03/25/2021
Seedful Saturdays Jesus on Bearing the Fruit of Love – Women’s Herstory Edition Read Matthew 19:13-15 “People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it. 16 But Jesus called for them and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. (Luke 18:15-16 NRSV) The unnamed women in this story (for who else would have been bringing the infants to Jesus in that day) want Jesus to bless their children and lay hands on them. In an act of unselfish love, they ask Jesus to endow their infants with power and authority, to dedicate them to the work of bringing the kingdom of heaven down to earth. Miss Ella J. Baker embodied the spirit of these women in her work as an activist, community organizer, inaugural Executive Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and midwife of the student movement. Ms. Baker brought young people together to free themselves from anti-Black oppression. When the so called disciples of the Lord, the Big 6 preachers, sought to deter the young people from organizing into their own entity, Ms. Baker listened to and empowered young leaders to organize their own entity, the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee and fight for their own freedom rather than be co-opted as a youth chapter of the larger organizations. Like the women in Luke 18, Ella Baker affirmed the spirit of freedom that already lived in the young people around her and brought them together to do what was always &sermons in them to do from infancy. Ego unthreatened, Ella Baker showed the epitome of unselfish love. To learn more about Ella Baker, watch this video and visit ellabakercenter.org.
