Many have enjoyed the speeches S. Davis has shared with us in the past; now you will have the opportunity to view them in their entirety!

Speech by Sylvester Davis presented at
The Feast of Saint Margaret Of Scotland 11/15/08

We are gathered here tonight to dine and dance in celebration of the feast of our patron saint, St. Margaret of Scotland and additionally our politician saint of Chicago, President-elect Barack Hussein Obama.

Margaret married Malcolm III, King of Scotland and became his Queen consort. She was the granddaughter of Edmund Ironside, King of English. Her father was the English prince, Edward the Exile. She was born in the provenance of her mother, Agatha, a Hungarian princess. Later her family relocated to the English Isle.

Obama’s early residences were on islands also. He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to a white American anthropologist mother and a black African economist father. His parents divorced after two years of marriage. Six years later his mother remarried and moved him to Jakarta, a city located on the northwestern coast of Java Island of Indonesia. Barack has stated that he was molded by the absence of his father. History suggests that possibly Margaret was too.

When the Normans conquered England after the death of Margaret’s uncle, Edward the Confessor, the French-speaking King of England, her brother, Edgar Etheling made claim to the vacant throne. To save their lives, the widowed Agatha left England with her children to return to Hungary. Their ship was driven off course to Scotland. There they sought the protection of King Malcolm III. The spot where her ship landed became known as St. Margaret’s Hope. Malcolm, a widower, was magnetized by the likelihood of marrying one of the few remaining members of the Anglo-Saxon royal family. The marriage of Malcolm and Margaret soon took place. Promptly the Scottish king lead several attacks on England in support of his brother-in-law Edgar’s petition for the throne. Beyond devastating the borderlands those invasions had no effect.

Margaret was so serious a soul no one could recall ever seeing her laugh or smile.
In spite of his seriousness, Barack Obama like his Vice-President-elect Joe Biden have large laughs. Contrary to John McCain, Obama and Biden both have big smiles showing big white teeth. John’s lips are tight not allowing any teeth to show when he smiles a small smirk. There is a sense of sincerity, sensitivity and sympathy in a healthy happy smile. If your lips are tight even when you smile maybe you are uptight.

Year two thousand at a campaign coffee convergence held at Marva Floyd’s house we were introduced to a up and coming public servant named Barack Obama. All participants present were quite moved. Approximately a year later I arrived at the barbershop late to get a fade near the time the shop was closing. Obama was in one chair getting a cut. My barber was sitting in his chair waiting for me. There were only four of us there. We talked. We slung masculine mud and articulated about things gentlemen find musing. We were impressed. Two thousand four we, the American public, saw him give his powerful keynote address at the Democratic Convention. The country was inspired. The political party was revitalized.

On account of her personal holiness and faithfulness to the church Pope Innocent IV canonized Margaret. She personally serve orphans and the poor every day before she herself ate, and would rise at midnight to attend church services every night with prisoners her husband impounded during the day. Under Queen Margaret’s leadership the Rite of the Celebration of the Mass was standardized, the language of the Mass was changed from many Gaelic dialects spoken throughout Scotland to the unifying Latin, the Scots started receiving Communion regularly, and the observance of Lent was promoted.

In closing, we are here to dine and dance in celebration of the lives of two saints, both who are historical, one who is late and one who is early. Two saints exercising their faith and addressing proletarian needs and issues, principles that produce people of power, our late patron saint, St. Margaret of Scotland and our living political saint, President-elect Barack Hussein Obama of Chicago.

Enjoy the feast.

Sylvester Davis, Jr.

Many have enjoyed the speeches S. Davis has shared with us in the past; now you will have the opportunity to view them in their entirety! 

Speech Title:    We Are Family Sunday     Presented on:   July 27, 2008

Good morning, Church.

Family.

Children of God.

The word family comes from Middle English famile, from Latin familia meaning household, from famulus meaning servant. Therefore the basic family unit is a group of individuals living under one roof, under one head of the household serving one another for maintaining cohesive existence.

Family: 1 a social group usually consisting of one or two parents and their children.
Family: 2 a group of persons of common ancestry: CLAN
Family: 3 a group of relatives ranking in biological classification above a genus and below an order.
All of us belong to one form of family and for some several forms or at least a surrogate.
Point being: We are family.

Apart from names used that make this speech specific to my family, our chronicle is your history too. Overlook our names; instead look at the branches of the family tree they represent on the genealogical diagram and/or substitute surnames and Christian names used in your family for them. That will specify what I say just as fitting for you and your bloodline.

Seeds of Cary and Fannie Ross Williams still stand. Under many names we have survived. Names such as Cunningham, Davis, Ewing, Green, Johnson, Montgomery, Morgan, Redd, Redmond, Tate, Taylor, Walker, and White, and of course Williams. If it smells like a rose, have velvet petals, and thorns; even if it is planted in a samenella tomato patch, it is a rose. So whatever your name is if the blood that flows in your veins is a mixture of the blood that flowed in Cary Williams and Fannie Ross Warr’s veins, you are family.

It was God’s will that woke us up this morning. Allah’s will that reunited us. Jehovah’s will that we know whose we are and who we are. We are people of the Holy Spirit that belong to the Supreme Being. We are children of our Father in Heaven who worship the Merciful Lord of Lords. We give the praise to the Man Upstairs. We are parents, grandparents, siblings, half-siblings, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces; first, second and third cousins; in-laws, out-laws, blessed, wronged, right, left, left out, the good, the bad, the bold, the restless, the beautiful and the ugly. We are all things. According to our Creator’s will, we are family.

We know that neither our beginning of earthy life nor our never ending life in death, neither the protection of angels nor our deflection from righteousness to the ways of demons; neither our past, our present, or our prospect of a future, nor any powers, neither high ranked nor down low, nor anything else yet to be devised for testing us in life will be able to separate us from the love we have for each other and share from God that is in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The common connection of any family, those from whom the rest was spawn, is like the mustard seed in the first parable. The art of meditating on Scripture involves using one’s imagination. Rather than simply reading a passage, we must read it, close our eyes, and visualize the scene, perhaps even putting ourselves in the picture. A man took a tiny seed and planted it in his field. Though it was the smallest of all seeds, when it grew, it was the largest of garden plants. It became a tree. Birds perched on its branches.

Start with Cary Williams and his wife, Fannie because before them there was poor or inadequate record keeping and unfounded documentation for earlier forefathers. This is how far any living relative can relate back to. Also they are whom my dearly departed mother, other relatives resting in peace and members of her generation many who are now senile reminisced about. We dug deep. This is where we stopped digging and began tracing the roots of our ancestral tree.

Cary Williams like many colored men living in the south during the turn of the twentieth century was a farmer learned in the art and science of producing. He and Fannie planted the small seed that grew roots that embedded in earth to provide anchorage for the biomass aboveground. Together, they are our nucleus, symbolizing the trunk of the tree. Fruits of their labor grew nine branches from the truck. Seven of the initial nine limbs produced another generation of fourteen offshoots. The next generation begat forty-eight additional branches. With each new generation, more appendages appear, the tree grows taller, wider and stronger. Today we are assembled to celebrate that family tree and thank God for our source.

Tree roots help hinder soil erosion. Potent family roots pilot you to the path to save your soul. Water and minerals are supplied from the ground through roots. A nourishing family rooted in morals and identity underwrites these values for its individuals. Roots support a tree much like a foundation supports a structure. Family members serve as foundation for and encourage each other. Tree leaves absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen into the air. Oxygen is needed to sustain energy. Being related is in and or itself an energizing experience not to be taken for granted.

As birds and bees transplant our seeds from place to place family trees branch out all around the world. We are scattered all over these United States and other sovereign states too. Some seeds spread like wings for flying in the wind. An amount has spines and hooks. They catch onto animal’s fur to be carried. Others can float or sail. Some are rolling stones reeling until they stop. Still they are our seed: We have the same DNA.

Pray silently for the souls of deceased descendants. Plead that family members missed who no one has seen for decades be kept safe wherever they are. Petition that family members no one has never seen or know exist are also kept safe wherever they are. Appeal that treasures hidden in kinfolk be revealed and you have the disposition to recognize them and the consciousness to be enlightened. Acquaint yourself to your clansmen for mutual benefit and friendliness. Honor; respect your flesh and blood, everyone including those distance from you by age and area.

Less than often, relatives do not anticipate deliberated deception from another relative. However, the parable of Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel is in the bible for a reason. Be wise, watch for the wicked wit of the likes of Laban. Hence, less guarded sharp dealing with kin without wisdom to avoid that description of deceit, that style of subterfuge is hurtful, greater than hoax from an unrelated rogue. Point being: We are family.

Felix Adler, an accomplished American screenwriter who wrote for The Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy as well as Abbot and Costello, wrote a sober statement defining family and its worth. His one serious and wise crack read and I quote: The miniature commonwealth upon whose integrity the safety of the higher commonwealth depends.

Put focus on the societal family unit, that group consisting of one or two parents and their children. Close your eyes. Get your meditation on. Use your imagination. Place yourself in this picture. Visualize living in conformity with classic Christian customs. The position and authority of the father as head of the household are categorically presupposed and sanctioned in Scripture, as a likeness of that of the Almighty over his creatures. Of course it lies at the root of so-called patriarchal government. A father’s blessing was regarded as conferring special service not malicious disservice, on those on whom it fell, and so also the sin of a parent was held to affect, in certain cases, the welfare of his descendants. The command to honor parents was a distinct promise and Christian law condemned disrespect towards them as one of the worst of crimes. It is to this well-recognized theory of parental authority and supremacy that the very various uses of the term “Fathers” in scared writings are due. The word “Fathers” is used in the sense of seniors, and for parents in general, or ancestors. Mother, the symbolic second was over household systems and legislation of strong morals. If she is single she is father and mother. Open your eyes. We cannot afford to slight, misinterpret or misunderstand Bill Cosby or Senator Barack Obama’s comments concerning fathers’ absence from their family.

With that said, allow me to paraphrase Adler’s quotation to present it as a direct approach to our present problems: Reappearance of men in and responsible for their families as defined by Our Father in Heaven can raise the caliber of their children and make for saved and productive parents and them children better citizens. Therefore better family begets better community; better communities beget better cities. It goes on and on like a snowball slowly rolling down a slight slope, growing as it rides, better cities beget better counties; better states beget better statesmen. Consequently causing a splendid society to emerge, rise like yeast, to establish an electorate for selecting skillful principled politicians. Vote for your family. Family, always take it to the Lord in pray and praise.

Children, glorify God.

Good afternoon church, Amen.
Sylvester Davis, Jr.