The doors of the church are open. Good morning, Saints!
Hallelujah, praise Black Jesus on this 15th day of Black History Month. Beloved children of the sun, I want you to turn to your neighbor and say, Neighbor… God made me Black on purpose!
Not as a struggle. Not as a lesson. But as a DIVINE FLEX. Because if god wanted basic, god would’ve stopped at one color.
But the lord said: add a spectrum. Add melanin. Add 4C coils, 4B crowns, 4A halos, 3C spirals, 3B curls, 3A waves and every texture telling its own story of survival and beauty.
Y’all ain’t ready for me to preach this morning!
The lord said: Add rhythm. Add brilliance. Add style nobody else can copy and still look right.
Add language that can cut, heal, and testify in the same sentence. Add presence that changes the temperature of a room. Add JOY that shows up even when the world bets against it.
Add soul deep enough to carry ancestors and futures at the same time. Add genius that turns pressure into invention, art, science, and sound. Add spirit that keeps rising no matter how many times history tried to bury us.
Add Nat Turner’s holy fire that says god did not create us for chains. Add Toussaint Louverture’s war mind. Add Sojourner Truth’s divine clapback. Add Ida B. Wells’ holy vengeance in ink. Add Malcolm X peeping out the window with that M1 Carbine rifle. Add Huey P. Newton’s armed dignity. Add Fred Hampton’s revolutionary love.
Add the backbone of every revolutionary who decided survival was not enough. Add Cinqué from Amistad who shouted “GIVE US FREE!” Add the courage of the ones who fought back on ships, in fields, in forests, in courtrooms, and in the streets.
Add the spirit of every ancestor who looked Empire in the face and said, You will not own my soul. Add the legacy of every freedom fighter who made resistance a love language for future generations.
Come now all the ancestors who refused to die quietly!
Come now all the grandmothers who prayed danger off their children. Come now all the grandfathers who walked through terror and still taught us how to stand straight. Come now all the rebels, all the healers, all the builders, all the fighters, all the truth-tellers. Come stand in this room with us. Come stand in our voices. Come stand in our bones.
And if you ain’t Black, turn to your neighbor and say, Neighbor… I thank Black Jesus that I get to witness this divine creativity up close. Thank you lord for the blessing!
Because some of y’all know you been borrowing the seasoning, the slang, and the rhythm your whole life anyway.
I did not come here to play with Y’all on this Sunday morning.
Because all this Black glory, all this ancestral power, all this celebration is not just for shouting. It is for seeing. It is for discerning. It is for knowing the difference between power and righteousness. Between performance and truth. Between respectability and justice.
Because Black liberation theology does not just teach us how to survive evil. It teaches us how to recognize it even when it is polished. Even when it is credentialed. Even when it is smiling at us from a podium. See, our ancestors did not just pray for deliverance. They prayed for sight. Sight to know when oppression learned new language. Sight to know when harm learned how to sound reasonable.
And that is why we can’t just celebrate Blackness. We have to understand what Black survival has trained us to see. Because when you come from people who survived ships, chains, auctions, lynch mobs, red lines, and mass incarceration, you learn how to clock danger in a whisper.
You learn how to read tone. You learn how to read body language. You learn how to read what people don’t say. That is spiritual intelligence. That is liberation sight. That is Holy Ghost pattern recognition.
And that is why when the world sees professionalism, sometimes we see deflection. When the world sees composure, sometimes we see distance from human suffering. When the world sees authority, sometimes we see who the authority is really protecting.
Turn to your neighbor and say, Neighbor… evil don’t always scream. Now turn to your other neighbor and say, Neighbor… sometimes evil wears lip gloss.
Beloved children of the sun, sometimes evil sounds educated, calm, and very reasonable. Sometimes evil testifies. Sometimes evil redirects. Sometimes evil says, “Let’s focus on something else.”
Sometimes evil minimizes the scale of harm with technical language. Sometimes evil treats survivors like background noise. Sometimes evil protects institutions first and asks victims to wait their turn. Sometimes evil performs outrage about everything but the actual abuse. Sometimes evil uses time, process, and procedure to drain urgency out of justice.
Sometimes evil looks in the direction of victims, and then starts shouting about the stock market like profit matters more than pain. And Saints, that is why some of us sat this week and watched the United States Attorney General Pam Bondi and recognized the pattern when conversation brushed up against the suffering connected to the world that protected Jeffrey Epstein.
But Saints, the Bible already told us what that spirit looks like.
Isaiah 1:15–17 says: “When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”
God says don’t bring me your tired-ass speeches if you won’t bring me justice. Don’t sing to me while you steppin’ over the wounded. Don’t pray to me while you’re out here protecting the powerful. Keep my name out yo’ mouth while you’re out here helping evil feel comfortable.
And Amos 5:21–24 makes it plain: “I hate, I despise your festivals… Take away from me the noise of your songs; but let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
What is the Word sayin’, church?
It’s sayin’ that god is not impressed by performance while people are being harmed. God is not moved by your credentials if your conscience is missing. God is not fooled by polish when justice is starving. God is not blessing systems that stay comfortable by sacrificing the vulnerable.
And then Proverbs 31:8–9 tells us exactly who god sides with: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves… defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
Not protect the market. Not protect the institution. Not protect the powerful. Speak up for the violated! That’s the Word, Saints.
And this brings me back to Pam Bondi sitting up there with the cross on her neck while speaking in the language of Empire and protecting power. The cross is supposed to mean sacrifice. The cross is supposed to mean standing with the crucified. The cross is supposed to mean protecting the violated, not protecting the systems that violated them.
But Scripture already warned us that you can wear holy symbols and still move in unholy alignment. Saints, the Bible is full of people who looked religious while standing on the wrong side of suffering.
The Pharisees prayed in public while ignoring the broken. Temple leaders sang hymns while exploiting the poor. Courts quoted scripture while sacrificing the vulnerable. And beloved children of the sun, the Bible also gave us women inside power who helped evil survive.
Jezebel forged letters, set up false witnesses, and had Naboth murdered so the king could steal his land. She weaponized the legal system to kill an innocent man for power.
Michal publicly shamed David’s prophetic worship and aligned herself with royal image and political respectability over spiritual truth when it threatened status and order.
Herodias orchestrated the execution of John the Baptist after he exposed her immoral marriage by using her daughter and royal influence to silence a truth-teller with death.
Delilah extracted Samson’s secret for money and favor, and handed him over to enemy power knowing it would lead to his capture, torture, and blinding.
And the unnamed palace women around Tamar did nothing after her rape by Amnon. Their complicity helped preserve a royal system that forced a violated woman into lifelong silence and isolation.
And Saints, look around this country right now. Look at the women standing around Donald Trump. Do you recognize the pattern? Do you see that same ole evil spirit?
Look at Katie Britt on national stages selling the story of Empire. At Karoline Leavitt spinning and sanitizing and smoothing out whatever boolshit needs smoothing. Look at Kristi Noem standing tall for the movement no matter who gets hurt underneath it. Look at creepy-ass Laura Loomer attacking, smearing, and intimidating anybody who threatens the throne. At Lauren Boebert always turning cruelty into applause lines. At Linda McMahon helping build and protect power structures that put loyalty over accountability. Look at Nancy Mace talking reform while still standing inside systems that protect the same old harm.
These are the women who protect the king. Who stabilize the throne. Who help Empire sound moral while it’s busy eating the vulnerable.
But Scripture already told us how this ends, church.
Luke 1:52 says, god “has brought down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.” Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Ecclesiastes 12:14 says,“For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”
Obadiah 1:3–4 says, “Though you soar like the eagle… from there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord. And Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked. A person reaps what they sow.”
Saints, if you build your comfort on top of the suffering of the vulnerable, if you protect thrones instead of people, if you help evil feel safe for a season, god is patient, but god is not forgetful, and justice is coming whether power is ready or not.
Black liberation theology teaches us that god is not neutral about oppression. God is not neutral about Empire. And god is never on the side of people who protect power while the vulnerable are bleeding.
That’s why we see what others pretend not to see. We see violated girls get pushed to the side while powerful men get protected. We see systems close ranks. We see all the polished, respectable voices step up and make evil sound reasonable.
And church, our history trained us to recognize that spirit. Because we come from people who watched Empire call violence “order.” We come from people who watched the law get used like a weapon. We come from people who learned that sometimes the most dangerous person is the one smiling while harm keeps on moving.
Turn to your neighbor and say, Neighbor… we don’t protect thrones. Turn to your other neighbor and say, Neighbor… we protect the people thrones crush.
Because our ancestors didn’t survive ships for us to get comfortable with predators. Our ancestors didn’t survive chains for us to get impressed by titles. Our ancestors didn’t survive terror for us to get quiet when victims are crying out.
Our ancestors didn’t survive auctions for us to help people auction off truth. Our ancestors didn’t survive lynch mobs for us to stand silent while power destroys lives with paperwork. Our ancestors didn’t survive segregation for us to help systems decide whose suffering matters.
Our ancestors didn’t survive stolen labor for us to help evil profit off broken bodies. Our ancestors didn’t survive state violence for us to clap for cruelty. Our ancestors didn’t survive erasure for us to help history repeat itself on new victims.
Because empires fall. Power trembles. Masks slip. Thrones crack. Systems fall. Predators fall. Lies expire. But truth stands. And everything built on somebody else’s suffering will answer to justice.
Let us pray.
God of our ancestors, god of the oppressed, god who hears every cry the world tries to silence … steady our hearts and sharpen our sight.
Give us the courage to stand with the violated, the wisdom to recognize evil even when it is polished and wears lip gloss. Give us the strength to tell the truth even when power tells us to be quiet.
Let us never trade justice for comfort, never trade conscience for proximity to power, and never forget whose side you stand on, o lord. Make us instruments of liberation. Protect the wounded. Expose what is hidden. And let justice roll through us, around us, and beyond us, just like it rolled through the ancestors who came before us.
God, we thank You for melanin, for skin that carries sun, story, and survival. We thank you for Blackness that was never a mistake, never an afterthought, but part of your divine imagination. We thank you for ancestors who turned suffering into song, pain into wisdom, and resistance into legacy.
We thank you for bodies that remember, spirits that endure, and culture that keeps creating life in the face of death. We thank you for making us a people who can bend without breaking, who can mourn and still make JOY, who can face history and still choose the future.
Let our Blackness be courage. Let our Blackness be clarity. Let our Blackness be a light that exposes evil and a love that protects the vulnerable.
And let the church say, Amen, Amen and Amen.
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