I write this on a day that has come to be marked as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in our country. Beyond the one speech of his about which most people know at least a few lines, who was he really? What was his message? Why do we pause to remember him?
First things first. Dr. King was no saint. He had his weaknesses and failures. He was as human as any one of us. Yet he was also one upon whom many gifts were bestowed and through whom much was accomplished.
Dr. King was a pastor, a teacher, a civil rights leader, an anti-war protester, and much more. He was, by any definition of Hindu-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist understanding, a prophet in our midst. What does it mean to be a prophet? Father Richard Rohr defines a prophet as “one who names the situation truthfully and in its largest context.” This is who Dr. King was.
What was Dr. King’s message? In his “Beyond Vietnam” speech he called for a big picture perspective of a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation. A call for an all embracing and unconditional love for all humankind. Not something sentimental and weak, but a force all great religions see as the supreme unifying principle of life. A key that unlocks the door to ultimate reality.
In his sermon, “A Christmas Message of Peace,” given on Christmas Eve 1967, King sounds this same message. “We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality.”
Jesus’ metaphor for this big picture perspective is “the kingdom of God.” The first epistle of John sums this up beautifully: “Let us love on another, for love is of God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, for God is love. . . if we love one another, God dwells in us and God’s love is perfected in us.: (I John 4:7-8, 12)
Thanks be to God for Dr. King’s witness among us. He stands in that long line of prophets who, like Jesus and John, were willing to speak the challenging, clear, and powerful big picture truth of God’s dream for all of humanity. For this reason, we pause to remember Dr. King.
Pastor Lamont