Fifty Years Later

It was 50 years ago today that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. He had been the leader of a peaceful protest movement that had brought to America's conscience, as a whole, the injustice of racial discrimination that so permeated the South. There were others in his day who were less convinced that non-violence was a mandatory method, but he stuck to his principles. When the evening television news showed police in various cities setting dogs on marchers, including children, and using tear gas and fire hoses against peaceful marchers, the conscience of the nation was smitten. We could no longer hide behind the idea that it was only happening somewhere else, and we didn't get to look away: people were being abused because of their skin color, in our nation, 100 years after slavery had been outlawed. But even with his non-violent stance, Dr. King continued to insist that the status quo was wrong and evil, and many people agreed with him. So he got killed for 'stirring up trouble,' when all he was doing was telling the truth. How much more could have been accomplished through him if his life hadn't been cut short? We'll never know, but we can continue to grow, ourselves, in our understanding and fair treatment of others as he insisted on.

There are parallels here to the life of Jesus, who himself was against some of the wrong-headed rules and prejudices of his day. He continued to move people back to the "one big idea" of loving God and loving neighbor. Many people began to agree with him, and the people in charge killed him, as the book of Acts records (2:23, 3:15, 4:10, 5:30, 7:52, 10:39, 13:28, etc). Of course, Jesus dispensed grace, not justice -- otherwise all of us would still be condemned for our sins.

Many writers have been looking at whether or not we are closer to Dr. King's visions of equality, contained in his famous speech "I Have a Dream." Most are saying that some things have improved and many others have not. I'm not a political analyst, so I won't venture into that realm, but let you read and judge for yourself. But the church that Jesus instituted at Pentecost, all those years ago, continues its sometimes-lurching, sometimes-falling, always-progressing movement toward the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21. In that body, as Paul tells us, listing the major social divisions of the day, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

That's the ideal, at least -- the statement of what is true in the spiritual realm. How close are we in the physical realm? The small congregation where I serve does have a diversity of people, thank God, and we've been able (not from human deliberation, but from following the Holy Spirit) to have women and people of color in positions of leadership and responsibility. I'm delighted that's true! The remaining question, for each one of us to answer in our own hearts before the Lord, is how we see one another within our diversity. Because it's not just skin color or gender, but many different matters, that make up people; and we can unconsciously draw lines around people we don't want to be around because we've judged them as less than ourselves. I can't answer that question for you, but only for myself. But it needs to be answered for us to continue to grow more in the "likeness of Christ, day by day" in the thought of 2 Cor. 3.

I'll quit writing now so we can both pray about that.