Order Of Service

Exodus 5:6-12

(6) And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, (7) Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. (8) And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. (9) Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words. (10) And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. (11) Go ye, get youstraw where ye can find it: yet not ought of your work shall be diminished. (12) So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw.

Introduction

There are many parallels between the plight of the Jews in Egypt and the plight of Blacks in America. Before I go any further, let me say that America is a great country. (With everything that’s going on, you may not be feeling it right now.)  Is America perfect? Of course not! However, any reading of world history will easily reveal that it is the best system of government to ever exist on the face of God’s green earth. For example, in the Greco-Roman civilization, there were more slaves than free people. Slavery even existed in pre-colonial Africa. Unlike in Europe and in other parts of the world, in America the slave’s status was based on race, and it was codified in the founding document, the Constitution.  Heretofore, the slave looked just like the master. But not in America; the skin tone was a dead giveaway of who was a slave and who was free.   In spite of her flaws, America was founded on “stated” high ideals, and it has been a challenge to live up to these ideals. These high ideals produced expectations, and when these expectations are not met, frustration ensues. “Expectation without realization produces frustration.”

Now, back to our Scripture. They were asked to make bricks without the necessary materials. They were asked to do the impossible. So were our ancestors. And guess what? Our ancestors, with God’s help, did the impossible. They sang the Lord’s song in a strange land. They did even more; they made the strange land their home land.

Their cultural straw was taken away, yet they made bricks without straw. They achieved success with mere stubble. If our foreparents did so much with so little, we should be challenged to take advantage of the many opportunities we are given.  We should draw inspiration from them. They persevered under egregious conditions. Let me give you a few examples of the straw that was missing.

Exposition

1. No Balanced Sense Of History.

(The Moors Controlled Much Of Europe For 1100 Years.)

(Beethoven Was Of Moorish Descent.)

(The Moors Gave Us The Arabic Number System.)

(Shakespeare Let The Cat Out Of The Bag With Othello.)

(Powdered Wigs And Powdered Faces Concealed Moorish Ancestry.)

2. No Acknowledgement of Accomplishments.

(Benjamin Banneker Designed Washington D.C.)

(Alexander Miles Invented The Elevator.)

(Carver Saved Southern Agriculture And Ushered In The Era Of Synthetic Products.)

(Margaret Bonds And Florence Price Wrote Music That Could Rival Anything Composed By Well-Known European Composers.)

(Warren Shadd Manufactured The Shadd Piano That Could Rival Steinway, Bosendorfer, Fazioli, Or Bechstein.)

3. No Adequate Resources.

(The African Drum Was Taken Away - But Not Our Rhythm.)

(They Had Church Down By The Riverside.)

(They Took Undesirable Cuts Of Meat And Invented Soul Food.)

(The Civil Rights Movement Operated On Meager Resources.)

(Colleges Were Founded with Little or No Funds.)

Closing Thoughts

At some point in our lives, all of us have had to make bricks without straw: the single parent; the kid in the ghetto; the gifted child with no money for piano lessons; the college graduate who can’t find a job; the list goes on. We must always remember, “With God, nothing is impossible.” Give God Glory! Give God All The Glory!

End Notes

1.  In ancient Egypt, mud bricks were used in the construction of most homes.  These were “sun-dried” bricks; they were not “kiln-baked.”  Chopped straw was not necessary, but experience had shown that it made the bricks stronger and easier to handle. Now a little chemistry lesson; the bricks made with straw were stronger than those lacking straw, due to the chemicals released by the straw as it decomposed in the clay. These chemicals, similar to glutamic or gallotannic acids, made the clay more homogenous, and thus, giving greater strength.

2. Straw is the preserved plant stalks from the more rigid long-stalk grains and vegetables. Straw comes from those plants that are harvested, but whose stalks are inedible to humans and /or animals. Stubble is the very short remaining stalk of plants after harvesting: the bit between the root and where the reaping sickles cut the plant. It was only a relatively poor substitute for straw, making the process of producing suitable bricks much harder.  It was also much harder to gather from the harvested fields; it required tedious hand pulling and cutting, as compared to purposefully preserved bundled straw.

3. The period in which the Moors controlled much of Europe was called by historians the “dark ages.”  Many of the written records and portraits were destroyed, because the Moors were not of the Christian tradition or culture. The Italians commingled genetically with them more than the other European nations.

4. The African drum was not allowed in contiguous America to prevent communication. The drum was used for more than music. The slave master feared the drum would provide a way to communicate to stage uprisings. It was not a concern in the Caribbean, because the water between the islands was a barrier which prevented gatherings that could have led to an uprising.

5. George Washington Carver did more than invent useful products from the peanut, soybean, and the sweet potato. He ushered in the era of synthetic products. The Goodyear family came to Tuskegee and received ideas and inspiration to make synthetic rubber for car and truck tires.  As the number of automobiles increased, the Goodyear family wondered how they could keep up with the demand. There were only so many rubber trees. The answer was synthetic rubber. They “got” the process to make synthetic rubber from Carver. Then the Du Pont family came to Tuskegee to pick Carver’s brain. Among many business endeavors, they were in the fiber industry. Since cotton had failed due to the boll weaver, and silk was difficult to harvest, they were in a quandary as to how to keep the business afloat. There were only so many silk worms. With Carver’s instructions, they learned to manufacture synthetic fibers, namely, Nylon and Orlon. And the rest is history.   

6. In the codifying of the United States Constitution, there was a major

hurdle. The Southern states wanted to include the number of slaves in the count so that they would have more representatives in Congress. The number of representatives in Congress was determined by the population in each state. So, if their slaves were included, the Southern states would have more representatives and more “say-so.” The Northern states disagreed. If their slaves are not allowed to vote, why should they be included in the count to determine the number of representatives in Congress? The Southerners wanted it both ways. A compromise was reached; each slave would be counted as three-fifths of a person. This also led to the use of the Electoral College rather than the popular vote. The number of people in the Electoral College is based on the number of representatives in Congress. No matter how you try to justify it, the Electoral College is a legacy of slavery. Even in something as simple as a garden club or a community choir, you always choose leaders with the popular vote. American’s selection of the president and vice-president is the only place in the whole wide world, where there is anything like the Electoral College.

7. We cannot have it both ways. We take pride in saying that the ancient Egyptians were Black. If we take pride in their many personalities and accomplishments, including King Tut, the pyramids, the Sphinx, and the use of the Nile River to produce two grain harvests in one year, then we also have to admit that old mean Pharaoh was a Black man.

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