The Unstoppable Quest For Freedom

0:07 I appreciate you so much. I asked what the theme was for this year and they told me to do part two, the unstoppable quest for freedom. So that's what I'm going to talk about in these moments, the unstoppable quest for freedom. What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun, fester like a sore and then run? Or does it stink like rotten meat, crust and sugar over like a syracuse sweet? Or maybe it sags like a heavy load or does it just explode? You recognize that poetic imagery from the pen and genius of the drum major of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes raised the question, what happens to a dream deferred? and then he angrily answered from river to river, uptown and down. There's liable to be confusion when your dreams get kicked around.

1:08 Dreams getting kicked around. We know something about that as people of Ebony Hugh. For just this past month, we have witnessed my sisters and brothers, Harriet Tubman, the Moses of our people, making news, making news as it were because our dreams have been kicked around. She's made news, my sisters and brothers, in two instances. The first we are quite aware of as Mnuchin stood before a congressional committee and had the arrogant audacity to postpone the putting up Harriet Tubman as the face of the $20 bill. Of course, he was catering to his bigoted boss, 46 minus 1, and has decided that Harriet Tubman, that they won't do anything until 2028. In a real sense, a dream has been deferred, and all of us felt in that moment as Mnuchin testified before Congress that there was an undercurrent of racism and sexism that has continued to sink our spirits and drown our dreams.

2:27 Mnuchin, my sisters and brothers, said that at least until 2028 that Harriet Tubman will not have her face adorning the $20 bill. Instead, the face of the $20 bill will remain Andrew Jackson, who is a favorite of 46 minus 1. Andrew Jackson, we know of his racist record. We know of his white supremacist tendencies that were manifest not only in the fact that Andrew Jackson was a slaveholder who refused to release his slaves. Andrew Jackson, my sisters and brothers, was the one responsible for what became known as the Trail of Tears. Why? Because indigenous people were forcibly removed from their ancestral land, and they were moved across the Mississippi River west in what became known as the Trail of Tears.

3:30 Andrew Jackson, a favorite of 46 minus 1, remains the face of the $20 bill. That, in a real sense, is a dream deferred. And we know something about dreams deferred. I'll illustrate this idea. A young protege of mine, by the name of Jamal, graduated a few years ago from Hampton University. And he testified to me that upon graduating from Hampton, he excitedly with expectation went to Chicago because he had been interviewed by phone for one of the Fortune 500 companies that are based there in Chicago. And so upon doing well with the interview, he then looked forward after graduation to flying at their expense from Norfolk Airport to Chicago's O'Hare, where there he was going to have an interview in person with the vice president, the senior vice president of this Fortune 500 company. Listen, my sisters and brothers, to his transparent and triumphant testimony that so blew my mind.

4:48 I had to download it on my mental computer. And now I'd like to sermonically print you a copy. Check out what Jamal shared with me. Jamal testified. He said, Pastor Haynes, check out what happened. The interview via phone had gone well the week leading up to commencement. And then after commencement, I made my flight from Norfolk to Chicago's O'Hare. But I told the senior VP's executive assistant that I would handle my own ground transportation because I had a hookup with one of my boys in Chicago who had an autographed Scotty Pippen jersey. The senior VP is a fan of the Chicago Bulls. And so I rented a car and utilizing GPS, I made my way from Chicago's O'Hare to the south side to pick up the autographed jersey of Scottie Pippen. And then put in the GPS, the address of the restaurant where we were meeting for the interview on the north side of town.

6:00 But I ran straight into, here it is, notorious Chicago traffic, running into Chicago traffic. It became, here it is, a parking lot on the freeway. I had an appointment with him at 5 o'clock p.m. And as a consequence of the traffic, I am late. I called ahead to the restaurant to let them know that I was going to be late. But then following the directions of the GPS, I made the exit where it said and pulled up to the address that had been given to me or the name of the restaurant. And when I pulled up to that address, Pastor, I'm heartbroken because there's an empty lot there. That's what I discovered when someone came up and told me that the restaurant had just moved the week before around the corner. I then rushed around the corner and rushing into the restaurant, the hostess greeted me.

7:04 And when I told her my name, Jamal Pastor, that's when she told me that the person who was waiting to interview me had grown weary of waiting as a consequence. He had left me this note, the note read like this. Dear Jamal, I'm sure you're quite talented and that your services will be used by some company whose interview you show up on time for. I don't have time to wait and so I wish you good luck. Can you imagine how Jamal must have felt what happens to a dream deferred? He had been delayed by traffic forces beyond his control. And now because he had been delayed, there he is in Chicago, not getting the job that he was looking forward to. I park here parenthetically because we know something about dreams that are delayed.

8:01 We know something about plans that are postponed already. I'm in somebody's Kool-Aid calling out your flavor because life for you has not been a crystal stair because you've experienced delayed dreams and postponed plans. I'll see if I can help you. That is what happened when Harriet Tubman's face has been delayed from serving on the face of the $20 bill. I'm suggesting my sisters and brothers, our dreams have been delayed. That's one time that Harriet made news in the month of May, but God is so good. It wasn't the last time because in the month of May, did you see this? There's a mural down in Cambridge, Maryland and at this mural that is on this brick wall. Check out your shout.

8:53 The shout is it is a mural painting of the woman called Moses, a mural painting of Moses. and watch what she is doing. On the mural, she has appeared to break through a brick wall. She has broken through this structure because she is free. And note with me that in the background, it is scintillating. It is aesthetically eye arresting. There is tranquil blue water. And in the distance, one can almost see the North Star that served as the GPS for Harriet. before we had iPhones. And so there is Harriet Tubman who has broken through this structure. She has broken through this brick wall and she is extending a hand. And one of my favorite theologians and ethicists, the brilliant Dr. Stacey Floyd Thomas, said that when she saw this mural, it became for her an inspiration for the hip-hop phrase that says, come through.

9:59 I'll stop right there and give y'all a moment to get ready to shout because in hip-hop in the lectionary of hip-hop every now and then they say what come through and whenever someone has come through it's a reflection of their success it's a reflection of their overcoming the odds and so someone says about them come through I'm not coming through because y'all missing your shout I guess we can testify in our history, Frederick Douglass, come through and use your silver tongue oratory to portray freedom in a nation that was built on slavery and benefited from enslavement. But Frederick Douglass with your oratory, you showed us how to come through. Come through. Ida B. Wells as you use your pen, mightier than the sword, to take a stand against the lynching of black bodies that swung as strange fruit on southern trees.

11:02 Come through. Paul Robeson as you use your talents as an artist as well as an athlete and activist to portray the hypocrisy of America's practice of democracy. Come through Rosa Parks and take a stand by remaining seated. And because you remain seated, Martin could march. Because you remain seated, Jesse could run. And because you could remain seated, Obama could win. Come on through Rosa Parks. Come through. Martin Luther King Jr. as the drum major for justice because you came through. You came through Martin and you went up to the mountaintop and pointed us toward the promised land. Come through Beyonce because Beyonce says I will go to Coachella and black in Coachella and the next thing you know I'll lift up HBCU so all of us can have a homecoming.

12:03 come through Maxine Waters and reclaim your time. And all I'm trying to say, all I'm trying to say is that Harriet Tubman is saying to us in spite of structures of oppression and sexism, in spite of structures of racism, it's time to come through. I like that right there because that brick wall that she broke through represents structures. You see, racism is not just someone being mean to you or calling you the N-word, but racism, my sisters and brothers, is structural and structures produce outcomes. And that's why when you look at the outcomes in these disunited states of America, that every time you see positive statistics, blacks are at the bottom, whites are at the top. There is a wealth gap and an achievement gap that have everything to do not with our ability, but with a structure that has produced the same outcomes.

13:10 Y'all not getting this. It's structures of racism and sexism that produce the same outcomes. But don't you love the wall? Because on that wall, it says that Harriet has come through the wall. and Harriet is extending her hand and Harriet is saying to us in 2019, it's time to come through. Come through and do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with our God. Come through and let your light shine. Come through, AME Zion Church, because you remind us that the black church was born as a protest movement, fighting for freedom. Come on through. Because when you come through, you let your light shine when you come through. You're the salt of the earth when you come through. Justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

14:08 It's time for us to come through. Come through. Come through. So, so, so, what is Harriet saying to us in our unstoppable quest for freedom? How should we come through? I'm glad you asked. Harriet is saying to us to begin with, I love this right here, that in the unstoppable quest for freedom, freedom is an inside job that always has external liberating consequences. boom y'all missed your shout let me do that one more time harriet is saying to us that freedom is an inside job that will always have external liberating consequences and yes my sisters and brothers that is why harriet tuffman in that classic that unfortunately they took off of wgn called Underground.

15:06 They had Harriet do a monologue one time and Harriet shouted me because Harriet shouted me by saying this and this is going to get you right here. Real freedom is seeing beyond what is to what can possibly be. And that's when you know that you've been set free. Can you imagine? That's what Harriet did. Harriet saw beyond what was. Y'all still missing your shout. How did she do it? You all recognize that Harriet got in between the slave, the overseer and a runaway. And when the runaway was trying to get away, Harriet tried to block the overseer. And he hurled a two pound steel object in the direction of the runaway. But it hit Harriet in the head. And here's your shout right here. It left a scar and she testified that the scar was in the shape of a bird.

16:05 And she said every time she looked at that scar, she could see freedom. She should see herself flying away. Even while she was enslaved, she saw herself as free because real freedom starts on the inside. You think I made that up? Let me talk to Jesus. Jesus our sable skin Savior from the streets Jesus our caramel colored Christ who was straight out of the hood in Nazareth Jesus says you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free that's not external that's internal because once you're free on the inside when the sun sets you free you are free indeed I like that i like that and so harriet lets us know the wisdom of the late great dr james cone who said that real freedom is defining yourself for yourself in spite of what the world around you says about you that's an inside job zoro neer hurston said that freedom is a state of mind because freedom is an inside job that has external consequences i'll help y'all right quick last year was revolutionary for me i'll always thank you for it pastor polk took me too along with pastor darren took me over to the house and this is what blew us away there's a barn on the on the property and guess what the barn was locked and so pastor polk said to the park ranger who was trying to help us see around the property says can we go into the barn and he said well it's locked he said well you have all those keys on you use those keys to open it up he says I've never been in here I don't think I have a key that will open up this lock and Pastor Pogue being relentless said just try it man and y'all know what happened he tried a few keys and the next thing you know that lock unlocked and we went into something he had never been in and he's the park ranger the park ranger

18:17 had never been into that barn but because pogue said try the keys that you have and this was his testimony he said i just went into a place i never thought i could go in and the key was on me the whole time. And I'm trying to say that what Harriet is saying to all of us, come on through because the key is already on you. I like that. I like that. I like that. So freedom is internal. It's internal. And once freedom is internal, there's something else that Harriet lets us know. And this is going to shout you right here. Harriet says once you recognize that freedom is internal, then make sure you have a faith. I love this.

19:11 a faith that sees beyond what is to what ought to be and when you do that you'll embrace embrace the wisdom of Kendrick Lamar who threw down like this by saying a minor setback for a major comeback that's my favorite you didn't shout I see if I can help y'all right quick because what Mnuchin did last month was a minor setback. But Harriet Tubman was a woman who did not wait for somebody else to validate her. Harriet did not wait for someone else to open up a door for her. Harriet did it herself. Harriet said, I'm going to make sure that the AME Zion Church has property and I'm going to make sure that we build a home for the age. I'm going to make sure that we have free health care to those who don't have access to health care.

20:07 Harriet said, I ain't waiting for nobody to do it for me. I've got the power to do it myself. Why? Because Harriet had a resurrection faith. Resurrection faith is resilient. Resurrection faith says the harder I'm just like a rubber ball, the harder I go down, the higher I'm going to bounce back up. Resurrection faith said in the words of the Mexican proverb, they thought they had buried us, but they didn't know we were saved. Y'all still didn't shout. I see if I can help y'all right quick. Resurrection faith, oh, this is good right here, says that Mnuchin and Trump, they may have the title, but Harriet has a testimony. and God always uses testimonies to overrule those who've got power I'm borrowing that from the late great Dr. Sandy Ray because y'all do recognize that folk who've had the title always had to give it up to those who had the testimony y'all miss your shout I'll see if I can help y'all Abraham Lincoln had the title but Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman had the testimony y'all still missing your shout Woodrow Wilson had the title but Ida B Wells and Paul Robeson and W.E.B. Du Bois they had the testimony y'all still missing your shout y'all do recognize on December 1st 1955 Rosa Parks got arrested and the bus driver had the title but Rosa had a testimony y'all do recognize that the governor of Mississippi Barnett had the title but Medgar Ebers and Fannie Lou Hamer had the testimony y'all do know Lyndon Johnson had the title but Martin King had the testimony y'all still missing your shot I got to go there Pharaoh had the title but Moses had the testimony Saul had the title but David had the testimony pilot had the title but Jesus said don't know

22:17 Nobody takes my life. I lay it down. If I lay it down, I'll pick it back up again. I'm just trying to let y'all know Trump may have the title, but Bishop Proctor has a testimony. So here it is. Here it is. The shout is, the shout is that you have a faith that sees beyond what happened and recognize this is a minor setback. But we're about to have a major comeback. I got a quote. I got a quote. I'm going to do this for you, Darren. Darren is going for the Toronto team, and so I'm from the Bay Area. I'm with the Warriors. And so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so. There you recognize that Drake, Drake is a huge Raptors fan. And Drake dropped a huge line.

23:16 What last year, the year before last, it shouted me, I got to give it to y'all. Here's what Drake said. Drake dropped this line. Drake said, I've learned working with negatives makes for better pictures. Okay, okay. I got to do that one more time because you missed a shout. He's using language from photography. He says every now and then light will hand you negatives. Mnuchin and Trump gave us a negative. But Drake says you got to work with negatives if you're going to get a better picture. Why? Because a photographer takes a negative into a dark room. and in that dark room a picture gets developed that wouldn't have been developed had there not been a negative that went through a dark room. Is there anybody here who can say that's the testimony of black folk? We have so many negatives, but God has been good to take the negatives and develop them in dark places, and that's how we got a better picture.

24:20 Well, I've held y'all too long. Let me give you this last piece right here. I love it because in the final analysis, here's what Harriet says to me. Thank you, Harriet. You're my greatest shero of all time because Harriet lets us know, and this is the big lesson I learned last year about the free Harriet, and that is if we are going to eliminate the gap between the have-gots and the have-nots, the gap between those who are up and in and those who are down and out, the gap between those who are black and white we have to do this what harriet did and that is we have to bring resources to the have-nots and eliminate the structures that have kept the have guts from from getting over on the have-nots i just gave y'all something and that is we've got we we've got to deal with those structures is that not what harriet did harriet bought that property and when she bought that property what did she do built her own home and when she built her own home what did she do she said i want to make sure this is not a food desert and so i'm going to grow my own fruit and vegetables i'm going to have my own pigs i'm going to have my own my own ranch as it were and grow my own food and then when people come by i'm going to feed them without charging them and because everybody has a right to health care i'm gonna make sure that there is a home for aged persons right here on this property because harriet was giving resources and breaking down and breaking down oppressive structures wow i love harriet thank you harriet you a bad sister how'd you do all of that harriet harriet said well you know i believe mightily in my great God. I'm an AME Zion sister. So you know, I believed in a great God. I said, well, Harriet, I got a question for you. I got to give this to y'all. And then I'll wrap this thing up.

26:28 Have you thought about the fact that when she got hit in the head, she would pass out. And, and so at any time she would just pass out. And yet she made trip after trip back down South. and sometimes she passed out and it never was treated because unfortunately there was no Affordable Care Act that took care of those with pre-existing conditions. Y'all will get that later on. And so here's what Harriet did. Harriet, and I read this last year after I was here, June 2nd, 1863, during the Civil War, goes down to, it was referenced today by the Reverend Dr. Admiral Bishop, who's on her way up. It was the Combahee River, and she went and led the union forces and they freed 700 enslaved black bodies.

27:29 It blew my mind. They called her General Tubbin. So I talked to her when I came over, when I flew over last night and while talking to her, I called up to heaven, called up to your great relative and called up and talked to her. I said, Harriet, I'm preaching for your peeps tomorrow. She said, tell him I said hello, tell Bishop Proctor I love him and I'm proud of his work I said thank you I let him know that I said but here's you got to ask answer me this question how could you lead how could you lead soldiers down to South Carolina free 700 and you may pass out at any time she said Freddie that was easy I said well how was it easy when you were subjected yourself to passing out because you didn't have an Affordable Care Act she said it was nothing all I did was recognize it as long as I was conscious i had a responsibility to fight for god knowing when i was unconscious that god was going to fight for me and i'm just trying to let y'all know that god will fight your battles god will ensure that no weapon formed to get you will prosper i see what's happening i see what's happening and and i love y'all i love you this is why i had my anonymous emails because y'all are such a wonderful audience to preach to y'all y'all y'all are fire I love that about y'all because y'all know how to listen to a message you know how to listen to a message because because when you listen to a message right you listen in anticipation of shouting that that that's how you do that thing now now some congregations listen but they ain't got enough sense to shout other congregations They shouting, but you know they ain't listening.

29:16 And I love what y'all are doing. Y'all are listening and y'all are ready to shout. And I feel you ready to shout, but you're refusing to shout because you listen and think. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Freddie Haynes, okay, all of that's cool. But what about your boy Jamal in Chicago? you have left Jamal in Chicago at a restaurant with his dream deferred I need to know what happened to Jamal because our dreams have been deferred did anything good come out you said it was a triumphant testimony that you downloaded on your mental computer there's got to be more to that story I'm glad y'all asked I give it to you and I'm done Jamal testified he said pastor I'm sitting there upset, but I'm sitting there upset because I'm sitting there because the hostess has said, listen, I hear you just graduated from school. I'm going to treat you to eat tonight.

30:18 So you come sit right here and whatever you want on the menu, order it and I got you. And then while he's talking to her, he said a man sitting behind him turned around and said that over here, you say you graduated from Hampton. He said yes, sir. He said what's your name? He said my name is Jamal He said Jamal who he told him his last name and then he said well first of all I'm over the Hampton Alumni Association Secondly, I need you to know that you must be the Jamal who my son has talked about because my son Just graduated from Hampton. Hold on. He called his son up. He said to his son Jamal so-and-so is sitting behind me he said daddy put him on the phone put Jamal on the phone and they talked for a minute and then he gave it back to uh the father and when he gave it back to the father the father said check this out the man who was waiting on you he's trying to get my business next week and so he wants my contract so what I'm gonna do when we meet I'm gonna make sure that he has to go through you in order to get my contract I am going to hire you right on the spot I'm hiring you right now because of what you did for my son I'm hiring you right now because of your relationship with my son y'all missed your shout so I got to give it to you Jamal's dream was delayed but the The good news is he had a relationship with the son and because of his relationship with the son, the father made a way out of no way.

32:03 Last month, Mnuchin delayed our dream, but I've got some AME Zions in the house who say I know the son. And because you know the son, the father can make a way out of no way. The Father can open up doors that no one can shut. I'm so glad I know the Son. And because I know the Son, I testify with Kendrick Lamar, all my life I had to fight. But if God's got us, we're going to be all right.