Jesus and the Disinherited

Wise Guides #1: Howard Thurman

As I shared in my post, Facing the Dawn, there is beauty in the setting sun – the past chapters of our unfolding stories. Many wise sages have profoundly shaped our collective story and continue to do so. Through the Wise Guides series of posts, I will be sharing the writings of these sages. Few have impacted our nation more than author, theologian, and Christian mystic Howard Thurman.

As Dr. Martin Luther King’s mentor, Thurman had a profound impact on the Civil Rights movement. His meeting with Gandhi strengthened his commitment to non-violence, with some calling him the “moral anchor” of the Civil Rights Movement.

In a time of great social upheaval and increasing levels of injustice and discrimination, I can think of no one better to help guide us across the threshold into the dawning new day.

Come Alive

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. - Howard Thurman

Ever since I was introduced to Thurman while in seminary, my deepest desire has been “to see people come alive,” which is what makes me come alive. What I love about this quote is that it does not start with the perceived needs of the world, but with a deeper sense of calling and purpose. This deeper motivation is often absent from secular humanist views of community building and social movements, but is core to Thurman’s work.

As a coach and mentor, I get to journey alongside social innovators as they discover and bring their own dreams for their community to life. It is always awe-inspiring to watch. I launched the Walking with Wildflowers publication to try to capture these coming-alive stories – like this one from Farmville, Virginia. These tales of ordinary citizens using their gifts to bring their community dreams to life illustrate the life-giving energy that Thurman names as the Sound of the Genuine.

Sound of the Genuine

“There is in every person something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in herself (or himself.)… If you cannot hear the sound of the genuine within you, you will never find whatever it is for which you are searching, and if you hear it and then do not follow it, it was better that you had never been born…

If you cannot hear the sound of the genuine in you, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls…So the burden of what I have to say to you is, “What is your name—who are you—and can you find a way to hear the sound of the genuine in yourself?”

[The sound of the genuine] is the only true guide you will ever have and if you don’t have that you don’t have a thing. Cultivate the discipline of listening to the sound of the genuine in yourself.

Now if I hear the sound of the genuine in me, and if you hear the sound of the genuine in you, it is possible for me to go down in me and come up in you. So that when I look at myself through your eyes having made that pilgrimage, I see in me what you see in me and the wall that separates and divides will disappear and we will become one because the sound of the genuine makes the same music.”

The excerpt above, taken from Thurman’s 1980 commencement address at Spelman College, is the opening section of my book Power Shift: A Field Guide for Community Cultivators Everywhere, which is the core curriculum for my training of community cultivators. I believe this metaphor of listening for the Sound of the Genuine describes the goal of community cultivation as a spiritual practice, grounding us in the sacred mystery of genuine community. Thurman, though pastorally trained, used language in a way that makes the spiritual nature of the work accessible to all – spiritual leaders and secular ones alike, a skill few of us have mastered.

The Inward Journey

“Patiently, we seek to detach ourselves and take a long look in two dimensions - one at our lives free of our burden; the other, at our lives underneath our load. It is then that we give wings to our longings.”

“Saddle your dreams before you ride them.” It is the nature of dreams to run riot, never to wish to contain themselves within limitations that are fixed…Our dreams are our thing. They become other when we let them lose their character. Our dreams must be saddled by the hard facts of our world before we ride them off among the stars.”

“Sometimes the Voice is muted, telling of hopes unrealized and dreams that will not rest until they incarnate themselves in us - all the while we pull back, but they will not let us go.”

“We must find our place in the areas of the new vitalities, the place where the old is breaking up and the new is being born.”

“There is a loneliness of those who walk with God until the path takes them out beyond all creeds and all faiths and they know the wholeness of communion and the bliss of finally being understood.”

“We live our way deeply in the present, only to discover that we are invaded by the Eternal.”

This past summer, during my sabbatical, which followed a very dark season in my life, it was Howard Thurman’s book, The Inward Journey, that was my faithful daily companion. It offered just enough light to my path to guide me out of the darkness and toward my own dreams that would not let me go. Thurman’s words led me to a path beyond all creeds and faiths, which ultimately guided me home to the genuine within. I could write a whole series of posts on the wisdom that I found in this little, unassuming book, which spoke exactly what I needed to hear when I most needed it. His wisdom is timeless, and his mystical leanings are alluring with layers of meaning.

Jesus and the Disinherited

“Why is it that Christianity seems impotent to deal radically, and therefore effectively, with the issues of discrimination and injustice on the basis of race, religion and national origin? Is this impotency due to a betrayal of the genius of the religion, or is it due to a basic weakness in the religion itself?”

“To those who need profound succor and strength to enable them to live in the present with dignity and creativity, Christianity often has been sterile and of little avail.”

“The conventional Christian word is muffled, confused, and vague. Too often, the price exacted by society for security and respectability is that the Christian movement in its formal expression must be on the side of the strong against the weak.”

“The basic fact is that Christianity, as it was born in the mind of this Jewish teacher and thinker, appears as a technique of survival for the oppressed. That it became, through the intervening years, a religion of the powerful and the dominant, used sometimes as an instrument of oppression, must not tempt us into believing that it was thus in the mind and life of Jesus. “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” Wherever his spirit appears, the oppressed gather fresh courage; for he announced the good news that fear, hypocrisy, and hatred, the three hounds of hell that track the trail of the disinherited, need have no dominion over them.”

As powerful and impactful as these writings have been in my life and my work, I suspect that it will be Thurman’s seminal work, Jesus and the Disinherited, that will impact my work and that of the community cultivators who read it with me most profoundly in the work that lies ahead. It is described as “a profound quest for a liberating theology.” This book has been on my list of books to read for decades, but has felt far more urgent a read given the challenges facing our nation today.

An Invitation to Join in the Journey

I am inviting others to go on a journey with me through Jesus and the Disinherited, and would love to have you all join me. If there is enough interest here on Substack, I will set up a discussion group to allow us to share insights and reflections and move through the book.

I will also host a virtual discussion group for Howard Thurman enthusiasts in March for those who are interested. While the discussion will begin with a focus on Jesus and the Disinherited, I would love to explore how his other works have shaped the work of spiritual and social innovators across the globe. Participation is open to all subscribers (free and paid), and there is no fee to participate. Let me know if you are interested in the comments below.

If you would like to join the online discussion, I have created a Discussion Guide. I will be posting weekly reflection questions, and hope those of you who are interested in this discussion will add your insights, stories, and questions as we move through the text. If you are joining us a bit late, no problem, just jump in either at chapter 1 or wherever you feel led to add your voice to the discussion.

What is your favorite Howard Thurman quote, book or resource?

What wise guides of the past are you gleening wisdom from for the future?

What sage advice would you pass along to those who are seeking to come alive?

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Recommended Resources

Howard Thurman Digital Archives at Emery University, specifically his teachings on Jesus and the Disinherited

Backs Against the Wall: The Howard Thurman Story on PBS

Published Works by Howard Thurman