Biography
 Rev. Gregory G. Ingram is pastor of the Oak Grove African Methodist Episcopal Church in Detroit, Michigan. Until recently, he was the pastor of Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church which is the oldest black church in Chicago, founded in 1847. He has degrees in philosophy, religion and teaching and has been a basketball coach. He serves his community, his church and his people through various organizations and groups to which he gives much time and effort including Inter-Varsity, the American Cancer Society, Operation PUSH, Kappa Alpha Psi and the NAACP. He recently edited Meditation Messages in Celebration of African Methodism in honor of their Bicentennial Year 1787 - 1987.  [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"Sitting Where Others Sit" 
 
A Oh God of Earth and Altar,
Bow down and hear our cry,
Our earthly rulers falter,
Our people drift and die.

Walls of gold entomb us,
A sword of scorn divides,
Take not thy presence from us,
But take away our pride.

Sitting where others sit. There's an old Indian proverb that states, "Help me not to judge another man until I've walked a mile in his moccasins." No man is completely detached from others. We may not be our brothers' keepers, but we are our brothers' brothers.

When Ezekiel came upon a settlement of captives he sat down with them in a sacramental silence for a period of seven days. In this topsy-turvy world, filled with chaos and confusion, it's hard to get people to sit down and to do anything without a lot of noise, without a bunch of fanfare. Maybe this explains why we are so nervous and anxious. We are unable to sit and to listen and to be patiently concerned about those whom God called "the least of these."

To acquaint oneself with the needs of others is to sit where they sit, and in that spirit Ezekiel was led to sit with those captives and to share vicariously in their suffering and their pain. In sitting with them, Ezekiel put himself in their position. He wanted to listen to what they had to say. It was then that he was overwhelmed with their needs and their misery. He did not preach to them, he did not lecture to them. He sat in the midst of them and felt their agony, felt their pain. He began to see through their eyes, bleed through their wounds, weep through their tears.

Like Ezekiel, so we today need to sit where others sit. We need to feel their burdens, we need to feel their agony. We need to be consciously aware of their sufferings, their discouragements, their disappointments, their oft-times agony and pain. If the average person could only sit where the homeless sit, could sit with the rejected, could sit with the disabled, sit with the unemployed, sit with those who are suffering from AIDS and other communicable diseases, if we could just sit where they sit, I believe that our attitudes about them would be completely different. If we could only share the pain that they feel, perhaps our empathy and our sympathy for them would be greater.

If those who are rich in the world's goods would only one day sit with those who are unemployed, those who are on welfare, I believe that we, too, would find a different meaning and understanding. We would find, somehow, a way to spend more money on bread than we spend on bombs and nuclear armaments. The fact is we should assure each other of our continued support and prayers. The Lord is concerned about the least of his children.

This is an era when people are swerving from a high sense of purpose, accommodating themselves to what is expedient and convenient. They follow the line of least resistance. They never take sides, they never put the trumpet to their lips. They never champion a cause, they never pick up the cross. They never commit themselves to anything or anybody. They have a way of pigeon-holing the least of God's children. They vacillate and they straddle the fence. They go from one side of the street to the other depending on which side of the street the sun is shining. They send up a trial balloon to find out which way the wind is blowing before they give vent or expression to any opinion. They let "I will" wait upon III want."

But the Good News is that God loves us. The Good News is that God waits upon us to make a decision not only to sit where others sit but to be consciously concerned about their needs, their agonies and their pains. God waits for us to demonstrate a real concern and a love for his people. It's not enough for us to sit on the stage of this world and refuse to be the actors and agents that God needs to make the difference. Too many of us are content to sit on the balcony of life and simply eat peanuts. We say, "What's the use? If I don't do it somebody else will. Somebody else will champion the cause." But the fact of the matter is that God is depending on you. So I want you to know that in this day of confusion and chaos not only must we sit where others sit, but we must share their burdens and their pains.

I have good news for those of you who are weary, burdened and heavy-laden, those of you who are suffering and experiencing tremendous rejection and pain. I have something to say to those of you who are lonely and feeling abandoned. I want those of you who are incapacitated and incarcerated to know this. I want the world to know that there is a God who stands at the center of this universe of ours who holds the world together with the sense of his love, who tells us that he cares about us. The one everlasting fact about the Christian faith that stands head and shoulders above all others is that there is a God who stands at the center of this world who is consciously concerned about you and me.

He is touched by the feeling of our infirmity. He cares what happens to the sheep that are lost, to the lily which begins to fade, to the reed that is bruised and bent, to the prodigal who steps across a far country. He cares about those who sit idle in the marketplace. He cares about the banker and the blue collar worker. He cares about the sinner and the saint. He cares about you and me.

So then, it all comes down to this: Our mission - yours and mine - is not only to sit where others sit, but to get up and do something about it. Our mission is never complete as long as there are others who have hurts and pain. We need an authentic, loving attitude to minister to those who have needs and hurts and pain. We need to be concerned about the least, the last and the lost. Jesus said it, didn't he? Jesus said the least shall become the greatest, the last shall become first, and the lost one day shall be found.

Let us enter into the struggle that Jesus never completed, the struggle for the children, the poor, the downtrodden, the disinherited, the dispossessed. Let us continue to struggle for the humiliated and those who are struggling to accomplish something in life. Let us continue to minister in bringing comfort to those who mourn and bring a new message of hope and deliverance to those who are captive. Let us serve those who have been pushed to the brink, those who feel no "raison d'etre," those who feel that the world is passing them by, those who have no provisions.

Let us join Ezekiel and Jesus, the ghetto dwellers, the men of all seasons, those who bore their burdens in the heat of the day. Let us carry their sorrows, let us carry their griefs. When we join Jesus and take the attitude and the spirit that Jesus and Ezekiel had we will indeed sit where others sit.

As you and I walk to and fro, we often see people who are rejected, people who have lost all hope. I am mindful of two little girls who one day walked down the street and saw a church that seemed dark, a church that had no light. As they looked at the church, a beautiful gothic building, they said to themselves, "What an ugly church this is." An old sister saw the two young ladies talking and she invited them to come in. As they were walking into the church she said, "You know, there is a reason why the church seems the way it is. It does seem dark and it does seem ugly on the outside, but you have to walk inside to see the light."

We need to see the light. We need to let the light of the Lord shine in our hearts. We need to be concerned about all of God's children.

Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
All are precious in his sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

If we can just learn to sit where others sit, what a better world this would be.

I sought my God.
But my God is a Spirit.

I sought my soul.
But my soul eluded me.

Then I sought my brother.
And I found all three -
My God, my soul, my brother and me.