It's Time To Come Home - Dr. Jacqueline A. Thompson

0:00 We're going to the book of Mark. Familiar text, but hoping that God can speak a fresh word with something that is familiar that we know well. Mark chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. I'm reading for your hearing from the God's word version. Yours may be a little different, but we believe God's going to bring it all together. Is that all right? the bible says several days later jesus came back to capernaum the report went out that he was home many people had gathered there was no room left even in the front of the door jesus was speaking god's word to them and four men came to him carrying a paralyzed man since they could not bring him to jesus because of the crowd they made an opening in the roof over the place where jesus was. Then they lowered the cot on which the paralyzed man was lying and when Jesus saw their faith he said to the man friend your sins are forgiven. Some experts in Moses's teaching were sitting there and they thought why does he talk this way? He's dishonoring God. Who besides God can forgive sins? And at once Jesus knew inwardly what they were thinking and he asked them why do you have these thoughts? Is it easier to say to this paralyzed man your sins are forgiven or to say get up pick up your cot and walk I want you to know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins then he said to the paralyzed man I'm telling you to get up pick up your cot and go home the man got up immediately picked up his cot and walked away while everyone watched everyone was amazed and praised God saying we have never seen anything like this now I need you to help me is that all right it may not help you but it's gonna help the preacher so just look at your neighbor tell them it's time to come home if they're not talking they the wrong one turn around find somebody else tell them it's time to come home come on we all family in here today just find one more person and say it's

2:06 time to come home you may have your seats it's time Only a Reverend Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III would select Bateschella as the foundation for the homecoming concept for this anniversary. And I have to admit, if I can be honest, I have had the benefit of going to a predominantly white institution and I've also had the benefit of going to an HBCU, H.U. Howard University in the, amen, the real H.U. like Mueller I said what I say and I have to be honest Dr. Haynes there are all kinds of homecomings but there is no homecoming like a black college homecoming I got anybody went to an HBC don't nobody do it the way we do it it's it's not the same and and really what I really believe is that the way we do homecoming can be instructive for us as the black church because what I appreciated about Howard homecoming is that you really didn't have to be a graduate to go You don't have to be a graduate of an HBCU to come to homecoming.

3:34 If you went for one semester, you can buy you some paraphernalia and show up at homecoming like you got a degree on your wall. Don't matter if you graduated or not. Don't matter if you made it to the next level. If you were affiliated in any capacity, if you went and dropped off, you can get a sweatshirt and show up at homecoming. And I said to myself, how much different would the church be if we weren't caught up in the rules and regulations trying to decide who can come in and who should be left out? How different would we be if we just let anybody affiliated come up in the building because it's home? Don't nobody do homecoming like HBCUs. But not only is it because anybody can come, but it is a celebration of black excellence in culture.

4:40 It is the finest at homecoming. You're going to see the finest in fashion. Now it may not be your fashion But fashion is going to be the finest in beauty, the finest in music, the finest in band and culture. Everything is a celebration of what it means to be excellent and be black. And it is needed in these days and times when every time you turn on the television, it is a degradation of who we are as a people. You need a time when you come together and celebrate everything black. music, black food, black people, black folk. I need a few folks that understand that we come from an excellent people. It didn't just start today. We've been playing drums since we were snatched off the coast of Africa. It ain't no wonder that we are excellent.

5:38 Love it. But the last reason that I really like black HBCUs and their homecoming is that it's a reminder that when we gather, we are gathering under something bigger than ourselves. When you come to homecoming, it's not about whether you're in the MBA program or whether you're in the pre-med program. We're gathering under something larger. And isn't that why we come to church in the first place? Shouldn't this be the place where what you have don't matter, where what you drive don't matter, where what you look like don't matter because I didn't come in here for you anyway. I came because there is a God that's been keeping me in spite of me. And if you want to connect with me, then help me celebrate Jesus.

6:33 Don't nobody do homecoming the way HBCUs do homecoming. But the thing that messed me up about the concept is what do you do when everybody can't come home? because we do have some people who want to come home but they can't find their way home. And if we are not careful as the church, we will get so comfortable in celebrating our own homecoming, so comfortable with the fact that we are the ones in the building that we forget that there is a whole generation that ain't found their way home yet.

7:32 And it is not their responsibility to bump their heads trying to find their way back home. It is our responsibility, since we know the way home in the first place, to go get them and bring them. You got kids in your house right now that need to... it's my first time and I want to come back so I'm gonna act real good so I said God speak to us in this 43rd year about what homecoming is supposed to really mean for us because we are at a stage where it has to be about more than music gotta be about more than a good time gotta be about more than making sure we're okay so the bible says that jesus was at homecoming because you know every homecoming got a gospel night every every hbcu homecoming got got a gospel night now we're gonna drink till we under the table on saturday but early on sunday morning we're gonna go to whatever church they didn't designate you ain't got to raise your hand I already know look straight at me straight look straight ahead and we won't know that was you at home coming we right there in church with our shades on talking about in mark chapter 2 is homecoming the bible says jesus came home and when word got out that he was home everybody in the city wanted to be where he was so much so that the place where they were having the event that night was overcrowded and exceeded what the fire folks said you can have you know the limit that you can have they are now at risk but it was somebody who couldn't come to homecoming.

9:27 Mess me up. Because we don't mind the people that we see all the time. But in these days and time, it's not about who on the road. it's about who's not on the road so the bible says four friends four friends four friends four friends because you make some of your best friends in college had a friend that was paralyzed couldn't come to homecoming on his own scripture doesn't tell us why he's paralyzed.

10:07 Maybe his financial aid got cut off. Because sometimes when, you know, you go to school, you fill out the FAFSA. But by the time the FAFSA get to the office, they can't find the FAFSA. I love HBCUs.

10:29 And they just sent you a letter and said, they got your FAFSA. And you got some money. But by the time you get to the window, they don't know they didn't sent you a letter saying you got some money. So now you all the way from home. The church didn't send you with a Friendship West scholarship. Because you didn't feel now the housing application. But maybe he's paralyzed because his housing didn't come through on time. And if we tell the truth, it's some of us that go to college and we don't have the luxury of all three. We have to choose between paying tuition, paying for books, or eating. Scripture doesn't tell us why he's paralyzed. Maybe he's paralyzed because a case he caught when he was in high school caught up with him and he thought it was over. All we know is that it's homecoming and the whole city is there.

11:31 But it's one person that's paralyzed and can't make it to homecoming. And with everything your pastor just said this morning, you are living in a city of paralyzed people who can't make it to home. But the Bible says these four friends mess me up. Because you got to be real friends to do what these cats did. Scripture said the four friends said, you know what, we going homecoming.

12:10 Now I don't know how we going to get to homecoming. But we going to homecoming and we not leaving you. now how much different would church be if we just made a decision that we wasn't really gonna leave nobody behind that that if i'm gonna show up i'm gonna go get somebody that can't show up on their own and bring them up in here with me because there's something that's gonna be said a song that's gonna be sang a dance that's gonna be given that's gonna help them deal with their paralysis but what i've come to know dr kathy is sometimes we are challenged because we don't want to admit that at one point we were paralyzed too. Some of us act like we've been walking all our life. But if we tell the truth, we are only where we are because we're standing on the back of ancestors who never graduated from high school but wanted more for us than they had for them.

13:06 I need real saints that ain't ashamed to say I didn't always live like this. The Bible says. Four brothers said we're not going to leave our brother behind. And they made a decision that they were going to take the brother to homecoming. Mess me up. But they modeled for us what's going to need to happen if we're really going to become a people that support what other black people are doing in the community. if we are going to be a people that rectifies this wreck of a presidency that is in office right now. See, and that's why I appreciate growing up in the hood because when you grow up in the hood, you ain't scared of nothing and nobody.

13:59 Yes, I said it. You are a wreck and I am ashamed to say that you are the leader of this nation. And we don't have no time to be playing no democratic games. We need to figure out what the game plan is so we can get this joker out of office 2020 by hook or by crook. I don't care who do it. Get out of here! How we gonna come off that black excellence into this foolishness? Over there with the queen and don't even know she's... The queen shaded him so terrible. Did y'all see it?

14:53 When you in your 90s and can shade somebody, that's how you know you a queen. You ain't even got to say nothing. You just stand there. And with the flick of your wrist, honey, shade. That was it. You missed it. So my friend said, well, what did she do? How did she shade him? I said, well, she gave him a gift. And she said, well, what did she give him? I said, a book. Cause she knew who ain't never gonna read it. So the Bible said these four brothers. Take their paralyzed friend and they try to come through the door to homecoming, but it's packed.

15:44 You can't get in. No stamp on your hand. Don't glow in the dark. You don't have no. It's all gone. But I like them because they represent who we gonna have to be if we gonna reclaim a generation that's been stolen for us. The Bible says that when they couldn't get in the traditional way, they said, that's alright, I don't need your door. There is another way. Scripture says that while Jesus was in there having gospel night. that it was a rumbling on. on the roof and straw started falling and and the trustees of homecoming was saying what is this ain't in the budget for the homecoming Who is, who these people?

16:51 It messed me up because isn't that who we've always been as a people? Isn't that how we got HBCUs in the first place? When you decided we couldn't come into your institution, we said we don't need your front door. We're going to go to the basement of the church and teach our own children what it means to be who they... I need a few folk that know we done always made it going through non-traditional paths. That we don't need anybody to open the door. We can tear the roof off stuff when we... That's how we got our hospitals. That's how we got our colleges. We've never been welcomed through the front door. And if you are, be careful, because you might end up in the sunken place. The Bible says they lower their friend to the roof in the middle of gospel night at homecoming. And Jesus said your sins are forgiven.

18:01 Mess me up. Because I'm paralyzed. And you talking about sin. and we wonder why we can't get a certain group to come to church I'm paralyzed And you talking about who I slept with last night. But what the listeners did not understand is that in this culture, disease was associated with sin. So if you had diabetes, you a sinner.

18:48 If you had heart disease, you're a sinner. If you had asthma, it's not because you live in a polluted area, you're a sinner. So when Jesus said your sins were forgiven, it wasn't about the man. It was about the people listening at home coming at gospel night so that they could know that this situation ain't got nothing to do with sin. Because you do know there are some of us that ended up in situations that didn't have anything to do with us. We were born in the poverty. We were born in the violent neighborhoods through no fault of our own. But sometimes we can't get other people where they need to be because we too busy judging how they got there. I'm grateful because I was a flatlands girl, but I went to school in the hills.

19:53 That's my hills friend right there. She was in the hills, and we went to school in the hills, and I lived in the flatlands where you had to get up like 5 o'clock so you catch three buses. That's how far my school was. But what I learned is that folk in the hills got the same issues. As folk in the flatlands. They just drive a better car.

20:26 And what I also know is that when you deal with certain stuff, where you live don't help you. when you don't know where your child is it don't matter where you live when you got issues in your family it don't matter where you live I need a few folk that have decided I'm not into judging where you come from or what you do that's not my call the blood of Jesus covers that I'm just here to help you not be paralyzed

20:55 So he looks at him and says, your sins are forgiven. And the saints, because only the real saints go to gospel night. The rest of us be at Puffy when he was back, you know, back when he was Puffy, P. Diddy, he had a hundred names. But he was at Howard throwing parties, you understand.

21:18 They looking around. and he says oh you think it's easier to say your sins are forgiven than to say get up walk get up and walk. And the Bible says immediately the man got up and started walking. But what is instructive for us today is what was it in the friends that made them do what they did? Because I've come to know that sometimes non-paralyzed people don't have sympathy for people who are paralyzed. and they will deal with you for a little while. But when your paralysis starts to inconvenience them, then there is a time limit on the help that they have decided to give you. So I said, God, what is it that we need to know? What can these young men teach us? Three things and I'm out your way, just like you said. The first thing we're going to have to recapture if we're coming home is vision.

22:14 You are blessed to sit under a pastor that has vision. But can I help you? It's not enough for him to have vision. you got to have some vision for yourself. Because it occurred to me the only reason why the friends decided to take him to Jesus is because when they looked at him, they didn't see him paralyzed. And you need friends in your space that see you better than where you are right now. You don't need friends in your space that are comfortable with your paralysis. You need somebody in your space that say you don't have to live like this. It can be better than it is right now. We can change it and I'm here to help you. You need vision.

23:06 Deliver me from people who don't have no vision for nobody but themselves. They had to see him walking in order to take a risk on helping him get to Jesus. So when you look at South Dallas, what do you see? When we look at that generation, what do we see? Our ancestors didn't see us as slaves.

23:43 If truth be told, they didn't see themselves as slaves. Or they wouldn't be singing before I be a slave. I'll be buried in my grave. Harriet Tubman never would have had an underground railroad that she believed that slavery was God's plan for our life. but one person with vision can change the trajectory of an entire people's path. He had friends that saw him better than where he was. Second thing, there was agreement. And that's what messed us up on gospel night. Because we can't get no agreement.

24:25 We mess up because we want, well, how are we going to get him there? You know he can't walk. you gonna carry him? You want me to carry him? You know my back bad. I was limping when I came up. We can just go to Gospel Night and get the DVD and bring it back and then just... Okay, well even if we get them up, I mean you know it's traffic and it's hot, you gonna take them on the 20 or you go... We can't get them where they need to go because we can't agree on how to get them there. Are we going to have rappers at the youth night or we not going to have rappers at the youth? Who cares? Put some earplugs in your ear and do whatever needs to be done to get them up in here. If we can't agree on nothing else, we can agree that he needs to be healed.

25:28 And as long as we agree on that, then God is able to move through our agreement. So we have to stop fighting over who can come in the door and who can't come in the door. And what they ought to look like when they come in the door. how they ought to sound when they come in the door how they ought to smell when they come in the door just agree that they need to be in the door because the driver is named Adrian somebody named Adrian picked me up this morning and he said his church Disciples Central has a partnership with Friendship West and he said that they have an event coming up where the older men going to take the younger men fishing that that's what y'all getting ready to do So I told him my grandmama used to take me fishing when I was little. And she taught me something that became a key in ministry that no seminary ever taught me.

26:27 And what she taught me was you can't clean a fish you ain't caught yet. so stop wasting your trying trying to get them right if you get them in here Jesus can get them right just like he got you right I need a few folks to just pull out your phone and take a selfie right now because you ain't never look this good in all your life it's only since Jesus been in your life and if he did it for you he can do it Last thing and I'm done.

26:59 They had agreement. And the last thing they had was action. because the man was paralyzed in his body. But sometimes we as a faith community are paralyzed in our minds. So we have a whole lot of summits. and a whole lot of conferences, and a whole lot of gatherings, and a whole lot of meetings, and we bring the most brilliant minds together to teach us about the issues that are impacting us. And then we leave with our t-shirts in our bag, and we go back to our regular lives. And we ain't got nothing from the conference but information. and the people who we are supposed to be there to help are still in the same predicament they were in.

27:55 No better because we have gathered. So at some point, it was not enough for the friends to recognize his need. It was not enough for them to know where the answer was to his need. At some point, they had to say, you know what? Let's go.

28:17 And we get stuck at the let's go. but had they not ever left where they were they never would have made it to homecoming with Jesus and then it occurred to me reverend that that really is what God did in the first place you do know I'm Baptist so we're gonna have to go there you do know that the only reason we say is because God desired a homecoming and he realized that we couldn't have a family reunion left to ourselves. And so he decided that he was going to leave the comfort of where he was and come down 40 and two generations because we were paralyzed and we weren't going to be able to get to him. So he said, I'm going to go to them and do for them what they can't do for themselves. He knew that we were not able to bring redemption to ourselves. So he died on a cross for our sins and was resurrected on the third day and said, whosoever believeth in me shall be.

29:19 That's the only reason. So I just came by to say on this 43rd church anniversary, it's time to come home. And what we must remember is that homecoming is not just black music, not just black culture, not just black food. It's black faith. we didn't make it by ourselves it was the strong arm of the lord that brought us through that chain you were talking about that's why the saints in the old church say we've come this far by faith not leaning on anything else but leaning on trusting in his holy word anybody can testify he is never he is never He has never failed me yet.

30:28 And when you recognize that, then you can say, oh. Oh, can't turn around because we've come this far by faith. Tell somebody it's time to come home. Come home, come. Come home, come home. You got somebody at home. You need to go get them and bring them back home.