Perfect Love Casts Out Fear - April 20
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 26, 28; PM Psalm 36, 39; Dan. 4:28-37; 1 John 4:7-21; Luke 4:31-37
Today’s Reflection
In one of our outreach committee meetings earlier this spring, someone mentioned the different reading groups we had on Bishop Curry’s book as a window into racial reconciliation. We started talking about other good books people had read on the topic and more than one person highly recommended local Birmingham columnist John Archibald and his just-released book, Shaking the Gates of Hell. That’s quite a title, I thought, but of course I ended up buying a copy of my own.
Archibald was born here in Birmingham in 1963, at just the same time as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was thrown into the city jail and was writing his Letter from Birmingham Jail. Archibald’s family didn’t stay in Birmingham for long after his birth, as his father was a Methodist minister, and if you are familiar with the ways of the Methodist church, many times, especially early in their vocations, their ministers move frequently—a tradition with its roots in Methodism’s founder John Wesley and his days as a circuit-riding preacher. They ended up living in Decatur and Huntsville and, eventually, returned to Birmingham in Archibald’s teens.
The dramatic title, Shaking the Gates of Hell, comes from the words of John Wesley, who once said, “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God; … such alone will shake the gates of hell.” The subtitle of the book, A Search for Family and Truth in the Wake of the Civil Rights Revolution, captures well the stories that Archibald so deftly weaves together—in such vivid detail so that you might well picture the scenes of family and church life he is describing as he looks back on his childhood and coming of age alongside his father’s role as a well-respected minister in the Methodist church here in Alabama.
One of the chapters in the book is titled “Camp,” which as you might expect includes some heartwarming stories of days Archibald and his family spent together at Methodist camps. One of the camps he reminisces about in this chapter is Camp Sumatanga, the North Alabama Methodist Conference Camp. He recalls how, “Dad, like the rest of us, was never happier than at camp. He saw the wonder in the stars and the plants and the birds. … He stopped, on walks, to simply stare. At mountain laurel or jack-in-the-pulpit at birds only he saw.” The camp was not only a place that the Archibalds enjoyed spending time together, but it was also part of the elder Archibald’s job at one point, as head of the conference youth council, to be responsible for the operations of Camp Sumatanga and for its staff. Archibald tells the story of the conference youth director, Nina Reeves, who had worked at the camp since the 1950s and had become a well-loved and well-respected figure. As he researched his book, Archibald visited Reeves, then 93 years old, to learn more about her memories of his father and his ministry.
Reeves told him a story of something that happened at Camp Sumatanga in 1954, the year the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education—a ruling which was meant to integrate public schools (and other public institutions) across the United States. She invited a friend, Dr. Julius Scott, to speak to come visit the camp that summer and speak to the youth camping there that week. As Archibald describes, “He was a scholar and a preacher… He was fun and funny and smart. And he was a friend. Oh, and he was Black. In Alabama. In 1954.” Reeves ran it all by Robert Archibald, who said he was OK with bringing Scott to camp, but they should run it by the Board of Christian Education. Turns out that they were OK with it, too—but only under certain conditions. Scott would have to sleep in the infirmary. He would eat at a table by himself in the camp cafeteria, instead of being able to share meals and conversations with others. As Archibald reflects back on the story, the conditions set give one the sense that the board believed that “Jesus loves the little children… As long as the know their place.” As Scott himself, now in his 90s, recalled to Archibald, “There were some vicious racists in Alabama, and they weren’t all Baptist.”
For all the conditions they set, what the board couldn’t control for is that the young campers were drawn to Scott and they ended up crowding around his table to share meals; they and wanted to get to know him after hearing his talks in chapel each day. One of the campers, the daughter of one of the board members, ended up wanting to continue the conversation with Scott while walking down a path at the camp—and, of course, somebody called those responsible for the camp’s operations to put a stop to it. They wanted Nina Reeves fired—but Robert Archibald stood up for her, and she kept her job. Reeves wanted the younger Archibald to know that his father had stood up for her. But the board found other ways to rectify the situation, to prevent such interactions between blacks and whites from happening again at their camp: The board “decided no more Black people should come to Camp Sumatanga. In fact, no more black people should be there at all. So, they let Reeves stay. And they fired all the Black cooks. Camp had always given me hope, and peace. But I was stunned now. Shocked. Shaken.”
When I read the passage from 1 John appointed for today, it reminded me of this story—and others—from Archibald’s book. In 1 John 4:18-21, we hear of how, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”
When we reflect on this story, it’s hard not to wonder: Where was the love? And why was there so much fear? And it points us to look around at our world today and wonder the same things: Where is the love? And why do we still have so much fear?
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
Why does it seem to be human nature to fear people who seem different than ourselves? How can this be overcome?
Daily Challenge
Watch this recent conversation with John Archibald at Highlands Methodist Church. Consider reading his book as a way of continuing to reflect on the long struggle to overcome this fear of difference, especially as regards race.