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[ Music ] [MUSIC] ♪ Holy power of grace ♪ ♪ How I long to stand ♪

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♪ And give Him all my life ♪ - And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. The subject of the message, call to freedom.

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Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. Freedom is a journey. It is the human response to the divine call. It's a call that comes to the family,

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the primary social institution. As we celebrate our liberation struggle, There may be those who say, why have this kind of celebration? And the response to that question

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is that it is necessary. For in large measure, in many instances, we have been forgotten. A number of years ago, I was in Williamsburg, Virginia,

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and had the privilege of visiting what is known as Colonial Williamsburg. And I saw there a reproduction of colonial life. And I was reminded of what most American students

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get in history classes at a young age about Patrick Henry and many of the patriarchs. But I left that without a sense of any recognition of the black presence. And I was somewhat disturbed and I rented a car and drove alone down to Jamestown, Virginia, where it is said that the first slaves who were brought to this country lived in 1619. And I just walked

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around Jamestown alone and meditated upon what must have been the experience and the feelings and the hopes and aspirations of our fathers. And as a people, we must ever have a sense of history and draw from that. Historically, we have been a very strong people.

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We've all been shaped by some kind of family structure. And as we celebrate our black heritage this year, we focus on the theme Afro-American family, historical strength for a new century.

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As we observe the family unit, it's private, it's unique, it's particular, it's exclusive. And as a boy, I was constantly reminded by my parents

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that you are not to tell what goes on within the family. It is very significant that as we look at our own history, the African slave trade has a message concerning what happened to the black family?

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Well, historically, black people have a very strong family life, closely knit together, ties that bind

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far beyond the primary unit, cousins. In fact, it's not unusual for us to go down count that down five, six cousins. You know, sometimes we don't know what cousin it is,

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but we do know that this is a cousin. And then the African pours out an oblation in honoring his ancestors as he celebrates their memory. For us as African people, the family consists not only of those who are here now, but those who have gone on before, the past as well as the present. But slavery fractured the family, the black family. Families were

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forced to suffer the pain of separation. The sacred institution of marriage was dishonored. and mothers were separated from each other, parents separated from children and children separated from each other. For the African slave trade is the most cruel form of human bondage that has existed upon the face of this globe. Alex Haley has caused us to look

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closely at our roots by telling the story of his family, tracing the heritage, what happened to an African boy who took a stroll in a village at night and ended up in chains in America. Patrick Monaghan and many others have said that the problems facing Afro-Americans are rooted in the family. The black family in this country has been

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and remains to a great extent matriarchal. The woman was the strong center of the family because she remained with the children in many instances when the husband or the father was sent elsewhere. And it remains today that we have a large percentage

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of families in which a female is the head of the household. But if our world is to have significant change, if we are to make significant strides toward freedom in the future, it must begin in the family.

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A good friend of mine tells a story that he was asked by a friend of another race, why is it that when we call you certain things that you get angry and when you say those same things to one another it's all right. And why do you get angry when we call you

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by the same names? He said well let me tell you that's in the family. So you can do certain things in the family. So much of what I have to say will have to do with what's in the family. If our status as a people is to change significantly, as I said, it must happen through the family. In the early history of the Christian church, when God took dramatic, radical, redemptive

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action for the world, it happened through the family. It is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who speaks to the Apostle Peter saying, "Arise, kill, and eat." Now this is a good word that God addresses to Peter, but let us consider how this word

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may help us strengthen our family life today. Everybody belongs to a family. Peter is identified with the Jewish family, and in the Jewish family he is identified with a group that is called a peculiar people, specially favored, encircled with certain

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privilege. They drew a circle around themselves in which Gentiles were excluded for the most part. Rather exclusive, you know that kind of exclusiveness that is manifested in a prayer that one man prayed, he said, "Lord, bless me and my wife, my son Joe and his wife, us four, no

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more." Very exclusive. So here the circle was expressed through a particular way of thinking. were outsiders. This circle was expressed by a certain way of eating. For the Jew,

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everything was to be kosher. No pork. What was eaten was to be prepared according to strict dietary laws. So we all have our family experience. We We somewhat remember that today in our eating because when we eat chitlins and hog maws such as that, those things were thrown out, so to speak.

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When the master killed those, he didn't want those things particularly, and we learned to eat those things and grow strong. Now they're being recognized as great delicacies. is the leader of the Jewish church, the Judaizers. He's in the family, but he really needs to

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be set free. He needs to be emancipated. He needs liberation because he's in mental bondage. A friend of mine said, "You know, it's not so bad to stay in a small town, but the danger is that when people live in small towns and they have small minds." It's true today that we have families, and when we look at our country many times, we

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find ourselves congregated in ghettos. So in a sense, Peter is living as a member of the Jewish family in a Jewish ghetto. His mind is in a state of captivity. To a large extent, he's a victim of prejudice.

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He needs to grow. He doesn't really look at the facts when it comes to other people. He's the kind of person that has a tendency to put people in certain categories without knowing who they really are, to classify them according to stereotypes that may be manufactured

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by his own narrow thinking. So what really needs to happen is that Peter needs to take a journey. And so it is arranged that he is pushed out, he's pushed out of Jerusalem, he takes a journey, he takes a journey where he gets out of Jerusalem and that's really what freedom involves.

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Being liberated means going beyond ourselves. And as I often say, that the most significant journey that one has to take is a journey from I to we. You know, Peter's living in a ghetto, and here just across the way, a few miles, in

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a little, is another family in a town called Caesarea. Caesarea you see is the Roman capital and here is a centurion, here is a Roman soldier if you please, here is a Gentile that's living in that city and he too has had a circle around his activities.

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He sort of lived in a ghetto. You know most of us live in ghettos. Some live in a ghetto in the inner city, some live in a ghetto in suburbia, but we all sort of found ourselves encircled, you know, with a certain way of life.

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And we draw this circle and we shut certain people out, and we really need to be liberated because liberation means including all people. Yes, here is Cornelius who belongs to the Italian band. Soldiers are stationed in Caesarea.

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The Romans are there to see to it that the Jews are kept in check. But he's an unusual person. He has somehow risen above this, and as he has risen above this, that he has embraced others that somehow he is directed by the Spirit. God has a way of speaking to

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Peter and also speaking to Cornelius so that the same Spirit who speaks to Peter over here speaks to Cornelius over there and they are brought together in the spirit. And so Peter takes this journey but what happens to him he has to be prepared for this journey and in being prepared for the journey God gives him

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an experience, provides an experience for him. He has a vision. While they are preparing the food he flies down to wait and he goes to sleep and as he goes to sleep he has a vision, a dream, in which he has a sheep that's let down from heaven and he has a vision.

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And really if we are to continue and to make significant contributions for the future, We have somehow got to get a new vision of ourselves, a new vision of ourselves, a new vision that involves a new way of thinking about ourselves so that as we look at ourselves that we will somehow recognize who we are.

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And ready to recognize who we are, we've got to look back, historically, look back from whence we've come. You know, one of the worst things

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that have happened to us in this system is we have been taught to hate ourselves. And it took me a long time in my own pilgrimage to be proud of who I am.

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You know, I was trying to be somebody else. trying to get my hair looking some way that God didn't intend for it to look. I was trying to change my complexion, you know, they used to have what is called black and white and you'd put that on to try to bleach yourself

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because I wanted to be somebody that I really was not intended to be. So we've got, we've got really to discover who we are. You know what has happened to the Western world? They have tried to hide from us who we are. When Alexander the Great went out and conquered the world and he went over to Africa and he found in Africa the great

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library of the world in Africa. You know where civilization began? It didn't begin in Europe, in Africa. And they just found here the other day that one of the oldest relics they have of man they found it where? In Africa. In Africa. Well, they just had a Nile Valley Conference at Morehouse College and they're beginning to unravel

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that much of what Herodotus wrote down was what he found that Africans had already written down that the Western world didn't know about and that we had a grand, grand heritage that we were kings and queens and made significant contributions and we really got to go back and know who we are. You can't know

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where you're going to you know where you've come from and we've got to do that and historically we've got to return we've got to come back to the family and to draw strength from the family if we are to go forward that's the good word rise get a new vision of who we are arise arise rise kill there's

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certain things that we've got to kill. Kill. About our own way of thinking we've got to destroy. We've got to put them behind us if we would go forward. You know when I was at Texas Southern Board of Regents there, there was a man and and his wife who gave us a home valued at over $125,000,

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gave it to the university. And the Board of Regents decided to prepare it for the president to live in as his home while there. And we spent some $30,000 to bring it up to the standard,

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remodel the kitchen. She made some changes in the bathroom. And some of those on the faculty who found out about it thought it was awful that we had prepared this kind of home

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for the president, while at the same time, the president of University of Texas was living in a place that cost a million dollars. but they didn't think their president should stay in one home that cost $150,000.

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We've got to have the ability to affirm our being and to have a positive self-concept if we would go forward as a family. And it means that we've got to have respect for our women. Respect for our women.

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sure the black family could not have survived without the significant contribution that's been made by the black female, but we must ever treasure our womanhood and we must lift up our women and recognize that no race, no family can rise any higher than their women. That's very important and

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And sometimes I think we are losing some of that. Losing some of that. Like a man who got on a crowded subway and he saw a woman standing and he told her to take his seat.

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And that was so unusual. She sat down and she was so shocked by that experience that she fainted after she sat down. [LAUGHTER]

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And after she was revived and she looked up to say thank you to the man, he was so shocked that she said thank you that he fainted. But somehow we've got to recover that kind of respect for each other. And that men must not only honor the women within the family, but somehow men in the

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family must be men. Oh, I know, I know the story of how the system has castrated the black male. Sure, we know that. It's quite familiar.

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But if we would have a strong family, we must not somehow leave our families and leave women without children to do what we ought to be doing. Somehow men must be men and women must be women within that family. And we've got to kill some things. We've got to kill this self-hatred.

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Malcolm X says that one of the worst things that has happened to us as a people that we were taught to hate ourselves. We've got to kill that self-hatred. And we've also got to destroy ignorance. That's a battle that we still have to fight.

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We still have to fight it. Our forefathers somehow recognized that. They somehow just kept on pushing and pushing and so the first institutions that were built were built somehow the church and the school having to do with God and also with education.

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And we've got to continue that fight. We've got to continue to struggle in such a way that we would kill ignorance, we would destroy it. Peter, you see, was given a new vision, a new perspective on life, rise and kill. A new spirit, if we would ever be economically secure, if we would develop, that somehow

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we must have that spirit to rise above the obstacles that we face. You know, when we look at it, you look at a study of black people in this country, it's It's in the South where we've had the most difficult struggle, but you've had more people who own their homes, more people who have been successful when it comes to the economic

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struggle in this country, who've had more adverse circumstances with which to contend. It depends upon the kind of relationship that we have. Freedom, you see, is not some possession. It's not something we can purchase at the marketplace.

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Freedom is a presence. It's not a possession. It's a presence. It's a gift. It's something that is a spirit. It's something that has to be internalized within us.

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Because when Peter has this experience with God, His eyes are open and he sees himself in a new light. He sees himself in relationship to other people in a different way.

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He has a different attitude because something has happened in him and he's had an inward experience. It's something that God gives that cannot be taken away.

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That's what our forefathers had in mind when they said, you know, my dungeon shook, My chains fell off. I'm free.

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Thank God I'm free. It's that kind of call, the call to have a new look at ourselves, a call somehow to kill those things that would serve as hindrances,

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call that somehow we would draw strength upon the word which we are given. Because you see, this is a word that comes from God. And it's in obedience to that word

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that Peter discovers a new relationship. He grows and is lifted because he responds to the call to freedom. Call to freedom.

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It's a long, long struggle. Long, long struggle from 1619 to where we are in 1985. But the call to freedom is not just a call of black people, it's a call of all people because God calls us to be free.

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He calls us to somehow be lifted up out of ourselves no matter how dark the clouds may be. There's a man who was walking in the streets of Brooklyn a very cold day and he was getting something out of a garbage can. He had

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his little wagon and a preacher called his wife and said, "Come here. Look at this man on this cold day and listen to him." For he was singing, "I sing because I'm happy. I sing because I'm free for his eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me. For there is the God of all history who guides us and who

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liberates us and whose gift of freedom is for all people. He calls us now to freedom. He calls us to be free in him. That's the freedom that no man can take away. We invite you now to join with the people of God here at Ebenezer in accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior, uniting with this church, come by letter

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by Christian experience on professional faith. The invitation now. We invite you to come. Why should I feel discouraged? Why should the shadows come? Why should my heart be lonely?

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In love for heaven and home. ♪ When Jesus is my portion ♪ ♪ My constant friend is he ♪ ♪ His eyes on the sparrow ♪

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♪ On the sparrow ♪ ♪ And I know he watches me ♪ ♪ His eye is on the sparrow ♪ ♪ And I know you are just me ♪

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♪ I sing because I'm happy ♪ ♪ And I sing because I'm free ♪ ♪ He looks at me ♪ ♪ With his eyes on that sparrow ♪

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♪ And I know he watches me ♪ ♪ Watch as me ♪ ♪ Let not your hearts be troubled ♪ ♪ His tender word I hear ♪

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♪ And resting on his goodness ♪ ♪ I lose all my doubts and my fears ♪ ♪ The by the path he leadeth ♪ ♪ But one still by my tea ♪

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♪ His eyes on the sparrow ♪ ♪ His eyes on the sparrow ♪ ♪ That sparrow ♪ ♪ And I know he watches me ♪

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♪ His eye is on ♪ ♪ That sparrow ♪ ♪ And I know you'll judge me ♪ ♪ I sing because I'm happy ♪

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♪ And I sing because I'm happy ♪ ♪ 'Cause a man ♪ ♪ Who falls ♪ ♪ Is on that sparrow ♪

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♪ And I know ♪ ♪ You are just me ♪ ♪ I'm thirsty ♪ ♪ In your arms I can live ♪

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♪ I'm free ♪ ♪ In your arms I'm free ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ It's a lie ♪

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♪ It's a lie ♪ ♪ That's my war ♪ ♪ And I know ♪ ♪ You are just ♪

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[MUSIC] Let's all say amen again. Amen. [APPLAUSE]

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We're grateful for that splendid rendition of that number and that significant contribution to our service. There are two things I'd like to remind us of. One has to do with the Annie Armstrong Week of Prayer which begins

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