Dr. King

I have a question for the Church in America: why are we afraid to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr? I have asked this question in the past and received answers that point to moral shortcomings, or the ever popular, "he didn't do anything for me." Dr. MLK was a man. (No big shocker here I guess.) Like any other man, King fell short of having a sinless life. I understand this line of reasoning. However, if this is the attitude that we must take in deciding what we allow to be a part of our services, we will have to throw one of the most beautiful collection of worship and lament poetry ever: The Psalms. Sure, King was unfaithful to his wife, and no one wants to say that this was wrong. David not only committed adultery, but also covered it up with murder! Abraham pimped out his wife to save himself. Do I need to mention Jacob and Esau? I think you get the point; the scriptures are full of people, just like me and you, that are imperfect. Yet, somehow, God, in God's infinite grace, declared such sinners as worthy of Christ's life. We do not know the condition of Dr. King when he died. We do not know if he had accepted the forgiveness of Christ for his sins. What we do know is that God used him, in spite of his human condition, to do what many other "sinless" pastors would not do: speak to a divided and racist culture. I often wonder if Dr. King would be excluded from our Sunday celebrations if he would have been white and lived such a life? After all, many of the founders of our country were known to have mistresses, and yet we speak of these founding fathers as the moral founders of this "great Christian nation." We sing the songs of American independence and praise the founding fathers in our pulpits but ignore Dr. King's life and sacrifice. Does anyone else see a problem developing here? Just wondering.

I am presently in Cleveland. Last night, Monday night, I took some books to this used bookstore in Chattanooga called McKay's. It was a rainy night and of course, all the parking spaces were full causing me to park as far away from the door as possible. As I pulled in to my very distant parking space, wondering if the rain would let up in a minute, a radio tribute to Dr. King came on the radio. I was stunned. All of this time I have heard about Dr. King, read sermons of Dr. King, and even seen clips on TV of Dr. King, but I had never just sit and soaked in his words as he spoke them. I sat in the car as the beads of rain rolled down the window and listen to him quote a spiritual and dream of a day in which all people would be "free at last, free at last, thank God all mighty we are free at last." I felt as if I were in Washington that day, preparing myself to go back home and find the fight of justice and equality. (Thankfully I don't have to do that right? After all, it is 2006.) The radio tribute continued to include the final sermon given by Dr. King in Memphis just before he was shot. I sat and listened as he prophetically declared that, if he didn't make it another day, he wanted to give the hope today that he had been to the top of the mountain and seen the promised land. I heard him say that at his funeral he did not want people to be reminded that he had degrees from specific schools, or had a Nobel peace prize, etc. He said that he wanted to be remembered as one who fought for equality, one who fought for justice, one who fought for the way of peace. I listened...and I cried. I was hoping that in some way the rain running down the windshield would wash away the injustice of the past, I was wishing that it would wash away our failure to understand the biblical mandate for freedom and justice. I was wishing that it would wash me clean of the 26 years of my life that I did not fight as hard as I could have for the ways of peace, freedom, justice, and equality. I pray that we as a Church will never forget what it means to be a force for good and justice in the world. I pray that we would constantly seek to understand what the fight for equality, justice, and peace means in our particular situations. I realize that formal segregation is gone. I realize that we are now more accepting now than ever of "the other." I also realize that in our journey for equality, we have allowed other injustices to arise without out acknowledgement. AIDS is the new leprosy, the poor are often held captive by our greed, the searching are turned away from our churches, and the hurting are simply ignored. I pray that we will take up the call for justice and peace in these, and whatever other situation we find ourselves in. May we remember the life of Dr. King by participating in the call for justice and peace understanding that it is ultimately not Dr. King that has called us to do so, but the one by whom, through whom and to whom all creation exists; the author of true peace...Christ.