During Holy Week we talk a lot about the passion of Jesus and rightfully so. From his triumphal entry into Jerusalem to being disallowed by his own disciples to the beatings, the sham trial, and his ordeal on the cross there is much to talk about. Ultimately what’s to talk about is the salvation that the passion of Christ brings to each of us.
Isaiah 49:7 reminds us that the Lord who is faithful has chosen you and, in the salvation, provided by the passion of Christ you have been chosen to spread the Gospel. Eugene Peterson in his Message translation of Isaiah 49 interpreters Isaiah saying, “I’m setting you up as a light for the nations so that my salvation becomes global!”
God is telling us that it is just not enough for you and me to saved. For the passion of Jesus to be complete, we who are saved must spread the Gospel to others.
Born in North Carolina and raised partly in Virginia Colandus Francis escaped the ravages of the Jim Crow south. Finding prosperity as an electronics and computer technician for the US Postal Service in Camden, New Jersey. He could have easily lived the comfortable life his work and status provided. But Kelly as he was known was called to activism.
Without fear or favor from prison reform to environmental justice and everything else in between Kelly Francis who died last week at age 87 was always on the right side of the issue making good trouble long before good trouble became popular.
Kelly Francis lived out the Isaiah 49:7 call not for us to simply have salvation for ourselves but to bring salvation to others. Kelly Francis embodied being a light for the nations so that the salvation that he enjoyed may come to pass for others.
No Kelly Francis was not perfect, he could be difficult and many times was misunderstood – but what Colandus Francis was is a man who was called a man who was called to share the salvation he obtained for others.
And for that, there can be no higher calling.
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