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Black History Month 2025
Sermon and Study Series
Ubuntu
I am because we are, we are because I am.
“Any action that anyone in the community exhibits will impact everyone in the community.”
The focus of First Afrikan’s 2025 Black History month sermon and study series is Ubuntu. The socio-philosophical idea of ubuntu originated among the peoples of Southeast Africa. It centers a profoundly humane spiritual, moral, and ethical consciousness that encompasses all social, political and economic interactions.
Ubuntu predates the monotheistic traditions that guide and govern so much of the religious discourse, practice and understanding of people in today’s world and it precedes the bald and often vicious missionizing of the world’s three major religious traditions – Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.
Ubu refers to being. The root word in ubuntu is “ntu.” Ntu is “being itself,” it is the source from which all creation flows and without which nothing in creation can exist. In the southeast African and pre-Christian consciousness Muntu (human being), Kintu (thing), Hantu (place and time) and Kuntu (modality) are all the manifestations of Ntu. There is therefore a dynamic and integrated unity (Umoja) in all existence. In short, we (human beings) need one another as well as the climatic and environmental elements around us whether we recognize that fact or not.
Ubuntu is summed up by both testaments of the Christian faith by the words “love your neighbor as you love yourself (Leviticus 19:18; Mark 12:30-31)”. Love of self has to do with the underlying principles and experiences, thoughts and behaviors that define the self. Loving one’s neighbor is not a secondary consideration. Loving one’s neighbor is the dynamic and integrated result of self-love. One cannot love self without loving one’s neighbor nor can one love one’s neighbor without loving oneself.
This year’s Black History Month celebration will interpret the bible through the lens of Ubuntu. Our sermons and studies will examine what it means to Live in Community, Walk Together, Forgiveness, the Global Family or, the interconnectedness of all human beings.
Study: Wednesday, February 5
Theme: Justice and Ubuntu: Walking Together
Scripture Lessons:Â Micah 6:8Â &Â Luke 4:18-19
Study: Wednesday, February 12
Theme: Ubuntu in Forgiveness: Healing Through Unity
Scripture Lessons:Â Matthew 18:21-22Â &Â Colossians 3:12-14
Study: Wednesday, February 19
Theme: Ubuntu and the Body of Christ: A Global Family
Scripture Lessons:Â 1 Corinthians 12:12-27Â &Â Ephesians 4:1-6
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