Scripture: Deuteronomy 26:16-19
The last few days have been nothing less than extraordinary. President Joe Biden ended his campaign for re-election and fully endorsed his Vice President, Kamala Harris, as the democratic nominee. The democratic party leadership commended his decision and endorsed his selection of Vice President Harris as the party’s presumptive nominee.
It is unprecedented that such a selfless act of putting party and country over personal ambition has been seen in modern history. It is also unprecedented that an African American/Asian Pacific Islander Women could become the nominee of a major political party.
Young voters between the ages of 25-40, African American voters, college educated voters, women voters, Hispanic voters, LBGQ2 voters and independent voters have all been energized by President Biden’s decision to endorse Vice President Harris as the party’s nominee.
Since her nomination, she has raised more than $81 million dollars in her first 24 hours, a historical record for presidential campaign fundraising. When the question was asked of the Rev. Al Sharpton whether or not the country was ready for a woman president in general and an African American woman in particular, Rev. Sharpton said the question is not if the country is ready, the question is if we are ready for an African American woman president? The people, Rev. Sharpton, still hold that power.
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That was also the question for the Israelites in the text – were they ready to live as free people with their own self-interest at heart? Slavery, sisters and brothers, not only has a devastating and damming effect on the body – chains, & shackles, & scars – but it also has a devastating and damming effect on the physic even more so. God had delivered the Hebrew people from physical bondage and now was delivering them from psychological bondage.
The only life they had lived was in Egyptian bondage. Now they had been freed from that bondage and needed to be freed from the chains & shackles & scars that were still on their physic, still on their minds. The Lord gave Moses these instructions to give to the people that they might live as free people as He created them and desired from them to live.
They were to obey all the commands, decrees, and regulations that the Lord their God had given them with their whole heart (v.16). They were to love God, and neighbor as themselves. They were to have no other gods before the Lord their God. They were to remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.
They were to honor their mothers and their fathers. They were not to murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, nor covet anything that belonged to their neighbor (Deuteronomy 5:6-21). That’s how the people whom the Lord had freed were to live.
Then Moses told them that they were to walk in the ways of the Lord and do everything He tells them to do (v.17). They were to do what the Lord required of them; to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8).
And then Moses told them, that they were to remember that the Lord was their God, and they were His people. They were a special treasure just as He had promised their ancestors (v.18).
Brothers and sisters, we must remember that we are a special treasure to God, created in His image and likeness. We are treasures in earthen vessels and no matter what we have done, or what has been done to us, we are a special treasure to God and slavery, nor segregation, nor systemic racism can tarnish or take that away from us. Remember that we are somebody and that we must act like we are somebody in our own self-interest.
The final thing that Moses told them was that if they were ready to do what the Lord was asking of them, then the Lord would set them high above all the other nations that He had made. Then they would receive praise, and honor, and renown. Then they would be a nation that was holy to the Lord their God, just as He had promised (v.19).
It was the African American artist Kofi Bailey who in 1970 designed the poster for the Voter Education Project depicting Black hands picking cotton that read, “The hands that picked cotton now can pick our public officials.”
It was the Rev. Jesse Jackson in his January 17, 2009 article in The British Newspaper, The Observer, entitled, “Hands That Picked Cotton Now Pick Presidents. It’s a new day for the US,” who said that: “Barack Obama’s inauguration as America’s first black president will be a magnificent moment in the decades-long race for civil rights, both in America and around the world. For so many, Barack represents hope against cynicism… He symbolizes redemption in the face of a sordid past. It’s the dawning of a new era. Barak will stand on many famous shoulders; Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandella, but also the millions of nameless, faceless people who made his victory possible. From villages in Kenya to neighborhoods in Kansas, his inauguration will be celebrated.”
Barack’s election, Jackson went on to say, is an expression of the idea of a grand, multiracial gathering. The coalition included 95% of the African American vote, two-thirds of the Latino and youth vote, huge majorities among Asian American Native Americans and among Jewish voters and Arab-American voters.
The real question is not are we ready, the real question is are we ready to do it again? Are we ready for the Lord’s commands, and decrees, and regulations that Vice President Kamala Harris is posing?
And if we are, America will be set high above other nations that the Lord has made. If we are, the nation will receive praise, and honor, and renown. If we are, our nation will be a nation that is holy to the Lord God Almighty, just as the Lord promised.
In the next chapter after Moses had given these instructions and pronounced curses upon the failure to obey the instructions that he had given, the people resoundingly and repeatedly said Amen, and Amen, and Amen! (Deut. 27: 15-26).
Are we ready to do it again? In Jesus Name, Amen!
