TOO PAINFUL FOR WORDS

My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city. (Lamentations 2:11)

Should Priest and Prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? Young and old lie together in the dust of the streets; my young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. (Lamentations 2:20-21)

On Wednesday evening June 17, 2015 at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina a modern crucifixion took place. Taking the lives of:

Rev. Clementa Pickney (Pastor of Emanuel A.M.E. Church and a South Carolina State Senator) age 41
Cynthia Hurd, age 54
Tywanza Sanders, age 26
Myra Thompson, age 59
Ethel Lance, age 70
Susie Jackson, age 87
Rev. DePayne Middleton Doctor, age 49
Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, age 45
Rev. Daniel Simmons, Sr., age 74

Because they were bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, and spirit of our spirit we too are a suffering people. We cry out with the Psalmist “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing”. (Psalm 22: 14-18)

Not only do we hurt with the Emanuel A.M.E. Church Family, but God also suffers with us because the name Emanuel means; God is with us! Our God meets us in suffering and in death. The cross is the meeting place between God and us. The cross is the place where God experiences human suffering and the human family understands the pain of God. The wounded heart of God is revealed on the cross. Abraham Heschel has reminded us that in the prophets God experiences pain and sorrow with a feeling of intimate and loving concern because life is a partnership between God and humanity. The crucified heart of God in the New Testament is revealed through the death of Jesus Christ. This death on the cross is not only the expression of God’s love for us, but also the defiance of God against evil.

It is so easy for us as a suffering people to grow weary and inarticulate in endless despair and aborted hope that will satisfy the forces of evil; however, the Apostle Paul reminds us “to be in Christ means not only to know the fellowship of His suffering, but the power of His resurrection”; therefore, as a crucified and a resurrected people let us make a double commitment to preach a liberating gospel from the evils of racism, materialism and militarism. If we can make this commitment then we will respond to the Charleston massacre with living hope.

In 1850 Frederick Douglass, a member of Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston stood in Faneil Hall in Boston speaking as if waiting justice would never wipe sleep from his eyes. In response to his morbid message Sojourner Truth who knew the evils of slavery from personal experience, having been sold four times, and having risked her life many more times as a conductor of the underground railroad arose to her feet, and said with a commanding voice: Frederick is God dead? As true believers with Sojourner Truth let us act on the words of James Russell Lowell: “Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne, yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch [over] his own.”

Rev.Dr. J. Alfred Smith Sr., Chair
Sankofa Institute for African American
Pastoral Leadership
Oblate School of Theology
285 Oblate Drive
San Antonio, TX 78216

SANKOFA INSTITUTE FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN PASTORAL LEADERSHIP
COUNCIL OF ELDERS

Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr., Chair
Dr. Diana Hayes, STD
Rev. Dr. Dwight Hopkins, PhD
Rev. Joni Russ
Rev. Dr. Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, PhD
Rev. James Noel, PhD
S. Addie L. Walker, SSND, PhD, Director
Dr. Scott Woodward, Academic Dean, OST
Dr. Rose Marden, Associate Dean Continuing Education, OST

For additional reading:

"To Pray or to Prey: Racism, Religion and Violence in Charleston" by Rev. Willie Dwayne Francois III, Pastor of Congregational Care, First Corinthian Baptist Church of Harlem, New York, June 21, 2015

Love Note From The Senior Pastor - June 21, 2015

Dear Allen Temple Family and Friends,

I am so overwhelmed with grief that I am at a loss for words to share with you regarding the horrific terrorist attack upon Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina that resulted in the assassination of the church’s Pastor and eight other martyred saints:

The Honorable Pastor Clementa Pinckney
Reverend Sharonda Coleman-Singleton
Sister Cynthia Hurd
Sister Susie Jackson
Sister Ethel Lance
Reverend DePayne Middleton-Doctor
Brother Tywanza Sanders
Reverend Daniel Simmons, Sr.
Sister Myra Thompson

I say terrorist attack because this hateful crime was indeed an attack of terror. I say assassination because Pastor Pinckney was a state senator bringing leadership to the state of South Carolina. Let us continue to pray for the families who experienced a loss that cannot be restored, and for a beautiful church family much like our own that cannot be comforted.

This nightmare invaded our celebration of Fathers’ Day, a festive time in which we planned to come with uplifted hearts to honor the fathers of our families, our church and our community. Now this celebration takes on a different character, as we shall live out the definition of celebration put forth by the late Dr. Henri J. Nouwen, “Celebration is a mixture of tears and smiles, joy and sadness.” With this mixture of polar emotions stirring within our souls, let us yet celebrate Fathers’ Day and let us not allow a demonic terrorist attack to destroy our hope. Let us remember the words of our anthem, “Lift E’vry Voice and Sing,” penned by James Weldon Johnson in response to an era of terror for our people:

Stony the road we trod
Bitter the chast’ning rod
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died
Yet with a steady beat
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered
Out from the gloomy past
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast

Agape,

Senior Pastor J. Alfred Smith, Jr.

Allen Temple Stands With Mother Emanuel AME - June 18, 2015

Dear Allen Temple Family and Friends,

As a church family, a people of faith and the body of Christ, we share the pain and unspeakable heartbreak of and convey our love and fervent prayers to our sisters and brothers who comprise the membership of the historic Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston, South Carolina after last night's tragedy, which resulted in the passing of nine treasured, beloved Christian people, including their pastor, the Reverend Clementa Pinckney. We convey the unbroken faith and hope in our liberator and savior Jesus Christ as a healing balm in their hour of darkness. We also extend our agape love to the Right Reverend Richard F. Norris, Presiding Prelate and the Seventh District of the AME Church of South Carolina.

Tonight (June 18) at 6pm, we will gather in solidarity and support with our AME family at First AME Church of Oakland (3701 Telegraph Avenue) for a special service in memory of the nine committed Christians who lost their lives and those who have been harmed by this tragic event. Please join me there.

Let us continue to be in prayer and look to our Lord for healing and for action strategies that will ensure that these sorts of future atrocities will cease.

Agape,

Senior Pastor J. Alfred Smith, Jr.