Up to the Mountain
I am not sure I ever have a thought completed until I write about it. I keep thinking and writing about Martin Luther King I am not finished.
If you want to make America great, make America what it ought to be.
This is such an encouraging and challenging message to keep on standing for truth, justice, righteousness, and love in obedience to God.
Martin Luther King — “But if Not” — Biblical case for non-violent civil disobedience — obeying God over men.
A study of Daniel and his defiance, in faith, and with respect, of the decree of King Nebuchadnezzar which, though lawful, defied God’s moral law.
“God grant that we will never bow before the gods of evil.”
Be faithful and God will watch over you.
Another take away, based on Job: Do I have an “if faith,” or a “though faith?”
Remembering MLK
I celebrate M.L. King Day every year like, to some extent, I celebrate the liberation struggle of every oppressed people through history and today. At one time or another, we are all the oppressed or we may be the oppressor. Our task is always to align ourselves where God is aligned, with the oppressed. We are called to be the voice of Moses in every generation whether we are among the “privileged” or whether we, like Fannie Lou Hamer are just “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” It is never about one man or one voice or one people. It is about all of us and, for me, it is about following Jesus.
Another great speech on this day of remembrance is Dr. King’s last:
“If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
That is the key question.
If you want to make America great, make America what it ought to be.
If you are looking for a great speech to hear today, here is one:
Who Is My Neighbor?
Read the Transcript here: https://pastortomsims.typepad.com/the_dream_factory/2024/01/who-is-my-neighbor-with-transcript-of-mlks-last-speech.html?
Justice Rolling Down
“But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” — Amos 5:24
It is as if Amos were here with us today. His words sing out the song of “judgment” or “justice.” It is a strong word for what happens in a community or a nation when God works through people and leaders to set wrongs right and to create a society of fairness, equity, and compassion.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached with such a calling to leaders and vision for the future. Echoing the words of Amos, the prophet, he portrayed God’s judgment as refreshing and cleansing.
And so it is.
As of this writing, the author of this essay has no idea who, in your time, is about to be inaugurated the next President of the United States. What he does know is that Amos 5:24 is the highest calling for his leadership of this nation.
He also knows that without your prayers and encouragement, the task is too awful and daunting for any man or woman. However, as he leads a people who pray for, work for, and long for justice, truth, and righteousness, his leadership will be like that of Dr. King who called himself nothing more than a “drum major for justice.”
Let us encourage that in all our leaders by walking in step with the rhythm of truth and swaying to the sweet song of a compassionate society, rooted in God’s call and founded upon the law of love that Jesus taught us.
The Strength Behind a Movement
As a preacher, I would say that there are two ways to know me.
Listen to my sermons.
Watch my life.
See where they agree and forget the resume and the introductions. I am who I am at the intersection of my preaching and my living.
That is how it was with Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Junior is important because, Daddy/Pastor Martin Luther King, Senior was such a vital part of the mix that made MLK Jr. He too, was a powerful preacher who lived what he preached.
“Strength to Love” is a book of ML Jr.’s sermons that provide us with a glimpse into the heart and mind of one of the greatest men of the twentieth century.
Martin Luther King was 39 when he died.
My oldest son is 40 at the time I write this in 2023.
39 years old.
That is all. I am always in awe of how much he did in such a short time.
It is amazing.
By that time, the whole world new his name. He was a Nobel Peace Prize winner. He had set a movement in motion that would change history.
He was already my hero.
That sentiment has grown as I have grown older. His humanity, his motivation, his depth, his sacrifice, even his flaws have all reinforced his greatness in my mind.
I love Dr. King because of his intellect, faith, imperfections, vulnerability, sensitivity, consistency, and commitment to a cause greater than himself.
I love Dr. King as a follower of Jesus, as a fellow pastor, and as a man who struggled with the meaning of his times in the light of theological realities.
I honor Dr. King as an overcomer who believed that all unmerited suffering was redemptive.
I honor and love him because at the core of his philosophy was a rugged theology of and commitment to love.
I honor and love Dr. King because he demonstrated that peaceful resistance to evil can be more powerful than violence or force.
He lived out that dimension of Jesus’ example meeting external strength with inner strength, accepting the consequences of taking a stand, and offering one’s life in the service of God and others.
We live in an era when it is respectable to honor Martin King, but everything he taught and demonstrated is up for grabs. We are drifting into the very old notion that only force can accomplish good and that the only security we can know is that of worldly power.
But that kind of power shifts, waxes, wanes, and changes hands. The strength Dr. King knew and demonstrated was this: the strength to love.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a human being, flawed like the rest of us, sometimes troubled, but overcoming in every attitude and action. He was playful and fun-loving and found joy in sorrow and in the work to which he had reportedly been reluctantly called.
In the end he said, “I just want to do God’s will.” It was as if he saw his own death.
His dream became the dream for a generation to come after him. It was not so important for him to go to the promised land because he saw it. It became a promised land for all people.
It was all wrapped in his theology and his theology was wrapped in love.
It is a good thing that we pause today to reflect upon this great American life, this Christian life, because what he dreamed and lived has significance for all of us.
His legacy has freed many of us in ways we do not even realize.
My ancestors were never slaves to white masters or to racist public policy. But mine were slaves to the institution of slavery and the attitudes of racism, to hatred, bigotry, and perversion of the gospel of Jesus.
Martin Luther King set us free as well.
Praying Over the Bible
“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. “ Psalm 119:18
Before you read, pray.
This grand and simple prayer is an expression of expectation and faith. Our level of discovery in scripture will seldom exceed our level of expectation.
It is seekers who find according to Jesus.
David expected wonderful things from the law of God. He, in turn, found wonders beyond anything he could have dreamed.
Dr. Martin Luther King said,
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
Dr. King, approached the scriptures to be instructed and informed. As he formed his philosophy of non-violence from the example and teaching of Jesus, so we must be willing to be shaped and molded by words we have never read along staircases of truth we have never traveled.
Dr. King also said on the night before his death,
“I just want to do God’s will”
In the same way, we must approach God’s Word in search of His will with a desire to receive it and do it whatever it may command.
Dr. King once wrote,
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
Much worse is willful ignorance and arrogant stupidity. Our prayer over scripture and our reading of the same must not be arrogant and all-knowing. We come to God for instruction and apart from that instruction, we remain willfully ignorant.
We must come humbly, willingly, and prayerfully.
The psalmist speaks of his own longing for God’s Word in verse 20 and of God’s rebuke for the arrogant who think they already know it all in verse 21.
“My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.
Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments.”
In verse 24 he speaks of God’s laws as his counselors. Because that is so true, we bow before God before we even open his Word, asking that He guide us and teach us.
Martin Luther King, whose birthday we commemorated this week, is but one example of what God can do through the life of a person who comes prayerfully to the scriptures for instruction and enlightenment.
Politician and Prophet
Martin Luther King taught us the difference between a politician and a prophet.
A politician is pretty careful not to go against his/her allies.
A prophet will speak truth to power even if the powerful are his/her friends or allies on some other issue.
And a prophet will do it in love.
— — — — — — — — — — — -
The fact that we have not heard something does not prove that it has not been said and said often. It simply means that
- it has not been said to you, in your presence, or when you were listening,
- it has been said on a “channel” you are not tuned to,
- it has been drowned out by other voices including those who say it has not been said, or
- it has not been considered sensational enough to report and be re-tweeted.
So, in case any of those are the case:
- Peaceful, orderly, non-violent protests are as American as apple pie and peanut butter, acceptable, commendable, and often necessary for maintaining our freedoms.
- Violence and destruction are never acceptable and not in the tradition of the great leaders of the American civil rights movements or of Dr. Martin Luther King and others who took beatings but never gave beating.
That being said, let us act as conscience and truth dictate and stand for what it right, while loving and respecting each other as people made in the image of God.
Conflicting Statements?
Are these conflicting statements?
“He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword?”
“I came not to bring peace, but a sword.”
“Blessed are the peacemakers….”
I think not.
Martin Luther King Jr., theologically and Gandhi, philosophically, embraced the ethic of non-violence as a lifestyle and means of social change.
Jesus meant it.
King demonstrated what it meant to bring a sword to the party … but it was not King bringing the sword in hand to use against others.
Nor was it Gandhi.
Nor was it Jesus.
People said, in my day, of King, that whenever he had marches, there was violence, implying that he caused the violence.
He did not cause it; he responded to the daily violence being inflicted on humanity. He confronted and condemned it.
But it followed him and Gandhi and Jesus.
So … they “brought swords” not of their own nor for their use … but to be used against them.
One need not shy away from the label of a Christian pacifist and non-violent resister of injustice because of the sword quotes of Jesus.
One must respond as Jesus did — to resist the evil, but not the edge of the sword.
And King did not just stand for the abuse, but, like Jesus, moved toward it ….
And led the way for each of us …
to resist evil even at the cost of our own blood.
That is how we become peacemakers in a world of violence and injustice.
Do Justice
Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God — a favorite life verse of mine with a fresh bluegrass interpretation that you’ll love and sing and an even fresher insight from verse 1:
What if we live in an environment where pride, arrogance, and chauvinism blunt the force of the prophetic and compassion message of God to a people who are very religious but have forgotten from whence they have come (the house of slavery)? He gives two admonitions:
1. Keep proclaiming the message if only the mountains and hills will listen — faithfully proclaim.
2. Practice the message yourself : “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God …”
Micah 6:1–8
“Hear what the LORD says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel. “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the LORD.” “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
The American Dream for All
Langston Hughes said it with compelling insight. The American Dream is a great dream, but the dream is only worth its full weight if it is available to all to pursue and all are encouraged to pursue it.
The dream is bigger than the dreamers or the founders or any who have ever pursued it or expressed it. It is bigger than all of us … and it is a great dream.
“O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath — America will be! Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain — All, all the stretch of these great green states — And make America again!”
Sometimes I have more to say when I reflect on the memory of one of my greatest heroes, Martin Luther King, Jr.
I love Dr. King because of his intellect, faith, imperfections, vulnerability, sensitivity, consistency, and commitment to a cause greater than himself.
I love Dr. King as a fellow believer and brother in Jesus Christ, as a fellow pastor, and as a man who struggled with the meaning of his times in the light of theological realities.
I honor Dr. King as an overcomer who believed that all unmerited suffering was redemptive.
I honor and love him because at the core of his philosophy was a rugged theology of and commitment to love.
I honor and love Dr. King because he demonstrated that peaceful resistance to evil can be more powerful than violence or force.
He lived out that dimension of Jesus’ example meeting external strength with inner strength, accepting the consequences of taking a stand, and offering one’s life in the service of God and others.
We live in an era when it is respectable to honor Martin King, but everything he taught and demonstrated is up for grabs. We are drifting into the very old notion that only force can accomplish good and that the only security we can know is that of worldly power.
But that kind of power shifts, waxes, wanes, and changes hands. The strength Dr. King knew and demonstrated was the strength to love.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a human being, flawed, sometimes troubled, but overcoming in every attitude and action. He was playful and fun-loving and found joy in sorrow and in the work to which he had reportedly been reluctantly called.
In the end he said, “I just want to do God’s will.” As if he saw his own death, his dream became the dream for a generation to come after him. It was not so important for him to go to the promised land because he saw it. It became a promised land for all people.
It is a good thing that we pause today to reflect upon this great American life, this Christian life, because what he dreamed and lived has significance for all of us. His legacy has freed many of us in ways we do not even realize.
The Night that RFK Announced the Death of MLK
I was just browsing, looking for that quote from Aeschylus
on the awful grace of God. Naturally, most links were to Bobby Kennedy’s speech on that terrible night in 1968 when he had to inform the gathered crowd of the death of Martin Luther King, whose holiday is coming soon. He was advised not to attend the rally for fear of violence. He went anyway. As we near the observance of Dr. King’s birthday and commemorate his life, I think Kennedy’s words offer and fitting tribute and reminder. I think that at this very time, with so much tension and violence in the world, these are two voices that must be heard.
What Aeschylus said was, “He who learns must suffer, and, even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.”
He wrote these some 525 years before the birth of Jesus. He was the father of Greek tragedy and, in play, “Seven Against Thebes,” laid the burden of human evil at the feet of human beings. Acts of wickedness, he suggested, arise from ambition, greed, and human frailty. Human beings are responsible for their own behaviors. Some lead to great suffering, but there is more meaning to suffering than the laws of consequences.
Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King both taught the world that practical wisdom, forged in suffering, can and does result in justice, righteousness, and equity. Both showed us, as well, how powerful movements for justice and peace can arise from the suffering of those who choose to face it with dignity.
King once said that all unmerited suffering is redemptive.
That is the social backdrop for this reminder of a very personal truth. The ancient words of Aeschylus both haunt and heal the soul. They had spoken to Kennedy in his hour of deepest grief. They speak to us today with penetrating insight into the nature of our humanity and the loving kindness of a God who shapes us through adversity.
Aeschylus, the playwright had wrestled with reality and had come to a conclusion that could not be accounted for by his culture or religious setting. We don’t want this blessing, but God finds a way to deliver it to us. Wisdom, the kind that makes a difference in the world, the kind that makes a difference in us, is a gift, a gracious bestowal of a gracious God who speaks to us amidst the turmoil of our times and our individual torment. The world is at war. The economy is in spasm. The future is uncertain.
Yet, we can embrace, against our will and out of our despair, our own pain as a means to a greater end. It is an overused cliché, but we can grow bitter or better. It is our choice. If we grow better, fairer, kinder, more compassionate, and more passionate for justice, the world can also get better — no matter how grim the prognostications of our times may be.
Here is the printed speech by RFK:
Ladies and Gentlemen — I’m only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening. Because…
I have some very sad news for all of you, and I think sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.
Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it’s perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in.
For those of you who are black — considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible — you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.
We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization — black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love.
For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.
But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond these rather difficult times.
My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote: “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.
(Interrupted by applause)
So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, yeah that’s true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love — a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke. We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We’ve had difficult times in the past. And we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it’s not the end of disorder.
But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.
(Interrupted by applause)
Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.
Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people. Thank you very much. (Applause)
Robert F. Kennedy — April 4, 1968
Some Quotes
King was only 39. 39! So young, so wise, so gifted. My own sons are over 39. Imagine all he could have done, said, and written. I think of all my growth in the last 18 years of my life. And yet, I cannot conceive of having grown and given as much as he did in his first (and only) 39. I am humbled by the reality that we much invest as much of ourselves as we can, each day we live, in service to God and others. I am humbled and I am challenged. I may not accomplish a fraction of what he did, but I will place one step in front of the other and move forward.
“They told us we wouldn’t get here. And there were those who said that we would get here only over their dead bodies, but all the world today knows that we are here and that we are standing before the forces of power in the state of Alabama saying, ‘We ain’t going to let nobody turn us around.’”
“I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because ‘truth crushed to earth will rise again.’ How long? Not long, because ‘no lie can live forever.’ … How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
‘Our God is Marching On!’
Speech delivered on March 25, 1965, in Montgomery, Alabama, at the end of the Selma-to-Montgomery march.
Thanks for staying with me this far.
These are thoughts I have written and collected through the years about one of the most influential people in my life.
God bless you all.
Comments