Tag Archives: Ancestors

Understanding Kwanzaa

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    “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1).

Scholars have written about this verse. Singers have sung about it, and the general consensus is that when something great in your life dies, you can see God for who He really is. Allowing the great that we love to die so we can focus on the greatness of God is always the challenge for the Christian. And this is where I find myself on this third day of Kwanzaa, that highlights Ujima, collective work and responsibility.

For those of you who don’t know, in short, Kwanzaa is a holiday celebrating African American culture, running for seven days beginning December 26. It is rooted in the Nguzo Saba, Swahili for seven principles, one of which is focused on daily. The principles are the values that founder Maulana Karenga wants to guide the lives of African peoples.

Even before I became a Christian, I never initiated celebrating Kwanzaa though I attended friends’ gatherings. I shunned Kwanzaa because I always felt weird participating in the pouring of libation where we called on the spirit of deceased loved ones. It was always a little spooky for me. And now that I’m a Christian, my wariness goes beyond being spooked and onto the privileging of African culture above my Christian faith. Celebrate African culture, yes, but not in conflict with Christian teachings.

While Kwanzaa has strong cultural values that I appreciate, like Ujima, there are some parts, like Kujichagulia (self-determination) that are in opposition to Christian teachings. While I would love to celebrate Kwanzaa without the conflicts, you can’t separate its parts from the whole. Its parts make it whole and separating parts or mixing in Christianity would “violate the integrity of the holiday,” says Dr. Karenga. In essence, what I found is that Kwanzaa exalts blackness on the level of divinity, where you determine your destiny and, through invocation, your ancestors help you get there. This is the danger of Kwanzaa.

While I recognize the greatness of Kwanzaa—how it has given so many African Americans a sense of cultural heritage, in my life it has to die, even its marginal existence. I don’t want to miss God’s greatness because Kwanzaa or anything else is magnified in my life and obscures the glory of God, the one who gives me the identity that I need, a child of God through salvation in Jesus Christ.

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith

Why Teach Good?

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Love God and love your neighbor as yourself is how Jesus summed up the 10 Commandments (Matthew 22:37-40). The two greatest acts we can fulfill are to love God and others. Sometimes we don’t know how to do this, but the 10 Commandments give us a framework. We are given such a framework so that we will have peace with God and peace on earth. The whole Word of God focuses on our relationship with God and one another. When we don’t know God’s Word, we can’t do God’s Word and we certainly can’t teach it. And we must teach it because every time man failed to teach God’s Word division between God and man and man and man ensued. Check out Psalm 78, particularly verses 1-11.

Here we learn that the Psalmist warned the Israelites to teach their children God’s Word so that they and the following generations wouldn’t become “a stubborn and rebellious generation” like their forefathers. These rogue Israelites, in spite of God’s provision for them in Egypt and the wilderness, didn’t have their heart (mind, will, emotions, passions) on God nor did they trust in His salvation (v. 8 & 22). As a result, they didn’t (couldn’t) follow God’s Word (v. 10). They not only ignored God’s commands, but they also forgot all that He had done for them (v. 11). They complained to God and did whatever they wanted, including fight each other (Numbers 16). There was no peace with God and no peace with men. The same is true today.

When we know God’s Word, we know what He requires so He sees us as righteous and not just another rank sinner (Romans 4:23-5:2, 10:9-10). When we know God’s Word, we are able to teach others so God sees them as righteous and not just another rank sinner. When we know God’s Word, we are able to live God’s Word and be in proper relationship with Him and others. But as we see with the Israelites, a teacher of God’s Word needs more than knowledge of His Word; there has to be an experience with God that remains in the forefront of the teacher’s mind that cements His Word in the teacher’s heart so the teacher is passionate about God, trusts in His salvation and wants others to know. This passion is contagious and students are bound to replicate their teacher’s life. So I urge you: Know God’s Word. Live God’s Word. Teach God’s Word so there is peace with God and peace with men.

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith

Remember the Dead

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He had the most perfect smile and a huge heart, big enough for the burdens and joys of addictions and teaching; naggings and yelps for help; counseling and cooking; providing and protecting; and just showing pure love. That was Curtis Anderson Sr. That was my dad.

As I remember my dad on this Memorial Day, I am reminded of the great love Jesus had for us and still has for us. He died for our sins. We must remember that. He rose again for our life. We must remember that. And to not shame His cross, we must remember all the old that has died in our lives that we might not reclaim the past again. Philippians 3:13 says, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.” So we shouldn’t dwell on the past, but we must forget the past in the sense of not caring for it anymore. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Even as you remember the past so you won’t reclaim it, let the dead in your life remain dead. The love of Jesus can give you the power and strength to keep looking forward even as you remember.

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith

Talking with Grandma

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Iyanla Vanzant

Iyanla Vanzant

A few years ago (2001) I was watching Tavis Smiley’s State of the Black Union. As usual, he had several of America’s top black minds on the panels. This year’s focus was religion. While the moderator was talking to one panelist, he noticed that another panelist, motivational speaker and minister (Yoruba priestess) Iyanla Vanzant, seemed to be conversing with someone. He turned his full attention to Vanzant and asked her what was going on. She said:

    I’m struggling with the essence, the energy of my great grandmother in my DNA that says you don’t need nothing but a strong connection to you and your creator. You know, she says, ‘He’ll tell you what to do and how to do it.’ She says, ‘You keep doing the same thing, sometimes in a different way, and that’s why you keep getting the same results.’ She says that we have a genetic and a cellular memory that comes forth, and that memory that is really etched inside of us is one of running, hiding and waiting. We’ve been running from stuff for so long. Then we hide so that we won’t be found out hoping to be found, and then we wait to be invited in. And she says it’s time for us to stop running, first of all, from responsibility. . . .Nobody in the White House, green house, po’ house, left house brought you on this planet. You are here by divine design. What is your connection to that? What is your connection to that?

After deafening cheers from the audience and panelists, Vanzant told black folks that trust was their second area of responsibility and that grandma said black folks show a lack of trust by what they say and do. Ultimately, they turn to the government, instead of themselves, to get what they want. “I don’t need George Bush to tell me who I am and who I’m not,” Vanzant said. “I don’t need that. What I gotta do is go within myself.” And, as she has said throughout sharing this spiritual moment, going within herself means tapping into ancestral spirits to help her and others recognize “their divinity, their power, but also recognizing the things they do to sabotage themselves. . . .So, yes, me and grandma are having a moment. And it’s all good.”

Maybe you thought like me at first. Beyond the ethereal talk, I thought that Vanzant may have just been referring to the values her grandmother instilled in her but was just using present tense to describe how her grandmother would talk to Vanzant when she was alive. But then Vanzant closed her remarks with this: “So let us as individuals, as we address each and every one of these issues, please let us not forget that grandma will speak to you, and not only will she speak to you, but she knows that they owe you her salary, and she’ll tell you how to get it.” I love my grandmothers, and they were wonderful women. I remember their wisdom and use it. But I remember what they told me and don’t seek to find out what they can yet tell me. This is divination. This is witchcraft. This is worshipping the dead. This is not the way to honor the ancestors, if you’re a bible-believing Christian.

“When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?” (Isaiah 8:19, NIV). Isaiah asks us two good questions that we need to ponder. If we do indeed believe in “giving honor to God who is the head of my life,” then we should make that statement true, and seek him. And if we must talk to an ancestor, let it be someone alive who God has told us to seek. Grandma may have had some good ideas, but only the one who was and is and is to come, Jesus the Christ, has the best ideas, and we must seek him for our strength.

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith

Proper Ways to Honor

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Yesterday the Detroit Branch NAACP honored some civil rights giants during its annual Freedom Fund Dinner. Among the awards given were the Mary White Ovington Freedom and Justice Award given to the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Mary Church Terrell Freedom and Justice Award given to the Rev. Edwin A. Rowe, pastor of Central United Methodist Church in Detroit. I chose to highlight these two awards because they were named after female ancestors who made great contributions to the fight for human rights, particularly for blacks and women. They were founding members of the NAACP 100 years ago and were chosen to help establish this civil rights group because of work they had been doing prior to 1909. An award named after someone is definitely an appropriate way to acknowledge ancestors.

Some other proper tributes include the naming of a street, building or some other monument; the creation of art, like a sculpture, painting, poem, or documentary; and a holiday to honor that ancestor. All these ways keep their memories alive in those of us familiar with them and prompt others of us to seek information about them. As I read the newspaper about the Freedom Fund Dinner, I was able to introduce some and reinforce other present day activists to my six-year-old son, simply because the paper talked about the honors they received. From the NAACP tribute to a newspaper that highlighted their achievements, I was able to etch into my son’s mind the work of our ancestors. The preserving of memories is important, and we must give honor to whom honor is due (Romans 13:7). We just need to make sure that the honor preserves their memory and their proper place in our lives, as humans who contributed to the advancement of humanity.

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith