Redemption

On May 19, 2018, at 7a.m.  PST, I watched along with the rest of the world, what was one of the most historic and meaningful events of the 21st century.  The royal wedding of Prince Harry and the former Megan Markle.  I celebrated with the royal family and more specifically, with African American women, an event that I don’t think any of us ever thought we would see – “one of us” wed an actual prince and become an accepted and celebrated member of the royal family of Great Britain and the Duchess of Sussex.

As I write this, I realize that women everywhere celebrated this event and for varied reasons.  Working, modern women love Megan because she’s “one of us.”  A hard-working, middle-class girl who made a name for herself on her own BEFORE she married a prince.  

She is also a member of a unique sisterhood as a graduate of Immaculate Heart High School, a Catholic, all-girls High School in the  Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.  Catholic school girls, everywhere (past and present), celebrated along with Megan that again, “one of us” made good.  I celebrated along with my sisters in Christ of Immaculate Heart (I’m a graduate of St. Bernard’s High School, class of 1985), as they came out to virtually attend Megan and Harry's wedding early that Saturday morning in their sweats and fascinators.  They inspired me to create my own fascinator in a spirit of solidarity.  

I have always been a fan of Prince Harry and Megan Markle’s romance but to be honest, it took a couple of weeks and a few conversations for the full force of their union, and everything it took for their union to manifest, to settle in for me.  Their love story is more than just the story of a “commoner” marrying royalty or that of an interracial couple. Their union and specifically Megan Markle, is the culmination of almost five hundred years of history, spanning 3 continents. It redeems the contentious history of three groups – African slaves, the English and their involvement in the slave trade and Americans, black and white.  Their love story and marriage is really the story of the redemptive love of Jesus Christ.

John Hawkins was the first Englishman to engage in the slave trade when he left England in 1562 on the first of three voyages, for the sole purpose of acquiring human chattel.

From 1640 until 1807, England was a global leader in the sale of African slaves, the demand for which was fueled by the rise of sugar as a very lucrative, labor-intensive crop in the Americas. According to the British National Archives, “England, along with Portugal, became two of the most ‘successful’ slave trading countries, accounting for more than 70% of all African slaves in the Americas… an estimated 3.1 million Africans.” 

Abolitionist in England were finally successful in ending the trade with the Abolition of Slave Trade Act in 1807, which stopped the trading of slaves on British vessels.  This act was eventually passed due in part to the powerful oratory and dogged determination of William Wilberforce and the moral authority and personal testimony of John Newton.  

John Newton had a unique understanding of the horrific conditions caused by the slave trade.  Newton had been “pressed-ganged” or forced into service by the  British Royal Navy and then traded to a  slave ship, ultimately becoming captain of a vessel that trafficked slaves. One night while trying to save his ship during a violent storm, Newton had a conversion experience. He came to the conclusion that he was utterly helpless in this situation and that “only the grace of God could save him.”  

Ultimately, Newton, with the help of God, was able to bring his vessel safely home.  Based on that experience and many others, Newton gave his life to Christ and became an Anglican priest.  Today, he is probably best known for penning the lyrics to the hymn  “Amazing Grace” – where he speaks of the redemptive love of Jesus Christ that could “save a wretch” like him.

The new Duchess of Sussex is the descendant of African slaves, many of whom were brought to this country on British slave ships. According to the DailyMail.com, Megan Markle’s great, great, great grandmother, Mattie Turnipseed, was born in Jonesboro, Georgia around the time of the American Civil War.  Her 5th great grandfather, Joseph Betts, a “colored” farmer, was born in Madison, Alabama in 1820 and fought for the Union in the Civil War.

Since the 1800s, both England and the United States have inched closer to reconciling the way we treat our fellow man to the words of Jesus Christ and His mandate to “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind … and to Love thy neighbor as thyself.”  [Matt. 22:37, 39 KJV]  

In the United States, there has been an ebb and flow to this progression. We moved toward Christ's mandate with the Emancipation Proclamation, 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which freed the slaves and prohibited discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion or national origin respectively. However, we have almost always moved away from Christ's mandate immediately after, falling back into old cultural norms that at odds with the teachings of Jesus, as we did with Jim Crow laws in the south after the Civil War and the current racial hostility we see today in this country.  The United States has truly struggled with living up to the Golden Rule, but England seems to have embraced it.

I'm not saying that England has been perfect at this, but they have made a steady a progression in the right direction.  They ended slavery, first in England and then in their colonies, more than twenty years before the American Civil War, and it didn't take a war to do it.  And although there still are class distinctions in England today (and that is improving), race isn't nearly as big of an issue there as it is here in the United States.

Having visited England twice, wandering the streets of London (and getting lost most of the time) I found Anglo Londoners to be very helpful and didn't feel that being African American was in anyway a negative.  Unfortunately, I can't say that about Chicago or Los Angeles, cities that I've lived in here in the United States.  

So when I watched Megan Markle, accompanied by her mother, arrive in a horse-drawn carriage at St. Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle, and be walked down the aisle by Prince Charles, to become the lawful wedded wife of Prince Harry before God, England, and all the world, I was overwhelmed with joy and in awe of the power and faithfulness of God move the on behave of his people, to move the hearts of minds of kings. To raise up the lowly and to repair the breach, when we humble ourselves before Him. 

I rejoiced as I virtually attended their wedding, not just for Megan, but also for Sally Hemmings, who was the Thomas Jefferson's sister in law but because she was biracial and a slave, could never be Jefferson's lawful wife, even though she bore him five children and he never married another woman. I rejoiced for all of the women who are the descendants of those brought over during the slave trade, who were the mothers and lovers of Anglo men, who could not be publicly or lawfully recognized as such because of the color of their skin and the evil hearts of men.  And I rejoiced with the royal family, who over the years, have continually humbled themselves before God, making corrections when necessary, and agreed to receive and be made new, by the redemptive the Love of Jesus Christ.

Seeking "Church"

This past April, I celebrated my 49^th birthday. Not quite the big “50” but significant none the less and I wanted to do something special so I decided to take myself to London. It was my first trip abroad and I was really excited... excited for the adventure I was about to embark on... excited for seeing a new and different county, excited because I was traveling alone, something I love to do... to meander the streets finding new treasures... taking my time to take in the city.

One of my “must” stops was the Temple Church, which is the knight's Templar church that was featured in the DaVinci Code. I wanted to go there because I was looking for a connection to the early church... the first century church... because this church grew under such tremendously challenging circumstances. Crucifixion, being fed to the lions, mass murders and persecutions were par for the course for the early christian community. This is the reason the sign of the fish, the Ichthus, is used today to represent Christianity, because the ichthus was a sign used by persecuted believers to identify each other.

Drawing the sign of the fish in the dirt was a secret signal, known only to believers, that stood for Christ. It was a visual reference to Christ's miracles, Him multiplying two fish and five loaves, feeding five thousand [Jn. 6:10-13]... and then four thousand [Mark 8:1-9]... it was the only way for believers to safely reveal themselves to each other, and although I changed the spelling (someone else was using it) the ichthus, was the inspiration for this blog, “Ikthos”... a way for believers in The Way, believers in Christ, to identify one another and share their faith with one another in a safe space, where we can engage one another, nurture one another and truly be that “body fitly joined together, joint supplying joint” [Ephesians 4:16]

What I found among the effigies and stone and stain glass was a living church steeped in tradition. The majority of the service was sung, as the early church and even the Latin Roman Catholic mass was sung. The Temple Church was consecrated in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary on February 10, 1185AD by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem and has existed continuously. The feeling of history was palpable, however, I believe the service I attended, was very different than the services attended by the early christian believer.

The early church during Roman oppression, met in private homes, catacombs and as Justin Martyr replies to his interrogator Rusticus, the Roman Prefect, “Wherever it is each one’s preference or opportunity....” ¹ This was a church under seige... where being revealed as a member could get you put in prison, tortured, interrogated and ultimately killed... and yet it grew.

After Constantine “converted” (I'm not sure he converted to Christianity or if he converted Christianity for his own purposes), the reverse became true. If you didn't accept Christ, join the church (and at that time there was only one) and worship exactly as they said, you could be tortured and/or killed. If you dare have a difference of opinion or a unique experience that differed from what was taught to be the norm, you could literally loose your life. One would think we've come a long way... or have we?

There's much to be learned from the past. And although events and circumstances have changed our society... what we know and in many cases, what we as modern believers find important, the truth of the Gospel, the Good News, never really changes because people, the one constant throughout history, never change. We never loose the need to be loved, unconditionally. We have never and will never be perfect so we will always have a need to be perfected, and that is what the love of God, in the person of Christ Jesus does. He perfects that which concerns us. [Psalms 138:] In every way. In our body He heals, for he is the balm of Gilead. He gives sight to the blind and raises the dead. In our hearts, for he heals the brokenhearted and in our mind He frees us from fear by giving us the spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind” 2 Tim 1:7. And yet we have movements within modern Christendom, that want to make the church be more “seeker friendly” as if those who seek Christ today are really any different than those who sought Him when He walked the streets of Galilee. Zacchaeus, the short tax collector in Jericho who climbed the tree so he could see Jesus, didn't have any greater need to “see Jesus” than any other vertically challenged person would today, except Zacchaeus made the effort... he labored to “see”. And I don't believe Jesus responds to us today with any less graciousness or love than he did to Zacchaeus. If we make the effort, Jesus shows up, and He dines with us... he heals our hearts, stills our minds and nourishes our spirit... or at least that has been my experience.

Although, my visit to the Temple Church was special, something I'll remember, it was my experience at St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle that moved me to tears. I was there the week after Easter, and there was a very simple, very large cross with a large crown of thorns draped over the top, hanging over the alter. It looked like it had been created with builder's lumber, not artistic or polished or “beautiful” by any modern aesthetic, but more beautiful than anything in either church because it represented the love... what Christ was willing to do for us... what God was willing to sacrifice for us... God's labor of love for us. There is no need to make our faith any more “seeker friendly” because Christ has sought us. The work to get us to God is done. It is finished.

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¹Christianity Today, “Where Did Christians Worship?” by Christopher Haas. Issue 37

http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-37/where-did-christians-worship.html