This address is for a class called Advanced Seminar in Preaching. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, 
According to Martin Luther King, “We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but we have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.” Garvey said one God, one aim, one destiny. These men were just expounding the same words of Micah chapter 6 Which says– show justice love kindness and walk humbly before God.
Micah lived in a period of economic upheaval. Assyria, the then dominant world power, was still a menace to what was left of a divided Israel. Unfortunately, the economic prosperity had spawned a selfish materialism, as a means of achieving human desires and success along with a complacent approach to religion in the society. Micah also witnessed the disintegration of personal and social values in his society. Wealth was being invested, but at the same time there was the collapse of the traditional systems of employment and welfare. People suffered from this lack of economic stability and all around there was emotional distress. Age-old values were shrugged off, and social concern was at the bottom of the list of priorities of national and local government officials. The religious leaders did little more than echo the spirit of the time, reinforcing the society that gave them their livelihood. Micah a man from the countryside, had first-hand knowledge of the sufferings of the working folk of his society.

He reveals to Israel that what is required is justice, mercy, love, and humility. I am sure you will agree that Jamaica can be substituted for Israel as our society is no different. Our social values are almost non-existent with our school girls learning to transact sex at an early age. Our women are unable to fend for their children. Children, choose to live on the streets, rather than in a home of misery. It seems no one, but the Don cares. It is the Don who takes on the role of father. He encourages the boys to go to school. He gives them bus fares, uniforms, schoolbooks and motivates them while training them to be his foot soldiers. Mother is happy because she does not have to sleep with her ‘baby father’ to put food on the table, nor does she have to find a man to help her supplement her wages which is not even enough if she did not have a family. This man will make her pregnant as he will refuse to wear a condom.

The indiscipline in our society today is rife, you only need to see how we drive on the roads and look at the amount of money collected in a traffic ticket amnesty. Just try to purchase something in a wholesale downtown. It is not first come, first serve, but whoever can push their way to the front or call out the loudest to catch the eye of the attendant.
The level of violence in our country has caused us to develop a numbness. in 1996, it was cause for concern at 49th World Health Assembly meeting, and has a devastating effect on our children. Professor Maureen Samms-Vaughan a behavioural specialist reports that eight out of ten children between the ages of 12 -14 experience some sort of violence everyday whether through violent parental discipline or corporal punishment in schools. Six in ten Jamaican students say they have been bullied at some point in their lives. Then there is sexual violence that leaves lasting emotional wounds. It steals the dignity, trust and self-esteem of young persons, twenty-four per cent of girls ages 10-15 say their first experience of sex was forced. We steal our children’s innocence when reports show that that forty-six per cent of our women had their first sexual intercourse before age 13

Our high crime rate tells another story of social decay. This was not something that started overnight, as said before in 1996 it had received international attention. It is a sore that has been festering for a long time and every now and again the scab breaks and it oozes. I call it a negative resistance movement, which can only become positive if we address the cause of it. It is resistance because the persons involved have developed a methodology, however warped some of us may think it is, that has helped them learn to live with a dignity, a false sense of equality, born out of I am equal to, or better than you because I can con you, or, I am able to exert physical or emotional power over you. It is resistance, as the lifestyle is born out of a society that consistently fails to provide justice, mercy, and wholeness. The same kind of society Micah is speaking about. The silent motto is ‘wha you waan me fe do’. Nutten nah gwaan fe we, better yet you can’t talk to me, because I am hurting, and I only get relief from the things I take or the people I hurt. This is several generations old up until today, it has become like a generational curse because ‘Is suh the ting set’. We have generations who have never seen their near relatives, or their community members hold a steady job or earn a living any other way than hustling or juggling. Our society is no different from Micah’s.

Three in every twenty Jamaicans live in poverty. Yes, our household poverty rate has decreased significantly but when you consider that every other person living in poverty is a child we need to think again about what is happening in our nation. We also have to consider that 1 in 10 children are not registered, 4 out of every 10 children lack basic access to health, nutrition, education and social welfare. UNICEF says our children are being excluded that is ‘we nuh count dem’. Children are considered excluded if we do not protect them from: violence, abuse, exploitation, or if they are unable to access and benefit from, high quality essential services, high quality information and high quality goods and I am not speaking about name brand goods. They are excluded if anything threatens their ability to participate fully in society NOW and in the future. it has been reported that 74% of our children between the ages of 12-14 had witnessed a violent act, stabbing being the most common through to shooting and rape and in 2017 murder of children went up by 36% above the number in 2016. Things seem to be getting worse not better. Children are murdered, sexually abused and their physical and emotional development is undermined. A child without multiple CXC passes faces severe challenges in accessing higher education or meaningful employment. More than 50 years as a nation and our education system continues to turn out persons who are barely functional in literacy and numeracy and so graduates are ill equipped to contribute positively to their own welfare and to society. one out of 5 babies is born to a teenage mother. While the effort made in teenage pregnancy must be acknowledged, a child giving birth to another child, means double exclusion – 2 children at risk.

We have the wealthy and the owners of capital doling out to ease their conscience while they pay big bucks to security firms to guard they homes. Some live as prisoners as they are unable to move freely out of fear. We throw our hands in the air as we seem unprepared to solve the nations problem. We laughed when God revealed to a Minister of Government that he needed to turn to God to find a solution. We have allowed the imperial system of the world to numb our creativity. We have grown blind to the possibilities, because for too long we have placed band-aids on our problems. We have pandered to world powers and multinationals, we have not been bold, nor have we chosen to stand on God’s covenant to make us a great nation. We have failed to provide social and physical amenities and proper social programmes which benefit the majority of persons which is the right of all human beings. We have not treated people with the respect and dignity they deserve. We rationalize it. We don’t have enough money.

I have spent a long time describing the situation in Jamaica land we love as we like to say, in order for us to truly appreciate the gravity of our situation and to help us pave a practical way forward. We have come to pray and in prayer we don’t only talk to God, we also have to be attentive to God as God gives us solutions and we have to be intentional in carrying these solutions making a new beginning is possible.

Micah tells us, as he told Israel, it does not have to be this way. In our passage God has a conversation with Israel. In verse 3 God asks what have I done? why are you behaving in this way? In Verses 4 and 5, God recounts the things God has done for Israel though Moses and Aaron. God took them out of Egypt with a covenant promise to make them a great nation, but they reneged on their part. They did not follow through. The implications are that a new beginning is still possible. The way forward for Israel lies in the good men and women. Moses. Aaron and Miriam showed them the way. As the Israelites try to make sense of what is required. Verse 8 helps them. It says God has already made it plain how to live. what God is looking for in men and women is simple: We are required to do what is fair and just to your neighbour, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and to take God seriously. God requires of us the same thing today: to make a new beginning, using methods we have used in the past, God requires of us to live justly, mercifully and humbly.
From Micah 6, we learn that we too have a new beginning, That God has provided for us good examples to show the way. All is required of us now is for us to be humble, Just, and merciful that is be loyal and love. Mark 12: 31 helps us understand that. Jesus tells us to love our neighbour just as like we love ourselves. In this new beginning that our ancestors have pointed us to, that God has given us, we are going to act from a position of love through which everyone will experience justice mercy and the humility of others. If we love each other as we love ourselves, it means we will all follow the golden rule, do unto others as we would want them to do to us. We all want good things for ourselves and our families.

Jamaica received a new beginning from God at Independence, God gave us our sovereignty, the ability to govern ourselves, politically, socially and economically as in the best interest of all the many people who make one Jamaica. It was our covenant with God to be a great nation. But we like Israel have squandered it. We think that enforcing laws and going through the powerbroking motions of parliament or running a nation like our colonial masters did, or the multinational corporations suggest is good enough. We have failed to build credible institutions. Instead, those who can feast on their power status, creating a system of oppression rather than a system of justice and mercy. God tells us like he did Israel that this should not be so. Our forgiving and merciful God says a new beginning is still possible. But how?

There were key periods in the life of Israel when things were good, when they were led by Moses and Aaron. We too have not just key times but key people who have shown us the way to live a good life, a life of worth and mercy. The maroons and the Rastas living according to the norms of their communities are good examples of living Justly merciful and humbly with each other.

When slavery was abolished, the new free villages lived in harmony with each other. Jamaican communities once cared for their children. No child was allowed to err even if parents were not on speaking terms. Neighbours made sure that other neighbours ate. Each village had somebody or bodies who would pacify the wrongs and set the community straight.

Each child was given dignity when the bastard law was annulled. Each mother given time to bond with her new baby before going back to work. Olive Lewin traversed Jamaica so we would know our culture and Louise Bennett taught us to be proud of our language. HEART Trust helped those who couldn’t make it academically by giving a skill. Marcus Garvey showed us that we can build industries, if we put our mind to it.
Jamaica of old understood that right relations was the key to existence, that Humility Justice and Mercy were virtues to cultivate. While people had their various opinions, it was with a singleness of heart that they worked for a better community and a better Jamaica

Old time Jamaica understood that Justice speaks to a situation where we each, not only have the same opportunities, but we each have the appropriate tools we need to access these opportunities. They understood that Justice doesn’t only mean being right, it also means being of worth, being respected and treated with dignity. Thus, one should act in a manner where others feel worthy, and that you are being loyal to your covenant relationship with God and your community brothers and sisters. This was riveted in the respect of good morning, good evening, and tenky which took nothing away from them.
Justice says treat others as you would want to be treated. We should show kindness, feel compassion, have mercy for others always placing ourselves in their position and feeling as they do. We must not give ourselves more importance than we deserve. This, can only happen if we work together at the lowest unit of our society, the level of communities, households, and individuals. We exercise this mercy and justice by loving our neighbour.
We can begin again to relate to each other without acrimony – hostility, rancour, animosity, bitterness and spite. We can embrace again the PALS programme in schools and revisit our ‘Values and Attitudes’. We can remember how we felt as children. We can allow our children to have the wonderful fun experiences of childhood while learning the work ethics and values they require to maintain themselves as an adult. We know how. We did it before. We can do it again. Jamaica is paradise, once described as a happy place. We can be happy again, and we will in our new beginning.

This where the Church comes in. In every community there is at least one church. It is the church who best knows how to exemplify love. The Church gets to put into practice what it preaches. It therefore needs to lead the charge to advocate on behalf of others – to show Jamaica how to love. Our Jamaican prophet Bob Marley puts it nicely. He asks Is there a place for the hopeless sinner, who has hurt all mankind just to save his own beliefs? Is the situation reconcilable? yes it is! Bob says ‘let’s, get together in one love’. Bob Marley reminds us as does Micah and Mark that it is in our relationships that we can fix Jamaica. – One love.

One love then becomes our new beginning. A beginning of communities living in harmony with each other, being considerate of the other person’s need. It becomes our means of justice, our means of humility. One love becomes care for our children and the other vulnerable persons in our community. One love means trust for our politicians and they in turn considering the social needs of everyone in their policies. Love here does not mean sex or the love between consenting adults. Love here is treating others as you would a baby, looking out for their best interest. Love means caring for another person, just because they are human like ourselves. Love means respecting ourselves and others. Love means not being selfish, giving as much as or more than you get. Love means that everyone gets according to their needs so that all can be their best self and contribute meaningfully to society. Love means walking in the shoes of another and feeling the stones through the soles. Loves means agreeing to disagree but still doing what is right and what is in the best interest of the community. Love means a singleness of heart.
May we learn to fair and just to our neighbour, be compassionate and loyal in our love, not to take yourself too seriously but take God seriously as we make a new beginning using the template set for us. I wish for us One Love, One Heart, one Destiny in Jamaica land we love.