
Standing in the Gap,
On Eagles' Wings,
The Will to Learn,
Anonymous Greatest,
Liberty and Justice for All,
Cast the Vision,
Something Within,
Control Your Own Future,
All Things Are Possible,
Wake Up, Everybody,
Cardiac Care,
Time to Dance,
Supreme Justice,
Singing Your Own Song,
God's Servant Leader,
This Is My Story,
That's Love,
I Will Survive,
You Can't Teach What You Don't Know,
Can You Imagine?,
Speak for Yourself,