by Marjorie D. Grevious, Evangelist for Spiritual Healing
Watch the sermon recording on YouTube.
GOOD MORNING and Welcome to Black History Month 2026. I want to begin this morning by offering you some overlooked Black history facts. Please do not worry, I am going to talk about IT. If you will allow me, what seems like a tangent, we will get to where we need to go.
Josephine Baker was a dazzling dancer, singer, and actress who rose to fame in Paris during the Jazz Age, famous for her banana skirt dance and unique stage presence. During World War II, she worked as an intelligence officer for the French Resistance. Using her celebrity status she gathered secrets and smuggled messages against the Nazis, earning her high military honors from the French. She created a family known as the “Rainbow Tribe” by adopting 12 children of different nationalities and races, symbolizing her dream of universal brotherhood. She actively fought segregation in America: She refused to perform for segregated audiences, spoke at the March on Washington, and inspired global movements for equality. Her wartime espionage and unwavering activism against racism demonstrated immense bravery and commitment to justice, making her an honored figure in France and the U.S.
Georgia Gilmore organized Black women to sell pound cakes, sweet potato pies, plates of fried fish with greens, and pork chops with rice & gravy at beauty salons, laundromats, cab stands, and churches. She reinvested that money into the 381 day, city-wide Montgomery bus boycott to desegregate public transportation. She called her fundraising group The Club from Nowhere which acted as the blueprint for future fundraising efforts in the civil rights movement. When she lost her job due to her political beliefs Rev Martin Luther King Jr. along with others helped her create a restaurant in her home, where he and many others would meet to gather, eat, and strategize.
JoAnn Robinson was president of the Women’s Political Council and a pivotal organizer of the Montgomery bus boycott. She taught at Alabama State College where she and her students drafted, typed, and mimeographed (young people ask your parents or grandparents about the hand-cranked mimeograph copy machine) 52,000 copies of flyers, that they then distributed throughout the community informing them of the coming bus boycott.
Beulah Mae Donald is the mother of Michael Donald, a victim of a lynching. On March 21, 1981–19yr old Michael Donald was kidnapped in Mobile Alabama. He was beaten, throat cut and his body was hung from a tree. Even after four men were convicted of this crime, one of whom faced the electric chair, Mrs. Donald knew that there was a larger entity responsible for this heinous act of violence and terror. With the help of Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Mrs. Donald filed a wrongful death suit in 1984. In 1987 an all white jury decided to hold responsible, not only the individuals involved, but also the entire organization of the United Klan of America, also known as the KKK, or the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was ordered to pay a $7million dollar wrongful death verdict. It effectively bankrupted the organization causing them to sell their headquarters in order to pay the settlement to Mrs. Donald. This lawsuit became precedent for civil legal action against other racist hate groups in America, and shows us that a mother’s love knows no bounds.
If, like me, you have been wondering what to do at a time like this, in the midst of the evolving resistance in response to the violent occupation of our local communities—If, like me, you have sat at home overwhelmed by what you are seeing, hearing and learning as our own government turns violent forces against not only those who seek protection within our borders, but also its own citizens and — If, like me, you have sat home feeling disempowered because you are unable to take part in the amazing and growing public revolution alongside our fellow citizens— please remember that we are all called to do something, even if we cannot march on the frontlines. Today’s old testament scripture in Malachi reads in part: He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you: but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
I chose these specific stories from Black History to show that we are not all called to march in public protests like the courageous and righteous human rights warriors who stand on the frontline and face down those who would oppress, crush, and yes, even kill us. But we are all meant to use our skills, talents, resources, and abilities in the cause of justice to show loving kindness in our humble walk with God. I love the quote by Dr. Cornel West when he stated ‘justice is what love looks like in public’.
This scripture in Malachi reminds us that: He has told you, O mortal, what is good. We learn what is good and right when we are children. There is no human rights worker more fierce than a kindergartener who witnesses wrongdoing in a classmate. They do not hesitate to call out the wrong, and then do what it takes to correct that action. It sometimes creates tears of overwhelming emotion which often ends in hugs of reassurance and care. Who among us is called to hug, wipe tears, encourage, or offer resources for bail money and legal counsel to those who are at the front? Like Josephine Baker, how do we use our talent, abilities, and privileges of access and opportunity to possibly inform strategy in the movement? Who do we know? What can we learn? And how does that move us all towards justice?
I have been home these last few weeks feeling lost as to what I should do in this very obvious call to do justice, in protecting the dignity of my fellow human beings and our inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As a christian person, I know that I am called as a disciple of Christ to do what is right in the face of wrongdoing. Even as I may feel inadequate in body, resources, and understanding. I take courage in these stories that I share with you today. Malcolm X said in a speech: “The black woman has been the most exploited, oppressed, and degraded person in the history of the world, and still, she remains the most resilient, resourceful, and dignified woman in the world”.
The very infrastructure of one of the most successful movements of the civil rights era, The Montgomery Bus Boycott, was built by Black women, whose names are no longer recounted, or remembered. Ms. Georgia Gilmore was not an educated woman, but she was a very talented cook. She knew right from wrong and knew she had to do what she could to change the discrimination she and many others faced everyday and make it right. She organized the cooking skills of many other women to join hers in becoming a significant funder of the movement. When she lost her job due to her passionate activism, the community recognized her value and turned her home into a restaurant and safe haven for planning and strategy.– Resistance can look like feeding the community, caring for the community, creating safe space for community, while gathering the resources needed for the movement.
JoAnn Robinson used her position and influence as an educator and community leader to educate, equip and motivate her young students to create and distribute tens of thousands of flyers long before computers, emails, and fast copy machines existed.– How do we teach and prepare the younger generations to show love by practicing justice?
Beulah Mae Johnson in the depths of the worst grief possible, the loss of her youngest child, kept asking questions until someone helped her find answers. Those answers led her to cripple one of the largest hate organizations of domestic terror in our nation’s history, setting a standard on what will no longer be tolerated by oppressed Black citizens living in the deep south.– Are we, today, asking the right questions and holding accountable those in power, so they are challenged, motivated, inspired, or forced to do what is right for the dignity and well being of all people?
Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians is a corrective, pastoral letter addressing divisions, immorality, and doctrinal confusion in the Corinthian church. It calls for unity in Christ,and highlights love as the central, guiding principle for using spiritual gifts. Today’s epistle in Corinthians reads in part: Consider your own call, brothers, sisters, and siblings: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world– to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. God is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Minnesotans bent towards justice have set a new standard in our nation, and in the world on how to react to an invasion of injustice, wrongdoing, and oppression. Our community has demonstrated the power of love by redefining who and what are powerful, and just how weak supposed power really is against the force of righteousness.
It is the simple act of restaurant owners like Tomme Beevas and Tracy Wong who opened their doors on Eat street in south Minneapolis to demonstrators as a safe place to get out of the path of tear gas, bullets and other acts of violence. They offered them water, food, warmth, and care. It is our fellow citizens who bundled their children up last Friday and brought them out to a peaceful March with tens of thousands of others so they learned what justice looked like in public- They filled the streets and skyways with others who took a righteous stance against a campaign of fear. It is my neighbors near Lake Nokomis who spelled out a message by candlelight seen from airplanes on high. It is the countless others who did the organizing, phone calling, and resource gathering to take care of those in hiding whose basic needs must be met.
Ask yourself: What is my gift, knowledge, access, opportunity, privilege, connections, influence, or resources that I can lend to the cause of goodness, decency, and justice? Who can I call, boycott, or support? Where can I donate my time, talent, and money? I end today with a portion of the gospel from the beatitudes in Matthew that reads:
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, –for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
This work, this call is not new. We may be new to it, but since the word has been written and passed down we are all called to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God. Even after this occupation ends the healing and reparations will take years of sincere lovingkindness, and continued acts of compassion and care on our part. Let us rise as disciples of Christ, and redefine what it means to BE a Christian and be about the work of the Lord.
Amen
