Amazing Grace

            I tell folks who come to me with a heavy burden that God is more interested in where we are going than where we have been. Show me a hero and it will often be someone who previously fell on hard times. In The Greatest Generation Tom Brokaw highlighted the heroics of young men and woman of World War II. What we fail to remember is those same folks lived through the Great Depression. For them, sacrifice was not an option. It was a way of life.  When the stock market fell in 1929 the initial response was counting on businesses to find a way to keep workers employed. This proved ineffective. By 1932 unemployment was over 30%. In 1933 massive dust storms hit the southwest which destroyed farmlands and caused the population to flee east and west. Eventually federal programs were put into place which called on Americans to reinvest in hard work and trust in each other. From 1929 until 1938 hard times plagued the soul of America. But hard times also reinvented the soul of America. We can marvel at the willingness of the 16 million Americans who responded in 1941 to the call to arms. But it is also fair to ask if they would have responded so willingly if they had not been the children of the Great Depression?

I wonder how we will respond once the Coronavirus has been “defeated”.  The Great Depression was caused in large part by economic greed coupled with an environmental nightmare. The initial shots of World War II were seeds of political revenge sowed at Versailles. The Coronavirus has no economic or political agenda yet as a country we have been divided by political and economic differences. This horror has forced us to come together as a people. Once this pandemic has passed will it be back to business as usual? Or from the ashes will a new greatest generation arise?

The night before January 1, 1773, John Newton was preparing a New Year’s Sermon for his congregation. The text was I Chronicles 17. King David had established his throne in Jerusalem and The Arc of the Covenant placed in a tent. David decided it was time to give the Arc a permanent place of residence, but God had other plans. The king was told it would be the son, not the father who would build the Temple. The title of Newton’s sermon was “Past Mercies and Future Hopes.”  The sermon’s secondary text was Psalm 86:11. “Teach me Your ways that I might walk in Your truth.”

John Newton did not begin his life with thoughts of becoming either a minister or musician. Past mercies led to that decision. His father was a sea captain. At eleven the boy made his first voyage. Newton’s life at sea was somewhat precarious. He fled from his father’s domination and signed on with another ship. Later he was forced to join the Royal Navy. When he attempted to desert he was captured and whipped for insubordination. After being thrown out of the Navy, he joined the crew of a slave ship. They hated him so much he was left behind in Africa by the crew and Newton was enslaved by an African Queen.  Once he escaped Newton went back to working for slave ships. He was the captain of a ship caught in a storm Newton, certain that he was going to die, had a conversion experience. According to a popular legend, when the storm subsided it is believed he sailed his cargo back to Africa. On the journey to England he composed the song Amazing Grace. This makes for a great movie and Broadway play but it is far from the truth. Newton was involved in a storm. He had a conversion experience but he did not give up his life as a seller of slaves until some years later. Eventually he entered seminary, took a church and wrote such songs as “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken.”

Twenty years after his conversion, on the eve of New Year’s Day, Newton begins writing a sermon. The words, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me,” came to him. Was he thinking of his days as a sailor?  There is no mention in the sermon of his being involved in the slave trade. Truth is it would be 60 years before slavery would be abolished in Great Britain. The final decision by the English government was hardly a moral one. By 1833 the Industrial Revolution simply made slavery unprofitable. All we know is on that New Year’s Eve Newton reviewed his life. He had been deserted, accused of treason, beaten, sold into slavery, and become a slaver. He had escaped death at least three times. Now in the comfort of his own home he writes, “Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come. Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” The words of the Psalmist, “Teach me Your ways that I might walk in Your truth”, burned in his soul.

Fortunately the song was not the end of the story. I would like to think it was the beginning. Fifteen year later Newton wrote a pamphlet which he sent to Parliament titled, Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade. He wrote, “I offer a confession, which comes too late, on a subject which is a source of great personal humiliation. I was an active instrument in a business about which my heart now shudders.” From that day until his death Newton threw all his energy into abolishing the slave trade. “The Lord has promised good to me; his word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.

Newton was an old man when he became an abolitionist.  While the myth of his taking slaves back to Africa as a young man after a conversion experience plays well in the theatres, during this last week of Lent, I believe the real story serves us  better. One is never too old to hear the voice of God. Right now we are all spending too much time watching CNN, FOX, and the stock market. We think that our lives are dependent on economic and political decisions over which we have little control. In a couple months, when the virus has passed, we will slip back into our blue or red shirts and resume our ancient ways of thinking. We will forget our promise to examine God’s ways and walk in God’s truth. Our mantra will once again become, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” We will have forgotten that for a moment we inconvenienced ourselves to protect the weak. We will have forgotten we made extra phone calls to encourage the lonely. We will have forgotten that we came together as a nation rather than fighting as tribes. So before we forget, right now in the midst of this chaos, how will we become heroic in the months to come? Perhaps the first step is to walk in the light of God.