Please be seated. 

As you already know, I was born and raised in Thomasville, Georgia. Through God’s grace and the love of my amazing parents, I had a wonderful childhood there. While my hometown is known for a few praiseworthy things, Thomasville also happens to be the home of the Big Oak – a 350-year-old tree listed in the National Registry of Historic Places. The Big Oak is a regional landmark located in downtown Thomasville. 

This tree is the only one I’m aware of with assigned human rights. No one is allowed to climb the Big Oak. For its protection, the Big Oak is under video surveillance. The limbs of this tree are supported by steel cables so they don’t collapse from their own weight. But the Big Oak has a secret history. From the late 19th century until the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, the Big Oak was used as a lynching tree. All manners of injustice were visited upon local African-American men there: castrations, beatings, stabbings, and lynchings. No crimes were committed by those men. They happened to be in the wrong place, in the wrong colored skin, at the wrong time. 

Thomasville was once one of Georgia’s most notorious sundown towns. While some the names of those killed at the Big Oak are known, other victims’ names have been lost. This secret history is not taught in schools in Thomasville; mentioned to the visitors who make the pilgrimage to the tree; or even discussed in local churches. So when will we all finally learn that nothing good can ever come of racism? Isn’t it true that what happens to God’s children also happens to God himself first?

In today’s Old Testament scripture, the Lord is very direct and very clear in his comments to Moses. When Almighty God says “tell everyone in the congregation of the people of Israel ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy’”; there is no confusion. There is no debate. 

Here is the homiletical question at this preaching and teaching moment: are we actually being holy? And if not, are we prepared to be holy, as God himself is holy? How do we attempt to accomplish such a task? What steps do we take?

In order to be holy, we must follow God’s examples of rendering judgment in ways that are just, godly, and neighborly. Recall Leviticus, chapter 19, verses 1 and 2. It seems to me that God is calling his believers in him and followers of his to embrace a paradigm shift. He told Moses not to feel sorry for the poor simply because they are poor. God stated that those who are rich and powerful should not be catered to because of their status. He commanded that justice be the heavenly standard through which we speak to and act toward our neighbors. God stated that no Israelites could or would profit from violence or ungodly speech toward each other. Then he affirmed his comments to Moses by attaching the ultimate confirmation in saying: “I am the Lord.” 

Until we treat every one of our sisters in Christ as our neighbors, we have work to do. Until we all become fully engaged in addressing poverty and hunger within our society, we are not conducting ourselves in a godly fashion. Until the constitutional rights of all American citizens are equally acknowledged regardless of race or ethnicity, ours will be a nation of injustice.

I truly believe that a better day is coming. I don’t know when, or how, or where that new day will manifest itself. I do believe it approaches. As the father of the sick child cried out to Jesus in Mark 9:25: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

[…to be continued…]

Arthur Jones is a native of Thomasville.