Fannie Lou Hamer: This Little Light of Mine
This Little Light of Mine
It was 1964 when a woman by the name of Fannie Lou Hamer traveled from her home in Ruleville, MS to Atlantic City to speak at the Democratic National Convention.
With the support of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, it was her hope to run for Congress. Despite her compelling testimony before the convention’s credentials committee, her plans to run for Congress failed due in large part to political pressure put on the credentials committee by President Lyndon Johnson.
Fannie Lou Hamer knew her bid for Congress was a long shot, but she wanted to make a difference. I think she understood what it meant to work for peace. She was unwilling to stand by in a world where things were not the way they were supposed to be.
For her, it all started just 2 years before, in 1962 when she was invited by her friend, Mary Tucker, to a meeting in a church in Ruleville, MS where she learned that black people had the right to vote. So she went, along with 17 others, that Friday, August 31, 1962 to register to vote in Indianola, MS.
They rode together on a school bus and white men with guns would pull up beside the bus as they traveled down the highway calling out obscenities to them. As you could imagine, everyone on the bus was very upset, concerned, nervous, and afraid.
And that’s when Fannie Lou Hamer started to sing. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…
And all of a sudden, everyone on the bus started to calm down with a new resolve to face whatever it was they were going to face.
Let it shine
As we find our way through a year in which we’re facing a pandemic, political tension, and stories of racial injustice, we have to ask ourselves the question: What does it mean for us to be peacemakers? What does it mean for us to work for peace?
And I can’t help but wonder what would happen if we, as followers of Jesus in this current moment, starting singing along with Fannie Lou Hamer, This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…
Throughout this series we have been on a journey, striving to understand anew the words of Jesus when He said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” “Blessed are those who work for peace.”
This series of conversations helps us lean in, listen, and learn from different people with different perspectives.
As disciples of Jesus we always want to be learning. As disciples of Jesus we always want to be listening, humbling ourselves and lowering ourselves. And in our culture, a culture characterized by who can talk the loudest, who can make the most noise on social media, who can complain the most, it’s a demonstration of love and humility to be quiet and to listen to each other.
But as disciples of Jesus it’s not enough to learn and to listen. Those surely are two steps that we cannot overlook or ignore. Those are surely two things we must continually practice. But at some point, we must have the courage to act. We must have the courage to engage.
3 Kinds of Responses
For some of us, we have grown indifferent to this conversation. We’re apathetic because we feel like it doesn’t affect us. Yet Jesus himself said there are two things that are above everything else. First is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Becoming indifferent to this conversation or apathetic because it doesn’t seem to affect us is the exact opposite of loving our neighbor.
For some of us, we are bothered by this conversation. Some people don’t think racism exists in our community. It may happen other places, but not here. Yet to think that only demonstrates that we’re not really listening to our brothers and sisters in Christ of color. The truth is that people of color face different realities than others of us do.
But I believe the large majority of our church and the people that I have heard from over and over again over the past few weeks would agree that what we want is to be a church that is a light for change. We want to let our light SHINE!
Our desire is be a place that values every person as a person of immeasurable worth, created in the image of God for the glory of God. And while we may not always do this perfectly, we want to be that kind of church.
Our desire is be a church that reflects the beauty and diversity of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
This is the desire of our Father in Heaven. But this can only happen if we are willing to do the long, hard work of peacemaking.
Jesus
It’s why Jesus told the story about a Jewish man traveling down from Jerusalem to Jericho. A man who was stripped and beaten by bandits and left on the side of the road to die.
Jesus could have told the story without mentioning race. He could have made a profound point about loving and helping others without mentioning the man’s heritage, skin color, or people group. But Jesus didn’t do that. Jesus didn’t say there was a man who was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho. No. Jesus said, “There was a Jewish man…”
And this was important because as this Jewish man was left wounded and dying on the side of the road, a Jewish priest came along and a Jewish Temple Assistant came along, but both kept on walking.
Then Jesus said, a “Samaritan came along.”
Some translations like the New Living Translation add, “a despised Samaritan came along” to help us understand the sentiment here because Jews despised Samaritans and Samaritans despised Jews.
You see, racism isn’t something new. It’s not something we’re just dealing with here in America. It’s one of Satan’s oldest tricks. To find something that separates us and elevate it to a place of such importance that it causes division, separation, and deep seated hatred for another. Choose any country on any continent during any period of time, and you’ll see this divisive weapon used by demonic forces against humanity to cause separation between people created in the image of God..
This is why, when Jesus travels through Samaria and stops at a well and his disciples find him talking to a Samaritan woman, they are in shock and awe. The woman herself couldn’t believe it when Jesus initiated a conversation. There were a million reasons why this conversation shouldn’t be happening, but Jesus isn’t interested in anything that separates people from people. Jesus is always interested in bringing people back together and people back to God. Jesus is always interested in seeing every person as a person of immeasurable worth.
That’s why Jesus willingly went to the cross and sacrificed His life. He did that to bring us peace.
The Apostle Paul said it this way…
“For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.” – Ephesians 2.14-16
And this is important for us to understand theologically… this is how Jesus has brought us peace, this is how he accomplished a way for peace, a way for Shalom, a way for things to be the way they are supposed to be, he did that through his sacrifice on the cross.
But this is also important for us to understand practically… this is how WE bring peace into the world around us, this is how we make a way for peace, for Shalom, for things to be the way they ought to be, the only way we can do that is through acts of sacrificial love.
Self Sacrifice
So maybe this is this question you have to ask yourself: Are you willing to lay down your life in order to break down the wall of hostility that separates people from people and people from God?
Are you willing to sacrifice your opinions, your fears, your rights, your position, your power, your status, your reputation, whatever you have to sacrifice to put an end to division and separation and bring people together at the foot of the cross?
Here’s what we know is true, Without sacrifice there can be no peace.
If you want peace without sacrifice what you have is status quo.
And let’s be honest, that may be where you are today. In order to keep the peace in your family, in order to keep the peace in your work, in order to keep the peace in your marriage, in order to keep the peace in the church, you’ve worked to maintain the status quo.
But as we’ve learned over and over again from the life and teachings of Jesus, being a peace KEEPER is the opposite of being a peaceMAKER .
The only way to make peace is through self sacrifice. In fact, just one look at the cross reminds us that sacrificial love is the only way to make peace. Peacemakers must willingly lay down their lives for the benefit of others.
The Rest of the Story
That day in Indianola, MS, Fannie Lou Hamer was denied the right to register to vote.
They got back on the bus to return home. On the bus ride home they were pulled over by the highway patrol and fined $100 because their bus was too yellow. After gathering enough money to pay the fine, Mrs. Hamer got back home to the plantation where she had worked all her life.
The owner of the plantation had found out that she had tried to register to vote and he fired her that day. She had to leave the plantation, leave her family, and go. She would go on to face much more suffering. From being shot at, arrested, put in jail, brutally beaten, and much more… But she continued to work for peace even though it came at a great personal cost to her. (To learn more about her story, watch this short documentary.)
She once told this story…
This old man was very wise, and he could answer questions that was almost impossible for people to answer. So some people went to him one day, two young people, and said, “We’re going to trick this guy today. We’re going to catch a bird, and we’re going to carry it to this old man. And we’re going to ask him, ‘This that we hold in our hands today, is it alive or is it dead?’ If he says ‘Dead,’ we’re going to turn it loose and let it fly. But if he says, ‘Alive,’ we’re going to crush it.” So they walked up to this old man, and they said, “This that we hold in our hands today, is it alive or is it dead?” He looked at the young people and he smiled. And he said, “It’s in your hands.”
—Fannie Lou Hamer
(This story is referenced in Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson. pp. 196-197).
What About Us?
Will we be peacekeepers or peacemakers?
Beloved, it is in your hands.
Will we work to keep the peace or through sacrificial love work to make peace?
Beloved, it is in your hands.
Will we be content with the status quo or will we be a light for change?
Beloved, it is in your hands.
Will we be a church unwilling to make a difference for the sake of our own comfort or will we participate in what matters most for the least of these?.
Beloved, it is in your hands.
Jesus told his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.” Luke 9.23
The way of Jesus is the way of the cross. And the way of the cross is self-sacrificing love. And the way of self-sacrificing love leads to peace. It makes things the way things ought to be.
Peace is a Verb
May we find ways, each day, to participate in bringing the peace of God to the people He has placed around us.
Because peace, much like love, is a a VERB. It requires our action. Not our inaction.
Peace, much like love, only happens when we through faith, courage, and love, do hard things for the benefit of others.
If it’s true, as Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, that “the true ekklesia” is “the hope of the world” (Letter from Birmingham Jail) then may we be that church, loving our neighbor as Jesus taught us, so that the peace of God is made known to those who have been marginalized, disinherited, and devalued by our world.
We can no longer be the same. Something has changed. We have changed. And we pray that God would use us as His church to shine his light, his hope, his love to those around us and that we may be His people working to bring peace into this world.
Beloved, it is in your hands.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Want more from this Series… Click here.
To hear this message click to watch or to listen.
