God Of The Oppressed
Opening
“Christians join the cause of the oppressed and the fight for justice not because of some philosophical principle on the good nature of God or feelings of sympathy for oppressed people. The authentic identity of Christans with the poor is found in the claim that Jesus, and an encounter with Jesus, lays upon our own lifestyle a connection with the poor and a responsibility to liberate them. Christians do not fight merely for humanity in general, but they fight for themselves out of their love for the oppressed.” - James Cone
James Cone coined the term Black Theology.
We, as African-Americans, have contributed to the theological story our own great reflection of God’s great work in the Earth through us. What Cone is trying to do is say to a generation of people (which Pastor Charlie is also saying now): Black people know God and we better start speaking up about the God who has been with us through our oppression, brought us through it, and is yet liberating us today.
James Cone’s words are helpful to us because they focus our attention on the liberating nature of God.
God has given us a mind to help Him and help humanity.
The Scripture speaks of a God that is concerned about people who live on the margins - so much so that God will intervene in time & space, stepping out of His eternal nature, to squeeze Himself into time and speak language humans understand so that we can be free & live in the fullness on who He made us to be.
God sometimes shows up unexpected, unannounced and unrequested to change us and to change the world through us.
Sermon Key Points
You don’t come to discover who you are until you come to discover who God is.
When we meet Moses in Exodus 3, we have to appreciate the stage that has been set for him from Exodus 2.
Moses was an infant whose basket was guided by the hand of God until it landed by the ‘desk’ of Pharaoh's daughter
Moses was raised up as a Hebrew in the palace.
Although Moses was raised up in an Egyptian luxurious environment, he never lost sight of who he was (a Hebrew).
Moses did the wrong thing for the right reason by murdering someone. He ended up fleeing to the wilderness.
You may be born with particular potential but that potential will never be developed apart from a wilderness.
You will never be great for God until God is able to break you down spiritually and psychologically and develop you in that way.
Moses spent 40 years on the backside of a mountain because God was preparing him!
God was extracting from him his egocentricity.
God was pulling out of him his self-reliance and his pride.
God was building into him a form of dependence on God.
You may be in a desert of devastation on your own.
You may have thought by now you would be married with kids.
You may have thought by now you would be making money in the best way.
You may have thought by now you would be living life to the fullest in every category.
Your best days are not behind you because you feel like you’re in a wilderness. Your future stands brighter, better and stronger than you ever have known before.
Moses has been tortured by both the dangers of the desert and his inward regret.
Moses felt he put himself in that situation. The memory becomes more painful than the event itself.
However, that wilderness and that dark place serves a purpose in your development under the hand of God.
In other words: God has but one way to get you ready for what God has ready for you!
Nothing is wrong with you because you feel like you’re in a desert. Actually, something may be right with you because God likes to hide people in obscurity, to bury the best in them, until he nurtures them and matures them and allows that to grow out of them.
Your best is in you, you just have not seen it yet.
Opportunity stalks preparation.
When you are being prepared, the opportunity is going to come before you where God will show off everything that He put inside of you!
God initiates preparation.
Black America has never been so fragile. We do not know the God of our fathers & mothers like we used to. We have moved so far from the 1960s morally.
Instead of falling in love with the word of God, we fall in love with wine and weed.
Now that we can buy it out in the open, we spend more time anesthetizing ourselves freely from the pain.
Although we have more money and cars than our grandparents have ever imagined, we have made less progress than they have because we have fallen in love with the wrong things.
Stop living your life for you and spend it on the liberation of somebody else.
Do this because God is concerned about these issues.
It was the oppression of the people that makes God move closer to calling Moses. Moses’ call is not for Moses’ self - but Moses' call is for the deliverance of an oppressed people.
What if God lets you go to school because He has been hearing the cries of people who need the benefit of your education.
What if God let you get some money and talent (experience greatness), not so you can get famous but so you can inspire others.
You find meaning in life not in what you amassed but because of what you can give away.
God showed up to Moses in the form of a burning bush (a bush in flames that was not burning/smoking).
Moses is 80 years old and he probably feels like a bush that cannot burn anymore. But, God is saying to Moses, I can take tired/old bushes and make them burn again!
Can you remember in your mind what day God showed up in your life as an unannounced/unexpected visit?
We have to show God some respect. We need to praise Him not because we feel like it, but because He is worthy!
Pastor Charlie wonders how explosive our churches would be if God felt respected when we came into His house.
God’s holiness creates the bounds for His liberation. We cannot march for every cause that is not righteous.
God is the God who brings us through (that’s when even through slavery, we trusted Him).
Jesus shows up and is a representation of what “I AM WHO I AM” means. He died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He is God: 100% human and 100% God.
