Rev. Tessie Mandeville
June 10, 2007
Christ Covenant MCC
Decatur, GA 30033
On August 28, 1963, one of the most famous speeches in the nation, if not the world, was delivered in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “I have a dream that my children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”
I stand before you this morning and declare that these famous words would have never been said in that context if it wasn’t for one gay man, Bayard Rustin, working behind the scenes of the Civil Rights Movement.
If hearing this surprises you, you are not alone. Many of us are familiar with Dr. King’s speeches and leadership of the Civil Rights Movement but we aren’t as familiar with his close friend, mentor and advisor, Bayard Rustin. So today we recognize Bayard Rustin, the “Lost Prophet” as we continue our Voices of Pride sermon series.
Often things appear one way, but just below the surface is another story. When you see a river that’s frozen over, you may think the water is completely solid and still. But when you look below the surface, the current is still moving. What you see is not all there is to the story.
To be sure, Dr. King’s influence, dedication and commitment to the Civil Rights Movement helped change the course of history, but what’s also true is that he didn’t do it alone. It was Bayard Rustin who taught and mentored Dr. King in Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolent resistance. Bayard himself says that when he first came to the King house, Dr. King had not yet embraced nonviolence and there were guns inside his home and armed guards all around. Bayard Rustin, an African-American gay man helped mold Dr. King into an international symbol of peace and nonviolence.
Throughout his life, Bayard was a brilliant activist, organizer, mover and shaker for social change. He espoused nonviolent resistance, worked for peace and racial desegregation in this country. Later in his life he did international work for human rights, working with refugees from Haiti and doing some work in South Africa before apartheid was dismantled. And he did all of this in a period of history that was extremely homophobic. He was often told by friends and foes to keep his homosexuality a secret, and he tried for awhile, but he realized his desires ran too deep to conceal. That doesn’t mean that he always “came out” it means that when he was asked, he never lied about who he was.
Bayard Rustin was the main organizer behind the March on Washington in 1963, where Dr. King gave his speech, “I Have A Dream.” It was one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States. But that March on Washington almost didn’t happen because of homophobia. Senator Strom Thurmond, from South Carolina, took the senate floor right before the march and publicly called Bayard a sexual pervert. This was Bayard’s own response: “Now let me make it quite clear. The Senator is not interested in me if I were a murderer, a thief, a liar or a pervert. The Senator is interested in attacking me because he is interested in destroying the movement.”
The Civil Rights Movement that Bayard worked so diligently and passionately for had a defining moment: they could either defend him or dismiss him because he was gay. Dr. King and the Movement defended Bayard as a man of great passion and integrity. They would not let this March be stopped and glory be to God, it wasn’t stopped. Dr. King and many others gave their speeches that day and the Civil Rights Movement continued and made deep and abiding changes in this country to end official segregation.
Often things appear one way, but just below the surface is another story. When you see a tree, you may think that’s all there is to it. But when you look below the surface, a tree’s roots are almost as deep and as broad as the tree canopy itself. What you see is not all there is to the story.
The Christian scriptures tell us the story of another “lost prophet.” His name was Barnabas. He didn’t write any books of the Bible but he mentored one of the people who did—the apostle Paul. In fact, if it wasn’t for Barnabas working behind the scenes, we might never have met the apostle Paul and Christianity could look differently today.
If you grew up in church then you’ve probably heard the story of Saul, the devout man who persecuted early Christians. You may remember that he had what we call his “ Damascus Road” experience where he encountered the spirit of the risen Christ who said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul, whose name was changed to Paul, had a conversion experience and felt called to peach the good news of Jesus Christ. But there was a one problem. The other apostles didn’t trust him because of his past history of persecuting people. They didn’t want to accept him or even believe that he could change. It was Barnabas who went to Paul and brought him back to the others. It was Barnabas who defended Paul, who believed in his call, and eventually won over the other believers to accept Paul. From that point on , Barnabas and Paul worked in ministry together, and though we really only get to hear Paul’s voice, we know that he didn’t do his work alone, and in fact, wouldn’t have accomplished nearly as much as he did without Barnabas working behind the scenes to further the Christian movement.
Often things appear one way, but just below the surface is another story. When you see an iceberg, you only see the tip of it and you’re tempted to think that’s all there is to it. But when you look below the surface, you see the other 80% of that massive iceberg. What you see is not all there is to the story.
When Jesus was born, it was God herself who was working behind the scenes. For most people, life was just going on as normal and there was nothing particularly special about the birth of Jesus. But God was working behind the scenes, acting in a way which would forever alter the course of human history and the destiny of innumerable lives, including ours. An event that would make unprecedented healing, salvation and purpose available had occurred. Yet few had any inkling of it.
Change never happens in a vacuum. It rarely happens in climactic, single moments. When a climactic moment occurs, it is often the result of years of struggle, years of doubt and frustration and questioning. However, when people are willing to work behind the scenes, letting our faith keep us in the trenches, somewhere along the line, we reach the tipping point and a major shift takes place.
This is what change looks like over time. All of these movements—Civil Rights, women’s liberation, gay liberation, the environmental movement—they are all huge and amazing in and among themselves, but when we look back we only see certain names and moments where things came to fruition; but that is not nearly the entire story. All these movements are built on what is happening behind the scenes. One young person engaging the justice struggle in a school system. One person unwilling to let a discriminatory comment go unchallenged. These events make history and change happen just as much as the big names, dates, and events. Every day people doing everyday things are setting the conditions for great happenings and great social change when we are acting from a great goal and vision in our hearts.
May the knowledge that God works behind the scenes in [our] lives give [us] the encouragement to take steps of faith and to stay hopeful in all of the challenges that [we] face.
Bayard Rustin faced many challenges. He was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era. “At his funeral, there was not one dry eye when they listened to a tape of Bayard Rustin singing, “Nobody Knows the Troubles I’ve Seen.” He had indeed seen trouble—in his own life as well as the life of the world in which he lived for seventy-five years. But he never gave up hoping that things would get better, and he never stopped working to make his hopes a reality.”
We have a loving God who is actively engaged in our lives and in the life of the world. He works behind the scenes, touching hearts, restoring souls and nudging our spirits when necessary.
Bayard Rustin often quoted his mentor when he said, “The struggle must be continuous, for freedom is never a final act. A few months before Rustin died [in 1987], a young admirer asked how he kept hopeful in dismally conservative times. “I have learned a very significant message from the Jewish prophets,” Rustin replied. “They taught that God does not require us to achieve any of the good tasks that humanity must pursue. What the gods require of us is that we not stop trying.”
May we be people who never stop trying. Who work behind the scenes. Who allow our faith to keep us in the trenches. Who know that what you see is not all there is to the story. Let it be so and amen.
John D’Emilio, Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin, Free Press, 2003.
John D’Emilio, Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin, Free Press, 2003.
Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, a documentary, www.rustin.org
Out of the Past, a 1998 documentary about Kelli Peterson and her battle to start a Gay/Straight Alliance in a Salt Lake City, Utah, high school.
M. Blaine Smith, Help from Behind the Scenes: Appreciating the Unseen Ways God Works For Our Benefit, 1997. www.nehemiah.gospelcom.net/behind.htm
M. Blaine Smith, Help from Behind the Scenes: Appreciating the Unseen Ways God Works For Our Benefit, 1997. www.nehemiah.gospelcom.net/behind.htm
Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, a documentary, www.rustin.org
James Haskins, Bayard Rustin: Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movement, Hyperion Books, 1997, p. 111.
John D’Emilio, Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin, Free Press, 2003, p. 494.
Copyright © 2007 by Rev. Tessie Mandeville. Permission granted for non- profit circulation with attribution of author and venue. Other rights reserved |
