don’t put a period where god put a comma

October 19, 2025 • Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture Lessons: Hebrews 11:32-40 (NRSVUE)
Dwight Campbell, Guest Preacher

[You can view the full worship video recording at: https://youtu.be/Mb8rw9Ohd4I]

Good morning.

You know you are getting old when you can say '35 years ago.'

'35 years ago, I sold Kirby vacuum cleaners. For those that don't know, Kirby is a great vacuum, but more than that, the Kirby company is a large sales organization. Sales organizations, no matter their size, hold rallies to help with techniques, offer motivation, and give a day of relaxation. Remember, I said this was thirty-five years ago, so there are some details that I don't remember, but I do remember three things. First, I had earned my "Silver K"; second, we were in New Jersey, and third, we were addressed by a regional sales manager.

The meeting started, and after singing the "Kirby" rally song, the regional sales manager was introduced. He was impeccably dressed and walked to the podium with a slight palsied walk and spoke with a little bit of a slur.

I cannot forget his opening remarks.

"I was born dead. What is your excuse?"

The room went silent.

I can't imagine what his parents went through or what he went through, but what I do know is that he did not put a period where God put a comma.

When I thought about what I wanted to talk about today, I thought about a book by Nell W. Mohney titled Don't Put a Period Where God Put a Comma. The book is meant to be a guide to building self-esteem, but the title intrigued me. A period is a sense of acquiescing, a finality, whereas a comma is a continuation, a resistance, a non-acceptance of a situation.

In our reading from the First Testament,

GOD said, "If I find fifty decent people in the city of Sodom, I'll spare the place just for them." Abraham came back, "Do I, a mere mortal made from a handful of dirt, dare open my mouth again to my Master? What if the fifty fall short by five—would you destroy the city because of those missing five?" He said, "I won't destroy it if there are forty-five."

This is amazing. Abraham erases God's period and replaces it with a comma - but wait, it goes on.

Abraham spoke up again, "What if you only find forty?" "Neither will I destroy it for forty." He said, "Master, don't be irritated with me, but what if only thirty are found?" "No, I won't do it if I find thirty." Abraham keeps pushing on. From thirty to ten, and I love this translation. "Don't get angry, Master—this is the last time. What if you only come up with ten?" "For the sake of only ten, I won't destroy the city." When GOD finished talking with Abraham, he left. And Abraham went home. I don't know how one would celebrate in ancient times, but in today's lens, I could see Abraham saying "YESS" and doing a happy dance because he just replaced God's periods with commas.

 The story of this country is resistance.

After the Civil War, there was the Reconstruction and the first Jim Crow era, and I say first, when a Black man could be lynched just for looking at a white woman. There were "strange fruit" hanging from the trees. The lynchings were so prevalent that a group of white women moved against them. Jessie Daniel Ames, a Methodist woman, was key to starting a movement that made lynching "an indefensible crime."

In 1930, Ames gathered a small group of daring women together in Atlanta, Georgia, to form the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching.

The protection of white women had been a common excuse for white mob lynchings of black men, and so the women were determined to use the power of their mission societies to stop this terrorism in their names. The women drafted a statement saying, "Lynching is an indefensible crime. Women dare no longer allow themselves to be the cloak behind which those bent upon personal revenge.

On May 2, 1963, more than 1,000 Black children peacefully protested racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, as part of the Children's Crusade, beginning a movement that sparked widely publicized police brutality that shocked the nation and spurred major civil rights advances.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had launched the Children's Crusade as part of the Birmingham anti-segregation campaign. As part of that effort, more than 1,000 African American children trained in nonviolent protest tactics walked out of their classes on May 2 and assembled at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church to march to downtown Birmingham. Though hundreds were assaulted, arrested, and transported to jail in school buses and paddy wagons, the children refused to relent their peaceful demonstration.

The next day, when hundreds more children began to march, Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene "Bull" Connor directed local police and firemen to attack the children with high-pressure fire hoses, batons, and police dogs. Images of children being brutally assaulted by police and snarling canines appeared on television and in newspapers throughout the nation and world, provoking global outrage. The U.S. Department of Justice soon intervened.

These actions put a comma instead of a period in the actions of segregation.

In the early hours of June 28, 1969, the New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, leading to the arrest of patrons and employees. Instead of dispersing as they typically did, the crowd outside the bar began to jeer at the police and resist arrest, leading to a full-blown riot. The protests escalated into a full-blown riot, with hundreds of people rioting for several nights. The police barricaded themselves inside the bar, which was repeatedly breached by the crowd, who also attempted to set it on fire. The protests continued for several more nights, with thousands of

people participating at times. The events are seen as a turning point, as they "galvanized the gay rights movement," leading to the formation of new LGBTQ+ activist groups and the first gay pride march in 1970.

Our own Jorge Lockwood and Katie Reimer, as members of the General Conference, were instrumental in changing the language in the Book of Discipline that was against homosexuality.

We are living in and through turmoil, approaching authoritarianism, mass deportation, people losing healthcare, and the military in our streets. When I look at ICE agents kidnapping people, it reminds me of scenes from one hundred years ago, when Brown Shirts directed by a dictator caused Kristallnacht. These things cannot become normal; these things cannot cause us to become depressed. These things cannot become normal.

So what do we do?

Neil N. Mohney writes that we can always erase a period.

We can stand together. We can march peacefully. We can contact our representatives. We need to get rid of Mental Termites, and one termite is the termite of worry. Worrying can be debilitating; it freezes us from thinking or acting.

Refuse to become a mushroom because, as an acquaintance of mine once said to me, a mushroom grows best when you keep it in the dark and shovel fertilizer on it. If you see something wrong, use your phone and record it - share it to keep a light on what is wrong. Reach out to a friend, hug a puppy, take a walk, and hug a tree.

Finally, never, ever put a period where God put a comma.

Amen

Copyright (c) 2025 - Dwight Campbell
All rights reserved.