A Harvest for All People
Series: Happy Holy Days - Part 2
John 7:2-3, 37-39; Luke 1:50-55; Exodus 23:16; Leviticus 23:34
He shows mercy to everyone, from one generation to the next, who honors him as God. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations. He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed.
Luke 1:50-53 (CEB)
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
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Some Christians have reacted strongly against Kwanzaa as a “pagan” holiday and a “threat” to Christmas. While it is true that Kwanzaa is not a specifically religious celebration, it is certainly not in competition with Christmas. If anything, the dominance of the consumer culture in our Christmas celebrations does more to diminish the true meaning of the season than the 7 principles of Kwanzaa which move us toward a deeper sense of community, justice, and peace for the world.
Mary’s song in Luke 1 declares a great reversal, in which the oppressed will be raised up and the rich and powerful will be humbled or brought low. In the 1960’s, Kwanzaa emerged as a way of bringing a marginalized and oppressed community together around deeply rooted cultural values that would raise their spirits and their quality of life together even in the face of tremendous injustice. It is connected to traditional festivals of the “firstfruits” or the harvest, a seven day feast which we find commanded by God in the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles in the Old Testament and which is still celebrated in various forms by countless cultures around the world today.
At the heart of the celebration of Kwanzaa are the liberative acts of rescuing and reconstructing African history and culture, cultivating communitarian African values and using them to enrich and expand human freedom and flourishing.
Adam Clark, Xavier University
If these themes liberation, restoration, justice and strengthening the poor and oppressed is somehow in conflict with Christmas, perhaps we have missed the point of what we call the “Christmas stories” in the gospels. Is this not the very reason Jesus came?
Many black churches celebrate both Kwanzaa and Christmas. Even if we don’t celebrate Kwanzaa, the principles emphasized over this seven day festival may actually deepen our Christmas celebrations as they are all means by which the light of Christ might shine through our daily lives as we work toward the restoration of God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Below is a small sampling of the many places in Scripture we find the 7 values or principles of Kwanzaa. As you read the list, prayerfully consider how God might be inviting you to strengthen one or more of these principles in your own life this Advent season.
UMOJA - Unity (Psalm 133:1)
How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!
KUJICHAGULIA — Self Determination (1 Corinthians 9:24-26)
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.
UJIMA - Collective Responsibility (Proverbs 27:17)
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
UJAMAA — Cooperative Economics (Acts 2:44-45)
All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
NIA - Purpose (1 Peter 2:9)
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
KUUMBA—Creativity (Exodus 35:31-35)
…and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.
IMANI - Faith (Hebrews 11:1)
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.