Several of our little girls, Gabby, Natalie, Brisa, Kahmylia, and Bella had squished onto a see-saw together and giggling, said, "Miss Lorilise!" calling for my attention.
As I looked, they continued smiling and laughing and I saw the beauty of that moment. Five beautiful little girls with varying shades of beautiful skin representing different races and ethnicities.
"This is what we're trying to do." I said aloud to Melissa Blake, our fearless leader, as I took the picture, my eyes filled with tears. really good, happy, joyful tears.
When Keith and I asked the Methodist Conference if we might turn down their request to plant another suburban church west of Morning Star where Keith had been serving as an Associate Pastor, and pretty, pretty please, go to the city, our beloved St.L. instead, this is what we had in mind.
Keith often explains what called us to the city by quoting one of our personal heroes, Dr. King, who said, "The most segregated time in America is Sunday morning at 11."
And Dr. King thought that was wrong. And we thought that was wrong. And the powers that be gave us permission, blessing and a huge amount of encouragement and help to start a church at 4265 Shaw Blvd., because they think it is wrong too.
The morning I took the picture down in the basement of our church (our children's ministry is ironically named, "Word Up"), Dr. King's voice was in my head. I clearly heard his voice, from his famed "I Have A Dream" speech, "I have a dream; one day right here in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers."
And here we are in what has been reported to be one of the most racially divided cities in America, living Dr. King's dream.
Another dreamer, Sister Antona Ebo spoke Sunday about her own experiences going from St. Louis to Selma to march and express her desire that all should be free, all should have their God-given rights recognized and upheld. I hope she was gratified in seeing the full spectrum of God's rainbow represented in our congregation. I was gratified as I watched one of our little girls from that see-saw picture speaking one on one before service with Sister Antona. I don't know what was said, but there was smiling and a bit of giggling on both parts which brought me great joy.
Sister Ebo talked about Joy, giving us this acronym: Jesus, Others, Yourself. Sister Antona said this then, is how we should love. This is the order.
At the Word we have a reminder as as vision statement, though it isn't an acronym.
We say, Know.Love.Serve.
Know God, Love all, Serve others.
By this we shall be saved, we shall find joy, we shall be free.
I know that is a bold statement. But I believe it. We show the love of Christ, love we have experienced ourselves, and it fills us with joy. And it does free us.
Because the thing that tears down past hurts is love. The thing that fills us is love. When love pours out of us into the community, past hurts are torn down, replaced with love. We are free from pain, free from the past, free to know, to love, to serve.
And that is the thing. That is what we're trying to do.
Here is another quote from Dr. King, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
And one more quote for our day. From 1 Corinthians 13:13 "And now these three remain:faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
The commonality between Dr. King's quotes, Sister Antona's quote, The Word's Vision statement, and God's Word is love. Because the greatest of these is love.
That is what I wanted you all to know. Love brings only good. Its absence brings that which we want to eradicate. And to do so, we must love.
Blessings, Lorilise
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