 |
 Barbara Berry-Bailey "Everyday People" Program #4410 First air date November 3, 2000 |
Biography
The Rev. Barbara Berry-Bailey, at the tender age of 10, announced to her family
that she wanted to become a Lutheran pastor. She is the product of five
generations of faithful Lutherans, so perhaps it came as no surprise.
After graduation from the University of Michigan and a first career in
radio and television broadcasting, she entered the Lutheran Theological
Seminary at Philadelphia in 1986, and today is pastor of Trinity Lutheran
Church in the historic Germantown section of Philadelphia. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted
above.]
"Everyday
People"
"While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of
the temple and the Sadducees came to them much annoyed because they were
teaching the people and proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of
the dead So they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day for it
was already evening. The next day their rulers, elders and scribes assembled in
Jerusalem. When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst they inquired, 'By what power or by what name did you do this?' When Peter, filled
with the Holy Spirit, said to them, 'Rulers of the people and elders if we
are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are
now asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all
the people of Israel that this man is standing before you in good health by the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified, whom God raised from the
dead. This Jesus is the cornerstone, the stone that was rejected by you, the
builders. There is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under
heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.' "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were
uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions
of Jesus. When they saw the man who had been cured standing beside them, they
had nothing to say in opposition, so they ordered them to leave the council
while they discussed the matter with one another. They said, 'What will we
do with them for it is obvious to all who live in Jerusalem, that a notable sign
has been done through them. We cannot deny it. But to keep it from spreading
further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this
name.' So they called them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in
the name of Jesus. "But Peter and John answered them, 'Whether it is right in God's sight to
listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot keep from
speaking about what we have seen and what we have heard.' " Several years ago I served as an assistant pastor in a small town just
outside Reading, Pennsylvania. Like many other Christian congregations we had
two services, one early morning and one just before noon, with Sunday school in
between the two opportunities for worship. In the nave waiting for a service to
begin during the prelude, there were always a few late arrivals coming upstairs
from Sunday school. Lauren was one of them. Each Sunday I would greet Lauren as
she came up the stairs and say to her, "Lauren, what did you learn in
Sunday school today?" She would say, "I learned that Jesus loves
me." And that became our regular litany. I would ask, "What did you
learn today?" and she would say, "I learned that Jesus loves me." After several weeks of this, I guess her mother became a little bit
embarrassed and one day she said to her, "Well, you say that every
week!" I said to her mother, "Well, she's got it right!" That's
what it all boils down to: Jesus loves you. We spend fifty-two Sundays a year
plus mid-week studies and mid-week worship during Advent and Lent just trying to
convey that message: Jesus loves you. I said, "I wish more adults got the
point. And with that, Lauren walked over to the front door and said to a
visitor who was walking in, "Jesus loves you." I think Lauren was all of four years at the time she preached that, her first
sermon. She was not the pastor's daughter, she was not the valedictorian of her
class, she was an everyday four year old. When selecting biblical passages on which I should reflect, I sometimes get
carried away, primarily because some biblical narratives don't end in just a few
passages, just a few verses. They’re not short subjects but rather they're
epics. The scriptural passage that I read today was Acts, Chapter 4, verses 1
through 20, but the passage that I really want to focus on is in verse 13.
"When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were
ordinary and uneducated men, they were amazed." To give you some
background, Peter and John had healed a lame man. There is a children's song
that sums it up that goes like this: As a result of that healing, as a result of that miraculous event, they were
hassled, they were admonished and arrested. And while standing in the midst of
their captors, they were interrogated. They asked them, "By what power or
in what name did you do this healing?" And Peter with all boldness
proclaims, "This once lame man is standing before you. He was healed in the
name of the One whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, Jesus." Now Peter, if you remember, had not always been so bold. On the night of
Jesus' trial when it would seem that Jesus would really need Peter to speak up
for him, Peter was only willing to shut up and run away for fear that the same
fate of trial and execution awaited him as well. What happened to make him so
bold now? He was no more educated than he was before the crucifixion. He was
uneducated. His social status and his status in the religious community had not
changed since before the crucifixion. He was just everyday people. What changed
Peter? What gave him this new-found boldness? The resurrection happened. The
Jesus who preached love and forgiveness had risen from the dead. The Risen
Christ bears no grudges about what previously had happened. God's love was
spoken to Peter and John and all who were in assembly that evening. In spite of
all that happened, the Christ appeared to Peter and John and all the others and
said, "Do not be afraid. Be at peace." So now, in light of forgiveness, Peter can boldly proclaim Jesus as the
Anointed One of God and heal the sick in his name. He doesn't seem to care any
more about the fact that his life might be in jeopardy. They had been forbidden
to teach the teachings of Jesus but in light of all that has happened to Peter
and the rest of Jesus' followers, Peter says he can no longer shut up. Peter
says he can no longer run away. He's on a mission. He has focus and he does what
he is sent to do. Subsequently they were released and they told others of the incident. In the
epilogue in verse 31, it says when they prayed they shook the room and all were
filled with the Holy Spirit. In turn, all who heard went out to boldly be
proclaimers themselves of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember again, they were
no church officials. They didn't wear special robes or special vestments. They
were just everyday people. What about you? Is the resurrection just a story that has survived hundreds
of years? Is it just an allegory that makes for a good television mini-series or
book sales? The Church teaches that Jesus rose from the dead. Ministers and
priests stand in pulpits and proclaim that Christ is alive. All these things
testify to the living Lord, but what do you say? What do you believe? If the
resurrection has changed everything, how has it changed your life? If you
believe that Christ is alive, if you have been touched by the word of God's love
and forgiveness, how can you keep silent about what you have seen? How can you
keep silent about what you have heard and how your life has been transformed?
You don't have to stand on a street corner with a bullhorn. You don't have to
stand in the middle of an auditorium full of strangers to boldly proclaim Jesus
Christ is Lord. The most effective proclamation is by everyday people who share
their faith and their faith stories with other everyday people. Like Peter, we may have done some rotten things in our lives that don't
exactly proclaim that Jesus is our friend. Oh, we might sing that song, but we
have to admit sometimes that the things that we do in our lives bear no
resemblance to lives that have been touched by Christ. But again, the
resurrection changes everything. It changed the disciples. It changed the world.
It changed me and I'm just everyday people. It continues to change us everyday
people. And everyday people can go on in prayer and bold proclamations to shake
rooms across the planet that the world might know of God's love and forgiveness
through Jesus Christ.
A reading from Acts, the 4th Chapter:
"Peter
and John went to pray.
They met a lame man on the way.
He asked for alms and held out his palms;
And this is what Peter did say:
Silver and gold have I none,
But such as I have give I thee.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.
He went walking and leaping and praising God,
Walking and leaping and praising God.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk."
Interview with Barbara
Berry-Bailey
Interviewed by Lydia Talbot
Lydia Talbot: You began your message with an illustration of a little girl named Lauren, a four-year-old child who told you after Sunday school every Sunday that the lesson she learned was that Jesus loved her. I wonder, when did an understanding of that kind of love first come to you?
Barbara Berry-Bailey: Oh. It first came to me as a child. I think you know it in your head. I attended Lutheran day schools so I used to hear the message a lot. I would say probably six. I think Lauren maybe had a two year jump on me. But you know when you feel it in here. I really didn’t have what I call an incarnational understanding of forgiveness until I was maybe 35 years old.
Talbot: How do you explain that?
Berry-Bailey: I knew you’d ask that question! I had been married and divorced and feeling the weight of the law, like an adulteress, which is what my previous pastor had even said at one point: if you do this then that will make you an adulteress. I remember when I got married the second time, we planned our wedding for Sunday in the middle of worship. It wasn't a separate Saturday service. The text, the appointed Gospel lesson that day, was that Matthean text that says, "If a woman divorces her husband, she’s an adulteress and if a man divorces..." It's that horrible Matthean text. I remember saying to the pastor, "Can't we change the appointed lesson? I mean, do we have to read this on the day I am supposed to get married?. He said, "You know, the lesson of the day is the lesson of the day." And so it was October 9, 1988. I sat there and in the light of that text being read I said, "Jesus died for me. You know I'm forgiven." I mean that is when I truly felt I can sit here in light of this text and still get married in the church.
Talbot: How liberating that must have been for you.
Berry-Bailey: Yes, yes, it was.
Talbot: To free yourself from an earlier kind of absolutism. I must ask you: the boldness of Peter and John you developed so well in the message is the boldness that you must know something about. Here you are the first woman, the first black woman as pastor of the historic Lutheran church in Germantown. How has that kind of boldness been part of your journey?
Berry-Bailey: It's a two-sided coin. I mean there’s boldness and there is also humility. The background that I had growing up, not only in the Lutheran church, but as I said going to Lutheran day schools, kind of planted the seeds. The Great Commission is to go make disciples and I always felt that as a little kid that Jesus was talking to me. You know, I was right there on the mountain with the rest of the disciples. I used to see myself there. You know, Jesus telling me to go make disciples. And then I found out when I was around 10 years old: but you're a woman and you can't do that. I remember thinking this will happen in my lifetime. I had kind of given up hope in the branch of the Lutheran church in which I was a member. But in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America when I moved to Philadelphia, there was a Philadelphia seminary that did accept women. And so I had to take a few steps over from my Lutheran roots to another branch and, in fact, become ordained in my lifetime. So, there’s a kind of humility that God works in all kinds of ways through all kinds of circumstances.
Talbot: And it’s empowerment.
Berry-Bailey: It is. Oh, it is.
Talbot: You were telling me about your little girl, Cynthia, who is age six now. She’s a real messenger for God in your church, isn't she?
Berry-Bailey: She is. She invites children to Sunday school and to church. I saw her helping a visitor once with the liturgy. I remember looking and seeing her pointing out to where we were to a woman who was a visitor but in our midst. Didn't know her from Adam.
Talbot: You touch on the meaning underlying meaning of the resurrection and how lives are changed, how your own life was changed. How was that revealed to you first early on and how was your life and is it still being changed by an understanding of what it means to be loyal to the resurrected Christ?
Berry-Bailey: That was one of the things that I said, that it changed everything and continues to change. People think that, you know, are you going to preach the same sermon you did three years ago because you’re faced with the same text, but you're a different person in three years later. The Holy Spirit has brought you to a new place, even if you are in the same place geographically, you're in a different place. You're at a different level, a different plane. So we’re constantly being shaped by circumstances, by the Word, and by the people that God sends into our lives.
Talbot: The people that God sends into our lives. In our final moment, who are those people in your church in Germantown and what are the resurrection stories going on every day there?
Berry-Bailey: Some people would say the people in the congregation that are supportive of them. But I think people who challenge my ministry as well, are people that God has sent to help shape me, to strengthen me. Of course, my family, my husband, my children, my son, my daughter. I'm changed by people that I sit next to on the subway. And I really mean that because it’s kind of a domino effect. I mean, there’s just certain things that happen to you because of the encounters that you have with people, a certain person that God sends into your life that may not have happened had that person not been there.
Talbot: And so openness and receptivity to that kind of living faith, a lesson for all of us. Thanks so much, Barbara.
Berry-Bailey: Thank you.