Live in the spirit of ‘Sankofa’

Presbyterian Center celebrates Black History Month

by Gail Strange | Presbyterian News Service

The Wednesday service at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky was dedicated to a celebration of Black History Month with a message by the Rev. Shanea D. Leonard. (Photo by Rich Copley)

LOUISVILLE — In a rousing call to worship with African drums and “Fanga,” a traditional dance and rhythm of welcome in various West African cultures, employees and guests celebrated Black History Month during the Wednesday morning worship service at the Presbyterian Center.

The service was anything but traditional, although it included every element of a traditional Presbyterian worship service. The liturgy was derived from artistic traditions throughout Africa. The litanies and readings included a combination of Scripture and literature written by black artists from around the world. The West African Djembe drum, played by the Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson, coordinator of the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People, mingled with traditional African American spirituals and contemporary hymns sung by Sheila O’Bannon, musical director of Peace Presbyterian Church in Louisville. Their offerings filled the chapel with resounding sounds and songs of praise.

The Wednesday service at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky was dedicated to a celebration of Black History Month. Sheila O’Bannon contributed her keyboard and vocal talents. (Photo by Rich Copley)

Drawing from John 1:43-46, “⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” ⁴⁴ Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” ⁴⁶ “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip,” the Rev. Shanea Leonard, associate for gender and racial justice with Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries, preached the morning message entitled “Sankofa.”

Leonard’s message presented a biblical background for issues facing African-Americans and other people of color. She opened her sermon with the description of a 305-foot green woman standing in the middle of New York Harbor, tasked with the responsibility of being the door person for a nation. “Inscribed on this … welcome mat,” Leonard said, “is a little phrase written by Emma Lazarus which states, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’

“This Statue of Liberty stands as an undeniable monument to the ideal of a nation that welcomes all, includes all, is available to all, is equal to all, and is for all people. It gives the impression that no matter who you are and where you are from, you are welcomed and affirmed here,” she said.

However, Leonard reminded worshipers, something has been lost in translation since this gift was provided by the French in 1886.  “In fact, the reality of our modernity is quite different,” she said. “We live in a place where the color of your skin is evaluated before the content of your character. We reside in a nation where one can be generalized, victimized, ostracized, and dehumanized just based on their ancestral lineage and the hue of their pigmentation.

“Friends, we need not wonder where this type of treatment originates. This type of oppressive bigotry is as old as time. In fact, in our text this morning our big brother and savior Jesus is the receptor of such negativity and cynicism in thought as well.”

Leonard pointed out that the Scripture not only differentiates the future disciples by name but also by their lineage and ancestral heritage.

Leonard said Phillip is calling for Nathanael to join them. Nathanael expresses a pause of disbelief, shock, and unwillingness when Philip tells him that this potential rabbi, possible savior, and predictive Christ that he is being asked to follow is in fact from Nazareth. Oh no!

“You would have thought he said it was Jesus from Compton,” Leonard said. “Jesus from Detroit. Jesus from Cleveland. Jesus from Newark. Jesus from the West End of Louisville! How in the world could anything come out of Nazareth?”

Reiterating the fact that Nazareth was considered one of the most undesirable and unfavorable places you could call your “ZIP code in antiquity,” Leonard said, “We now see Nathanael pandering into the typography of ignorance about Jesus’ hometown. ”

“This is the place that Jesus grows up — Nazareth,” said Leonard. “Yes, he is born in Bethlehem and smuggled through Egypt for a few years as an undocumented immigrant, a Dreamer, but he is raised and reared in Nazareth. And can such a place with such an undesirable reputation really and truly produce greatness of any kind?”

“Let me tell you why this story resonates so much that it is lifted up time and time again during Black History Month,” said Leonard. “The fact of the matter is that many of us with skin of a darker hue understand what it means to be pre-judged, generalized and demonized simply based on where we are from.”

“We know what it’s like to have to spend our entire lives fighting against systemic oppression that looks at our origin and says, ‘You are lesser than, not worthy, not valuable, not desirable,’ simply based on your African lineage and blackness.”

Leonard said just as Jesus showed that there was something good that could come out of Nazareth, “We need to show that there is a lot of good that can come out of an oppressed and marginalized people who have had the fortitude and resilience to live through weary years and silent tears, a dark past and the path of the slaughtered. We come, I come from a people that have been able to take our pain and use it as a pedal to push forward to greatness.

“We come, I come from a people who have survived the degradation and are moving into vindication,” she said. “We come, I come from kings and queens who are the architects of math and science, the keepers of richness and plushness of the Earth … the fathers of heroism and the mothers of nurture. We come, I come from the native land that we claim as the birthplace of civilization and the nexus of all that is life. We come, I come from a place kissed by God and brightened by the sun to produce a people who have gone on to greatness  and longevity despite the twists and turns of colonialism, racism, redlining, sexism, bigotry, Jim Crow, chattel slavery, white privilege, and every other hang-up, default, setback, shortcoming, and bad break that this world has tried to use to hold us back.”

Reminding worshipers of the tumultuous history for African-Americans from the Middle Passage, through 246 years of recorded chattel slavery, Jim Crow and legalized racism, to today’s new Jim Crow and the modern-day plantation, as the educational systems, housing markets, judicial systems and economic structures that continue to turn disproportionately against them,  Leonard said, “In any other circumstances and situations anyone else would look back on this heritage and say, ‘Woe is me. I might as well give up the fight, turn my back on my lineage and realize that I come from a place that has set me up to always be the underdog.’

“But through the grace of God and the example set in this passage by Jesus the spirit of Sankofa is alive in me,” she continued.

“Sakofa is not just a word — it’s a concept,” she explained. “In fact, it’s a Twi concept from the people of Ghana on the west coast of the continent of Africa. It simply means, ‘Go back and get it!’”

The Wednesday service at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky was dedicated to a celebration of Black History Month. The Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson played the Djembe drum. (Photo by Rich Copley)

“The spirit of Sankofa says I look back at the sacrifices made and I press on.” she said. “I look back at the lives lost, and I go on. I look back at a people who have been counted out and yet came up fighting, determined, progressive and successful, and I feel blessed to say, ‘I shall go on.’”

 As worshipers readied for the benediction, Leonard had these final words: “As we depart from this place and move forward with our day and ultimately our lives, I pray that the blessing of grace and the spirit of Sankofa go with you and empower you to not only be, but thrive, and not only look but see, to not only assume but to know, to really know in your heart that God has called us all to the work of doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly before our Lord. Go in peace. Amen.”