How can we exercise our faith? Hope. Serve. Witness.

Good morning 3rd Street Bethel. I greet you this morning with the Love of Jesus. To pastor, Rev. Reuben J. Boyd, Mrs. Sonya Boyd, officers members and friends, greetings. And to our wonderful WMS President Sis. Pender, thank you for this opportunity to share some good news today. My scripture reference for today is Matthew 14:1-21. I will lift up this passage in my message today, but for now I will highlight verses 13 and 14. 13 When Jesus heard what had happened (to John the Baptist), he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Let us pray: Dear God, You are the triune God. /Thank you for bringing us together today to worship and grow in our service to you. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share some good news today. As I stand before your people, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight Oh Lord you are my strength and my redeemer. Go with each of us and give us the strength to hope, to serve and to witness. Amen. The United States of America is in a constant state of National Trauma. Slavery, Jim Crow, Bloody Sunday, 16th Street Baptist Church, Little Rock 9, 9/11, Columbine, Sandy Hook, Trayvon, Sandra Bland, Emmanuel AME Church, Flint, Pulse, Virginia Beach, El Paso, and even Dayton. Unfortunately, most of these occurrences have faded from the headlines and El Paso and Dayton will soon fade from the headlines, but their impact is woven into the United States experience and our own personal memories. The places, people, and events that I just named have caused collective, national trauma. For those of us who have the capacity to care, the capacity to empathize and the capacity to love when terrible things happen, we grieve. While some people might ignore or even try to forget about these traumatic events, none of us can escape the impact that they have on our country, our thoughts, our emotions, or even our faith. Just last week a motorcycle backfired in Times Square and the crowd ran to try and find safety. This collective response to the motorcycle backfiring demonstrates how traumatic events affect us. We might not run like the people in Times Square, but we have a response. So followers of Christ and missionaries, I pose this question: How do we exercise our faith when trauma is all around? Before I answer that question, I must admit, I had a totally different topic planned for today, but after the tragedies in El Paso and Dayton last weekend, I had to face my own emotions and really think about the impact tragedies have on me. So I prayed and asked for strength and guidance. As I prayed, I was directed to the mission of the Women’s Missionary Society which states “ We are called to strengthen our faith and to continue the mission of Jesus Christ by service and witness in the world.” Despite what is happening, while we are still in the land of the living, we have a charge to keep. So going back to the question, how do we exercise our faith when trauma is all around us? First, don’t let hope die. When we don’t have hope it’s hard to pray. When we don’t have hope, it’s hard to serve. When we don’t have hope, it’s even hard to love. When we lose hope we can’t actively pursue what possible. I know it is easy to lose hope in a world where trauma is constant, but we have to believe that trauma is not our ultimate, it’s not the end. Despite what tragic events happen around us or to us, we have to “Keep Hope Alive.” Without hope we can’t fulfill our duty as followers of Christ and as missionaries, to serve and spread the Good news. I was only seven years old when Rev. Jessie Jackson gave the now famous, “Keep Hope Alive!” speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. I vividly remember the speech because I heard a voice through the television screen that was familiar. He had the cadence of preachers I’d heard in churches in the backwoods of Arkansas. His phraseology and his message of hope resonated with my seven-year-old self in ways no one else on the big screen had ever done. He was familiar. By the time I’d heard Rev. Jackson, even though I was only 7 at the time of the speech, messages of hope were already imbedded in my psyche. I’d already heard mantras such as “trouble don’t last always” and “all I got is a hope and a prayer”. At church, I’d dragged songs such as “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” which explicitly speaks about hope. I’d heard prayers that started with ”Oh, God my help in ages past, my hope for years to come.” I knew as a small girl that hope is present, and hope is also future. Let’s go back to Rev. Jackson’s speech. In one part of his speech, Rev. Jackson says: You must never stop dreaming. Face reality, yes, but don’t stop with the way things are. Dream of things as they ought to be. Dream. Face pain, but love, hope, faith and dreams will help you rise above the pain. Use hope and imagination as weapons of survival and progress, but you keep on dreaming. Rev. Jackson’s call to action was to “keep hope alive.” This phase indicates that there is a possibility that hope can wither away, so we have to renew our hope through the renewing of our minds. In times when our hope begins to fade, as followers of Christ, we must remember that Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. We can call out Hallelujah! Thine the glory, Revive our hope again. So as we fulfill the missionary mission, let’s exercise our faith by not losing hope. Even when collective, national trauma is all around we have to keep. hope. Alive. HOPE! Let’s go back to the missionary mission again “We are called to strengthen our faith and to continue the mission of Jesus Christ by service and witness in the world.” The key word is SERVICE. No going back to the original question: How do we exercise our faith when trauma is all around? Not only do we keep hope alive we also practice our faith by serving others as our mission says. Hope is very personal and it is a product of our thoughts, but service is about what we’re doing for others. I’m going to share a little secret that you might be familiar with and then I’m going to share a story of service. Here’s the secret. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, experienced trauma before He went to the cross. So here’s the story. There once lived a man named John the Baptist. John the Baptist was related to Jesus, and as we say in the country, He was kin to him on his mama’s side. The Bible says that Mary and Elizabeth, Jesus and John the Baptist’s mothers were pregnant at the same time. When Mary visited Elizabeth and told Elizabeth that she was pregnant, John the Baptist leaped for joy even in his mother's womb. So, John and Jesus had a very close relationship, even as they grew up to be young men. John the Baptist even baptized Jesus. As a young adult, John the Baptist, like many people then and many people now, met a tragic fate. He became a victim of mistaken identity, injustice, and imprisonment. While he was in prison, he even met his fate at the hands of King Herod. When the news about John the Baptist’s death reached Jesus, Jesus was traumatized. His response was like many of us when something bad happens. He needed to get away from everyone. So Jesus went out on a boat, alone, to grieve and get himself together. However, His alone time didn’t last long. When people in the surrounding towns heard about Jesus being in the area, they walked to where He was. Many of these people believe John the Baptist was a prophet, so they were in a state of shock. The townspeople did what they should have done during their time of distress, they trusted Jesus and went to him for help and healing. When Jesus saw the people, He knew there was collective grief. Just imagine a large group of people, all full of emotions, coming to one place to get some answers and get help in their time of distress. When Jesus saw the people, he felt compassion and empathy and He began to heal heal the sick, the dispossessed, the grieving, the traumatized people. Although Jesus was dealing with his own emotions, he still found time to serve the people. Jesus could have stayed down and alone, but he knew that the people needed Him, so he fulfilled His call to serve. Jesus' pain deepened his purpose. His service purpose. After Jesus served these townspeople, he went on to do some amazing work. Service work. If we are followers of Jesus and missionaries, we also have a duty to serve. Jesus' own death and resurrection should be a catalyst for our own service, and this service should be a way of life. So, I must confess, throughout the course of my life, missionaries, more specifically AME missionaries, and their service to me and the broader world, have made my life better. For example, servant leader and AME missionary Clara Moore gave me and many children in my hometown brown paper bags full of treats every Christmas. Servant leader and AME missionary Ella Levine made sure I had hot home cooked meals and a ride to and from church when I was a student at Texas Tech. Servant leader and AME missionary Joyce Humphrey invited me into her home every time a hurricane came through Tampa. Servant leader and AME missionary Margaret Jones taught me how to effectively lead with a servant's heart during my time in Little Rock. Servant leader and AME missionary Supervisor Cordelia Mitchell provided an opportunity for me to travel as a missionary to South Africa. And here in Richmond servant leader and AME missionary President Lynada Pender gave me this opportunity to stand before you today. While these stories are personal, I tell them because no act of service is too small. If we help somebody, then our living will not be in vain. As missionaries, we can’t limit our service to what we plan in a meeting, but service, more specifically Christ led service, is a way of life. A way of life that is also a form of worship. Through our service, we worship God and exercise our faith. Now, let’s review the AME missionary mission again, “We are called to strengthen our faith and to continue the mission of Jesus Christ by service and witness in the world.” So I ask again, how do we show our love and exercise our faith when trauma is all around? The last charge in the mission is Witness. What does it mean to witness? Being a witness isn’t a silent task, but we all have to open our hearts and mouths and tell others that we serve an awesome God. A God that never leaves or forsakes us. A God that gives hope to the hopeless. A God that turns grief into goodness. A God that turns fear into favor. A God that turns trauma into triumph. This is what we must witness. After Jesus healed the people after John the Baptist died, He and the townspeople did like many of us are going to do after this service, they had a meal. Jesus blessed the food, two fish and five loaves of bread, and everyone dined sufficient, as my mother would say. Some might argue that John the Baptist’s death was the catalyst for Jesus to work hard to fulfill his calling. He began to perform miracle after miracle, and through his service, the people he helped then shared the Good news of Jesus. My 5th great-grandmother who’s mentioned in my bio was a witness for the Lord. She knew first hand about the liberating power of Jesus to free her from the bond of traumatic enslavement. She made it her mission to witness and share the good news. She along with others in the community organized camp meetings where people from all over Arkansas would come and hear about God's goodness. The travelers would bring food, camp out in the community, and worship. To this day, the area where they worshipped is affectionately known as Campground. I know that the same God that gave my ancestor hope and freedom, the God who helped her serve, and The God who gave her a reason to witness, is the same God today. Our witness starts with God and ends with God. The Author and Finisher of our faith and service. The Alpha and Omega. The First and the Last. The Beginning and the End. We are mere vessels doing our missionary service and in the process we have a responsibility to share our faith. So since I have the opportunity to witness to you today, I will share how good the Lord has been to me. The fact that I am here today to share what the Lord has given me is a miracle. Only through God's power am I able to overcome my fear of public speaking and share the good news today. Only through the power of the holy spirit can I turn trauma into triumph and pain into power. Only through the power of the Holy spirit can I serve with the love of God. Only through the power of the Holy Spirit can I tell you that: Trouble or Trauma Don’t Last Always I can tell you that You might cry all night but joy will comes in the morning I can tell you that The Lord is my light and savior and I will not be afraid I can tell you that When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil I can tell you that God is a very present help in time of trouble I can tell you that Jesus lived a life of service, He went to calvary hung bled and died for you and me, He rose again will all Power in His hands. This same Jesus transformed his own trauma and gifted us with power. Power to hope, power to serve and power to witness! Before I take my seat, Imagine a world where no one has hope. Imagine a world where no one serves or helps others. Imagine a world where followers of Christ refuse to feed the hungry, clothe the naked or take care of the widows. Imagine a world where followers of Christ refuses to seek justice or walk humbly. Imagine a world where no missionary witnesses or no follower of Christ shares the Good News. This is not a world I want to be a part of. So again I ask, how do we exercise our faith when trauma is all around us? Hope, Serve, and Witness. So my challenge to each of you today is to keep hope alive, find time to serve because no act of service is too small, and please witness. Tell someone what you heard today, share your testimony and spread some good news. In the Name of the Triune God, May the Spirit of Christian Missions Enter Every Heart, May the Spirit of Christian Missions, Enter Every Heart. This We Ask In Jesus' Name. Amen.