Psalm 57 and Sojourner Truth
Psalm 57
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me!
In you my soul takes shelter;
I take shelter in the shadow of your wings
Until the destroying storm is over.
I call on God the Most High,
On God who has done everything for me,
to send help from heaven to save me,
to stop them from persecuting me.
-Selah-
O God, send me your love
and your faithfulness.
I am surrounded by lions
greedy for human prey,
their teeth are spears and arrows,
their tongue a sharp sword.
Rise high above the heavens, O God,
and let your glory cover the earth!
They laid a net where I was walking
when I was bowed with care;
they dug a pit for me
but fell into it themselves.
-Selah-
My heart is ready, O God,
my heart is ready;
I will sing and play for you.
Awake, my muse!
Awake, lyre and harp!
I will awaken the dawn!
I will thank you among the peoples, YHWH,
and sing of you among the nations;
your love is high as heaven;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Rise high above the heavens, O God,
let your glory cover the earth!
Hi! My name is Carrie and I’ll be your Vicar this evening…this evening and for a couple more months of evenings. You all know all about whole Vicar thing, I know because you had Vicar Morgan here with you until very recently…but to review…The deal is, to be a Lutheran Pastor all students must do a year as a Vicar, A Vicar Year. So, you know how on New year’s we visualize the new year as a baby new year and we say goodbye to the old year as this elderly old man? I think of the year of the vicar sorta like that. You start your Vicar year as that brand new baby Vicar – full of promise and by the end you’re the super elderly Vicar with a cane looking all tired. So I’ve done the bulk of my Vicar year, I will do the final two months with you, I’m not the baby Vicar and not quite the elderly Vicar I’m coming to Kindred kinda like a middle age Vicar. What that means is that I won’t have quite as much time with you, but I am so excited for the time we will have together. So first and foremost, thank you Pastor Ashley for your time and mentorship and thank you all for your welcome of this middle age Vicar because I am so happy to be here sharing in who Kindred is and how Kindred participates in God’s plan of healing and wholeness for all of creation.
And my very first Sunday, I get to talk about mystics! This is starting well! I love a series on mystics. Because what is a mystic? Someone with Direct knowledge of/communication with/perception of the divine. How does it get cooler than that? Christian tradition is full of these people. Past present and future. And they’re not extra holy or God’s favorites or gifted in anything in particular. But they have ears to hear and eyes to see and have direct divine experience. Sometimes we don’t hear about them in the church though because direct experience with the divine is a little scary for the church. The church seems to prefer God to stick to scripture and sacraments and leave us alone otherwise. But that does not seem to be what God prefers. Because throughout history, people have had these mystical experiences…and talked about them. Sometimes they are praised as saints foundational members of the faith like David and other times well, not as much…Spanish Inquisition comes to mind…
This evening we are taking a look at Sojourner Truth. I knew about her as an activist and speaker for abolition, equal rights and women’s right to vote. But I didn’t know this other part of her story. A real and exquisite revelation from God in which she lived and moved, that informed what she did and said. After this revelation she would never be the same…and neither would the world
Long before she was Sojourner Truth, she was a little girl born into slavery in in New York. And she was called Belle.
in the North slaves were bought and sold
same as in the south but instead of working in fields on big plantations, they worked in households or small farms doing household chores, farm work, child and elder care, cooking, cleaning, errands.
Belle grew up hearing stories from her parents of all her siblings who had been sold. 11 or 12 children.
They were all under the same stars her mother would insist, so it was almost like being together.
As a child Belle never allowed to go to any church
knew only of a distant “God” her mother told her about who lived beyond the stars and would sometimes protect you or grant you favors when you needed them.
So, Belle prayed hard for God to free her from slavery. But it never happened. God wasn’t someone she trusted or loved,
just someone who seemed to make promises that couldn’t be kept
She grew up and was married to another slave and had five children.
During this time the state of New York went back and forth abolishing slavery. They freed some slaves but not young ones, they had to work off their debt first. Whatever they did it never freed everyone for all time.
In 1826, Belle took her youngest baby and walked away from slavery never again to be owned by anyone. She liked to say she didn’t run away, which would be wrong, she simply walked away.
She and her baby found a home with a Dutch community a few towns over where they were welcomed as family.
A few months later, one day, while walking she had a vision.
She realized like a flash like lightening that God was everywhere. In everything and everyone.
There was no place she could go or imagine where God was not.
This terrified her. A holy powerful totally Foreign being who knew her inside and out was with her always and knew her sin, her weakness, her unworthiness.
She wished with all her might that there could be something between her and this holy perfection that made her feel so small, sinful and unimportant.
She returned to her house, troubled by her vision and almost immediately saw a “friend” who seemed to stand between her and God. She thought at first it was a human friend come in to comfort her.
But the closer she looked the more she realized this friend was something different. The friend seemed familiar, someone she knew…had always known.
But she couldn’t come up with this friend’s name. And so she asked with all her heart, and immediately a name came to her. Jesus. Yes, it was Jesus.
She had only heard the name a few times…and didn’t know what it meant…slaves used to yell out Jesus name when being beaten by their owners. But she never knew who this Jesus was. Now Jesus was her friend standing between her and God,
through whom love flowed like a fountain.
Then in her words…BOOK
She was surprised when she attended a Methodist campground meeting to learn that other people knew her Jesus too. This friend Jesus …BOOK
Grateful for people who knew Jesus’ love like she did, she became part of this Christian community
lived with friends, traveling here and there to find work and make a way for herself and children.
She settled in New York, working as a housekeeper and was active in many Christian communities singing and speaking in services and revivals.
As the years went by, she felt that God had other plans for her.
One day in 1843, when she was about 40 years old,
Belle heard God clearly tell her to stop being a servant for others and become a servant of God. God had shown her the truth and she was to go and share the truth with others. She prayed for God to give her a new name for this new calling, a name with special meaning, with purpose behind it.
And the moment she asked for it, a name came to her.
Sojourner Truth, “Why,” she said, “thank you God. That is a good name. You are my last Master and your name is Truth. So shall Truth be my last name until I die.”
And then she started walking.
When she would meet someone on the street or in a store - one person or a group of people
she would talk to them sharing the Truth she’d been shown.
She spoke on abolishing slavery, equal rights for all races, women’s rights, prison reform and capital punishment,
and the crowds got bigger and bigger.
She had a powerful voice and a persuasive style. Whenever she talked, people listened. They didn’t always like what they heard and she her life and safety were constantly threatened.
But true to her God-given name, Sojourner just kept walking and speaking truth, no matter who was listening. Educating, enlightening, persuading, arguing…
She angered white mobs, famous ministers at revivals,
even Frederick Douglass could not agree with her about women’s rights.
Far from intimidated, she would go on walking further and speaking louder. She traveled and spoke, even meeting presidents, Lincoln, Johnson and Grant in the service of her call from God,
Go out, and speak Truth.
As I read her story, I can’t help but think of our Psalm today. A Psalm of David. Have mercy on me, David cries, like Belle used to pray, Send help from heaven to save me to stop them from persecuting me I am surrounded by lions Greedy for human prey their teeth are spears and arrows, their tongue a sharp sword. And Belle was surely surrounded by poverty, violence, hatred, injustice. Spears and arrows tongues sharp as swords.
Then just like Belle’s life, the psalm makes a sharp turn. All of a sudden David sings: My heart is ready O God, my heart is ready. I will sing and play for you!
Awake my muse, awake lyre and harp! I will awaken the dawn.
My heart is ready. I will awaken the dawn, I will go out and speak truth. Awaken the people to a new day of enlightenment, justice, peace, love.
No longer Belle, Sojourner Truth found her voice in the gift of love and beloved identity she received from the God of love and her friend Jesus.
She went out and spoke truth not to live up to the name Sojourner Truth.
She went out and spoke truth because she was Sojourner Truth.
She didn’t do what she did to be beloved.
She did it because she was beloved.
Like David, beloved not because of what he did…but because of who he was…despite his many mistakes, a human after God’s own heart.
Like you, and me.
As the beloved child Jesus was born into this world, into a human body and a human life making all creation holy and reconciled, God has named you all beloved children, not in spite of who you are but precisely because of who you are.
As a young woman Belle walked away from slavery,
she received a revelation from God while walking.
And Sojourner walked all over the states of New York and Michigan carrying and proclaiming God’s truth.
So as the cherished beings you are…
I invite you to join into the practice of walking, moving around your neighborhood, the city and talking this week.
Walking has been a sacred practice for thousands of years. Something about the rhythmic body movement. What it does to your brain, your mind, your heart, your soul…It is centering, soothing, and makes it a little easier to hear that call, that voice, like the whisper of an intimate friend, naming you precious, beloved that voice is easy to miss in the routine, business, business of being human. But when we’re walking, just walking and listening maybe a little easier.
And then wherever you find yourself…maybe speak a little truth. We’re not all Sojourner Truth that’s not everyone’s gift. But the world could use a little truth here and there from the beloved ones. Consider it while you walk.
Thanks be to God, and Amen.
Bonus Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth - Wikipedia article on Sojourner Truth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0VqwNjbDKk – interview with Sojourner Truth biographer Nell Irvin Painter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=248qIymSJHw - Cornell history professor Margaret Washington discussed her recent major work, "Sojourner Truth's America" Oct. 12, 2009.