…And the Children Shall Lead Us
A Homily for Multigenerational Worship on Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday

Rev. Peter A. Friedrichs

January 17, 2010

Dwaina and Andrew could not be more different. Andrew is a white, teenage boy living in a comfortable, well-to-do suburb of Boston in a house next to a beautiful forest filled with all kinds of wildlife. After school he can run and play in the woods for hours, alone with nature and his own thoughts. Dwaina, an African-American girl, lives in a big city - Dallas, Texas - in a small house with her mother and sisters. She walks the streets of the city every day to get to school, where she sees not trees and streams, but a homeless shelter and food kitchen and a line of hungry people waiting for food. While Andrew sees hawks and salamanders in his neighborhood, Dwaina sees men and women who are poor and hungry and don't have a roof over their heads. Picture the difference between Media and West Philly and you'll have an idea about the two different worlds these young people come from.

But despite these differences, look at how similar Andrew and Dwaina are. Both of them noticed a problem that needed attention. Both of them had an immediate impulse to help. Both of them jumped in with both feet, without thinking of themselves or what it would cost them in terms of lost sleep, or missed homework, or the fact that they wouldn't get to play with their friends as much. Both of them seemed to have unlimited amounts of energy and a laser-like focus on their mission. Nothing was going to distract them or derail them. And for all you adults here today, notice that they both had parents who said "Yes." Parents who were supportive of their child's wild ideas. Who decided that supporting their child was more important than anything else, despite the impact it might have on their own lives. Yes, Andrew and Dwaina come from different worlds, but they are very much alike.

Dwaina and Andrew are just two young people in a long line of youth and children who have helped to change the world. On this, the day before Martin Luther King Day, Dwaina and Andrew remind me of the "Children's Crusade" that took place in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. Back then, less than 50 years ago, Birmingham was one of the most racially divided cities in the country. African-Americans weren't allowed to eat in the same restaurants as white people. They weren't allowed to use the same rest rooms or drink from the same water fountains. Black people were forced to sit at the back of the bus so the good seats would be open to white people. And most blacks were afraid to speak up because if they did, they might be beaten or even killed. African-American churches were being bombed or set on fire by whites. Martin Luther King, Jr. was called by local church leaders to come and help organize a protest against these conditions, and in the spring of 1963 he went to Birmingham. There he organized a peaceful protest but the police arrested him and many of the marchers.

About a month later, civil rights leaders were planning more demonstrations. Someone suggested that school children be allowed to march. After all, this whole protest was about their future. There were some who objected to putting children on the front lines of the struggle. They said "we shouldn't send children out to do the work of grownups." But it was the children who pleaded with their parents and the organizers of the protests to let them march. And the adults saw the passion that the children had and they agreed that they could demonstrate.

On May 2nd, more than 1,000 school children walked out of their classrooms and into the streets of Birmingham, singing "We Shall Overcome" to let the world know that they wanted changes to the way things were. The children marched peacefully through the streets, singing and holding hands. And you know what the police did? They turned fire hoses on these children. And they let police dogs attack them. And they arrested the children and put them in jail. And do you know what the children did? The next day they went out and marched again. They ignored the pain and the fear that they had and they walked through the streets of Birmingham again, singing, even though the police attacked them again. In those two days of marching, more than 900 school children were arrested because they marched for freedom. So many of them were arrested that the jail couldn't hold them all, and they had to be put out at the fairgrounds.

The Children's Crusade, as it was called later, was seen on the news around the world. People could not believe their eyes when they saw police attacking children with clubs and dogs and fire hoses. They were outraged. And as a result many of them joined the fight for civil rights in Birmingham and across the American South and across the country. Some historians credit the Children's Crusade with tipping the balance toward justice in the fight for civil rights in the '60's.

A few weeks before all this happened, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a letter from his jail cell in Birmingham,. Someone smuggled in a pencil to him, and he wrote his letter on newspapers and toilet paper and his friends snuck it out of the jail and got it published in the newspaper. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is famous now, and it talks about how we are all related and all interconnected. He wrote that we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny, and that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. But there's another part of his Letter that speaks to me today, as we hear the stories of Andrew and Dwaina, and how they helped to make a difference. In his letter, Dr. King talked about creating "tension." He was opposed to using violence, but he knew that non-violent protest would make people uncomfortable and might lead them to react with violence. He explained that it's important for us to risk creating tension. Here's what he said:

What this says to me is that we can't be afraid to make people uncomfortable. To shake them up a little bit. To try and open their eyes to conditions that they might have grown used to and comfortable with. Those men and women standing in line outside the homeless shelter that Dwaina noticed had probably been standing there for weeks and months and maybe years before she decided to start making meals for them. And the wetland that Andrew helped protect was probably taken for granted by the people who lived in his town, and they didn't think twice about what they would lose if homes were built there, until Andrew pointed it out to them. Dwaina and Andrew both helped their friends and their families and their communities see what was right in front of them. They brought it out into the open. Some people weren't too happy about that, because it's easier for all of us to pretend that things are all right, even when they're not.

This terrible earthquake in Haiti has gotten me to thinking. Before the earthquake, the people of Haiti were already suffering. Haiti is the poorest country in this part of the world. Millions of people there were already going hungry, and living in paper shacks, and without jobs before the earthquake hit. And most of us chose to ignore the horrible conditions they were living in. It has been that way for a long time, and there's nothing we can do to change it, we told ourselves, if we even cared to think about it at all. It takes an earthquake, with tens of thousands of people hurt and dying, to jolt us, to wake us up out of our sleep. And now that it has, we can't ignore how bad things are there. Not just because of the earthquake, but every day of the year.

What the Children's Crusade teaches us, and what Dwaina and Andrew teach us, and what Haiti is teaching us, is that we need to create our own earthquakes. We need to find ways to wake people up and to open their eyes and say "Look at this! This is wrong! We need to fix it!" We can honor Dr. King, and Dwaina and Andrew and everyone who joined the Children's Crusade by daring to do what Dr. King said, to "expose injustice, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion" so that it can be cured. To all of you children here today, I ask you to remember Dwaina and Andrew and the children of the Crusade in Birmingham. And I urge you don't be afraid to speak up and to tell your parents you want to do something to make a difference. And to the grown-ups I say the same, and one more thing: listen to the children. For they might just lead us out of the darkness and into the light.

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