Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – A Prophet for Ordinary Time

January 14, 2018 Download: Audio Notes

Read the Text of the Teaching here

Excerpt:

“…Dr. King spoke and wrote, as is well known, with prophetic directness about the evils of this world, and the evil record of this country in particular. He called out racial injustice both in the Jim Crow south and among white liberals like many of us. He called out economic injustice and how this nation’s wealthy depend on keeping much of the world in poverty. Dr. King called out militarism, particularly in relation to this country’s role in Vietnam. He called out colonialism and imperialism, and took heart in how many countries during his own lifetime found independence out from under colonial rule.

Importantly, King’s judgments, like those of the best of prophets, came from a point of view, and with a particular analysis, a diagnostic. The people who kept these structures of inequality in place, in King’s view, were working against the grain of the universe – they were ignoring the completed work of Christ. King looked at evil squarely – both the evil of white men turning powerful hoses and dogs on children, and the evil of white folks telling Black folks to wait until things inevitably worked out for good. Where Dr. King saw evil, he saw weeds that would be choked out, grass that would be cut down…”

 

Benediction:

God of every land and nation,
night and day you summon your people.
Stir us with your voice,
so that you may
bring healing to all wounds,
make whole all that is broken,
speak truth to all illusion,
and shed light in every darkness,
that all creation will see your glory
and know your salvation. Amen.