Thursday, February 8, 2024

WORDS OF HOPEOne of the moving elements of a memorial service is the video montage of the person who has joined the Great Cloud of Witnesses. As images emerge, one after another, you think, “There’s that smile, that casual slouch, that goofiness or that serious gaze, those hands of service.” And it tugs at your heart that this special person won’t be a part of your life anymore. Not in the same way. A group of us from Coat of Colours has been inspired while working to honor the life of Rep. John Lewis for Black History Month. As we scoured the internet for material, I was captured by the images of his life and justice-seeking service, some of which are etched in our national consciousness. So, this morning I highlight a few images.  ·      The children’s book Preaching to the Chickens by Jabari Asim and beautifully illustrated by EB Lewis. Based on Lewis’ early life on his family’s working farm in southern Alabama, the story and pictures show Lewis’ penchant for sharing the good news with his creature kin. One image, where John is scattering corn before the flock, recalls the parable of the sower and the seed.  Indeed God’s expansive love and justice are embodied in this civil rights hero. https://www.themarginalian.org/2016/12/05/preaching-to-the-chickens-john-lewis/ ·      The depiction of the Bloody Sunday beating March 7, 1965. The body of John Lewis crumpled on the ground, hands trying to shield his head after a brutal beating by an Alabama State trooper during the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery is iconic in its hold on our historic memory. Lewis said that he thought he would die during that assault, but he deferred going to the hospital long enough to make an appeal to President Lyndon B. Johnson to send the National Guard to protect the marchers. These images turned the tide of the civil rights movement, paving the way for the Voting Rights Act. Commemorative marches across the Edmund Pettis Bridge have been held through the years under both Republican and Democratic presidents. After Lewis’ death a horse-drawn carriage ferried his body across in solemn dignity.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XST4lV7HnO8  Lewis’ activism was extensive. He advocated and protested not only for Voting Rights, but for immigration rights, expanded health care and LGBTQAI+ issues, seeing in the arguments against us the same kind of fear-mongering used in discriminating against people of color. He was arrested 45 times. In addition, late in his career, he participated in a sit in on the floor of the House when Republican leadership blocked bringing common sense gun rights legislation to a vote.  ·      Two moving and poignant images feature former President Obama. One shows the Medal of Freedom being conferred on the “conscience of the Congress” in 2011. The other depicts the embrace of the two men. Lewis was deeply moved that America had finally elected an African American of Obama’s stature as president. Obama credited Lewis’ unwavering dedication to justice with opening the gates for his election. “It was because of you, John,” he said.  In his final opinion piece, published shortly before his death, John Lewis lauds the work of the Black Lives Matter movement and urges us to continue carrying the torch for justice and to reclaim the soul of America.  If you too are inspired by the life of this courageous saint, join Coat of Colours on zoom for a discussion of “Good Trouble” Saturday, February 10 from 3-5 CT. (Instructions for registering to see the documentary free are here:  Support the show