Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 6 verses 6 through 13:
Then he went about among the villages teaching. 7He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; 9but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 10He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. 11If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ 12So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. 13They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Recently, I’ve been reading Courtney Pace’s biography of Prathia Hall, one of the unsung heroes of the civil rights movement who is credited with inspiring Dr. King with the phrase “I have a Dream” in words she offered at a prayer vigil for a bombed church in southern Georgia in 1963.
The book recounts how much courage was exhibited by Hall and so many others as they came down into southern Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi trying to register blacks to vote.
They found little open welcome because what they were doing was so dangerous. They relied on the courage and smarts of the local residents who risked so much to help them in the cause. They had to be ready to leave at the drop of a hat when things got too dangerous for them or for the homes they were staying in.
Meanwhile, the bombs kept coming; and the only thing that put a stop to them was federal protection through the Civil and Voting Rights bills.
Friends, so many sacrificed so much. Register to vote — now. Go and vote the next time you are able. And, please, please, advocate and demand that the voter suppression laws which are being passed around the country be dismantled and a new Voting Rights Act be passed.
It’s the only way to do this great cloud of witnesses justice. And it’s the only way to live out Prathia Hall’s and Dr. King’s Dream.
Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
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