July 26, 2009
Rev. David Boyd
There is lots of food for thought today. There's the anniversary of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. Where were you on July 21st, 1969, 40 years ago when Armstrong uttered those famous words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."() I was glued to the TV as a young 9 year old! Or I could speak about Jesus and the stories that John told of him, stories that we heard this morning—the feeding of the multitude and Jesus walking on the water. What do these stories about Jesus mean and what application might they have for us today? Or I could speak about our visit to the Queen Charlotte Islands, Haida Gwaii, the place of the people. Janet and I were very moved by our time there, and it meant a lot to me personally because my grandfather was part of the movement to recapture some of the Haida culture when he served at Skidegate in the late 50's and early 60's. What kind of holds all of these themes together for me this morning comes from an interview Janet and I heard on CBC Sunday morning last Sunday as we were travelling home. We listened to Michale Enright's interview with Robert Harris and their series, "20 pieces of music that changed the world." Episode 3: It was about the song, "We Shall Overcome." The thread for me is all about overcoming. For Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, it was overcoming the huge obstacle of space travel and the thought that we'd never walk on the moon. For Jesus and John, it was overcoming people's limiting thoughts about what is possible and impossible. For me on Haida Gwaii, it was the renewed understanding that we can choose to walk in a life-giving way with a people as they recover their own identity, language, culture and art. And all of this is celebrated in the hymn that we'll sing a little later, "This is God's Wondrous World!" Robert Harris gave the background to the song "We Shall Overcome." It was an amalgam of 2 African-American spiritual that were put together nearly 100 years ago and written down. It wasn't until 1945 that the song began to be famous as it was adopted by the Food and Tobacco Workers Union of South Carolina as a protest of a labour strike against the American Tobacco Company. Lucille Simmons sang it at the end of each day of the strike. The musical director of the Highlander Folk School, Zilphia Horton by name, learned the song from Lucille. It was a labour protest song initially and was originally "We Will Overcome." The Highlander Folk School was a place for liberal politics and music and was under investigation by Edgar Hoover for un-American acitivies. Pet Seeger, who attended the school, learned the song and added a verse and changed the chorus to "We shall overcome." In August of 1963 the folksinger Joan Baez led a crowd in singing the anthem at a protest rally in favour of civil rights; Martin Luther King, Jr. made use of the song as well. And then later in the 60's it was used as a protest anthem against the Vietnam War. So it morphed from a labour protest song to a civil rights song to an anti-war song. And now it is used as an uplifting way to encourage ourselves and others against oppression and injustice in general. Robert Harris claims that the power of this song is 3-fold: 1) it comes out of the African-American quest for freedom from slavery; 2) it is one of the most well-known songs in the world; and 3) it is singable and the marriage of words and tune is genius. Harris points to the fact that the song takes us on a personal and corporate journey that leads us to believe that we can overcome all that gets us down and oppresses us. I think for many that Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon was also that: it led us to believe that we can overcome our limitations and set our sights high. Jesus was about empowering people to think outside of their realms of comfort and to know that "with God nothing is impossible." Jesus cut against the Roman Empire grain of oppression and exclusion by radically shifting the emphasis to turning the other cheek and welcoming everyone to God's banquet. A powerful sense of overcoming oppression with belief in the goodness of human nature. And my experience on Haida Gwaii was a reminder of the wonder of God's creation of which we are a part, and our call to care for the world as we would care for ourselves, for the two aren't separate. But my experience was also a response to my own connection to the Islands and the knowledge that the Haida people have come such a long way in recovering their own sense of selfhood. That in itself is uplifting and leaves one with the belief that we can make a difference in the world; we shall overcome oppression with justice and hatred and fear with love. And I believe that we participate in this spiritual community, that we are spiritually-minded folk who are looking for inspiration and hope in living in this world, that we are looking to be with others in seeking to overcome fear and prejudice. So let me leave you with the song, "We Shall Overcome", sung by Joan Biaz, put to pictures from our recent trip to Haida Gwaii. Indeed, with God all things are possible. We, each in our own unique ways can make a difference to the lives of others and thereby to the whole world. We shall overcome...
What kind of holds all of these themes together for me this morning comes from an interview Janet and I heard on CBC Sunday morning last Sunday as we were travelling home. We listened to Michale Enright's interview with Robert Harris and their series, "20 pieces of music that changed the world." Episode 3: It was about the song, "We Shall Overcome." The thread for me is all about overcoming. For Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, it was overcoming the huge obstacle of space travel and the thought that we'd never walk on the moon. For Jesus and John, it was overcoming people's limiting thoughts about what is possible and impossible. For me on Haida Gwaii, it was the renewed understanding that we can choose to walk in a life-giving way with a people as they recover their own identity, language, culture and art. And all of this is celebrated in the hymn that we'll sing a little later, "This is God's Wondrous World!"
Robert Harris gave the background to the song "We Shall Overcome." It was an amalgam of 2 African-American spiritual that were put together nearly 100 years ago and written down. It wasn't until 1945 that the song began to be famous as it was adopted by the Food and Tobacco Workers Union of South Carolina as a protest of a labour strike against the American Tobacco Company. Lucille Simmons sang it at the end of each day of the strike. The musical director of the Highlander Folk School, Zilphia Horton by name, learned the song from Lucille. It was a labour protest song initially and was originally "We Will Overcome." The Highlander Folk School was a place for liberal politics and music and was under investigation by Edgar Hoover for un-American acitivies. Pet Seeger, who attended the school, learned the song and added a verse and changed the chorus to "We shall overcome." In August of 1963 the folksinger Joan Baez led a crowd in singing the anthem at a protest rally in favour of civil rights; Martin Luther King, Jr. made use of the song as well. And then later in the 60's it was used as a protest anthem against the Vietnam War. So it morphed from a labour protest song to a civil rights song to an anti-war song. And now it is used as an uplifting way to encourage ourselves and others against oppression and injustice in general.
Robert Harris claims that the power of this song is 3-fold: 1) it comes out of the African-American quest for freedom from slavery; 2) it is one of the most well-known songs in the world; and 3) it is singable and the marriage of words and tune is genius. Harris points to the fact that the song takes us on a personal and corporate journey that leads us to believe that we can overcome all that gets us down and oppresses us.
I think for many that Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon was also that: it led us to believe that we can overcome our limitations and set our sights high. Jesus was about empowering people to think outside of their realms of comfort and to know that "with God nothing is impossible." Jesus cut against the Roman Empire grain of oppression and exclusion by radically shifting the emphasis to turning the other cheek and welcoming everyone to God's banquet. A powerful sense of overcoming oppression with belief in the goodness of human nature. And my experience on Haida Gwaii was a reminder of the wonder of God's creation of which we are a part, and our call to care for the world as we would care for ourselves, for the two aren't separate. But my experience was also a response to my own connection to the Islands and the knowledge that the Haida people have come such a long way in recovering their own sense of selfhood. That in itself is uplifting and leaves one with the belief that we can make a difference in the world; we shall overcome oppression with justice and hatred and fear with love. And I believe that we participate in this spiritual community, that we are spiritually-minded folk who are looking for inspiration and hope in living in this world, that we are looking to be with others in seeking to overcome fear and prejudice.
So let me leave you with the song, "We Shall Overcome", sung by Joan Biaz, put to pictures from our recent trip to Haida Gwaii. Indeed, with God all things are possible. We, each in our own unique ways can make a difference to the lives of others and thereby to the whole world. We shall overcome...