February is Black History Month. I want to share with you the story of Daniel Alexander Payne, the first black ordained Lutheran pastor in America. He was born of free parents in Charleston in 1811. Orphaned at the age of ten, he was ordained by the Franckean Lutheran Synod, which was strong in the abolitionist movement. He became aligned with Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Church. Payne became perhaps the  most influential bishop of the nineteenth century black denominations.

On April 11^th, 1862, Congress passed a bill abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia. Soon thereafter, President Lincoln was visited by Reverend Payne. He urged Lincoln to sign the bill, and was impressed with his “real greatness and of his fitness to rule a nation composed of almost all the races on the face of the earth”. Lincoln did sign the bill on April 16^th, which prompted Rev. Payne to write “Welcome to the Ransomed”. He told his brothers and sisters in Christ that now they could enjoy “the boon of holy freedom.”

Sadly, we know that before the ink has dried on subsequent civil rights measures and legislation, white supremacy has yielded to the seduction of Satan and kept blacks under their thumb. The end of slavery is celebrated this month, even as our Christian brothers and sisters of color remind us there is still a long way to go, progress to be made. As I write this, I think about my Lutheran pastor colleagues William “Ham” Hamilton and his wife Vicki. They recently retired after serving as co-pastors at St. John Lutheran Church in a black neighborhood of Jacksonville. “Ham” is also a shipmate, retiring as a Master Chief Petty Officer. I think of The Reverend Clement Pinkney, who was leading a Bible class at his church in, ironically, Charleston, when he and eight others were murdered by a teenage white supremacist. I was a classmate of Clem’s at seminary. For anyone in my congregation that has noticed, in our worship I have been using a Eucharistic prayer this month that is from the black tradition. “God of our weary years, God of our silent tears”, from their most well-known hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing”. I have such admiration for our black brothers and sisters in Christ. They truly get that they shall overcome, lifting their eloquent, sweet voices in speech and song. Their faith serves as an example to us who have taken prestige and privilege often at their expense. They, perhaps more than us, appreciate the unmerited grace, the unconditional love of God for His children of all tribes, colors, and nations.

Pastor Art