As I was starting to think about this Sunday, 

I remembered the news item from about a month ago about Nikki Haley, 

the supposedly more moderate Republican candidate, 

who when asked about the causes of the Civil War 

did not initially mention slavery.

This anecdote speaks to the current state of American politics, 

which has washed over to our shores as well, 

(just look at Alberta).

—

Earlier this week you may have heard of the bomb-shell investigation

Which exposed how

“Prisoners in the US are part of a hidden workforce 

linked to hundreds of popular food brands”. 

The Associated Press 

“found that U.S. prison labor is in the supply chains of goods being shipped all over the world via multinational companies”. 

We could be eating food that was produced by prisoners 

in slavery-like conditions!

“Some prisoners work on the same plantation soil where slaves harvested cotton, tobacco and sugarcane more than 150 years ago, 

with some present-day images looking eerily similar to the past. 

In Louisiana, which has one of the country’s highest incarceration rates, men working on the “farm line” 

still stoop over crops stretching far into the distance.

It’s completely legal, dating back largely to the need for labor to help rebuild the South’s shattered economy after the Civil War. 

Enshrined in the US Constitution by the 13th Amendment, slavery and involuntary servitude are banned – except as punishment for a crime.”

This allowance “for prison labor [after the Civil War] provided legal cover to round up thousands of mostly young Black men. 

Many were jailed for petty offenses like loitering and vagrancy. 

They then were leased out by states to plantations 

… and some of the country’s biggest companies, 

including coal mines and railroads. 

They were routinely whipped for not meeting quotas 

while doing brutal and often deadly work.

The convict-leasing period, which officially ended in 1928, 

helped chart the path to America’s modern-day prison-industrial complex.”

Prisoners who work on farms have little to no rights 

and are often paid pennies, 

if anything for their work. 

In effect, they are basically slaves.

“Slavery has not been abolished,” says Curtis Davis, 

who spent more than 25 years [in a] penitentiary 

and is now fighting to change state laws that allow for forced labor in prisons.

“It is still operating in present tense,” he said. “Nothing has changed.”

The industrial-prison complex in the USA has its challenges, 

and the uncovering of horrifying working conditions

is a major international blow to its image, 

already tarnished by systemic racism.

One simple statistic:

The Percent of Black Americans in the general U.S. population: is 13% 

But the Percent of people in prison who are Black: is 37%. 

(Or almost 3 times as much)

Lest we feel too smug here up North;

It’s a fact that Black people are overrepresented 

also in Canada's criminal justice system 

as both victims and people accused or convicted of crime, 

For example “In 2021, 9% of offenders under federal jurisdiction were Black, 

despite only representing about 4% of adults in Canada” 

(or a little over twice as much).

—

It is with this sobering news and statistics in mind 

that we turn to our first Reading,

To words of hope and comfort proclaimed to a marginalized people in exile 

who were feeling down-trodden and hopeless.

These words from Isaiah have given hope to oppressed peoples 

over the centuries, 

and have served as a reminder to those of us who are powerful and privileged- 

to watch out.

—

Who is God Almighty

The author wonders?

He is the one who gives strength to the weary!

And the one who brings princes to naught,

Who tears down the powerful, the 1%.

The incomparable Creator, 

The everlasting God,

He does not faint or grow weary, 

and his understanding is unsearchable.

There is no need for the downtrodden to worry, because of God’s abiding sovereignty,

All human leaders, prime ministers, presidents, 

are nothing compared to God Almighty.

All we need to do is wait for the Lord: 

keep our eyes fixated on high,

Patiently hoping on the living God.

Because

(V29) He gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless and

Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,

 they shall mount up with wings like eagles, 

they shall run and not be weary, 

they shall walk and not faint!

When we exchange our worry and complaints for trust and hope in the Lord, we are transformed. 

We move from stumbling and falling to running without growing weary, 

from mere walkers to those who never faint. 

Indeed, the journey is not easy, but with God as our source of strength, 

we can face any trial, endure any hardship, 

and overcome any obstacle.

God will guide our feet as we run this race, 

God will hold us, stand by us and help us.

And when we feel weakest: 

we can often feel God closest.

—

A black theologian who perhaps first articulated 

how God is a God of the oppressed and who comforts and lifts up marginalized peoples 

is Howard Thurman.

In 1949 he wrote the seminal book: “Jesus and the Disinherited”

(Which is actually the first volume by a black theologian that I’ve read.)

Inspired by a trip to India which included meeting Gandhi, 

this book in turn influenced Thurman’s friend Martin Luther King Jr. 

who supposedly often carried around a copy of it.

Howard Thurman was an American author, philosopher, theologian, mystic, educator, and civil rights leader. 

As a prominent religious figure, 

he played a leading role in many social justice movements and organizations of the twentieth century.

Thurman's theology of radical nonviolence influenced and shaped a generation of civil rights activists.

He sought to bring the “harrowing beauty of the African-American experience into deep engagement with what he called 

‘the religion of Jesus.’”

One of the main questions he initially struggled with was: 

“why … Christianity seems impotent to deal radically, and therefore effectively, with the issues of discrimination and injustice on the basis of race, religion and national origin”?

His book was addressed especially for those who “stand with their backs against the wall : the poor, the disinherited, the dispossessed”

And offers a template for all marginalized peoples

Of living out radical peace and love 

(A worldview perhaps best known to us through Martin Luther King Jr).

He found the essential message of Jesus for the disinherited was this:

“You must abandon your fear from each other and fear only God. 

You must not indulge in any deception and dishonesty, even to save your lives. 

Your words must be Yea-Nea, anything else is evil. 

Hatred is destructive to hated and hater alike. 

Love your enemy that you may be children of your father who is in heaven.”

Thurman found comfort in knowing that Jesus was a poor Jew, 

part of an outcast ethnicity, in a colonized territory of Empire,

And Thurman rediscovered how Jesus’ message could speak esp. to the Black population in post-WWII America and beyond.

—

To conclude this sermon, 

I wanted to read an excerpt from the first book by a black woman I’ve ever bought. 

It’s by Maya Angelou, who died in 2014 and was an American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist.

She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees.

I’d like to read this poem of faith after suffering, which perhaps resonates with some of the themes I’ve just touched upon.

Title: Just like Job

https://kimbol.soques.net/just-like-job-maya-angelou/

—

May we all be inspired by the contributions of Black theologians, poets, activists and musicians, 

learn from them and thereby be drawn closer to God, 

God Almighty who renews our strength,

that we can mount up with wings like eagles.

==

Sources: Howard Thurman: Jesus and the Disinherited

Maya Angelou: Poems

Interpreters’ Bible: Isaiah

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/01/29/prisoners-in-the-us-are-part-of-a-hidden-workforce-linked-to-hundreds-of-popular-food-brands/

https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/obpccjs-spnsjpc/index.html

Wikipedia: Howard Thurman and Maya Angelou