Matthew 17:20 Faith of a mustard seed
I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Rosa Parks – Mustard Seed Faith
Friday night, our own Juanita Ashe played the part of Rosa Parks in a one-person play.
Rosa Lee Parks was born in Tuskegee, the state of Alabama was rigidly segregated. But her mother, a believer in equality and justice, told the young Rosa about her grandfather, Sylvester Edwards, who had defied racism, and encouraged her to do the same. Determined that her daughter would be well educated, she also sent Rosa to Miss White’s school for girls. In this era, educated black girls could work either as clerks or seamstresses and Rosa Parks became skilled in the latter.
Parks, was married, respectable, quiet and dignified. She understood local politics and, moreover, had been encouraged by a white civil rights campaigner Virginia Durr, whose husband acted as a lawyer for the NAACP, to attend the Tennessee Highlander Folk school which taught courses on how to resist segregation.
Parks left Montgomery Fair, the department store where she did repairs on men’s clothing, as usual on December 1. It was true that she was tired after work and pain in her shoulders, back and neck was troubling her. By chance the bus driver happened to be the very man who had forced her off the bus back in 1943. She did not, as myth would have it, sit in the whites-only front part, but sat beside a black man at the back. As more white people got on the driver told her to give up her seat. She refused. “If you don’t stand up, I’m going to call the police,” he threatened. To which she replied, “You may do that.”
Ninety-eight per cent of Montgomery’s black citizens participated in the boycott which lasted for 381 days. Nearly 100 people were arrested, including Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. The boycott spread to Tallahassee that May.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in December 1956 that segregated seats on city buses were unconstitutional, giving momentum to the U.S. civil rights battle against laws that separated the races in public accommodations and businesses throughout the South.
A great victory had been won. But Parks was sacked from her tailoring job. Her husband Raymond was removed from his job. Parks and her husband Raymond were exposed to harassment and death threats in Montgomery. in 1957 left Montgomery for Detroit, following harassment.
Oct. 24, 2004, Rosa Parks finished her 92 years of life in Detroit. She was given a great honor – her casket was placed for a few days in the middle (rotunda) of the US Capitol building, where thousands of people walked by to pay their respects and say good-bye.
Why? Because Rosa Parks – took her mustard seed of faith and acted on her faith. She took a step on faith. The faith of a mustard seed – one woman with a simple act of resistance – grew into a civil rights movement that resulted in voting rights for African-Americans.
What will God do with your faith. All you need is a tiny bit faith – but if you will act on your faith – trust God’s promises – God will come to your aid and increase your faith to the size of Rosa Parks.
One Senator said this about Rosa Parks:
“The woman we honored today held no public office, she wasn’t a wealthy woman, didn’t appear in the society pages, and yet when the history of this country is written, it is this small, quiet woman whose name will be remembered long after the names of senators and presidents have been forgotten.”
– Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill
Do you believe that God loves you and wants only what is best for you? Then do what God says to do. Keep God’s laws.
What will God do with your faith? Do you believe that God will hear prayers and come to your side? Then pray.