Rev. Paul Tellström                                                               Irvine United Congregational Church

3rd Sunday in Lent, Year C  “Amistad Sunday”                                                       March 11, 2007

Gospel Reading: Luke 13:1-9                                                                              word count: 1,581

            When you see posters such as the one for One Great Hour of Sharing that is framed in the narthex, you may wonder who organizes the mission of the United Church of Christ, and what is the history of the work we have done as a loosely knit group of free churches.  You may wonder about that emphasis on justice issues that you hear about.  However, as a church that ranked number ten out of 5,700 churches in giving, I know that you take it seriously. 

One of the best examples I can give that demonstrates our commitment to justice is the Amistad event, which was about a Spanish slave ship that had illegally brought slaves to New England.  It eventually drew in former president John Quincy Adams as lawyer for the defense of stolen Africans, and provided the impetus for the deserved downfall of another president, Martin Van Buren.

The Amistad story is a story of illegal slave trade, of a people brought to New England, whereupon claims of ownership were made upon them.  It is a story of how early abolitionists drew together in defense of some forty Africans who did not speak any English; a group boldly represented by a chief named Cinque.  It is also a story of our U. C. C. history, and one about which we can be proud.

The Spielberg film is good, starring Anthony Hopkins and Morgan Freeman.  Wandering through the film is a group of generic Christians holding strangely elaborate crosses and dolefully singing hymns.  If anyone ever doubted that Hollywood caricaturizes religion, watch this movie.  If you are unfamiliar with the story, rent the movie with your family and familiarize yourself with one of the key abolitionist events in this country.  Just be careful to recognize that our Congregationalist ancestors were very involved in working for the freedom of these Africans, and the abolition of slavery during this 1840-1841 event.

            In reality, Christian abolitionists played a primary role in supporting Cinque’s and the other Mendi captives’ struggle for freedom.  Their effort, coming from what would become the Congregational churches, would lead to the formation of the American Missionary Association.  The work of this association in education, evangelism, and justice for people of all races continues to this day.

            Almost as soon as the captured Africans arrived at New London, Connecticut, Congregationalists organized the Amistad Committee to provide the accused with food, clothing and legal defense.  New England churches and ministers worked to raise money for their support.  Congregationalist seminarians at Yale University came and taught them English in order to help understand their story. 

When the Mendi were given their freedom in March of 1841, after nearly two years of captivity, they were given no aid by the government to return to their homeland.  The new president, southerner John Tyler, was a slave owner himself. 

Because of the strong abolitionist leanings in town, because it was a hub of the Underground Railroad, and because of influential abolitionists in the church and its pastor, the Mendi came to Farmington, Connecticut.  The Rev. Noah Porter had formed the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions in 1810, and that board is now known as Wider Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ.   The Rev. Porter welcomed the Mendi into the church the first Sunday they were present and invited them to sit in his own family pews.  The 38 surviving Mendi lived for eight months as free people in the town.  Here they worshipped in the Congregational Meetinghouse, which still stands, were given room and board, had a dormitory built for them, were given 15 acres to farm for themselves and were further educated in English and Christianity.  They were befriended by many, and were free citizens responsible for their own welfare.

During the Mendi’s time in Connecticut they took the Farmington Canal to various places to sing hymns they had learned in worship, to read Scripture, to tell their story, and they worked to raise money for their return.  On November 27, 1841, the church held a special worship service with an overflowing crowd in the Meetinghouse to send them off, at which time an offering of about $1400 was collected by the church in order to fund their trip home.

The importance of the Amistad case lies in the fact that Cinqué and his fellow captives, in collaboration with white abolitionists, had won their freedom and thereby encouraged others to continue the struggle.  Positive law had come into conflict with natural law, exposing the great need to change the Constitution and American laws in compliance with the moral principles underlying the Declaration of Independence.  In that sense the incident contributed to the fight against slavery by helping to lay the basis for its abolition through the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865.

That legacy is alive today as part of the United Church of Christ.  We are the legal heir of that American Missionary Association.  Our board carries out ministries of social justice, education, publishing, health and welfare, evangelism and church development.  Thus, the Amistad event sowed the seeds for ministries that have continued for more than 150 years—not only with Africans, but also with Appalachian whites, Native Americans, Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders, Latinos and Latinas, and gays and lesbians.

The Amistad case is tried and won but, in the politically charged era before the Civil War, the inept and divisive President Van Buren appeals the case to the Supreme Court.  Former President John Quincy Adams was enlisted to defend the case.  In one scene of the movie, Adams is preparing Cinque for his appearance before the Supreme Court and ends by asking Cinque about the state of his soul.

Cinque’s response is quite remarkable.  Through an interpreter he says, “I am not going in there alone.  I am going in there with my ancestors.  I will call into the past, far back to the beginning of time and beg them to come and help me.  I will reach back and draw them into me and they must come.  For, at this moment, I am the whole reason they had existence at all.”

Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.  So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’  He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.  If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

While the slave trade existed, and we have learned that it still exists today, the churches remained silent.  In fact, slave owners were often upstanding members of their church communities.  They were like the dry trees that could not bear the fruit of justice.  Once watered and fed with the will to live out their message, some churches, social organizations, and even politicians such as William Wilberforce, used their prophetic witness to end the slave trade as we know it, two hundred years ago.  It will be up to us to do it again.

Our church ancestors took on an unpopular cause when they chose to fight slavery in order to look after the rights of others.  It was a cause that put many of them into danger.  Their spiritual heirs have done likewise, facing controversy and criticism for their support of civil rights for African Americans, justice for farm workers, women’s rights, and full equality for gay and lesbian people.

Today is a good day for this church to honor the spirit of our ancestors.  We celebrate this history that stands as a foundation for us to build upon.  We celebrate the Amistad event. 

As a community, we also honor the spirit of this, our local church, as it was and as it is, as history repeats itself, and we are asked on occasion to take up the unpopular cause of the Cinque’s of our day, the people who need to be lifted up and made whole with the same rights as every other citizen. 

I call on this church to honor the spirit of our ancestors.  Cinque said, “I will reach back and draw them into me and they must come.  For, at this moment, I am the whole reason they had existence at all.” 

Today after church, there will be a short film about the recreation of the slave ship Amistad, which now moves around our country as a living museum of injustice being conquered.

The Amistad event helped shape who we are today as a denomination and as a church.  It called our church ancestors together, and it summons us today.

The importance of the Amistad case lies in the fact that Cinqué and his fellow captives, in collaboration with white abolitionists, had won their freedom and thereby encouraged others to continue the struggle.  As a church, can we feel encouraged today by their story, to continue the struggle for peace and justice for all persons?  We have a legacy to fulfill—we will someday be the ancestors whose story can be summoned to supply strength to the oppressed, and the tree in Jesus’ parable that when watered and fed by a zeal for justice and moral vision, will continue to bear good fruit.

Scripture for Sunday, March 11, 2001

2^nd Sunday in Lent, Year C  “Amistad Sunday”

Luke 13:1-9   

            At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.  Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Silo'am fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."

Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.  So he said to the gardener, "See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?'  He replied, "Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.  If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"