MARTIN LUTHER KING Jr DAY: Mediation
Author: Bobby Valentine | Filed under: American Empire, Black History, Discipleship, Martin Luther King, Race Relations
“Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue” (Deuteronomy 16.20, NRSV)
It is almost cliche these days to claim that King is “one of my heroes” by all kinds of people. I have used those words myself.
I am grateful that we have a day to honor Dr. King. But to honor King, we need to do more than to say “I have a Dream.” Or to claim “I am not prejudiced.”
King’s mission was to pursue JUSTICE and RIGHTEOUSNESS in our public lives together. As Amos put it “let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never ending stream!” (Amos 5.24).
Too claim to be anti-prejudice only has meaning if we are pro-justice. Justice does not mean “lock everyone up.” Justice means to pursue courses of action that produce equality and dignity for everyone, to right the wrongs. This is justice. Prayerful reading so Amos, Micah, James, and the Sermon on the Mount could pay great dividends. Deuteronomy 10.12-22 is a fine place to ruminate for a long time.
So King was famous for promoting Civil Rights for African Americans. And praise the Lord for that. But “civil rights” are a function of “justice rolling like a stream.”
– Jobs and fair wages for the poor (this included poor whites btw!)
– Education opportunities.
– And war, and war, must cease! (King was an opponent of the Vietnam War).
The bottom line for King was embracing a posture of love. Genuine love changes the world in all the places where injustice reigns supreme. Love is not about SELF-advancement. Love seeks the good of all but especially the poor, the powerless, the people from less than desirable neighborhoods (or countries!).
Love knows no boundaries.
The present state of America (and evangelical Christianity) on this MLK Day, reminds us of Jesus’s stunning rebuke to some Pharisees:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of of those who murdered the prophets … how can you escape being sentenced to hell? (Matthew 23.29-33).
To be different from the previous generation the scribes and Pharisees, needed to do more than build monuments. They needed to actually DO the words of the prophets. That is the real monument. That is real way to honor. Embrace the life of justice, mercy and faithfulness that the prophets, and most of all Jesus, taught.
When we say that King is “a hero of mine” do we actually mean it? Heroes are people we want to emulate. King was regarded as a trouble maker, rabble rouser, communist, enemy of the state, “uppity n…r,” and finally no good for anything but dead.
Where I have failed to follow justice and mercy for even the “least of these,” I repent. Where my country has spilled the blood of countless Hispanics, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, and African Americans … I say,
“God have mercy.”
Let’s honor Martin Luther King, Jr by doing justice and demanding justice for those who still 50+ years their lives do not matter to many.
A Martin Luther King Jr Day footnote … LEE-King Day, as in ROBERT E. Lee.
Martin Luther King Jr Day has been controversial with many white Americans. I recall in my home state, Alabama, the moaning over the recognition of the day. South Carolina did not recognize the day until May of 2000.
Some states took a long time to come around. Many in the South decided to combine the Day with celebrations of the Confederacy. This is not only irony but spitting in King’s face. So the state of Virginia from 1984 to 2000 had a Lee-Jackson-King Day. In that order. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr.
My home state of Alabama refused to do a King Day. What Alabama did in 1984, like Virginia, was combine King with the Confederacy. So to this day Mississippi and Alabama still combine Monday with the Confederacy. Monday in the state of Alabama will be:
King-Lee Day!
Alabama still has Confederate Memorial Day and Jefferson Davis’s Birthday too.
Now I want to just think about this: Robert E. Lee and Martin Luther King Jr Day. The man who killed half a million American soldiers to KEEP BLACK SLAVERY celebrated on the birthday of the man who was murdered for demanding basic justice and civil rights for the people that Lee fought to keep enslaved!
If we do not see some incongruity with this then we just might be part of the problem.
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The Confederate Flag and the Nation for Which it Stands
W. E. B. Du Bois: Robert E. Lee and Confederate Monuments
KING: Violence, Black Power, Black Lives Matter and the Real Prophet
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