HOUSTON — George Floyd's funeral service in Houston lasted more than four hours on Tuesday. The program was packed with Gospel music, prayer and reflection.
Rev. William Lawson, the Pastor Emeritus of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, spent more than 10 minutes detailing what Floyd's life and death mean for the world.
Here's what he shared.
"I’m glad to know, in his last moment of breath, he called for his mother. And that means something. And that means something about who he was. He came up in a family that was close and that loved each other.
"I heard from people who knew him as a student, a fellow student, an athlete. And heard that he was also a team player. And finally, he was a person who knew the Lord. And who believed in Him. And who trusted Him.
"People have been wondering whether or not this is going to be like other movements.
"I came to this city in 1955, which was the year that the body of Emmett Till was found in a body of water in Mississippi. The same year that Rosa Parks refused to give us the back seat on the bus. And it was that year that I came to Houston.
"Since that time I have seen any number of struggles against racism. And they have all ended up with relatively little outcome.
"So the question is valid. It’s a reasonable question. 'Is this going to be just like so many other movements? A moment of anger and rage and then back to business as usual?' You could say that. Because the prejudice and the bigoted are not going to change. But we can do some things to change them. And that’s what I hope we will do.
"First of all, we can make sure that we don’t stop the fight. That we stay with it. And that we make sure that somebody knows that we are not going to stand for this to keep ongoing.
"Obviously the first thing we have to do is to clean out the White House. That has to come closer to us than Washington. Our states and counties and cities have to have good leadership. And that means that we have to go and vote.
"But you know, a young man from humble beginnings can change the world. How do I know that? Partly because George Floyd came from humble beginnings. And now, as many speakers have said, everybody on Earth knows who George Floyd is.
"No rank or title. He was a man who came from humble beginnings. But God has done some things, even through this tragedy, that has let the world know about Big Floyd. Big George.
"You know, there was a man who was humble. ... You could say Cuney Homes, but it was a stable in Nazareth. And that man didn’t have a home. And his wife was about to have a baby. And since he didn’t have a home, there was no bed for her to have that baby in. But in that stable, there was a manger and he went to that manger and that manger gave forth a baby. And that baby didn’t have any title either. He lived at a time when the Roman government was making it very hard for Jews. And He was murdered, legally. But He was murdered. And the interesting thing is, that from that death comes our churches. And as we take the Lord’s supper, ever how often we do that, we remember His flesh and His blood.
"And how long are we going to say, 'I can’t breathe?' But now, as I look at marches all over the world, protests filling up the streets. And back in the days, when I used to be a part of marches, all the marchers were black. But now, there are white people who know the story and there are Hispanics who know the story and there are Asians who know the story. Today, there are preachers back there. And there is at least one Muslim minister who is here. I brought with me a Jewish fellow.
"And all the cultures, all the races throughout the world. All the nations throughout the world. All the continents throughout the world, they know the name of this man who was born in a stable, in a manger.
"And so, you can raise the question, 'can any good thing come out of a tragedy like this?' We’ve lost a loved one and the pain is almost unbearable. What good can come out of that? Well, out of the murder of a man on a cross has come a movement, worldwide. And every Imam from the Muslim faith, every preacher from the Christian church, every Rabbi from the Jewish religion, all of us know the name of George Floyd.
"And we know the name because of a death. You think something good can’t come out of this? His death did not simply start a bunch of good speeches, a bunch of tributes. Out of his death has come a movement. A worldwide movement.
"And that movement is not going to stop after two weeks, three weeks. A month. That movement is going to change the world. Which means that this boy born in a manger, born in a stable like Cuney Homes, born in a situation where he lived in a ghetto, lived in the hood, Third Ward.
"This boy is going to bring forth a demand for better government, for better policing. He is going to bring forth a demand, a multi-cultural, multi-national, worldwide demand for change. My hope is, that we will stay behind that demand. Everybody will be concerned about it continuing. At least people from the hood will be concerned about it continuing.
"It will not end with this boy’s death. This shall continue so that this movement will transform this corrupt world. Praise God for George Floyd."
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