Luke 6:27-36
Jesus said, "I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."
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Well here we are again. We’re at the weekend in January where the secular calendar remembers the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. On the church calendar he’s remembered on April 4 – but because his birthday was yesterday and tomorrow is the holiday we decided to transfer it. That’s why we’re wearing red today.
Each year as we approach this date I have a little routine that I go through. I pull out some of Dr. King’s letters, sermons, and speeches and re-read them. You’d think that year after year of doing this it might get a little boring – but it doesn’t. Each time I read one of his sermons I see new things. Every time I read a “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” I hear his prophetic voice in new and exciting ways calling the Christian community to move from complacency to working with the poor and the oppressed.
In this letter one of the things Dr. King bemoans is the “moderate Christian.” This is the Christian who doesn’t like the way African Americans are being treated, but refuses to do anything about it. They refuse to join the march. But at the same time they aren’t off in the other camp running around town threatening people and burning crosses in people’s yards. These “moderate Christians” don’t understand why African Americans are marching – aren’t things good enough? Why do things need to change?
Within this letter Dr. King remarks that he challenged the white prison guard that because of his low salary and living in poverty that he needed to join the march!
You see what I love about Dr. King to this day was the way in which he integrated faith and praxis. Praxis simply means action. The Book of James, which we don’t hear from very often in church is a small book, but it packs a powerful punch. James 2:20 says that “faith without works is dead.” Dr. King got the interconnection between the Christian faith and being involved in the community. Christianity isn’t a spectator sport where we come to church, sit in our pews, watch the priest and other ministers do a few things in the front of the church and go home. Christianity is a way of life. It’s modeling our life on the mystery of the cross. It’s following in the footsteps of Jesus who always sought to invite more people in. Jesus who ate with the lowest of the low – sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes – people we would probably turn up our nose at. All of these people mattered to Jesus – shouldn’t they matter to us as well?
The other thing I love about Dr. King’s writings is that if you read them sequentially, you begin to notice that his message evolves over time. He goes deeper. What began as a struggle for the rights of African Americans gets wider as he begins to lift up the needs of the poor and needy. Dr. King truly got that we are all made in the image of God and that we are all interconnected as a members of the human family. How we treat each other matters. How we even treat the “least of these” matters. Everyone matters in the eyes of God. No one is beyond the reach of God’s love and grace. Here’s a man with a PhD fighting for the rights of garbage workers – not something you see everyday. As one biographer of Dr. King put it, “Martin came down out of the academy and marched himself to glory.” He moved from speaking to doing.
How did Dr. King do this work? I believe it was because he got a glimpse into the dream of God. He knew what God’s dream for the world was. He saw it clearly when he had “been to the other side” and when he gave his “I have a dream speech.”
So this morning as I reflect on Dr. King’s life and legacy and what God might be calling us to do today in light of it I give thanks. I believe that had it not been for Dr. King and the civil rights struggle that what happened yesterday – the ordination of a woman by the name of Rev. Jessica Knowles wouldn’t have been possible. The church still might be sitting on the fence of women’s ordination. Now to be sure, there are still many denominations who don’t ordain women. It’s sad to me that these churches are missing the gifts and graces of over half their congregation by not doing so.
I also reflect on my own life and call to ministry. Had it not been for Dr. King, the civil rights struggle, and many who have come before me I couldn’t be standing before you today as a priest in Christ’s Church.
I’m also aware this weekend that while we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. King that we also have a cloud hanging over us as a country. The cloud of an attack on a Congresswoman that left six dead, including a nine-year-old girl who was committed to creating a better world. This attack on one of our nation’s brightest leaders reminds us of the darkness that is present in the world. It was a darkness that Dr. King testified against with words and deeds. In the end, he was assassinated, but his message lives on in the hearts of those who will hear this voice.
So today I invite you to get off the sidelines or out of your armchair and to get into the game. To find ways to work for justice in your home, in this Church, in the community and in the world.
And I leave you with these words from Dr. King:
All I’m saying is simply this, that all life is interrelated, that somehow we’re caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.[1]
[1] From Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail April 16, 1963. Found online at http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html
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