LIBERATION LECTIONARY

“Lifting as We Climb”

“And so, lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go, struggling and striving, and hoping that the buds and blossoms of our desires will burst into glorious fruition 'ere long. With courage, born of success achieved in the past, with a keen sense of the responsibility which we shall continue to assume, we look forward to a future large with promise and hope.” Mary Church Terrell

Ascension Sunday marks the conclusion of the season called Eastertide. Eastertide - which some traditions, such as ours, call Resurrection season - is a remembrance of the 40 day period recorded by gospel writers as the days Jesus remained among his people after he rose up from the grave. Today is the day we remember Jesus’ last blessings on earth.

Prayer/Meditation: Above the Clouds

So many tears I have shed, Oh from the many burdens I have bared. All my hope was gone And yes I was all alone. There was no coming back from my deep despair. Then I held my head up, And rose Above the Clouds.

So many sleepless nights,All from life struggles of endless fights. I just needed someone to help lighten my load And that would cause me to look for higher heights. Someone that could make me forget my every care. Then I held my head up, And rose Above the Clouds.

 from Reaching for Celestial Heights by Eddie Johnson

Music: High and Lifted Up! by Joe Pace

Lyrics: High and lifted up in all the earth is who you are! Lord we exalt your name. Oh Lord, we praise you, high and lifted up!

Daily Readings - from Hebrews  and the Psalms

Sunday: from Psalm 47 Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy. For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome, a great king over all the earth. They have subdued oppressors under us, and empires under our feet. God chose our heritage for us, the pride of the people whom They love.

Monday: Hebrews 1.1-4 In many ways and by many means God spoke in ancient times to our ancestors in the prophets; but at the end of these days he spoke to us in a son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.

Tuesday: Hebrews 1.5-9 For God never said to any angel what he said to Jesus:

“You are my Son. Today I have become your Father.” God also said, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son.” And when he brought his supreme Son into the world, God said, “Let all of God’s angels worship him.”

Regarding the angels, God says, “He sends his angels like the winds, his servants like flames of fire.” But to the Son God says, “Your throne, endures forever and ever. You rule with a scepter of justice. You love justice and hate evil. Therefore, your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.”

Wednesday: Hebrews 1.10-14 God speaks to the Son “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands. They will perish, but you remain forever. They will wear out like old clothing. You could fold them up like a cloak and discard them like old clothing. But you are always the same; you will live forever.” And God never said to any of the angels, “Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.” Therefore, angels are not the Savior, but spirits who are sent to care for people who will inherit salvation.

Thursday: Hebrews 2.1-4 So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation and every act of dischord was brought to justice. So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever They desired to.

Friday: Hebrews 2.5-11  And furthermore, it is not angels who will control the future world we are talking about. For in one place the Scriptures say, “What are mere mortals that you should think about them, or children of humans that you should care for them? Yet for a little while you made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them authority over all things.”

Now when it says “all things,” it means nothing is left out. But we have not yet seen all things put under their authority. What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was given a position “a little lower than the angels”; and because he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honor.” Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone. God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that God should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation. So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his siblings, brothers and sisters. 

Saturday: Hebrews 2.12-18  For Jesus said to God, “I will proclaim your name to my siblings, brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people.” He also said, “I will put my trust in him,” that is, “I and the children God has given me.” Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives enslaved to the fear of dying.

We also know that the Son did not come to help angels; he came to help the descendants of Abraham. Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his siblings, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the suffering and sins of the people. Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.

Reflection: Suffrage for Spiritual Freedom

“Lifting as we Climb” was a phrase coined by Mary Church Terrell and a slogan of the National Association of Colored* Women, who led the fight for equal voting rights over 100 years ago, when Black women finally earned access to the vote. The women who founded the NACW faced racism and misogynoir in the white-centered suffrage movement. From Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, to Ida B. Wells - the famous contemporary and collaborator of Mary Church Terrell’s activism - segregation was the name of game, and erasure was the strategy. According to historical references in a write up on mama Mary, “Alice Paul, a young, white, college-educated Quaker, organized the march for the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Hoping to curry the favor and participation of white southern women, Paul first planned on excluding Black suffragists and then hoped to segregate them at the very end of the parade.” 

During the suffrage movement, Terrell urged white leaders to fight for equal rights across race divisions. But without the support of southerners, there was an assumption that the efforts would fail. Many white women, and Black people who suffered internalized racism, were convinced that the 19th Amendment would never be passed if Black women were in leadership of the advocacy collaboratives that pushed to pass it. How was it possible for our Black foremothers, aunties and sisters in the struggle to “Lift as we climb?” What made them so determined that they were climbing up the right hill, or that such a feat was worth it? The answer may be simple, but it is heavy. Our people know that every stride toward freedom, no matter how short, is a step in the right direction. Every action that centers Black liberation is itself a message of elevation. 

Lifting people from oppression into full self-determination is an act of rising power, and an act of holiness. 

Ascension Sunday marks the conclusion of the season called Eastertide. Eastertide - which some traditions, such as ours, call Resurrection season - is a remembrance of the 40 day period recorded by gospel writers as the days Jesus remained among his people after he rose up from the grave. Today is the day we remember Jesus’ last blessings on earth. Before Jesus was lifted up into a cloud, he gave us a call to continue his ministry, and a promise that his presence would be with us always. In the ascension accounts of Matthew and Mark, Jesus gives a call to action which many Christians call the great commission. He tells the disciples to go make disciples, to baptize people all over the world. 

Jesus spoke these things as he departed the world that he came to heal, having completed the work of salvation that he was sent to start and finish. While the spiritual freedom of salvation was sealed, liberation in material life was not yet realized. Jesus wrapped up the work fo salvation, and left us the work of power building with purpose. Time on earth has been marked by movements of social change and radical liberation ever since that day. Each of them set on surfacing the truth about history and fueling the future with the power of hope.

Celebrating the Ascension as it follows Resurrection season can be described in this way: Resurrection is the victory of life, and Ascension is the promise of exaltation. Our people lived this message in the movements that made us. We yet need this message today. Life in God in a story of seasons. Lent brings us levity, Resurrection rebirths us, Ascension gives us rising purpose, Pentecost fills us with Holy Ghost power. Perhaps this is what our foremothers knew deep down. We can’t miss what is ours, not even if a racist Quaker woman tries to moralize our erasure.

“And so, lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go, struggling and striving, and hoping that the buds and blossoms of our desires will burst into glorious fruition 'ere long. With courage, born of success achieved in the past, with a keen sense of the responsibility which we shall continue to assume, we look forward to a future large with promise and hope. Seeking no favors because of our color, nor patronage because of our needs, we knock at the bar of justice, asking an equal chance." Mary Church Terrell wrote and spoke these words from “What Role is the Educated Negro Woman to Play in the Uplifiting of Her Race?” in 1902. 

There is a feeling of ascension in these words for us now, for as Jesus was lifted up, he brought all creation into his glory and love. In his ascension, as Jesus moved beyond earth’s realm, his last words spoken on earth were a promise of both power and presence. While he was climbing the clouds to return to his Father, he lifted us into his purposes for all that he had made. 

Mary Church Terrell echoes God’s vision on the other side of Jesus’s Resurrection. As we are climbing into truth, we are lifting up the people we want to see freed by that truth. 

For our sisters in suffrage and Black Freedom struggles, the weight of the world they envisioned was distributed equally between assuming responsibility for continuing the work, and staying grounded in confidence for a bright future. Our hearts and minds need not reinvent these imperatives. 

Whether we face the terror of supremacist youth and grocery shopping while Black, Jesus lifts us as he climbs. When we address the dismantling of Roe v. Wade, coupled with a feeding crisis that has undoubtedly more impact on the Black working class, Jesus is lifting us as he climbs. As we are being lifted up by Jesus, we climbing higher into God’s glory - as the old folks say “every round goes higher and higher!” - and this empowers us to lift one another just as the Savior has been lifted up. So that all of us experience the beauty of God’s great ascension. ~

Endnotes

*About the word “colored” as used to describe people. Although it was acceptable in past generations, and is still ok to use when talking of organizations whose name includes the word (such as the NAACP), the term “colored” in reference to persons is now inappropriate and offensive. 

Suffrage is a term used to describe the United States movement for women’s voting rights. The activists in this movement are called Suffragists.

Read the Ms. article on Black women in Suffrage, led by Mary Church Terrell, referencing Alice Paul, the racist Quaker woman who planned suffrage events. Click here to read