Famous Unknowns
Sermon
Rejoicing In Life's 'Melissa Moments'
The Joys Of Faith And The Challenges Of Life
My title is an oxymoron. An oxymoron is an expression that appears to be self-contradictory. This past weekend I learned a new oxymoron while visiting with my grandson: "enough toys." As far as Jacob is concerned, there is no such thing as "enough toys."ÊI thought of another oxymoron while I was listening to Dr.ÊKarl Haas' program Adventures in Good Music. He was playing pieces composed for the flute.ÊThen he introduced a composition for five flutes written, he said, by an unknown composer whose name he called.ÊThis composer was a contemporary of Bach.ÊMy logical mind went to work on that.ÊMaybe Dr.ÊHaas meant that this composer was relatively unknown or little known.ÊIt seemed oxymoronic to refer to a composer whose name we know and whose music we are hearing as just plain unknown. The incident reminded me of a radio program years ago. It had a segment in which purely fictitious characters were introduced as "famous unknowns."ÊAh, the composer whose music I was hearing was a famous unknown.
Being practical as well as logical and faced with the necessity of preaching in chapel, I began to wonder if this oxymoron had any homiletical potential.ÊWhat could be done with "famous unknowns"?ÊThe next few minutes will answer that question and perhaps create a new oxymoron -- homiletical hope.
It takes but a little imagination to locate some famous unknowns in the Bible.ÊI will mention only one.ÊI refer to the young man mentioned in Mark 14:51.ÊThis youth followed Jesus when he was being taken away to trial.ÊHe had nothing on but a linen cloth when he was seized. He left the linen cloth and ran away naked.ÊThis famous unknown was the original streaker. Who was he?Ê
The writer of Hebrews 11 does a roll call of faith. We are reminded of the famous and not so famous among our spiritual ancestors. The author goes on to speak of the great cloud of witnesses who surround us.ÊAre there not a host of famous unknowns in that cloud? Two thousand years of saints and forgiven sinners since then have been added to the faithful.ÊAnd what about the famous unknowns still living who labor far and wide in nooks and crannies of Planet Earth to tell the Good News and to show forth the fruits of faith in loving service?
I want to tell you about two famous unknowns that are a part of my memory.ÊThe first died in 1990. He was an educated, urban Baptist.ÊThe second passed on decades ago.ÊHe was an uneducated, rural Baptist.
I got to know Dr.ÊDurward Cason because he was the father of my college roommate.ÊHe was a Southern Baptist pastor in the state of Georgia. His more active ministry would have covered the years from about l925 to about 1975. These five decades were a period of tremendous turmoil and transformation. The relationships between blacks and whites changed for the good.ÊThe situation is far from perfect. Compared to the South in which I grew up, things are much better.ÊJust to illustrate the turnaround, do you know the two states with the most segregated public schools? Once it might have been Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, or Georgia.ÊAccording to a radio report I heard, by the early 1980s Illinois was the most segregated. New York was second.
Many forces and many people were responsible for the changes that have taken place in my native Southland.ÊPart of the leaven in that loaf was a white man whose name was Durward Cason. He spent a whole lifetime in the fight against hatred, prejudice, discrimination, and oppression.ÊYou did not have to know him very long to understand that this was an urgent concern with him. I regret to say that his passion on the subject put him in a minority among white clergy, but there were others like him.
Let me give you a brief glimpse.ÊOne day a black teenage boy came to the front door of his house. Mrs. Cason had just cleaned and waxed the living room floor. It was still wet. So she asked the youth to come around to the back door.ÊWhen Durward realized what had happened, he was upset and got cross with his wife.ÊShe explained to him that the reason she made the request was that the floor was still wet from being cleaned and waxed. She would not let anyone walk on that floor, not even Durward or her own children.ÊShe would not have let the Queen of England step on her freshly done floors. Durward understood that. But he was afraid that the teenager would not understand. He would experience that as one more time he was a second-class citizen who could enter the house of a white family only by the back door.
White ministers concerned in those days with breaking down the caste system had some difficult choices to make.ÊOne option was to take a bold, aggressive stand in preaching, witness, and action. That approach was likely to get you in trouble with your church. In some cases ministers were asked to leave.ÊThe frequent consequence was that someone would be called in his or her place who was conservative on the matter and who could be counted on not to rock the boat.Ê
The other option was to take a cautious approach designed for the long haul. This was in some ways the more difficult road.ÊIt required you to be patient, to struggle and suffer with the people. You had to look for every point of possible progress where a little gain, a little growth, a little improvement could be made.ÊIt meant biting your tongue when a racist remark was made. It meant hanging on when you wanted to do so much but could accomplish so little. It meant loving people while hating their prejudice.ÊDurward chose this second way.
One of the reasons positive change came to the South with as little violence and bloodshed as occurred was due to the Durward Casons of the region.ÊHe was one of the many famous unknowns who made such a witness with integrity and with the slow, agonizing persuasion of suffering love. This is the kind of love that is revealed in the cross of Jesus. Durward was a suffering servant who bore his cross.ÊThe work of many Durwards helped prepare the way for change by creating a moral climate in which transformation could take place as a mandate of Christian love and not simply as a requirement of federal law.
There were some famous well-knowns like William Sloan Coffin and Harvey Cox who came down from the North to spend a few days. They got themselves in jail, made their witness, and then went back to the safety of Yale and Harvard.ÊI do not wish to put them down or to belittle their efforts.ÊThe public witness of celebrities in focusing public attention on the issue was important. My point is that we ought not to forget the witness of famous unknowns who struggled and suffered and agonized for years and years and years and whose efforts in the end were far more effective.
So I salute you Durward Cason, Servant of Jesus Christ, Agent of the Kingdom, Soldier of the Cross, Famous Unknown. I remember the Casons as the family that welcomed everyone to their front door. And if the floor were dry, Mrs.ÊCason would let you in.
Now it is time to speak of Old Uncle Wash Oliver. His name was the ReverendÊWashington Oliver. In the oral tradition of the Friendship Baptist Church community where I grew up, he was always referred to as Old Uncle Wash Oliver.ÊBrother Wash was a country Baptist preacher during the last half of the nineteenth century.ÊHe was uneducated. I was told that his wife read his text from the Bible for him before he gave his sermons.ÊAccording to his tombstone, he baptized at least 5,000 people. I never knew him personally, of course. I did see his picture when I was a child. In an 8x11 incarnation it hung back of the pulpit of Friendship Church.ÊWell, sometimes it hung there.ÊOther times it could be found back in the Sunday school rooms.ÊSome of the good sisters and brothers did not think it was proper for even such a saint as Old Uncle Wash to be in that special place back of the pulpit. Only Jesus deserved that honor. So Brother Wash made many a trip back and forth from the sanctuary to the Sunday school rooms as one faction or the other secretly transported his image to wherever they thought was his proper place.
Uncle Wash, according to tradition, was a fierce prophet who could make sinners tremble. He exhorted them to flee from the wrath to come and to find salvation in the arms of Jesus.ÊWord has it that in the midst of his powerful orations, he sometimes would walk the backs of the benches beseeching sinners to repent and to profess their faith.ÊI don't vouch for the story. I just report the oral tradition.
My favorite story concerns that summer when the drought was so bad.ÊFor weeks it had not rained.ÊThe hot Georgia sun was wilting the crops and baking the soil. Now and then a cloud would appear, but no relief ever came.ÊFor the farmers of the region lack of rain meant disaster.ÊThe year's crop of cotton, corn, peanuts, and potatoes was at risk.ÊWithout water the crops would die. The people would be in deep trouble.ÊAs the dry spell went on, Uncle Wash decided that something had to be done.ÊOne morning in church he announced that he would eat no food, drink no water, and would not lie down to sleep until rain came.ÊAnd with that, he knelt down on his knees and began to pray, beseeching the Almighty to have mercy.ÊAnd he prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed. I report to you what I was told. About 3:00 in the afternoon clouds began to gather, thunder began to clap, the lightning flashed, and the downpour began.ÊThe rain came in gushing torrents.ÊAnd it kept on coming.ÊThe crops were saved.ÊAnd Old Uncle Wash Oliver sat down to eat his supper.
Some of you may be thinking that Brother Wash had a touch of rheumatism. You suspect that early in the morning he felt a little misery in his bones and figured that the drought was about to end.ÊMaybe so. In all honesty I must admit that in some of my more skeptical moments that thought has crossed my mind.ÊHowever, on this one I prefer to rest in the New Testament promise that the prayer of the righteous is very effective.ÊIn any case, I like to think of Uncle Wash sitting there at his supper table eating his turnip greens and crumbling his corn bread into his buttermilk, listening to the rain still dripping from the trees.
And what does all this have to do with us? It means that for most of us, our destiny is to be a famous unknown.ÊWhen I think of Durward Cason and Uncle Wash Oliver, I conclude that to be with them among the famous unknowns is a very high calling indeed.ÊPaul reminds the Corinthians that not many of them were wise or powerful or of noble birth.ÊGod has chosen the weak and the foolish to be instruments of liberation and reconciliation.ÊIf I may paraphrase, God has chosen the famous unknowns of the world to be the primary witnesses of the Word, light of the world, salt of the earth, agents of justice, bearers of love.
Jesus said to those gathered at the Last Judgment that anyone who had showed mercy to the least of these would enter into the joys of the righteous.ÊDid he not also mean that the least of those who showed mercy would inherit everlasting blessedness?
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
-- Hebrews 12:1-2
In the cloud of witnesses are the famous whose names everybody knows.ÊMost of the multitude that make up that cloud are famous unknowns recognized only by a few. Durward Cason and Washington Oliver have joined them. In due time, if we keep the faith, you and I will be there. And if you don't mind, I would like to stand by Uncle Wash for a little while.ÊI want to ask him about his rheumatism.
Being practical as well as logical and faced with the necessity of preaching in chapel, I began to wonder if this oxymoron had any homiletical potential.ÊWhat could be done with "famous unknowns"?ÊThe next few minutes will answer that question and perhaps create a new oxymoron -- homiletical hope.
It takes but a little imagination to locate some famous unknowns in the Bible.ÊI will mention only one.ÊI refer to the young man mentioned in Mark 14:51.ÊThis youth followed Jesus when he was being taken away to trial.ÊHe had nothing on but a linen cloth when he was seized. He left the linen cloth and ran away naked.ÊThis famous unknown was the original streaker. Who was he?Ê
The writer of Hebrews 11 does a roll call of faith. We are reminded of the famous and not so famous among our spiritual ancestors. The author goes on to speak of the great cloud of witnesses who surround us.ÊAre there not a host of famous unknowns in that cloud? Two thousand years of saints and forgiven sinners since then have been added to the faithful.ÊAnd what about the famous unknowns still living who labor far and wide in nooks and crannies of Planet Earth to tell the Good News and to show forth the fruits of faith in loving service?
I want to tell you about two famous unknowns that are a part of my memory.ÊThe first died in 1990. He was an educated, urban Baptist.ÊThe second passed on decades ago.ÊHe was an uneducated, rural Baptist.
I got to know Dr.ÊDurward Cason because he was the father of my college roommate.ÊHe was a Southern Baptist pastor in the state of Georgia. His more active ministry would have covered the years from about l925 to about 1975. These five decades were a period of tremendous turmoil and transformation. The relationships between blacks and whites changed for the good.ÊThe situation is far from perfect. Compared to the South in which I grew up, things are much better.ÊJust to illustrate the turnaround, do you know the two states with the most segregated public schools? Once it might have been Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, or Georgia.ÊAccording to a radio report I heard, by the early 1980s Illinois was the most segregated. New York was second.
Many forces and many people were responsible for the changes that have taken place in my native Southland.ÊPart of the leaven in that loaf was a white man whose name was Durward Cason. He spent a whole lifetime in the fight against hatred, prejudice, discrimination, and oppression.ÊYou did not have to know him very long to understand that this was an urgent concern with him. I regret to say that his passion on the subject put him in a minority among white clergy, but there were others like him.
Let me give you a brief glimpse.ÊOne day a black teenage boy came to the front door of his house. Mrs. Cason had just cleaned and waxed the living room floor. It was still wet. So she asked the youth to come around to the back door.ÊWhen Durward realized what had happened, he was upset and got cross with his wife.ÊShe explained to him that the reason she made the request was that the floor was still wet from being cleaned and waxed. She would not let anyone walk on that floor, not even Durward or her own children.ÊShe would not have let the Queen of England step on her freshly done floors. Durward understood that. But he was afraid that the teenager would not understand. He would experience that as one more time he was a second-class citizen who could enter the house of a white family only by the back door.
White ministers concerned in those days with breaking down the caste system had some difficult choices to make.ÊOne option was to take a bold, aggressive stand in preaching, witness, and action. That approach was likely to get you in trouble with your church. In some cases ministers were asked to leave.ÊThe frequent consequence was that someone would be called in his or her place who was conservative on the matter and who could be counted on not to rock the boat.Ê
The other option was to take a cautious approach designed for the long haul. This was in some ways the more difficult road.ÊIt required you to be patient, to struggle and suffer with the people. You had to look for every point of possible progress where a little gain, a little growth, a little improvement could be made.ÊIt meant biting your tongue when a racist remark was made. It meant hanging on when you wanted to do so much but could accomplish so little. It meant loving people while hating their prejudice.ÊDurward chose this second way.
One of the reasons positive change came to the South with as little violence and bloodshed as occurred was due to the Durward Casons of the region.ÊHe was one of the many famous unknowns who made such a witness with integrity and with the slow, agonizing persuasion of suffering love. This is the kind of love that is revealed in the cross of Jesus. Durward was a suffering servant who bore his cross.ÊThe work of many Durwards helped prepare the way for change by creating a moral climate in which transformation could take place as a mandate of Christian love and not simply as a requirement of federal law.
There were some famous well-knowns like William Sloan Coffin and Harvey Cox who came down from the North to spend a few days. They got themselves in jail, made their witness, and then went back to the safety of Yale and Harvard.ÊI do not wish to put them down or to belittle their efforts.ÊThe public witness of celebrities in focusing public attention on the issue was important. My point is that we ought not to forget the witness of famous unknowns who struggled and suffered and agonized for years and years and years and whose efforts in the end were far more effective.
So I salute you Durward Cason, Servant of Jesus Christ, Agent of the Kingdom, Soldier of the Cross, Famous Unknown. I remember the Casons as the family that welcomed everyone to their front door. And if the floor were dry, Mrs.ÊCason would let you in.
Now it is time to speak of Old Uncle Wash Oliver. His name was the ReverendÊWashington Oliver. In the oral tradition of the Friendship Baptist Church community where I grew up, he was always referred to as Old Uncle Wash Oliver.ÊBrother Wash was a country Baptist preacher during the last half of the nineteenth century.ÊHe was uneducated. I was told that his wife read his text from the Bible for him before he gave his sermons.ÊAccording to his tombstone, he baptized at least 5,000 people. I never knew him personally, of course. I did see his picture when I was a child. In an 8x11 incarnation it hung back of the pulpit of Friendship Church.ÊWell, sometimes it hung there.ÊOther times it could be found back in the Sunday school rooms.ÊSome of the good sisters and brothers did not think it was proper for even such a saint as Old Uncle Wash to be in that special place back of the pulpit. Only Jesus deserved that honor. So Brother Wash made many a trip back and forth from the sanctuary to the Sunday school rooms as one faction or the other secretly transported his image to wherever they thought was his proper place.
Uncle Wash, according to tradition, was a fierce prophet who could make sinners tremble. He exhorted them to flee from the wrath to come and to find salvation in the arms of Jesus.ÊWord has it that in the midst of his powerful orations, he sometimes would walk the backs of the benches beseeching sinners to repent and to profess their faith.ÊI don't vouch for the story. I just report the oral tradition.
My favorite story concerns that summer when the drought was so bad.ÊFor weeks it had not rained.ÊThe hot Georgia sun was wilting the crops and baking the soil. Now and then a cloud would appear, but no relief ever came.ÊFor the farmers of the region lack of rain meant disaster.ÊThe year's crop of cotton, corn, peanuts, and potatoes was at risk.ÊWithout water the crops would die. The people would be in deep trouble.ÊAs the dry spell went on, Uncle Wash decided that something had to be done.ÊOne morning in church he announced that he would eat no food, drink no water, and would not lie down to sleep until rain came.ÊAnd with that, he knelt down on his knees and began to pray, beseeching the Almighty to have mercy.ÊAnd he prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed. I report to you what I was told. About 3:00 in the afternoon clouds began to gather, thunder began to clap, the lightning flashed, and the downpour began.ÊThe rain came in gushing torrents.ÊAnd it kept on coming.ÊThe crops were saved.ÊAnd Old Uncle Wash Oliver sat down to eat his supper.
Some of you may be thinking that Brother Wash had a touch of rheumatism. You suspect that early in the morning he felt a little misery in his bones and figured that the drought was about to end.ÊMaybe so. In all honesty I must admit that in some of my more skeptical moments that thought has crossed my mind.ÊHowever, on this one I prefer to rest in the New Testament promise that the prayer of the righteous is very effective.ÊIn any case, I like to think of Uncle Wash sitting there at his supper table eating his turnip greens and crumbling his corn bread into his buttermilk, listening to the rain still dripping from the trees.
And what does all this have to do with us? It means that for most of us, our destiny is to be a famous unknown.ÊWhen I think of Durward Cason and Uncle Wash Oliver, I conclude that to be with them among the famous unknowns is a very high calling indeed.ÊPaul reminds the Corinthians that not many of them were wise or powerful or of noble birth.ÊGod has chosen the weak and the foolish to be instruments of liberation and reconciliation.ÊIf I may paraphrase, God has chosen the famous unknowns of the world to be the primary witnesses of the Word, light of the world, salt of the earth, agents of justice, bearers of love.
Jesus said to those gathered at the Last Judgment that anyone who had showed mercy to the least of these would enter into the joys of the righteous.ÊDid he not also mean that the least of those who showed mercy would inherit everlasting blessedness?
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
-- Hebrews 12:1-2
In the cloud of witnesses are the famous whose names everybody knows.ÊMost of the multitude that make up that cloud are famous unknowns recognized only by a few. Durward Cason and Washington Oliver have joined them. In due time, if we keep the faith, you and I will be there. And if you don't mind, I would like to stand by Uncle Wash for a little while.ÊI want to ask him about his rheumatism.
