African American Lectionary – KWANZAA - Thursday, December 26,
2013 - Wednesday, January 1, 2014.
Guest Writer for This Unit: Willie Dwayne Francois III, Director
of the Young Ministers' Corner of The African American Lectionary
The unit you are viewing, Kwanzaa, is a compact unit. This means
that it is not a complete commentary of the Scripture(s) selected for this day
on the calendar, nor does it have a full, supporting cultural resource unit and
worship unit. Instead, to enliven the imagination of preachers and teachers, we
have provided a sermonic outline, songs, suggested books, and suggested
articles, links, and videos. For additional information, see Kwanzaa in the
archives of the Lectionary for 2008–2012.
I. Description of Liturgical Moment
Founded by Maulana Karenga in 1966, Kwanzaa celebrates the
Africanity and simultaneously honors the individuality and communality of Black
persons in America. Kwanzaa is a seven-day celebration of ethics and values
fertile for producing a workable world, self-respect, and productive
communities. Known as the Nguzo Saba, the principles of Kwanzaa are:
Umoja
(oo-mo-jah)—Unity
To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community,
nation, and race.
Kujichagulia
(koo-gee-cha-goo-lee-yah)—Self-Determination
To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and
speak for ourselves.
Ujima (oo-gee-mah)—Collective
Work and Responsibility
To build and maintain our community together and make our
brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.
Ujamaa
(oo-jah-mah)—Cooperative Economics
To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other
businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (nee-yah)—Purpose
To make our collective vocation the building and developing of
our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba
(koo-oom-bah)—Creativity
To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to
leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani
(ee-mah-nee)—Faith
To believe with all our heart in our spiritual heritage, our
people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and
victory of our struggle.
Kwanzaa is designated as a season of remembering the stories of
struggle and moving toward new horizons of human harmony. Kwanzaa is about
making room for people, culture, family, and the common good. Kwanzaa's
emphasis on the interplay of togetherness and individuality reminds African
Americans of the dignity of persons and the potential embedded in deliberate
solidarity. The African American Lectionary's Kwanzaa focus for this year is
Nia, Purpose.
II. Kwanzaa: Sermonic Outline
A. Sermonic Text(s): 2 Kings 6:1-7
(v. 1) Now the company of prophets said to Elisha, 'As you see,
the place where we live under your charge is too small for us. (v. 2) Let us go
to the Jordan, and let us collect logs there, one for each of us, and build a
place there for us to live.' He answered, 'Do so.' (v. 3) Then one of them
said, 'Please come with your servants.' And he answered, 'I will.' (v. 4) So he
went with them. When they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. (v. 5) But
as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the water; he cried out,
'Alas, master! It was borrowed.' (v. 6) Then the man of God said, 'Where did it
fall?' When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick, and threw it in there,
and made the iron float. (v. 7) He said, 'Pick it up.' So he reached out his
hand and took it.
B. Possible Titles
i. Reclaiming Your Cutting Edge
ii. For Us, By Us
iii. All Hands on Deck
iv. What's It Worth to You?
C. Point of Exegetical Inquiry
In this pericope, the guild of prophets under Elisha's tutelage
dramatizes a response to growing pains in a conflictual context. The text
depicts a college of prophets committed to expanding their living and learning
space through personal sacrifice and collaborative engagement in times of
national turmoil. To secure and advance the purpose of the guild, they proposed
to work together to build something for themselves, something to include and
accommodate the explosive growth. This building project is situated in the
context of famine and war, which explains the frantic response of the prophet
who lost the borrowed axe. Also, notice that this miracle convenes at the same
site as the healing of Naaman—in the Jordan River.
III. Introduction
The power of Kwanzaa is that it offers reflective observers
dedicated time in the year to reflect on the potential of humanity and the
trans-immanence of togetherness. Carving out this time for reflective
celebration thrusts us into the heart of a lived Sankofa—a going back and
reclaiming of knowledge from the past to forge a way forward through the
transformative wisdom of our people.
This week is a time to go back in order to go forward. A year
should not pass without our risking a journey into the memory of freedom
fighters from Nat Turner to Fannie Lou Hamer. This is a week to see the fresh
possibilities of unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility,
cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith through the prism of our
past.
One such luminary of our layered story in this country is
Araminta Ross, better known as Harriett Tubman. The most-noted conductor of the
Underground Railroad, Tubman, a former slave, lived a brilliant career of
journeying back into the South to free those on the underside of the chattel
system. In a ten-year block, she risked 19 trips and escorted over 300 Africans
to the North, the strange land of freedom. She has been recorded to say,
"If I could have convinced more slaves that they were slaves, I could have
freed thousands more." She threw off the labels placed on her and pioneered
new pathways for others to do the same in spite of the Fugitive Slave Act of
1850. In establishing her purpose in life, she threw off the identity created
by the slave system and self-defined herself as an agent of freedom. She risked
death, imprisonment, and rape to expose others to the blessings and burdens of
freedom. She risked everything for freedom and the freedom of others. However,
she never bought into the hype of her productivity. Her purpose in the project
of emancipation required the hospitality of wives, the bravery of Frances
Harper, assistance of abolitionists, and a cadre of the nameless. This daring
woman of distinction proves that one's purpose should never be privatized.
Similarly, we find ourselves in a text that dramatizes the
achievement of one's purpose through personal responsibility and collaboration.
IV. Moves/Points
Move/Point One – Embrace compulsory inconveniences.
a. In Pursuit of Instruction: Though the prophets could have
returned to their homes, they decided to stay in the cramped house of the
prophets to prepare and advance their possibilities as prophets. They
sacrificed their comfort in the name of preparation with and the mentorship of
Elisha.
b. In Pursuit of Inclusivity: In order to create room for
everyone, they proposed to build an edifice themselves, which suspended their
formal education with Elisha.
c. In Pursuit of (Ancestral) Integrity: They proposed to build
this house of learning and fellowship near the Jordan River—a river etched in
the cultural and national memory of the Israelites. This river carried profound
connections to their ancestral narrative; a river with signal importance for
their journey to the Promised Land.
Move/Point Two – Encourage collaborative investment.
a. Collaboration In Requirements: The growth of this prophetic
ministry required collective responsibility in erecting the new accommodations.
Each prophet is tasked with felling and delivering one log. Every prophet was
needed to erect this building. This building project honors the individual as a
critical part of community by recognizing each prophet's responsibility in
leveling and gathering lumber for the edifice.
b. Collaboration In Resources: As one prophet is felling lumber
for the building, his ax head is dislodged from its handle and sinks into the
river. We learn that the axe is borrowed. The reference to the borrowed ax
suggests someone loaned it to the project. Note that iron axes were expensive
tools.
Move/Point Three – Exceed our inhibitions.
a. We Will have Unforeseen Setbacks: While he was working, the
prophet's instrument unexpectedly broke. Without the axe head, the student was
inhibited from working. According to the requirements, every prophet had to
contribute to complete this building project. This setback affected the entire
group.
b. We Need Useful Strategies: In response to the unexpected
setback, the young prophet capitalizes on proactive planning. Before they set
out for the project, one of the students asked Elisha to join them, the one
capable of performing miracles and mitigating their concerns. This unfortunate
prophet benefits from the plan to have the accompaniment of the distinguished
Man of God.
c. We Experience an Unprecedented Salvaging: Through the quiet
miracle of Elisha, his student recovers what he lost. After Elisha causes the
axe head to float in the Jordan, he instructs his pupil to retrieve the axe
head. The student is enabled to return to work and contribute to the work of God.
Likewise, he is freed from the immense debt of a broken or lost iron axe.
V. Celebration
In response to the loss and misfortune that impaired the
progress of the prophets, the man of God demonstrates that our cutting edge is
never beyond recovery. Elisha's activity is actually characteristic of the ways
God works in our moments of challenge. When life and/or your assignment result
in moments of regression, retardation, stymie, setback, diversions, and
detours, recovery is possible. Why? Because our God has a restorative career.
When you believe God is able, you gain confidence to do and be what you have
never done and been. Trust in God breeds stability, rejects low self-esteem,
claims peace, turns you into a living advertisement of achievement, affirms
personhood, consecrates your potential, overcomes the fears of life, imagines a
way of togetherness with your family and your people, and instills new
possibilities of loving, living, learning, lifting, and leading.
VI. Illustration
A Team Touchdown
The other day I was watching a football game and I noticed that
the quarterback was about to run the ball until he noticed several guys from
the other team running towards him. Because he noticed the pressure that was
coming his way, he looked around for a moment, and when he found the right
person he threw the ball to him. That man then went on to score a touchdown for
the team. As I reflected on that interaction, I realized ministry and those who
do ministry should function that way. So often, many of us have possession of a
ministry and we think it's our job to run every play. Unfortunately, people who
hog the ball and never pass it often get tackled before making any progress.
But if we do like that quarterback and realize that God has other people on the
team who are just as capable of running the ball, then our ministry teams will
gain more victories. Individuals do not score touchdowns; they're scored when
everyone on the team works together. Somebody ought to look at your neighbor
and say, "Neighbor, pass the ball."
—Tamika Bell, Birmingham, Alabama
This illustration is taken from the Sermon Illustration section
of the African American Lectionary. Please see this section for additional
illustrations.
VII. Descriptive Details in This Passage
Sights: A cramped house;
prophets traveling to chop woods; trees falling to the ground; axe head flying
off its handle, sinking to the bottom of the Jordan River, and floating to the
surface; Elisha throwing a stick into the river; a student-prophet reaching for
the floating axe head;
Sounds: Chopping wood;
trees hitting the ground; the frantic voice of a pupil; and
Colors: The brownish,
murky Jordan River; the beige garments of the prophets; and the brown dusty
feet of the prophets from working on the construction project site.
VIII. Songs to Accompany This Sermon
A. Well-known Song(s)
Imani. By Phillip Manuel and Bill Summers
I Need You to Survive. By David Frazier
Happy Kwanzaa. By Reggie Calloway
B. Modern Song(s) (Written between 2000–2011)
Don't Forget to Remember. By Donald Lawrence
Faithful Is Our God. By Jules Bartholomew
How Great Is Our God. By Jesse Reeves and Chris Tomlin
C. Spiritual(s) and Hymn(s)
Blest Be the Tie That Binds. By John Fawcett. Tune by John G.
Nageli. Arr. by Lowell Mason
There's No Me, There's No You. By Evelyn Reynolds. Arr. by Nolan
Williams, Jr.
How Great Thou Art. By Stuart K. Hine
D. Liturgical Dance Music
Kumbaya. African American Spiritual. Adapted lyrics and music by
Kurt Carr
Brighter Day. By Kirk Franklin
Something Inside So Strong. By Labi Siffre
E. Song(s) for the Period of Prayer
My Faith Looks Up to Thee. By Ray Palmer. Tune, (OLIVET), by
Lowell Mason
Be Blessed. By Paul Morton
F. Sermonic Selection(s)
Seven Principles. By Bernice Johnson Reagon
Day by Day. By Caroline Sandell-Berg. Tune, (BLOTT EN DAG), by
Oscar Ahnfelt
I'll Trust You. By Richard Smallwood
G. Invitational Song(s)
I Will Trust in the Lord. Traditional Spiritual
I'm Available to You. By Carlis Moody, Jr.
IX. Videos, Audio, and/or Interactive Media
Images for Kwanzaa. Online location: https://www.google.com/
search?q=kwanzaa&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&
sa=X&ei=eWrPT4GCBcOk6gG7grCyDA&sqi=2&ved=0CHEQsAQ&
biw=1366&bih=667
Sesame Street: Kwanzaa. Online location:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kV-6qVp98Q
"How to Celebrate Kwanzaa" by United Black Community,
Part 1. Online location: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3xmOG4pcwU
"How to Celebrate Kwanzaa" by United Black Community,
Part 2. Online location: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIG__pxYB0A
X. Books to Assist in Preparing Sermons, Bible Studies, and/or
Worship Services Related to Kwanzaa
Angaza, Mantefa.
Kwanzaa: From Holiday to Everyday. New York, NY: Dafina, 2007.
Asante, Molefi Kete.
Maulana Karenga: An Intellectual Portrait. Stafford BC: Polity, 2009.
Madhubuti, Haki R.
Kwanzaa: A Progressive and Uplifting African American Holiday. Chicago: Third
World Press, 1972.
Mayes, Keith A.
Kwanzaa: Black Power and the Making of the African-American Holiday Tradition.
New York: Routlege, 2009.
Riley, Dorothy
Winbush. The Complete Kwanzaa: Celebrating Our Cultural Harvest. New York:
HarperCollins, 1995.
XI. Links to Helpful Websites
The Official Kwanzaa Website. Online location:
http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/index.shtml
Kwanzaa Activities for Kids. Online location: http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/kwanzaa/
"Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and
Culture" by Dr. Maulana Karenga. Online location:
http://officialkwanzaawebsite.org/
"What Is Kwanzaa?" Kwanzaa Information Center:
Melenet.com. Online location: http://www.melanet.com/kwanzaa/whatis.html
XII. Disability Awareness Information
The African American Lectionary wants all churches to do a
better job of including the disabled/differently abled. Please consider the
following when planning all worship services and activities, including Kwanzaa,
and all other church activities:
We need to give people with disabilities access to society's
most important place: our compassionate hearts. In fact, if we each begin with
opening our hearts, access to our church buildings, programs, and our lives
will be a natural expression of welcoming all God's children into the community
of Christ's body, freely and without prejudice. Our proactive inclusion of
adults and children with disabilities into the full life of our churches then
will become the living and best example of being like Christ. (Taken from The
Episcopal Disability Network. Online location:
http://www.disability99.org/id69.html accessed 19 June 2013.)
XIII. Notes for Select Songs
A. Well-known Song(s)
Imani. By Phillip Manuel and Bill Summers
Location:
Summers, Bill. The Essence of Kwanzaa. New Orleans, LA: Monkey
Hill Records, 1997.
I Need You to Survive. By David Frazier
Location:
Walker, Hezekiah. The Essential Hezekiah Walker. New York, NY:
Verity, 2007.
Happy Kwanzaa. By Reggie Calloway
Location:
Pendergrass, Teddy. This Christmas I'd Rather Have Love. New
York, NY: Wind Up Records, 1998.
B. Modern Song(s) (Written between 2000–2011)
Don't Forget to Remember. By Donald Lawrence
Location:
Lawrence, Donald and the Tri City Singers. Bible Stories. New
York, NY: Zomba, 2004.
Faithful Is Our God. By Jules Bartholomew
Location:
Hezekiah Walker and the Love Fellowship Crusade. 20/85
Experiences. New York, NY: Verity, 2005.
How Great Is Our God. By Jesse Reeves and Chris Tomlin
Location:
Nelson, Jonathan & Purpose. Right Now Praise. New York, NY:
Integrity, 2008.
C. Spiritual(s) and Hymn(s)
Blest Be the Tie That Binds. By John Fawcett. Tune by John G.
Nageli. Arr. by Lowell Mason
Location:
African American Heritage Hymnal. Chicago, IL: GIA Publications,
2001. #341
There's No Me, There's No You. By Evelyn Reynolds. Arr. by Nolan
Williams, Jr.
Location:
Zion Still Sings for Every Generation. Nashville, TN: Abingdon
Press, 2007. #92
How Great Thou Art. By Stuart K. Hine
Location:
African American Heritage Hymnal. #148
D. Liturgical Dance Music
Kumbaya. African American Spiritual. Adapted lyrics and music by
Kurt Carr
Location:
Carr, Kurt. No One Else. New York, NY: Zomba, 2001.
Brighter Day. By Kirk Franklin
Location:
The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin. Inglewood, CA: Gospocentric, 2002.
Something Inside So Strong. By Labi Siffre
Location:
Armstrong, Vanessa Bell. Gospel Greats Live, Vol. 1. New York,
NY: BMG Special Product, 2004.
E. Song(s) for the Period of Prayer
My Faith Looks Up to Thee. By Ray Palmer. Tune, (OLILVET), by
Lowell Mason
Location:
African American Heritage Hymnal. #456
Be Blessed. By Paul Morton
Location:
Still Standing. Nashville, TN: Light Records, 2006.
F. Sermonic Selection(s)
Seven Principles. By Bernice Johnson Reagon
Location:
Women of the Calabash. The Kwanzaa Album. New York, NY: Orchard,
1998.
Day by Day. By Caroline Sandell-Berg. Tune, (BLOTT EN DAG), by
Oscar Ahnfelt
Location:
Church of God in Christ. Yes, Lord! Church of God in Christ
Hymnal. Memphis, TN: Church of God in Christ Pub. Board in association with the
Benson Co., 1982. #90
I'll Trust You. By Richard Smallwood
Location:
Smallwood, Richard with Vision. Journeys: Live in New York. New
York, NY:
Verity Records, 2006.
G. Invitational Song(s)
I Will Trust in the Lord. Traditional Spiritual
Location:
Boyer, Horace Clarence. Lift Every Voice and Sing II: An African
American Hymnal. New York, NY: Church Pub., 1993. #192
Cleveland, J. Jefferson, and Verolga Nix. Songs of Zion.
Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1981. #14
I'm Available to You. By Carlis Moody, Jr.
Location:
Brunson, Milton. Available to You. New
York, NY: Word, 1988.
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