Michelle Obama and the Black Madonna

By Dr. Willie James Jennings

Associate Professor of Theology and Black Church Studies

Duke Divinity School

The Obama family makes history every day in this country. The most recent historical event that caught my attention was the annual public presentation of the White House at Christmas. Usually Barbara Walters or some such news celebrity visits the American royal castle with camera team in tow in order to give us a guided tour. Greeting us at the door and walking us through that starry space is normally the job of the first lady. But this year it was a different first lady and a different television celebrity. This year, Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama guided us through the White House at Christmas.

As I watched and listened to them I had such dissonance with the entire event. Here were two black women engaged in one of the most profound acts of representation, vicarious representation for the American public – presenting the White House, the house of America’s people in one of its most celebrated and intimate seasons. When Oprah and the first lady stood in front of that magnificent North Carolina Christmas tree with Michelle Obama pointing out the ornaments that came from all fifty states, I realized that Mrs. Obama was performing something breathtakingly new but also strangely familiar. She was giving witness (testimony really) to the collective reality of the America people. With every object, ornament, flower or picture she drew attention to and explained, she spoke for the many. Such speaking had always been done from that space by a white woman, but here she and Oprah Winfrey carried on a conversation with us and for us.

It is clear to me as it is with many people that as important as Barack Obama’s presidency is, Michelle Obama’s powerful presence is equally important. It is an importance beyond the operations of statecraft or that of celebrity influence, even beyond that of being the Most Fascinating Person of 2009. She now lives in a space that she is making a new kind of space, a space many different people can now imagine themselves inhabiting, imagining themselves a part of, imagining themselves considered from inside it, never forgotten. But what is strangely familiar about Michelle in the White House, her house, on Christmas is that it gestures so much like Mary the Mother of Jesus. I want to be clear here: Christmas is really about Mary and Jesus. Once you realize this, then the analogies with the scenes I am describing become overwhelming.

Mary was the unlikely one to gave witness to God in flesh. This poor young woman was the embodiment of dissonance. She carried a truth that no one would have believed in any normal circumstance. Yet here she was the bearer of God. Mary, the one most people (then and now) would believe that God was most unlike, was in fact, the very one the Son of God choose to be like. Jesus would be like his mother, obedient, willing, and loving. This is one of the reasons why so many people, especially those who are poor, get Mary. Whether Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, high church, low church, no church, they understand someone who creates a space that is safe, secure, warm, and inviting, a space that differs from a vision of a God strange, remote, perfect, demanding. I am not commending the contrast. I am only registering its on going effect.

More importantly, the images of Mary in their variety carry almost as much significance as the images of Jesus. My favorite is the one that adorns our blog. This portrait of the Black Madonna rendered by the brilliant artist Margaret Parker says so much. Not only is it beautiful but it brings so much to us.

She looks out at us with such determination, her head partly covered but exposing the beauty of her hair. Her arm and hands are clearly quite strong and her hip is positioned out just enough to support holding baby Jesus. And Jesus is at that age where he is old enough to walk and able to get into trouble or danger. So she grips him with the care and commitment of a mother protecting her child. What is also brilliant about this portrait is the space of darkness, of blackness, of the unknown. Beside Mary and Jesus is an emptiness that opens to an uncertain future. We know that future, but they do not. Yet Mary will be Jesus’ mother. She will work for him, live for him, be present for him.

This is the stage on which God will be known. God will come from a poor woman who knows what dangers and troubles may await her child and who will position her own body between that future and her baby’s life. Before Jesus will do the same positioning of his own body next to the world’s troubles, he will have the memories of his mother’s gestures on which to build. We must never forget that God choose Mary to stand in this space for the sake of God’s Son and for our sake. It is precisely this truth that presses into my mind when I listened and watched Michelle Obama gesturing in the White House at Christmas time.

So many people are facing uncertain futures right now. The mental health of many hangs in the balance, suspended between job losses, unmanageable mortgage payments, and shredding health care benefits. Mrs. Obama seems to realize that the weight of representation increases as people with dimming hopes look for beacons of light. And a large beautifully lit Christmas tree burning brightly in a familiar place is an obvious candidate for a first glance. So if you happen to see the White House Christmas tree and the first lady pointing toward it, then I invite you to look beyond that tree to another wonderful woman who faced an uncertain future and with faith in God offered to us of her own flesh, the Son of God.

Mary, Did You Know?

Merry Christmas from Black Church Studies at Duke Divinity School! This year has been one filled with triumphs and challenges, both of which have been opportunities to press us all the more deeply inside of our realities, along with Mary, as bearers of God in the world. As a gift to you, we share one of our favorite songs of the season from a rendition of Langston Hughes gospel play Black Nativity, performed by Trinity Entertainment Group: Mary, Did You Know?

Peace and Blessings until we greet again in the New Year!!

Sincerely,

Black Church Studies at Duke Divinity School

Lyrics:

Mary, did you know
That your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Did you know
That your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know
That your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered
Will soon deliver you

Mary, did you know
That your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Did you know
That your baby boy will calm a storm with His hand?
Did you know
That your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little boy
You've kissed the face of God

Mary, did you know?
The blind will see
The deaf will hear
And the dead will live again
The lame will leap
The dumb will speak
The praises of the Lamb

Mary, did you know
That your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Did you know
That your baby boy will one day rules the nations?
Did you know
That your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding
Is the Great I Am

A Black Princess

R. Kamille Williams, D'09

Co-Founder and Project Director

El Salvador Palliative Care

I went to see Disney’s The Princess and the Frog opening weekend and started crying as soon as I stepped into the cinema lobby--a reaction that caught me off-guard. My heart was filled with joy when I saw so many beautiful black princesses proudly wearing their tiaras in anticipation of seeing Disney’s first portrayal of a black princess. A new day had come, and this was certainly good news!

Given my own childhood, when the only black characters in Disney films, noted by unique accents and cultural assumptions, were portrayed as animals--Simba, Nala, Mufasa and Rafiki in The Lion King, the crows in Dumbo, or the crab Sebastian in The Little Mermaid--The Princess and the Frog is truly a remarkable moment. My own emotional response to the movie is traced by the historical reality of negative depictions of black women. From the exotic beastly savage, mammy or simpleton, to the one who is inherently angry, lascivious, a dominatrix, seductress or bad mother, just to name a few. But if these continue to be the predominant images of black women that are being displayed, what does this do to the self-esteem of little black girls?

With Princess Tiana, we see a different depiction of Black women. She is from a loving, two-parent, working-class home, is ambitious, independent and characterized as strong and resilient, even when she too has to combat issues of class and social standing. She has brown skin, and she is beautiful. Acknowledging her presence on-screen acknowledges her presence in little girls, and in the lives of women in real world. Acknowledging her presses us into something bigger than ourselves.

In The Princess and the Frog Disney went back to the old fairytale formula of wishing upon stars, magical spells, killing off a parent, good overcoming evil, and dreams coming true in the end. However, I want to invite us to look at Princess Tiana’s story through a different lens. During this advent season, I am reminded of how Jesus’ own humble beginnings enabled him to sympathize with the marginalized of the world, thus enabling us to see those that are most often ignored or stepped over. Jesus acknowledged these people. Jesus saw them.

In the beginning of the movie, Tiana wishes upon a star for her dream of opening a restaurant to come true. This was her prayer. After finally saving enough money for the down payment on the space where she desired to start her business, she lifts up a song with the lyrics “I’m almost there.” Sadly, she is outbid and ends up losing all of the money she has worked for years to save, dismissed by the realtors because of her social class. A serious of events follows wherein she is turned into a frog, and forced to face great peril to fight for her dream.

Tiana’s singing these words reminded me of the woman with the issue of blood in Luke 8. For twelve years she had been ignored and disregarded due to her medical condition. She spent all of her money on physicians who did not help her. Yet, when she heard that Jesus was coming through she came out of her isolation and pressed her way through the throngs knowing that he would be the source of her healing. Because of her status as being unclean, it took incredible courage to enter the crowd gathered around Jesus. By touching other people, alone, she was violating the laws of purity (Leviticus 15: 25-28). And to make matters worse, she had the audacity to touch a holy man! I imagine while pressing her way to Jesus, she must have been stepped on and shoved around. But I believe she told herself, “I’ve got to keep going! I’m almost there!”

When she finally reaches her goal, Jesus asks who touched him. She had to have been terrified and was probably wondering how in the world this man had felt her touch out of all of these people. But there was something different in her touch. It was a touch of faith. That is why Jesus acknowledged her! This woman had nothing to lose but everything to gain. The scripture does not tell us this woman’s name, however when Jesus acknowledges her he refers to her as “daughter,” recognizing her as the child of God and rightful heiress of Abraham that she is. Jesus saw her and acknowledged her humanity! She pressed her way to Jesus and got that which she had come for and so much more. Just as Tiana, after having lost everything, pressed her way through the Louisiana swamps as a frog and ended up gaining more than she bargained for. She regained her humanity and became royalty!

Jesus makes the invisible visible. Jesus was the one that acknowledged all people as the children of God that they are. Though fictional characters, we must acknowledge the Precious’ and Tiana’s of the world as daughters of Abraham that have been created in the image of God. This Advent season, let us not forget about the marginalized of society. Let us not forget about the 17 million women ages 15-49 that are living with HIV/AIDS, those who are suffering from domestic violence, the 500,000 – 2 million women and children that are being sexually trafficked, and the people that have been non-combatant casualties of war. Let us not forget about all people in the margins of the world. Let us take time to not only see them, but acknowledge and embrace them so that we may truly be participants in Jesus’ ministry.

Anticipation: A Hope For The Present

By Gail Song Bantum, D'09
Worship Leader and Speaker
Seattle, Washington

As the song goes, “it’s the most wonderful time of the year…it’s the hap - happiest season of all!” but is it? For some, it may be a dreaded and amplified season of a growing to do list. For others, it may be a burden, be it financial, familial, and/or social. And yet for others, it may just be a relief that the year is almost over in hopes of a better one to come.

However, as we continue in the season of Advent, we are reminded of an anticipation that calls forth rejoicing--rejoicing in the knowledge that this Christ we wait for is indeed coming. So often, we spend much of our time anticipating this or that that we fail to live into the present moments. We are constantly consumed by the to do’s that we do not know what it means to be. We are so focused on what is to come that we lose sight of what is. What is, is the reality that Christ has already come, has come as us and for us. For Christians, Advent is a season of anticipation that allows us to fully live into the already. It is not a hope that is marked by angst or uncertainty. Rather, I like to think that we are invited to participate more as midwives than visitors in the birth of our Christ. It is an active call to be present and rejoicing at every stage of the way --in the news of conception, in the stretching of the skin, in the false alarms of labor, in the intensity of pushing, and yes, in the cheesy and mangled mess that a newborn really is. We have been invited into such a life of participation, embracing the gift of the present moments in hopes of what is to come.

Children are great at this. While my children know that Advent and Christmas are about Jesus’ birth and the celebration of Christ being present with us, there is something special about this season that draws out a particular kind of joy in them. The sheer excitement that they possess during the month of December is contagious and convicting all at the same time. The joys that they find in the little things like twinkling lights, mesmerizing Christmas villages, the many snowflakes folded and cut out on the windows and hung from the ceiling, their turn lighting the Advent candle, their cup of hot chocolate, and yes, the hourly chime of the Christmas clock is an anticipation that is marked by the embracing of the present moment. For children Christmas is something that is happening to them. Their excitement is participatory.

Children often offer us glimpses of pure joy and anticipation in ways that our tired and marred hearts sometimes fail to see. Such joy is a gift. While anticipation is marked by rhythms of momentum and energy in our lives that keep us hoping and looking forward, the beauty in such anticipation is that it allows freedom to enjoy and embrace the now. It is only when we choose to live into the seemingly small joys of being alive, of friendships, of laughter, of provision, of days off, or whatever it may be, that we are able to anticipate, live into and hope in what is to come.

I pray that our lives would always be pregnant with such anticipation and hope…. not an aimless hope but a hope that is found in a God who creates, breathes and forms our inmost being. May our hope participate in the gift of Christ and in the lives of one another. In this season of busy unrest, find joy in the little things – in the laughter of your child, in the love of your friends, in the smell of your tea, or in the rhythm of your favorite song.

Be full of hope and know that everyday is a gift.

Gail Song Bantum, M.Div, is a 2009 graduate of Duke Divinity school. A well-known worship leader and advocate for the arts, you can find her theology and arts blog at http://gailsongbantum.wordpress.com