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Richard Allen” Micah 6: 6-8

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Richard Allen” Micah 6: 6-8 Jan. 20 “Richard Allen” Micah 6: 6-8 My name is Richard Allen, and I speak to you as your nation prepares to inaugurate a president at high noon tomorrow and host an interfaith prayer service at the National Cathedral on Tuesday. Listen to my story. I was born Feb. 14, 1760 in Philadelphia, one of the slaves of Benjamin Chew, the chief justice of the colony of Pennsylvania. My master was kind and considerate, but he fell heavily into debt and was forced to break up our family, selling my mother and sisters. I never saw them again. I remained with my master into my early 20’s. He saw to it that I acquired the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, something unheard of for a slave. He also urged me to learn about Jesus Christ. At seventeen I was converted, joining a Methodist class meeting. When Methodism came from England to America in the 1760’s slavery was a thriving institution in the colonies. Methodists immediately opposed it and sought conversion of blacks. My master held Methodist class meetings in his home as well. One preacher who held a service was Freeborn Garrettson, one of the greatest of the early evangelists and a strong opponent of slavery. He preached from the text…”Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting,” ranking slaveholders among those who were wanting. I first feared the reaction by my master, but I noticed he was deeply moved. Shortly thereafter my master gave me the opportunity to buy my freedom for two thousand dollars in continental money. He permitted me to leave our farm and seek work to obtain the funds… Here was implicit trust of a master in a slave. Here was pure integrity on my part to be faithful to my obligation and not escape. The highest virtues can sometimes be found in the most unlikely of situations. Eventually I secured the funds, purchased my freedom, and became known as a free man of color. I became a lay preacher within the Methodist Church, something you would call a lay speaker today. I preached to Mad Anthony Wayne’s family and pointed them to salvation in Jesus Christ. In 1784 following the American revolution, the General Conference of Methodism met at Baltimore and formed the Methodist Episcopal church in America. Francis Asbury was consecrated by Bishop Thomas Coke, who had been consecrated by John Wesley himself. Here Methodism began to ordain its white preachers in America. Bishop Asbury asked if I would like to accompany him in his travels in America. I declined because I feared that I might lose my freedom if I traveled in slave states in the south. So I stayed in Philadelphia. I married and had four children, seeing to it that they were all well educated. My wife Sarah was a gracious person and ideal companion. Our home became a welcome retreat for white clergymen as well as runaway black slaves. The pastor of St. George’s Methodist church in Philadelphia asked if I would be willing to teach and start classes. I accepted and for a number of years the miracle of an integrated congregation at worship was a hallmark of that church. But over the course of time white members of St. George’s began to get nervous. We found that we were slowly being excluded from activities in the church. Our white brothers failed to notify us when important meetings would be held and we received negative looks and glances. And then one Sunday morning in 1787, as we were attending worship in our usual place within the floor of the main sanctuary, the ushers informed us that we would have to go sit in the balcony. This was during the singing of a hymn and prayers were starting. No! You must not sit here anymore. Go to the balcony! We said we would move after the prayers were completed. No! You must move now! By the time the prayers were finished we were hurt and angry. All of us who were people of color got up and went out of that worship service as one body. And they were no more plagued by us in that church. Our action raised a great deal of excitement with numerous white members of the church ashamed of what had happened. We left and rented a storeroom where we could worship freely by ourselves. Although we left St. George’s congregation we still were Methodists. By 1794 we had acquired enough funds to build our own place of worship. Bishop Asbury was invited to open the structure for divine worship and he accepted. The church was named Bethel Methodist Church. You see, blacks had been part of the Methodist movement in America from its beginnings. They shared as fully as they could in its development and contributed as their meager resources allowed. But as the years went by slavery began to be more and more entrenched within America for economic reasons. The church began to lower its voice against slavery particularly in the south. Even in the north caste patterns and racial segregation were becoming fixed within the church just as within society. People were listening to cultural voices more readily than the gospel of Jesus Christ regarding how we should relate to one another. Could you blame us if we felt disillusioned? And so in 1816, twenty nine years after our expulsion from St. George’s in Philadelphia, our group of black Methodists who had been worshipping separately all that time, formally withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church and formed a new denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, or as it is known today, the AME. I was ordained and then elected the first bishop of the denomination, the first black bishop in Protestantism. I administered my office efficiently and gave the new church respectability and growth within northern cities. Perhaps I and others were too naïve and simplistic in expecting the kingdom of God to be made manifest here on earth, particularly when slavery benefited both the southern plantation owner and northern businessman alike. When people have their economic security threatened in one way or another, the potential is always there for an increase in scapegoating, ugliness, hatred, and violence. Sin is so very real in ourselves and in our institutions. Yet God asks us to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with him. And the apostle Paul reminds us that all of us, whether Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free, have been baptized into the one body by the same spirit… I died in 1831. Slavery was still institutionalized in the south and segregation was rampant in the north. But due to the witness of abolitionists, Methodism itself split into northern and southern denominations in 1844, not to be reunited again until 1939. Now St. George’s is a fully integrated historic United Methodist Church in the heart of Philadelphia. I do believe that God will bring to fruition what God intends. I trust in the promises of God. .
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