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Job and William J. Seymour
(Matthew 25:31-46) When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”
Then the righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?”
And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.”
Then they also will answer, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?”
Then he will answer them, saying, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
I did not grow up in the South. In fact, when I saw Martin Luther King and the protests on television as a youth, I had no idea what the problem was. When I began reading the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer it began to make better sense. There are times when Christians are called to do the right thing. These are the moments that separate the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:32). Bonhoeffer tried desperately to get Christians to oppose Hitler's mass extermination of Jews. His efforts met with limited success. The German church had far too many goats and far too few sheep.
There was a more significant resistance to the oppression of black people in this country, but, strong resistance in the south, including Christian leaders, undermined every attempt to put an end to the abuse of our black citizens. I don't pretend to understand the dynamics that were at play, perhaps I should read the 1941 book by W.J. Cash, The Mind of the South. I do believe, there were too many goats in the pews.
MR. ZUSS: Oh there's always
Someone playing Job.
NICKLES: There must be thousands…
Millions and millions of mankind
Burned, crushed, broken, mutilated,
Slaughtered, and for what? For thinking!
For walking around in the world in the wrong
Skin, the wrong-shaped noses, eyelids:
Sleeping the wrong night in the wrong city
London, Dresden, Hiroshima.
There never could have been so many
Suffered more for less…
MR.ZUSS: All we have to do is start.
Job will join us. Job will be there.
NICKLES: I know. I know. I know. I've seen him.
Job is everywhere we go,
His children dead, his work for nothing,
Counting his losses, scraping his boils,
Discussing himself with his friends and physicians,
Questioning everything—the times, the stars,
His own soul, God's providence… (Archibald MacLeish, “J.B.”, 12-13).
Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982), a poet, writer and statesman, penned this modern retelling of Job's story in 1958. As the dialogue says, “there's always someone playing Job.” Someone is playing Job, “For walking around in the world in the wrong skin!” But, not all Job's are the same.
As a white man, reading Eldridge Cleaver's 1965 essay Soul on Ice can be terrifying. In the seventies I worked in an anti-Communism educational outreach. As a part of that, I visited Communist bookstores, gatherings and rallies. One thing is clear, a bitter Job, who denounces God, is a dangerous and destructive force. He is Satan's best friend.
But, our Job in the Bible is not bitter in the end. He struggles, he wrestles. Eli Weisal tells story of seeing three Rabbis at Auschwitz discuss God's guilt. They pronounce God guilty. And then they proceeded to evening prayers. This is the patience of Job, but it is also Job wrestling with suffering that just seems wrong. As a card carrying Pentecostal, I owe my life to another such Job.
Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my Lord
Magnified, sanctified
Be the holy name
Vilified, crucified
In the human frame
A million candles burning
For the love that never came
You want it darker
We kill the flame (Leonard Cohen, “You Want it Darker”).
William James Seymour was the son of emancipated slaves. He was born in Centerville, Louisiana in 1870. His family were poor sharecroppers who struggled. His father had served the Union army where he contracted a disease which finally killed him when William was 21, making him the man of the house. Racist persecution was on the rise in the South following the Civil War, so Seymour traveled to Indianapolis. There he was born-again, and was introduced to the Holiness movement. He began to eagerly seek advice and training from Charles Price Jones, Sr. and Charles Harrison Mason, both black, as well as John G. Lake and Charles Parham. Despite Jim Crow laws, Seymour studied under Parham for two yearshere in Houston, even though he was not allowed to enter the classroom.
In 1906, Seymour was asked to come to Los Angeles to pastor a congregation there. That congregation dismissed him after one sermon. He was stranded. Nevertheless, he began a prayer meeting that grew so large that they had to change houses. The new house on Bonnie Brae Street was where people began to speak in tongues in large numbers, including Seymour. The meeting kept growing larger, until Seymour had recieved several warnings to move or shut the meetings down. He had found a location on Azusa Street, but did not have the money for the rent. At this point, I should take it up from the testimony of a then 17 year old married white girl Sister Carney. She had just arrived in Pasadena, California that day.
That night, the need to move was heavy on Seymour‘s heart. He prayed to God for direction and before the evening was over, he had received his answer. God instructed him to get on a trolley car as soon as the service ended and to go to Pasadena.
True to God‘s leadership, Seymour didn‘t argue, but rather, headed for Pasadena where it was illegal for blacks like Brother Seymour, to be after dark. He rode the trolley until God instructed him to get off, and then followed as God directed him to an apartment nearby.
Sister Carney, just a teenager but married, had arrived in Pasadena earlier that day. She was to meet with several of her friends who had been members of the First Baptist Church until they had received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Somehow that didn‘t fit Baptist doctrine. This evening they were coming together to pray for revival. Meeting together for months now in the apartment of one of the members of the group, this particular evening these ladies continued in fervent prayer for several hours. They were certain that God was about to do something big in the Los Angeles area.
Just after 10:00 p.m., God brought together two elements of a force that, when joined together, would usher in one of the greatest manifestations of God ever experienced by man since the birth of Christ. Seymour walked up to the apartment that God had led him to and knocked on the door. Sister Carney remembers the time to be about 10:30 p.m. The ladies went to the door together and when they opened the door found a black man, blind in one eye, standing before them. For many people in that day and in that area, a black man showing up at their door late at night would have been a sign to slam the door and call the police. But that night, God was in charge. The owner of the apartment, with some apprehension, asked, “Can I help you?” The answer to this simple, and somewhat fretful question would startle and astonish those gathered for prayer. After several months of fervent prayer, God responded in an unusual manner. Seymour replied, “You‘re praying for revival, right?” When the ladies responded with a unanimous “yes”, Seymour made a bold statement: “I‘m the man God has sent to preach that revival.” Without hesitation, the ladies invited Seymour in.
After some exciting chatter, he preached to them and took up an offering that was more than enough to rent the Azusa Street Warehouse. (Tommy Welchel, Azusa Street: They Told Me Their Stories, 27-29).
The rest is history. Every major Pentecostal denomination owes its start to William Seymour and Azusa Street.
The Azusa Street Revival lasted little more than two years. Seymour still considered Parham to be his covering, so Parham came to preach. Parham was appalled at the free mixture of whites and blacks in the room. In addition he had doctrinal quarrels with Seymour. Parham believed that tongues were known languages (xenoglossy). Seymour that these were tongues unknown to humans (glossolalia). Parham denounced the revival. In another blow to the movement, were two major defections. Florence Crawford had worked under Seymour left to start her own movement using the same name, Apostolic Faith Movement. Seymour married that same year, upsetting his secretary and editor of the newpaper with a 40,000 member subscription. She defected to Crawford, taking the mailing list with her.
Sister Carney tells a different reason for the decline of the Azusa Street Revival.
When Seymour came down to the meeting, he would sit down and put a box on his head. At first it startled Sister Carney. Sometimes he would sit with the box over his head for ten minutes and sometimes it would be an hour or more. Although the practice seemed ridiculous, Sister Carney realized that he was obeying God, no matter how silly or ridiculous it appeared. That apparent act of humble obedience led to mighty power when he removed the box. This box and act of humility were critical to the power God displayed through Brother Seymour.
When Brother Smith asked Sister Carney what caused the miracles at Azusa to stop, she replied, “It stopped when Brother Seymour stopped putting that box over his head.” When he quit coming down and putting the box on his head, it started dying. Seymour and Sister Carney became friends and after Seymour married, Sister Carney would often join them for dinner. Even in a social setting she would feel the anointing on Seymour. She recalled that Seymour was very pleasant to be around. He was a humble man who always had a gleam in his eye, a smile on his face, and a deep, resonating voice.
There was no question about his anointing of God. She recalled that if you touched Seymour, a kind of electricity would shock you. The current was so strong that the first time she touched him during a meeting she almost passed out. (Tommy Welchel, Azusa Street: They Told Me Their Stories, 36).