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in the motion picture adaptation of Alice Walker's novel, the color purple. How many of y'all have seen the movie? The color purple. Good. So maybe you will follow along with what I'm trying to

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do, shook Avery. One of the main characters leave har pose juke joint on her way to the church, pastored by her estranged father on a forced march through cotton fields shug is accompanied by an impromptu

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choir singing on their weight. Maybe God's trying to tell you something. This song was written by the late Andre Crouch. I personally have watched this movie is more time than I can count. I believe

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the unspoken implication is that in trying times it is important to listen for the lesson and hear the voice of God within it. The task for those of us who are immersed in such thoughts is not to

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see God in our stories, but to imagine our stories in God's learning somehow to see our humanity in divinity. What we find in the fiction of our lives often comes to bear in the reality of our

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living. Such was the case with an individual in the scriptures called Samuel. This fascinating story is about a young man only 12 years of age, serving as a temple assistant to eli the high priest Ed

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Shallow. The presumptive implication of this ancient narrative is that God calls us into service, who appeared to be less likely that God summons us into service. Those who do not have the credentials are obvious spiritual

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gifts to assume the purposes and priorities of God. Amen. Yet this is a time in the nation's history when someone is needed, not only to bring a nation to its feet, but also to bring

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a nation to his senses. Maybe God is trying to tell us something strange that God should choose an unexpected spokesperson, an inexperienced politician, an untested creature with no prophetic credentials to his name to be called

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into leadership. For young Samuel leadership would not be born in him, but rather thrust upon him. His place in history would not be his choice, but rather be his God determined destiny. Okay.

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Such was the case with a man named martin Luther King Jr, a young man and experienced in matters of public leadership. His theological diploma still wet with ink and yet called upon to give direction to a

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march for freedoms like the likes of which human history had never known. He advocated Nonviolence. Yet his life and the lives of all he marched with were faced with violence every day. Mhm. Let me

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get personal for a second. When I was about eight or 9 years old. My mother was at work at the place where martin Luther King was speaking and they had a banquet. She called the house

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and she said put on your sunday clothes and come to me at that time, I did not live far away and a young girl was able to walk the streets and and go to where she needed to

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be without worrying about anybody bothering her because all along the route there were people that knew our parents. Mhm. You see, martin Luther King was speaking and she wanted me to be in that place.

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I did what she told me, and she settled me back in the back of the auditorium out of the way and gave me a plate of food that they served. I don't know about you, but

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uh roast beef was not a regular thing in our household, but I remember that meals so clearly roast beef with gravy, mashed potatoes and green beans, wow, what a meal that was, I couldn't

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see what was going on, but I could hear his powerful voice in my young mind. I knew I wanted to be able to speak with the power that this man had. I would stand up in

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front of a crowd of people and they would want to hear what I had to say. I told that story because that was the moment in my life that I believe that set the stage for me to

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be standing up here today. Little old me, this little geechee girl from the low country was chosen a long time ago for such a time as this of course to read the story of Samuel who life

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serves as background to the place of Dr King. It is to understand that in order for spiritual social change to be accomplished, one must first be awakened to the world around you three times it says in

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the scripture over and over and over again. Samuel Sleep is disturbed in his time and in our time Church, there is no time to sleep. If there is to be any sense of justice and some

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peace within this lion, there can be no reason to continue to be sleeping On Sunday March to 31st , King preached his final sermon at the Washington National Cathedral from that massive pulpit. His sermon name remaining

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awake through a great revolution. It was told he chose this title from the story of rip van winkle . Most of us hopefully knows the tale of rip van winkle goes to sleep when the king George wakes

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up, George Washington is President. You see, he had not only slept for 20 years, he slept through a revolution. In that sermon. I believe that King was speaking prophetically when he said,

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it is no longer a choice. My friends between violence and Nonviolence. It is either violence or nonexistence . King is a mandated that americans, not only black people, but all people not sleep through the

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great revolution they currently witness. Mhm. They must stay awake and commit themselves to enter on the side of God's love and justice. He continues to say , nothing will be done until people of good will

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put their bodies and their souls in motion. And it will be the kind of soul force brought into being as a result of this confrontation that I believe will make a big difference. Dr King's dreamed God's

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loving justice to all people, something very hard to find in today's society. Maybe God, he's trying to tell us something. God's first choice was to awaken. The one who would be preacher are stated

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differently. God awakened the church sadly, I believe the world no longer seeks moral guidance from the church . It appears the church itself needs guidance. The world has set aside the moral authority of the church

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because we who have been commissioned to speak have chosen rather to sleep to keep things the way they are to not rock the boat well church. The boat needs to be rocked. God is trying to tell

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us something. These are serious times. People as serious as the middle passage, as serious as whips and chains and auction blocks as serious as Montgomery and Selma and the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the million man

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March. The killing of Trayvon martin, Tamar rice . The killing of nine innocent people in a church mass shootings all over America, countless and senseless killings of young people all over America and it's just not

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black, but brown and white and muslim and whatever ethnicity or cultural we want to identify with people, we all are not safe. You could be sitting in a church and you can be gone tomorrow.

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It's a hard reality people. It's a hard reality . These types of killings are happening all around this country, a phenomenal woman who have become good friends with as a result of our loss and Lucia McBath

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lost her son Jordan Davis as a result of an angle brother shooting into a car of teenagers because he didn't like the sound of the loud rap music. He was standing his ground. But after a long

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battle, he was convicted in his spending 30 years of life because this woman and her husband fought the justice system for their son Jordan. These are the types of things that are happening people every day.

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Let me show you how God works. Two dope Would have been Jordan's 21st birthday. Mhm. I didn't realize that until I talked to lucy, which I had already put this, pardon my sermon and

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she said Sharon Jordan's birthday, the same day you're speaking at seminary. Mhm Hallelujah, happy birthday Jordan , it has been said the beloved community as martin Luther King called it. That God must raise a

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faithful men and women who have heard God's voice in the cries of the oppressed, who take refuge in the love of God and from within that place of refuge. But encouraged and step into the world to

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challenge the powers of evil as a community of people we are called. We must not stay asleep. It is time for action. Prayers and visuals are the right thing to do. But what else are

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we going to do? Guy is trying to tell us something, Someone must awaken the Samuel and you . It is good and right that we should celebrate the life and commitment of this awesome spirit martin Luther

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King Jr However, we are learning the inescapable lesson that the battle is not over the indictments we seek the justice we seek. Do not, we do not achieve certify that conflict and protests will be our

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lot for years to come. The struggle continues. The struggle is real church. God's trying to tell us something. We must rehearse this life of action for our Children and our grandchildren, if not for

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ourselves. The speeches and the writings of that drum , major for justice MLK must not be lost. But when we are truly awakened, we will discover that mayor speeches are insufficient. Where is that new

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voice that will sound a new and more piercing alarm and give us and to give us something different, more effective to say? the scriptures are correct. When a trumpet is expected, a flu will not

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suffice when we are awakened to see the struggle and the strife of the dispossess. We shall see for ourselves that the immoral maneuverings of mortal men and women will require us to admit that national holidays are not

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enough, Something must be done. Wake up God ! He's trying to tell us something when we are awakened and unable to move away from the cloistered halls of church and temple. We will understand that magnificent

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monuments of granite will not alter the pain or alleviate the suffering of those who still yearns to breathe free . My mom cousin Susie to wand Maira and five others who were brutally killed in Emmanuel amateur lives.

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People will not be in vain. I believe MLK would have taken action just like the world did when those little girls were killed in a church in Birmingham Alabama in 1963. Mhm. We must not permit

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King's Memorial to be just another stop on the tourist bus routes. Where is the new Samuel? Who will when awake and disturb the church from his rest ? Who will speak when this new era is so

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when this new era so critically needs not a duplicate martin, but someone that stands with their own courage and gold nous to live a life of service, of helping to maintain what our forefathers have fought for

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. Who is there to fulfill his shoes? What creature in all our churches is ready to fill the void of leadership? What creature stands to preach without fair on sunday morning that he or she will be

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compelled to tell the truth. So in the case of social justice, if you have that nagging feeling that you need to be doing something more then you've ever done in your life before. If you're shaken

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to your core so that you are required to speak out for those who are unable to speak for themselves . If something is disturbing your rest to the point that you will no longer simply call for a conversation

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, I challenge each and every one of you today to wake up and be the leaders for social change , to be the people who will stand up for social justice, to have that burning spirit of justice

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, just like martin Luther King, wake up everybody no more sleeping in bed. These serious social issues affect all our lives, our communities and all citizens who will instead give your energy towards implementing the works

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. We must do. Show our hands, hands , hands, let me see. Let me see . Maybe then when we have heard what God was trying to tell us, we, too could be

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bowl and stand up with grace and authority. Be at peace this day, my sisters and brothers to