Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd

Transcription

Hey everybody this is Steve, and it can be difficult to live the faith in our daily lives. The example of others can be a great inspiration as we work to make the faith manifest in our lives. And one powerful example of Christian love and conviction is the life and person of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Dr King is best known for his charismatic leadership and advancing the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950's and 60's and his unwavering practice of non-violent social and political resistance. Though we normally associate the movement with bus boycotts and sit-ins and other forms of mass non-violent action. This kind of direct action wasn't always the primary strategy for enacting change. As Aldon Morris points out in "the Origins of the Civil Rights Movement", up until the 1950's, the fight for racial justice was mainly led by the NAACP, which mostly operated through persuasion and legal action. Though the NAACP won some huge victories at the Supreme Court, their approach was generally slow, and bureaucratic, and top-down. When southern states started cracking down on the NAACP in the 1950's, people responded with the non-violent direct action we normally associate with the Civil Rights Movement of the time. And this non-violent approach became so central to the Civil Rights Movement in large part because of Dr King. He was an incredibly charismatic Christian minister, whose powerful and radical sermons challenged and inspired people from all walks of life. And he used this gift, to preach the truth that all are created equal, in the image and likeness of God. Because the truth is, Americans historically haven't and still don't live up to this Christian ideal. Slavery gave way to a failed period of reconstruction; and the failures of post-reconstruction ushered into a new era of codified, racialized violence. In what we refer to now as the Jim Crow era, Black Americans were systematically marginalized, mistreated, and dehumanized, by a system and culture that did not recognize them as equals, as deserving of the same dignity and rights which Whites enjoyed. If you haven't yet you should read Dr King's Letter from Birmingham Jail. There's a link in the description. He describes the beatings and the lynchings, the terror and despair that defined life for Black Americans living under the violence and brutality of Jim Crow. Dr King was born into a world that didn't fully recognize his humanity because of the color of his skin, a world that stood in sharp contrast to the truth of the Gospel, a world where Black Americans were denied the right to vote, trapped in poverty, humiliated, beaten, killed. Yet, Dr King didn't respond to evil with more evil, with more violence. Dr King's response to this broken world was Christ. "Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that." Dr King called all Americans to stand against a deeply violent and unjust system, armed only with love and peace. He understood that for faith to be genuine, it needs to manifest itself in the way we live our lives, in the work we do to bring healing and peace to our fallen and broken world. "Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a dry-as-dust religion." In his letter From a Birmingham Jail, Dr King beautifully expressed the choice we have as Christians. We could see the Church as a thermometer, a social club that measures and reflects the biases and habits of our time. Or, we could see the Church as a thermostat, which shapes and transforms us and the world. For 2000 years Christians have been proclaiming the Gospel with joy and courage. And if our faith is to be real it needs to be more than theoretical. And it has to be more than an idea. Reverend King didn't simply believe in equality of law, he didn't simply speak about the equality of law, he dedicated his life to ending the injustice that plagued, and continues to plague society. He stood up for justice, challenged others to do the same, and was martyred for a life lived in defense of others. In the decades since his assassination, the world continues to suffer from injustice. Our response as Christians can only be repentance, a change in the direction of our lives so that we more perfectly manifest God's love. Our response must be to more energetically struggle for the good rather than be satisfied with what seems good enough. In the powerful words of Saint Basil the Great, "Is not the person who strips another of clothing called a thief? And those who do not clothe the naked when they have the power to do so, should they not be called the same? The bread you are holding back is for the hungry, the clothes you keep put away are for the naked, the shoes that are rotting away with disuse are for those who have none, the silver you keep buried in the earth is for the needy. You are thus guilty of injustice toward as many as you might have aided, and did not. So let's be the bee and live the faith like reverend King. Be the bee and live Orthodoxy. Remember to like and subscribe. I'll see you all, next week.