Today’s Word from Pastor Tom Kidd…
I grew up in Rainier Valley, Seattle. I believe at the time of my Franklin High School graduation our student population was approaching 50% non-white. So while I grew up in a pretty integrated world, my father had an entirely different experience. He grew up in a very segregated world, the son of a tobacco sharecropper. Dad never got past 6th grade. Needless to say, Dad’s racial orientation growing up was decidedly different than mine. The differences would periodically rise up in some conflict around social issues. Like the time I told him I wanted to take an African American girl to the prom.
At the risk of name dropping, I thought the photo below might catch your attention. I count the Rev. Dr. (now Senator) Raphael Warnock among my friends. This photo was taken in 2011. He took a break from his duties at Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, to preach at my former parish and then speak at the annual pastor’s post-Easter Retreat in Victoria, B.C. Our own Pastor Jim was, with me, a part of planning that swan song event. We closed that particular pastoral retreat down; it never happened again (how’s that for leadership?).
Brenda and I visited Rev. Warnock at Ebenezer Baptist later that year. It was an awe-inspiring experience to stand in the pulpit of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Truly humbling. It is impossible to overstate the significance Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church has played in our nation’s battle with racism. There is a reason the church, along with the parsonage that MLK Jr. called home, is a part of our National Park System and is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Standing in the sanctuary with Raphael in the quiet of that morning he pointed to the organ. “That’s where Daddy King’s wife died,” he offered. The circumstances were new to me. In the Ebenezer culture Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. is affectionately known as “Daddy” King. Six years after MLK Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Daddy King’s wife, Alberta King, was shot and killed by a deranged young man as she sat at the organ accompanying Sunday worship. Daddy King buried his son in 1968 and then, but a half dozen years later, watched his wife brutally killed during Sunday morning worship. Ebenezer Baptist has its stories. Stories of tragedy, stories of grace.
On this day, in the midst of Black History Month, when the United States passed the grizzly marker of 500,000 Covid-19 deaths, I am reminded that excruciating loss and heart rendering suffering is not race specific. As much as I might try, I cannot don the shoes of a black person who has had to navigate systemic racism throughout their life. I have had the benefit of white privilege and I regularly have to face what that means.
But I can empathize with those who are stunned by senseless death. I have stood with those who are suffering through the loss of loved ones… and I can be inspired by those who have responded with love and grace in the face of great suffering.
The young man who killed Alberta King was sentenced to death. But because of Daddy King’s influence the sentence was commuted to life in prison. A half million Covid deaths are not just statistics; they are stories. Daddy King’s life and ministry is a story that leaves me both mystified and hopeful. Maybe that’s the best we can hope for in this season? Grace is hard. Like you I am trying. God bless us.
Pastor Tom
