We
just celebrated Dr. MLK Jr.'s birthday. His efforts affected the
situations, not only of African Americans, but of all oppressed
people.
Marting
Luther King likened his journey to that of Moses, leading his people
to the promised land. Both Moses and Martin seemed destined to lift
humankind above its baser tendencies as they followed a divine
calling.
Moses'
encounter occurred in the wilderness when Yahweh appeared in the form
of a burning bush.i
Dr.
King's, occurred one night early in the Montgomery Bus boycottii
He had come home from a meeting after Coretta and the kids had gone
to bed. The phone rang, and an anonymous caller threatened his life.
He went to bed but couldn't sleep. The path before him seemed
impossible. Then, while praying aloud, he felt the presence of God
as he never had before.iii
I
used to question my commitment because I never had a profound
religious experience. Then, I learned that the beginning of Dr.
King's career was also unremarkable. He wrote:iv
My call to the ministry was
neither dramatic nor spectacular. It came neither by some miraculous
vision nor by some blinding light experience on the road of life.
Moreover, it did not come as a sudden realization. Rather, it was a
response to an inner urge that gradually came upon me. This urge
expressed itself in a desire to serve God and humanity, and the
feeling that my talent and my commitment could best be expressed
through the ministry.
Martin
was the son of a prominent parents, his mother a musician and his
father the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. It was
here where he was nurtured spiritually, intellectually and in his
concern for racial justice. It was here that his urge to serve God
and humanity was cultivated. This urge was further enhanced by
like-minded people in seminary, in graduate school and in the civil
rights movement. In this context Martin's epiphany in Montgomery,
was not a new beginning as much as it was powerful affirmation on his
journey.
I
now realize that some of us are blessed with profound life
experiences, but these alone will not keep us going. Jesus had a
religious experience in his baptism, but even he had to go into the
wilderness from time-to-time to pray. It's the less dramatic
experiences that keep us going. This is why
it's so important for each of us to listen for that inner urge that
moves in our lives.
My
inner urge was conditioned by my early life experiences in a small
town in rural Minnesota. I was raised in a family that emphasized
caring for one another. Because of this, I was acutely aware of
people who suffered through no fault of their own.
I
remember a family who lived near us. Their shabby house was set back
among some trees in a weedy lot. Broken toys littered the yard.
Little kids, in worn clothes, came in and out of the house. One day,
I learned their mother had died in her sleep, probably from asthma.
I anguished for these children. Imagine the horror. A little child
wakes in the morning and discovers her mom dead in her bed. The
image still haunts me.
There
was grown man in our town who pushed himself around in a red wagon.
His face was covered with stubble. He wore work overhauls and
drooled. He smiled, waving his hands aimlessly, if people greeted
him. What must it have been like to be trapped in his body?
A
Downs Syndrome kid lived in our neighborhood. His mom was a hair
dresser who operated a small business out of her home. I was
impressed by the way his parents normalized his living, treating him,
as much as possible, like all the other kids his age. He would never
be able to live independently. What would happen when his parents
were too old to care for him?
These
people of my youth continue to live in my inner world. They motivate
me as I engage others who are suffering through no fault of their
own. I felt an urge to minimize their suffering.
When
I was in high school, I read, “The Last
Temptation of Christ” by Nikos Kazantzakis. I resonated with the
life and values of the Jesus described by Kazantzakis. He was no
longer just a figure on the church altar. He was a flesh and blood
man who had the same struggles as I had. This enhanced my urge to
get involved.
While
in college, I visited the Taize monastery in France.v
While eating and working with the monks and enjoying the beautiful
land, I was overcome with a sense of peace and harmony.
When
I directed the Madison Urban Ministry, I encountered committed people
of many races, religions and economic conditions. These folks
motivated me, and the urge grew stronger.
Now,
love for my daughter and grandson has brought my wife and me to the
Boston area. Here we are connecting with wonderful people, some at a
local coffee shop, others at a little United Methodist Church and
still others in local social justice groups. All the while I
continue to be nurtured by past friends and family members.
Something
in me continues to press onward. This is the same thing that
motivated Martin Luther King Jr. and all those people who sacrificed
their lives in the Civil Rights Movement. It continues to move
through unnamed people in unknown places throughout the world. It
manifests in little reports of courage and goodness that will not be
drowned out by the negative news that floods over us daily.
The
Spirit moves relentlessly like the wind blowing across the ocean. It
produces swells that grow to become waves, with foaming crests, that
crash against the shore. People like Dr. MLK Jr. are the magnificent
leading edge of these waves.
Still,
these heroes and heroines are just markers in a larger social
movement. As with the crashing wave, we only notice the foaming
waters at the crest. But without the millions of droplets making up
the waves, there would be no crests.
The
giant wave of the Civil Rights movement crashed against the shore and
is receding. Unfortunately, the words of Dr. King in his Beyond
Vietnam Speechvi
are as true today as they were fifty years ago. He said:
We
must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a
person-oriented society. When machines and computers (and social
networks), profit motives and property rights, are considered more
important than people, the giant triplets of racism (prejudice),
extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being
conquered.
It
is time for a renewal of a civil rights movement for the 21st
century. The winds of the Spirit continue to blow. The ground
swells are obvious as environmental groups, scientists, local
governments and faith communities begin to respond to the efforts of
new groups; #MeToo; Black Lives Matter; The Poor Peoples' March; The
Standing Rock Sioux, opposing a pipeline over Native lands;
Immigrants Rights groups; LGBTQ groups; and others.
It is time for each of us do our
little part. We are called to respond even though our efforts will
probably go unnoticed in the larger scheme of things. I yearn for a
future where each of us will listen for and respond to the inner urge
to commit our lives to a future of justice, peace and compassion.
Then we can say with Dr. King:
I have a dream that
(our) little children will one day live in a (world) where they will
not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
character. …. And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring,
when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every
state and every (nation), we will be able to speed up that day when
all of God’s children, black, (brown, yellow, red) and white, Jews
and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, (Buddhists, Moslems and
others) will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old
Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at
last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
iExodus
3:1-17
iihttp://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_montgomery_bus_boycott_1955_1956/
iiihttp://www.sparknotes.com/biography/mlk/section3/page/2/
ivhttp://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/documentsentry/my_call_to_the_ministry/index.html
vhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taizé_Community
vihttp://www.famous-speeches-and-speech-topics.info/martin-luther-king-speeches/martin-luther-king-speech-beyond-vietnam.htm
