January 14, 2001
Second Sunday After Epiphany

Nightjohn

Story by Gary Paulson

I've always liked Paul's words talking about the varieties of gifts that we've received. As you might have noted from other sermons, it's one of my favorite topics. In preparing for this Sunday, I read some things that I hadn't understood before. The Greek word that Paul uses is "charisma." What we commonly translate as "gifts" is not referring so much to talents and abilities as it is a quality of something within, a gift of being able to attract people, being able to relate to people. When Paul talks about the variety of gifts he doesn't mean that one person is a good dancer, another runs the football, another plays the piano and another one can fix your car. Instead, Paul mentions things like prophecy and knowledge, understanding and wisdom, compassion. These are gifts that have much more to do with human traits of relationship than they have to do with the ability or skill. If you pursue the track of caring and compassion, Paul tells us we have these gifts for the greater good. Our "charisma" enhances the distribution of God's love. It deepens the relationships that we have with others, for the good of all people.

The story about Jesus and the wedding is usually seen as a miracle story. It's a story that we are asked to accept or deny on the basis of whether we can accept a miracle taking place. We can also look at it in terms of the gifts, the charisma that Jesus has been given. When we look at it from that perspective, we can understand the story to be one that talks about the transforming effect that Jesus has. Jesus takes water and turns it into wine. From that perspective it's a story about, a miracle transformation. We try to understand it from a scientific standpoint. We say we don't know how it happens. We piously say, "Well, God was carrying out a miracle. Jesus was empowered by God to turn the water into wine." If we take it as a story that talks about Jesus' power to transform someone's life, then we can see that it was a sign of what takes place all the way through the gospels. Whenever Jesus spoke with someone, he was bringing about a new understanding, a new change in that individual's life. Maybe not magic like water and wine, but maybe even more miraculous because people are changed merely by the contact with him.

This day, the whole country celebrates Martin Luther King and the change that he was able to make in a tremendous number of people's lives. We rightfully celebrate individuals who have attained a high level of visibility for the changes that they've made. But in doing so, we sometimes forget that all of us have the opportunity to share with others the gifts that we have been given in a way that can make a difference in their lives. We don't have to be on the evening news. We don't have to be giving away millions of dollars. We can take the gifts that we have been given of laughter, of listening compassionately, of being present with someone who is in need. Our ability to bring two people together to resolve differences. There are all sorts of gifts that have to do with the way we relate to each other as humans that can make a tremendous difference in one person's life. You can read more about Martin Luther King in the newspapers and magazines. Today I want to share with you another story. A story that talks about making a difference in someone's life.

The story is on the front cover of your worship bulletin. "Nightjohn" by Gary Paulson. It's a fictionalized account, but the story itself is true. Imagine what it was like to have been a slave in the Deep South before the Civil War. The book brings that situation to life for me in a way that I hadn't imagined. The lead character is a young girl, Sarny. Sarny is not yet old enough to work in the fields. Not yet old enough to give birth to a baby. So she has some level of protection from the demands of the "master," as he wants to be called. She says, "We call old man Waller master to his face when we need to, but otherwise we call him "pig-droppings" or "dog-spit" or anything else that comes to mind." She talks about a life in which it's hard to imagine there was anything to hope for. The mother that gave birth to her was soon sold off to someone else. No mothers that gave birth to babies were allowed to keep the babies. They were taken first to a wet nurse and then to an old mammy to be raised because the mother who gave birth had to go back out to the field to work. Families not even allowed to begin to become a family, but instead, torn apart immediately at birth. A structure established to keep people in line, to keep them in their place. The description of the master is none too flattering. A man given to excesses of food and drink, who does what he wants to when he wants to. Sometimes punishing the slaves just because. He does it to keep control, to hold on to power. People grow up knowing that they will work all of their days from sun up til sun down, with little time to rest and not enough food to eat. The women, if they're healthy, will be used to breed more slaves to make money for the master.

Into this world comes a new slave. The master bought him for one thousand dollars. He was a high spirited slave and Waller brought him in with a collar around his neck, walking him in front of the horse. Whenever the master wanted to, he stopped the horse up short and jerked the man to the ground. Now Sarny, this young girl, had never known anything beyond the fence lines of the farm that she lived on. When the new man came in, she didn't know quite how to respond. Anyway, conversation wasn't encouraged. Sometimes, at night, there was a possibility of talking. When he was brought in, Sarny noticed the ridges on his back where he had been whipped time and again. She figured that he must have tried to run away. She knew that was pointless, that no one was ever able to run away. She had heard some stories about a place up to the North. A place where you could find freedom, but she didn't know if it was the truth or just a dream. She knew of a couple who had tried to run. One of them was caught up a tree. It wasn't a tall enough tree, just a few feet off the ground. The master let the dogs tear the runaway slave to pieces.

This new slave came into Sarny's life. The second night in the darkness he whispered out, "Does anyone have any tobacco?" Sarny happened to have a small stash of tobacco because it was her job to get rid of the insects on the roses by the master's house. She chewed tobacco and spit the juice on the plant. It was a foul task that often made her sick to her stomach, but she had put aside some of the tobacco. She listened as he said, "Does anyone have any tobacco?" She thought to herself, "What does he have to share? He came in naked as the day he was born with nothing at all to trade." But, as if he read her mind, he said, "I have something to trade. I have letters. I can teach you some letters." Sarny was intrigued and she went and met the man. His name was John. John started to talk to her about letters of the alphabet. She said, "What are they? How do they work?" He said, "If you trade me some of the tobacco, I'll give you three." The first night he taught her "A." Over the next week or two it was "B" and "C." By the time she got six or seven letters she found out that she was able to spell B-A-G. She was excited almost beyond belief to be able to see a word, to say "BAG." She started scribbling it in the dust everywhere. But caught up in her excitement, she wasn't careful. The master surprised her and said, "What are you doing?" She said, "Well, nothing. I was copying something I saw on a feed sack." He said, "You're writing. Who taught you to write?" She said, "I don't know anything about writing." He said, "We'll get to the bottom of this." He dragged her in to see Mammy and shouted, "Who's been teaching this girl to write?" Mammy said, "I don't know anything about reading or writing." He said, "You know, it's wrong to read, to do numbers. We'll get to the bottom of this." He didn't take the little girl, but he took Mammy out to the stone shed. He stripped her clothes off of her, shackled her to the building and let her wait all day long.

At the end of the day he came out full from supper and after-dinner drinks. He didn't bring the usual whip. He brought a buggy whip. He had the carriage pulled around with the harness but no horse in it. He took Mammy out and said, "I think that I'd like to go for a ride tonight." He put her into the harness and cracked the whip. She tried to pull the wagon but wasn't able to. He cracked the whip again, splitting open her back. Sarny wanted to do something to stop it but she didn't know anything. John stepped forward. He said, "Leave her alone. She doesn't know anything. I'm the one that taught the girl letters." The master took John over to the side and had him bound up. He said, "Do you know the price for teaching somebody to read? It's the loss of an extremity." He brought a chopping block up, had them put John's foot on it and took a chisel and chopped off the center toe. It popped off cleanly and John grimaced but didn't say anything. Then they had him put the other foot up, and they did the same. Put the chisel to the second toe and slammed it with a hammer. But this one didn't come off as cleanly and it took another hit or two before the toe was finally severed. The master said, "Maybe you won't be doing any more teaching of reading now." They sent him off to have his feet bound up and greased so that he'd heal up and be ready to go back and work out in the fields.

When Sarny and Mammy took care of John, they found that he had been able to run away and escape. He had made it all the way to the North safely. He had learned how to read and write. Then he had come back South again. He laughed to himself, he said, "I didn't come back South to be caught. One day I wasn't paying attention. There were some bounty hunters out. They set their dogs on me and they captured me and sold me back." They said, "Why would you come back if you'd been free?" He said, "I came back to teach reading. I'd hoped to be able to set up schools, but it didn't work out that way."

Two days later he called Sarny over and he said, "This one's an "H." It stands on its two feet and you can turn it right side up or upside down and it's still the same letter." Mammy came over and said, "John what are you doing?" This time the anger wasn't there and she had a little bit of a smile on her face. He said to Sarny, "I need you to get a little bit of leather. I need to make some shoes." Mammy said, "So, are you going to run?" John said, "In two nights. In two nights I'm going to go." He made up some shoes and two nights later he was gone. In the morning the master went out with his shotgun and his dogs. Two days later he came back, cursing to himself and they knew that John had made it. John had promised Sarny that he would be back someday. But she thought there would be no way that she would ever see him again.

A couple of months went by. In the darkness of the night, she heard a voice. The voice was John's and he said, "Come on, hurry up. We have to go so we can get you back before dawn." She said, "But where are we going?" He said, "Ssh. I'll show you." He led her out across the field farther than she had ever gone before. Another mile or so and then into a deep ravine full of bushes and old trees. When he got to a very dark spot he stopped and let out a little whistle and then waited. They saw a small light and an opening in the bushes. They went in and there was a pit with brush all over the top to seal it and a couple of torches. There were others there. They introduced themselves. They were from plantations close by. John said, "We're going to start to learn to read now. Sarny you can help me because some of them don't know any letters at all. When they catch up to where you're at, then we'll all proceed on together."

From time to time Sarny said, "Now we'll look out in the soft ground and we'll see a footprint with the center toes missing and we know that Nightjohn is out and about, teaching letters to people."

If you were a slave what could you do to make a difference in people's lives? If you look at your own life, how can you make a difference? You might not sing like a nightingale, you might not be terrific at the stock market, but God has given each and every one of you gifts. Not just talents and abilities, but God has given each and every one of you grace, compassion, the ability to reach out to others. God has given you laughter, a love of life. If you share those things that are part of your being with others, you can transform their lives. You can make a difference. You can open up their horizons. You can bring them to a new place. Paul said that we are all given gifts by God for the common good. Not for our own glorification, not for our own benefit, but for the common good. We have Jesus' example about what it means to share yourself with others. The poor son of a carpenter...