MLK Day Reflection
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life… And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. John 3:14, 19-21
Today we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It may be surprising to you that a federal holiday is allotted to remember the legacy of a single man—the only other such holiday is Columbus Day—but I believe it signifies appropriate gravity to the legacy of King and the civil rights movement he spurred. It comes every year, the third Monday of January. For some, a quick rest from work, for students a day off of school. For politicians, perhaps an opportunity to champion their particular platform, and for many organizations, a day of community service. But for Christians, I contend the holiday provides a different opportunity.
No doubt there are many evils in the world, and many ways to draw attention to them. But it is fitting in God’s good grace that he would use the legacy of a flawed but faithfully courageous gospel minister like King to draw our attention every year to the evils of racism and racial injustice. This evil existed long before our country and culture was formed, and will exist as long after as God allows, but few sins lie closer to the historical fabric of our American society.
This last year we have felt the effects of the sin and injustice of racism. It divides us, confuses us, hurts us, pains us. As we become more politically polarized, the divide we feel with our neighbors and even family members seems to grow larger. Plenty who take the name of Christ have seemed to publicly forfeit their witness by unfettered devotion to parties and leaders and platforms over and above the compassion and sacrifice of the Kingdom of God. Call this Christian Nationalism, political idolatry, or whatever other term you would like, all it has served to do is further polarize us from those who look, think, or act differently than us. Racism, like political idolatry, has at the core of it’s evil the sin of devaluing the image of God, the sin that fuels all sorts of bitter animosity for any one who might be other.
So again, this year it is only God’s grace that allows us a federally recognized day to pause and consider: how does the church of Jesus Christ respond when we see the effects of this evil in our day?
There are historians, social commentators, and experts who can speak to the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. far better than I can. But I will say this: every year on this day I pause to read King’s “Letter From A Birmingham Jail”. Why? It’s not because it most accurately and fully outlines my exact political theology. It’s not because, as some black brothers and sisters do, I feel particularly proud or empowered in reading it. And it’s not because I understand, identify with, or can echo the hurt and pain and respectful disagreement found there. I read it because I believe it is a letter from a brother in Christ addressed to me: a white pastor in the American South, who hates racism and loves the gospel of Jesus Christ, but who, for all intents and purposes, would probably have counted the actions of King and his followers as too “extreme.” I don’t read it for answers, I read it because it’s a sermon that demands I come to God in humility and reconsider my own faithfulness.
I think Christians should approach MLK day as the grace of God. In a country like ours, with the horrors of our past, he has graciously given us a day to stop and consider how the radical nature of God’s justice against sin at the cross of Christ impacts our response to the injustice of the world. It is God’s grace that we have the voice of Dr. King to call out to us and help us consider this question, to wake up the sleepers and ground the angry, not in political extremism, but in the extremism of Christian love, exemplified as God showed his love for sinners at Calvary. As followers of Christ, we are called to a cruciform life, taking up our cross just as Jesus did. We do so as those who have been justified, whose burdens have been lifted, and who desire, like God himself, that all should reach repentance. But we cannot forget what Jesus took up his cross for: it was to call all men to himself, like the serpent lifted up in the wilderness. And that call, to look on the cross and be healed, includes a call to forsake and decry and fight the sinful injustices of man that brought about the sickness in the first place. We who look to Christ and are saved are people of light, who carry out our works of justice and peace and compassion and love clearly and publicly, with faithful Christian “extremism”, so that we can with clear conscience point to the crucified king and say, “look there and be saved!”
This Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I encourage you to take 15 minutes to read “Letter From A Birmingham Jail” and to pray, as Christians for centuries have, that the justice of the kingdom of God would break into an unjust world.
In Love,
Pastor Drake
Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." …So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists. - Martin Luther King, Jr.