+ Olaudah Equiano, 1745-1797 A.D.
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"Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness — without it no one will see the Lord." + Hebrews 12:14
Here are some recent highlights:
When we handed these books out to our congregation, this is part of the note we included inside each one:
This might seem at first to be a peculiar Advent devotional. But saints often are peculiar people who stand out in a particular time and place. In fact, the times when saints shine the most are times of darkness. They give glimpses of Jesus’ Light, which darkness cannot overcome.
And we, as part of Jesus’ Church, are called to live as Advent people who anticipate Jesus’ coming into our darkness today to overcome it. Ultimately, our hope rests in the God of Advent who drew near to us in Jesus’ first coming and will come again to take away the darkness forever and be our eternal Light. That hope is what saints have embodied as our sisters and brothers across time, ethnicities, Christian traditions, nationalities, and more.
As we step into this next year, our prayer is that we will shine all the more with the holy light of Christ in us and through us. And we pray that we “being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love.” After all, “the Father has enabled us to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of the Son He loves.”
This post features an excerpt from Our Church Speaks so that you might also walk some of this journey with us with reflection, prayer, and anticipation for how the Light of the world might shine in your life during this season.
Olaudah Equiano Renewer of Society
William Wilberforce Renewer of Society
William Wilberforce championed the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade as a member of the British Parliament. But Wilberforce's efforts would have been in vain without the grassroots labor of women and men like Olaudah Equiano, who appealed to the consciences and pocketbooks of their fellow countrymen.
Equiano was born in the kingdom of Benin (now Nigeria). He was captured as a child and sold into slavery in the Caribbean. He was sold twice more and experienced horrific conditions. In 1766, he purchased his freedom, and in the 1780s joined the Sons of Africa, an abolitionist movement in London. His bestselling autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789), vividly depicted the horrors of the slave trade and called polite English society to come to terms with the wickedness it perpetuated. Equiano's autobiography also served as a spiritual narrative, detailing how he came to know Jesus and became active in the evangelical movement of the Anglican Church.
Equiano's voice was a pivotal force that helped open the eyes of many to the truth about the horrors of the slave trade.
Equiano, Wilberforce, and many of their abolitionist colleagues were driven by the evangelical that called for the according to the character of Jesus Christ.
"So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the (slave) trade's wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition." Wilberforce said. "Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition." This great goal became a reality with the Slave Trade Act of 1807. Wilberforce also spearheaded efforts for global missions, the mass distribution of Bibles, the ethical treatment of animals, and many other reforms that we continue to strive to advance in modern society.
Scripture
" ... Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" + Esther 4:14
Meditation: The Work That Is Yours to Do
Despite the omnipresent, omniscient, omnitemporal illusions that the internet and smartphones give to us, we cannot be everywhere, doing everything, all the time. You are always only in one place, at one time, doing one thing. Multitasking is a lovely myth, but in reality, it's just splitting our focus rather than working single-mindedly on one task at a time. When we do this, the quality of our work suffers.
If you are to resist the natural tendency to be mediocre at many things and instead do one thing with excellence, then you must face the limiting question, "What work is yours to do?" It's a question that nudges you to examine your sphere of influence. Where are you? When are you? What opportunities are available? What urgent needs might you address?
"The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."
In order to do something well, you must start homing in, narrowing the scope,
limiting the field to
Both Wilberforce and Equiano burned with passion for justice to see the transatlantic slave trade end, and they had the position and the opportunity to enact change. How tragic it would have been if each had pursued different interests? How ineffective if they had pursued medicine, art, theater, music, architecture, and farming ... all at the same time? There were so many other good labors to which they could have given part of themselves. Thank the good Lord they said a thousand nos to nearly everything else so that they could give a full-throated yes to one thing. Of course Wilberforce and Equiano worked on more than one project, but the common thread through all their life's work was justice and the renewal of society. They found their vocation. They knew what work was theirs to do, and they did it well.
Dear friend, what is your work to do? What are all the places you need to say no so that you can give a robust yes to the one thing?
Prayer
Almighty and eternal God, who empowered Your servants Olaudah Equiano and William Wilberforce in their struggle against injustice and oppression, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly Yours, utterly dedicated to You; and then use us, we pray, as You will, and always to Your glory and the welfare of Your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
pgs. 137-139
Bonus Video:
British Black History Icon
Olaudah Equiano (1745 - 1797)
Bonus Trailer:
Amazing Grace
Next Post:
Lucian Tapiedi, "Stay Put"
Additional Advent Resources:
Many blessings of peace and presence,
Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan
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