WOMAN OF FREEDOM
On Tuesday November 4, 2008 well over 200 years of oppression began to end in America. Americans voted for the first African-American President. We must acknowledge that there is still much to be done to battle and overcome bigotry, but something remarkable happened on that Tuesday. I am so very glad that I was alive to see this and experience it. I am so very glad to see what sacrifice and struggle can bring. It can bring freedom.
We have so many freedoms and so many that we take for granted. We have freedoms many people around the world do not have. We have freedom to worship in whatever manner we wish. We have freedom to buy what we are able to buy. We have freedom to go wherever we are able to go.
What we need to do during times such as these is to remember by Whom that freedom has come. In our nation we have faced troubles and trials that have stretched the human spirit to lengths we hardly would conceive possible today. And in our nation we have historically called on the Name of God to save us. We have historically acknowledged that it is God who brings true freedom.
In the 2003 PBS series This Far by Faith the filmmakers "examined the African-American religious experience through the last three centuries . . . This Far By Faith explored the connections between faith and the development of African-American cultural values and how it related to freedom.
One story in particular was deeply moving to me. Her name was Isabella. She was born a slave in rural New York in 1797. She was raised speaking only Dutch. As a younger child her grandmother taught her the ways of God, establishing in her life pattern the practice of prayer.
"Separated from her family at age nine, she was sold several times before ending up on the farm of John and Sally Dumont. As was the case for most slaves in the rural North, Isabella lived isolated from other African Americans, and she suffered from physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her masters."
While growing up a slave and while serving on the Dumont farm Isabella had been taught by her white masters that slavery was just a way of life, that this was the natural order of things, that what they did to her was acceptable because they were her masters. With very little stretch of the imagination, some most likely even concocted a Biblical justification for this heinous activity.
But Isabella had something that her masters did not have. She had a very personal relationship with God. From the teachings of her grandmother she had learned to make a unique place of prayer. In the moments she could steal away she made for herself a tabernacle in the woods near the Dumont farm. It was there that her relationship with God drove down deeper and deeper into her heart. She began to understand that the treatment that was normalized by her masters and the slavery culture was not what God intended for her or for others.
The filmmakers related, "Even though she had worked hard to please her master for sixteen years, Isabella listened to God when he told her to walk away from slavery. With her baby, Sophia, Isabella left the Dumont farm in 1826 and walked into freedom . . . Like thousands of slaves, free blacks, and poor whites in the early nineteenth century, Isabella was swept up by the tide of the Second Great Awakening, a Protestant evangelical movement that emphasized living simply and following the Holy Spirit."
We need to understand that walking into freedom for these slaves was in many ways more treacherous than staying with their abusive masters. An African-American woman walking the country roads looking for work and food was subject to great danger from those who would oppress her as well as wild animals. This however did not dissuade Isabella. She had found freedom in her spirit and hope from God more alluring than living under the oppressive and abusive life she had been born into. But the road to freedom was even more fearful and lonely than slavery.
The filmmakers recounted a particularly important event. In 1827, newly-freed Isabella was tempted to return to the Dumont farm, “[but] she was saved from joining her ex-master by a frightening vision of God, followed by the calming presence of an intercessor, whom Isabella recognized as Jesus. With Jesus as her 'soul-protecting fortress,' Isabella gained the power to rise 'above the battlements of fear.'"
From that moment on, Isabella was a committed all-out freedom fighter for Jesus Christ. She began to preach and teach about the God she knew and loved. She spoke freely and boldly about the corruption of slavery and the fact that Jesus Christ can save everyone from their sins.
“In 1843 she was 'called in the spirit' on the day of Pentecost.” The Spirit instructed her to leave New York to preach and lecture in other parts of the country. It was in these moments that Isabella asked God for a new name. As she cried out in prayer, she asked God to give her a new first name, and in the midst of that cry she heard God call her “Sojourner.” She cried out to God to give her a new last name and she heard God call her “Truth.” If you know anything about the Abolitionist movement, the great struggles during the Civil War, and the struggles for true human freedom in our nation, the name Sojourner Truth must be familiar to you.
We must recognize today that God had that name for Sojourner long before she heard it in 1843. He called her out of great trouble, persecution and abuse to become a great preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a great agitator for freedom in our nation. Sojourner Truth never stopped preaching and took up the banner of women's suffrage and the right of African-Americans to vote as well. On November 26, 1883 she died of old age with these words on her lips, “Be a follower of Jesus.”
We need to trace back and recognize the source of Sojourner Truth's drive and power. We need to be careful to acknowledge what Sojourner acknowledged. It is God through Jesus Christ who brings true freedom.
It was the presence and power of God within that young Isabella that transformed her into a powerhouse of truth. It was the presence and the power of Jesus Christ that gave her the courage to walk away from that Dumont farm. It was the presence and power of Holy Spirit that freed her soul from the fear of other human beings and launched her into a life of telling others about Jesus and seeing that they acted like him.
It is the voice and the Word of God that always brings true and lasting freedom to individuals, to nations, to churches, to families, to you and to me. The Bible stories that Sojourner learned about and that she preached about were just another testimony to the freedom that God brings.
I hope you know the story of the Israelites in Exodus. For 400 years their entire nation was held captive and worked to the bone by Egyptian slave drivers. For 400 years they had lived under oppression and darkness, toil and suffering. Four hundred years of crying out for God to release them from this horrible plight, crying out wondering why God had deserted them.
Don't you ever wonder why God waited 400 years? Sojourner knew the answer. It was that God was always with them—no matter what their circumstances. Someone like Sojourner must have penned these words:
Though trials come, though fear assail
Through tests scarce understood,
One truth shines clear; it cannot fail—
My God is right and good.
(Anonymous)
God had promised to never leave or forsake them. He is the God who said he would sustain them no matter what happened to them. He is the God who says to you and me today, “No matter what trials and troubles you face, you will make it, if you stay close to me.” That's what Sojourner had learned in her forest sanctuary. He never failed to meet her there. He never failed to help her through another night of abuse or another day of back-breaking labor. On her death-bed, at 86 years of age, what were the words she said? “Be a follower of Jesus.” She said that because she knew that to follow Christ was to walk the path of true freedom.
And this is what every person all the way back to the Israelites needed to learn as well. In Exodus 13 and14 we read the remarkable story of God's personal delivery into freedom. God had caused numerous plagues to overcome Egypt. The Egyptians had become so grieved and troubled by these plagues that they finally let the Israelite slaves go. But the Egyptians regretted their decision. Read Exodus 14:5-31
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, "What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!" So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. The Egyptians —all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops —pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.
As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"
Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still,"
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen."
Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. During the last watch of the night the LORD looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, "Let's get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt."
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen." Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen —the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.
But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.
Just as the anti-abolitionists pursued the freed slaves in our nation during those dark days, the Egyptians picked up their weapons of fear and intimidation only to be met by one mighty Force—God himself stepped between his people and their enemies. This is what Sojourner Truth had learned during her 86 years on this earth. If God is for you who can be against you?!
From the moment sin entered into this world God has been working his freedom in and over and through us. This is the God Sojourner knew—the God who loves the whole world and sent his only Son into the world not to condemn the world, but to save it. (John 3:16-17)
This is our God who gives you and me, Sojourner, Moses, the Israelites, your neighbors, your family members, your children and your spouse true freedom that will buoy us up in the face of trouble, that will lift us out despite the heavy foot of oppression, that will carry us through the awful storms of life.
In John 8:31-32 Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." For most of her 86 years Sojourner Truth held to the teachings of Jesus Christ. She knew freedom and she fought for it through the preaching of God's Word and the working out of her salvation into acts of justice.
For most of her 86 years Sojourner Truth held to the teachings of Jesus Christ. She knew freedom, and she fought for it through the preaching of God's Word and the working out of her salvation in acts of justice.
As I watched a 47 year old African-American man accept the challenge of presiding over our nation I was moved. But I have been more deeply moved by Sojourner's story over these many years because her story in right on the heels of Jesus' who brought true and lasting freedom — not just to slaves, not just to the oppressed and the poor — but to every person who calls on His Name. It is by the shed blood of Jesus Christ and his glorious resurrection that we can know this kind of freedom.
This brings us to some challenging questions. What parts of my life am I permitting fear and oppression to rule, instead of the truth of Christ? What parts of our church are we still giving over to the prevailing culture of lies, deceit and abuse? What parts of our families and our world are we permitting to be absorbed into darkness because we do not go to that sanctuary of prayer on their behalf? Have we become so focused on the trouble in our lives and our work that we cannot or will not see the Truth himself?
It is God through Jesus Christ who brings true and everlasting freedom. Do we want Jesus and his freedom to be the ruling factor in our lives, in the Church, in our nation, in our world?
If we do, we will know the Truth and the Truth will set us free.
Amen
Copyright M.R.HYDE 2011
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