February 20, 1895

Yes!

February 20, 1895!
So what is so special about that particular date?
Well, I found it mentioned and thought it appropriate to mention here as well especially since we are coming to the close of Black History Month and even more especially considering some of the current climate in our society these days.
February 20, 1895 is the day that Frederick Douglas died.
I found that mentioned in a reflection on him and his life in a little monthly devotional to which I subscribe. The monthly is Give Us This Day and it is published by Liturgical Press.
So, as I reflected on what was written about Frederick Douglas, I began to wonder how many are even familiar with that name. How many know this particular and important piece of United States History?
Frederick Douglas?
Oh - wasn't he that slave?
You know - the one who . . . ???
Indeed, he was that slave, for the first twenty years of his life he was a slave, mistreated, beaten, forced to endure and witness some terrible cruelties at the hands of his masters, folks who professed to be Christians and who found justification for their behavior in their religion.
Mr. Douglas came to conclude that this was a blasphemous distortion of the Gospel.
He managed to escape to freedom and eventually became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. From his pulpit he preached strong words against churches that supported slavery and fostered racism. In his writings he captured this thought while declaring, "Between the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference."
I strikes me that we need to hear those word even still today.
They call us to examine our own living of our faith.
How closely do our daily lives truly reflect what we hear from our pulpits on Sunday?
Last weekend, this and the next - our three weekends before this year's Lent, we are hearing some very strong words from Jesus, from Luke's Gospel, chapter 6, the section called the sermon on the Plain.
These are not just words about racism but about the whole way we order our lives, about the values we hold, the things we count as important. They are challenging words but words that Jesus intends to be taken seriously.
Jesus intends that these words are embodied in our lives  - no compromise, no watering down!
As we hear these words of Jesus, we should find cause for reflection, for examination.
Between the Christianity of my life and the Christianity of Christ, how wide is the difference?
We may be discovering our Lenten call to action!
A preacher who passed some hundred and twenty-four years ago speaks to us today and  calls us to listen carefully to a Preacher who spoke words of life some two millennia ago.
Listen!
And more importantly, take seriously!