The Flash! – April 23, 2015
A couple of hours ago I went to 1948. A Hanover Saint invited a group of us into a time capsule to go with her to a lunch counter at a Woolworth’s in downtown Wilmington. We went there with her to get a cup of soup and a sandwich. We went in with her and sat down to satisfy our hunger and warm up on a cold winter day. After some period of time we shared her frustration because she wasn’t being served, much less even recognized. At some point she asked the server if she could place an order. We were crushed with her when the server told her that people like her weren’t served there.
Like a time capsule a story has the power to transport, teach, and touch. This story was told in a group that had gathered to watch “Slavery By Another Name”, a PBS documentary about African Americans who were subjected to slavery under the guise of the criminal justice system after the Civil War. The video is a compilation of stories about individuals who were unjustly accused, arrested, “tried”, convicted, and sentenced. Instead of prison, however, they were forced to labor for companies that paid the state for their service. Shamefully, it was not until 1941 that this practice was ruled illegal by the Federal Government. By then an estimated 800,000 people had been subjected to abusive involuntary servitude.
Stories transport us to times and places not just beyond our experience, but beyond our imagination. Stories teach us not just about what was, but help us better understand what is, and invite us to dream about what might be. Stories touch not just our minds, but our hearts. Stories are gifts from God; given to fuel our faith, bind us in community, and transform the world.
May God bless us with the courage and conviction to tell the stories that break our hearts, so that they might become the vehicles that deliver us to the time when our hopes are realized, and the place where God’s grace prevails.
Peace,
Andy