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The big game, the Super Bowl is Sunday, and for the first time both teams will have African Americans starting at quarterback. 

For Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles and Patrick Mahomes it is just a game as it should be.  However, it was not that long ago that white NFL executives and white owners believed that blacks lacked the physical stamina, emotional courage, and yes, the intelligence, to play the most celebrated position on the field quarterback, the capstone of the team.  

Psalm 118 describes Jesus as the rejected stone.  He was rejected by Herod, the king who attempted to kill Jesus shortly after his birth.   He was rejected by people of his hometown Nazareth who attempted to throw Jesus off a cliff.  He was rejected by his own disciples with Peter rejecting Jesus three times.   

Jesus rose above the rejection; Jesus rose about the crucifixion and Jesus rose above even death.  Sitting still at the right hand of God in the most celebrated position in heaven.  

So, on Sunday when we watch the big game let us celebrate the milestone of QB’s Hurts and Mahomes but let us not forget the shoulders of the rejected black OB’s they stand on.  As we continue to praise and worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the rejected stone that has now become our capstone. 

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In Exodus chapter 32 Moses God’s chosen the leader of the Israelites had gone to the mountain to be with the Lord.  

 Concerned that Moses and by theory God had not returned to them, the Israelites got Aaron the priest older brother and spokesman of Moses to build an idol god in the shape of a Golden Calf.   

Aaron announced a special festival to honor the golden calf which was now their Lord.  The Israelites responded staging a wild party with lots of food, drink, and sacrifices.  

 In a very short amount of time the Israelites, the chosen people of God had forgotten their history.  
 
 They had forgotten the God, who had delivered them from slavery.   Replacing the active, real, and powerful God of their lives with a calf made of gold an idol with no 

 The Israelites sin of ditching their history had its consequences.  Moses had the priests still loyal to God, kill many of the people who were not.  Then the Lord sent a plague which killed many more.  

As you can see ditching history not knowing it not teaching it, and not remembering it has its consequences.    That is why we must have a Black History month.   To highlight the history that we should be knowing, teaching, and remembering every day.  

For if we don’t, we fall for the golden calf of folks like the Governor of Florida who wants history taught without people feeling the pain of the struggle it took to make it. 

 For if we don’t, we will end up falling for the golden calf low expectation that as a black person you can never be more than poor, uneducated, and unsuccessful.  

 For if we don’t, we will end up falling for the golden calf of being black in a police department that thinks so little of black lives that the forget that as black men themselves that black men get beat up unfairly by the cops.  

 So let us not worship the golden calf, let us learn, teach, and live Black History. 

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The Reverend Quinton Steverson , the host of “The Faith Talk” podcast joins The Podcast to talk about his life, his faith journey, his podcast, and his love of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

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Rev. Cynthia Parnell-McDonald, Ph.D  pastor of Cosmopolitan AME Church, Atlanta joins the Podcast to discuss her founding of SHIFT the one-million-dollar program funded by the Lillie Endowment, designed to provide supportive, holistic innovations to help ministers thrive in the AME church. 

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 What happens when black people do bad things to other black people. 

By now we have all seen the horrendous video footage of the police officers beating Tyre Nichols. Five Memphis police officers have been charged with second-degree murder. Tyre Nichols is black the five officers are also black. 

As blacks in America our history is dotted with violence. The cruelties of slavey, the lynching during Jim Crow, the televised beating of Rodney King. The cell phone death of George Floyd. 

We were outraged and rightfully so, adding to our indignation is the element of race, as these atrocities were at the hands of white people. 

So, what do we do now that the perpetrators are black? Well, this is what I am going to do. I am going to be outraged and I am going to pray. I am going to pray not only for the situation in Memphis, but for the countless other cases in this country where black people are doing bad things to other black people. 

Jesus has told us to love our neighbor as we would love ourselves. (Matthew 22:39) So, as I pray, I am also asking God to help us to keep and start in some cases loving our neighbor regardless of race or creed. For if we do that then black people will stop doing bad things to other black people. 

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In Chapters 4 and 5 of Matthew’s account of the Gospel is Jesus is going through Galilee, teaching and proclaiming the good news.  He does all this while curing every disease and every sickness among the people.  

 With his teaching and healing the fame of Jesus spreads.  Seeing the great crowds that followed him Jesus and his disciples went up the mountain, where he taught then the eleven blessings of the Beatitudes.   

 The Beatitudes are not a direct calls to action, to become poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, and so forth. Rather, the Beatitudes are promises.  Promises that God’s favor is not for the privileged or the rich, or the religious. God’s favor is for the weak, the forgotten, the despised, the justice seekers, the peace makers, and those persecuted because of their beliefs.

God’s favor is for those who Jesus was visiting in Galilee, the ordinary, the seeker of the truth about God, the sick, the lame, the lost.  

 Today as we live in the spirit of the Beatitudes let us respond to the instruction of Jesus to: First, read his Word in simplicity slowing down to read it out loud in groups of people to gain more understanding.  Second, let us conduct ourselves with hopefulness understanding that no matter how bad things get with God better days are ahead.   And finally, we should live with compassion, meaning we believe in equity not sympathy, we take on the difficult not the trivial and we practice the empowerment of the honesty.  Teaching the real stories of our history for only the truth can the breach the bitter valley of racism, hate and unkindness that is all too common in our world. 

 These three principles allow us to be in the world, while not being totally shaped by it allowing us to live in the spirit of the Beatitudes.

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The author of Psalm 27 knows the highs and lows of life.  In response the Psalmist makes a dramatic, definitive, and declarative statement then answers a question about the status of his life: “The LORD is my light and my salvation is the statement.  And the Psalmist answers his question by saying whom shall I fear?”   

In a sermon recorded live at Greater Bethel in Athens, on January 22, 2023 Pastor Marben Bland addresses the highs and lows of life from a Biblical perspective. 

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The Godly Virtue Of Honesty

 In 2 Kings chapter 12, we find this story.  The temple badly needed repair so the King started what amounted to a Go-Fund-Me campaign.  A chest with an opening in the top was placed at the temple door, and soon the chest was full. The priest distributed the money to building superintendents who paid workers and bought the materials for the temple’s repair.  Before long the temple had been restored to its past glory.  

 The building superintendents who were key to the restoration of the temple were virtuous people.  They were so honest that scripture tells us that the priest  did not do an accounting of the money given to them from the chest.  For they knew the superintendents “dealt honestly.”

“Dealing honestly” is not a virtue assigned to Representative George Santos, a Republican from New York.  Congressman Santos has been caught in numerous lies about the basic facts of his life.  Including his education, his wealth, and the story of his mother.  These “ball-faced lies” has Democrats and Republicans calling for his resignation.

 God does not want us to lie.  Proverbs 6 makes lying one of the six things that the Lord hates.  But still, we lie.  We lie so much that we tell lies about our lies. Calling them “little white lies”, told without concern for their ethical or spiritual implications.  

Yes, we are appalled by the lies of Congressman Santos.  However, in our dismay have we examined our own relationship to the truth?  Are we like the superintendents dealing honestly?  Is our word golden in the world? 

 The Lord wants us to bask in the Godly virtue of honesty. It is my prayer for me, it is my prayer for you, and it is my prayer for George Santos.

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Charles Richardson joins The Podcast to discuss the news.  Topics include the GOP House of Representatives, George Santos, The Georgia General Assembly, the back-to-back national champion University Georgia Bulldogs, books, and the state of newspapers in America.

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The Highs And Lows Of Life

 Last Saturday, fans of the University of Georgia fans gathered to celebrate the teams second straight national. Joy abounds as the highs of life were experienced. 

Then in the early hours of Sunday morning Devin Willock, a redshirt sophomore offensive lineman and Chandler LeCroy, a football recruiting analyst, died in a car crash.  The lows of life were experienced.    

 The author of Psalm 27 knows the highs and lows of life.  In response the Psalmist makes a dramatic, definitive and declarative statement then answers a question about the status of his life:

“The LORD is my light and my salvation is the statement.  And the Psalmist answers his question by saying whom shall I fear?”

Psalm 27 this bold, announcement about God shows that only God can get us through the highs and lows of our lives.  A close look at the Psalm reveals three things God provides for us in high and low situations.  

First, God gives us light – For it is the light that will guide us when through the highs and lows of life. 

Second, God gives us salvation – For salvation is the gracious, undeserved gift of God that tempers us when we are high and us comfort when we are low. 

 Third and finally, God gives us courage – For fear is one thing that will impede our faith through the highs and lows of life. Fear will keep us from gaining greater success when we experience the highs of life., and fear will keep us paralyzed when we experience the lows of life.  So, God gives us courage to get us through both. 

 Today and for many days to come we will morn Devin and Chandler.  We will remember them in high and low points of their lives. 

 The highs and lows of our lives is the standard of our lives, but the constant of lives is faith in knowing that: “The LORD is my light and my salvation; and with that whom shall I fear?”

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