Martin Luther King Day

My grandmother didn’t like Martin Luther King – she thought he was a rabble-rouser and morally reprehensible.    She didn’t like the messenger for sure!   And she most likely didn’t like the message either.    She was not that open to Civil Right as a new way of “doing” culture!   Too much change from what she knew, I think.   But the generations after her… well, there’s a whole different ball of wax.   We can look back at that era of the 60’s – for some it’s a history book subject.  For others of us, we did “technically” live through that era… but being that I was born in ’65… that made me way too little to remember anything from the 60’s, and see it as no big issue.    But for my Grandmothers generation, they were already adults when Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, and Ruby Bridges walked into her school flanked by US Marshals, and Martin Luther King preached about his dream.    And it was terribly shocking for many!    Including my grandmother!    

Here’s the thing, we can look back on that time – really for many of us a matter of history – and see that Martin Luther King was right!    We needed to change our culture and society - and still do.      And many of us do not have anywhere near an appreciation for how difficult that was to live through for those in the movement.   Nor do we have much of an appreciation for how exciting it was – I have to imagine those in eh movement felt they were on the cutting edge of helping a  new world to be born!   

We all now – in retrospect – can agree that his message needed to be spoken.   Obviously it’s easier to see more clearly in retrospect.  It’s easier to see the past and discern the right direction.   Of course, we also assume the direction things have gone until now IS the right direction.   For how many years had slavery existed as a “normal” part of life?    Hundreds of years?   Thousands?    People thought of it as, if not “good” then at least an accepted cultural evil.    “That’s just how things are.”   

But as time went on, more and more people vocally and economically opposed slavery, more and more people saw this as wrong.   And, over time, things changed.   By the way – the fastest way for society to “change” is through some form of enforceable legislation or political mandate.    The slowest form of societal change is allowing the culture to change itself over time.    But left to the latter manner, there’s never the guarantee that things will change in “the right way”.    I say this because of Lincoln’s societaly disruptive Emancipation Proclamation… and  the passage of the Civil Rights Act under Johnson…   and the forced integration of the Armed Forces…  and the most recent proclamation opening combat roles to women.   All these changed their respective societies – to no little amount turmoil. 

Back to slavery – today we see it as unacceptable, wrong, and evil!    But back then… wow!   There was the “pro” position, and the “con” position… and little in between.    Same with the Women’s Suffrage movement in the early 1900’s.  Same with all the other “societally changing “ events in our national history.   They were radical notions in their time – and shocking!   “Women voting???   That’s just not right!”    Not so radical-sounding to us now though, is it?     Ordaining women… our brand of Lutheran has been doing this for almost 40 years now.   For us Lutherans (our brand at least) today, it’s a non-issue.    But for the Anglican Communion, this is still a huge issue!    It seems the Anglican Communion (the world-wide body of churches associated with the Anglican tradition) has recently limited the participation of the Episcopal Church USA (the American brand of Anglican) due to its position on not only ordaining women, but ordaining practicing homosexuals (the ECUSA does both).   So does my brand of Lutheran by the way.    I keep saying “my brand” since there are other brands of Lutheran here in the US, but no other one that I know of ordains both women and gays besides the ELCA.           

We have our own “too close to home” issues for many of us… immigration, Islam, Islamic immigration, guns, politics in general, and homosexuality.  I have a few class-mates from seminary who left the ELCA because of its 2009 Church-Wide assembly decision to opening and legitimately ordain gay clergy.  Perhaps these, and others, are the issues of our day.  It’s harder to see the “right” path when you’re right up against them… it’s harder to see the forest when you’re standing face-first against one of the trees in that forest.     

And when we’re in the moment like this – looking up at one of our cultural trees – we call these issues “political”!    Questions on immigration, on refugees, on societies responsibility towards the marginalized (like the poor, the homeless, the mentally ill), on when we should engage in war, and how we should engage in war, on restrictions and limitations to gun ownership… all these things are considered political issues.    And some say politics has no place in religion!    The two should not mix evidently.   Just a reminder that Jesus wasn’t killed for hugging children and healing people.  Jesus was killed for challenging his culture with the radical notion that God still had something to say to the moment about how to treat each other, and what power meant, and what we were to do with that power, and not do with power.   

Each generation has its own struggle with the curve of history.   All of us  have had to struggle with our own questions about how we see each other, and how we treat each other, and what’s right, and what’s moral and ethical.    All of our preceding generations have had to struggle with their bend in the river of history.    Society’s change.   They always change.  Looking back it’s easier to see the right direction.   But in the moment… not so easy.    In our moment of time… it’s hard to see anything that’s different from what we already know.  

And yet… God is still calling us to a New World!   God is still calling us to a New Kingdom!    A new society, a more just society.  But, living right in the middle of it, looking up at one of the trees in the forest… how do we know God’s standard?    In the middle of it, how do we know what’s “just” or right?    Words from the prophetic book Micah;  Oh, mortal, what does the Lord want but for you to do justice, and love kindness and walk humbly with your God.    What does it mean for us to “do justice”?   And even if we cannot attain this perfectly today… which we can’t by the way…  we’re still called to move forward anyway!

We move forward, struggling with – and acknowledging – our tendencies and resistances and limited visions, and fears…   reminding ourselves God is calling us to be a people of grace, a people of compassion, a people of community.    Look at the issues of our time; religion, immigration, and dare I say – politics itself, and ask… what are my resistances?   Where are my stumbling block, and why are they stumbling blocks to me?  What are my fears?     And then ask… Where is God?   Where is God leading me anyway?    I can’t help but think we’re in one of those cross-roads of history, one of those places where our great grandchildren’s great grandchildren will look back at our time and ask us on what side of history we stood.   

God has a voice in our world, in our society.  The question is, what of that voice can we hear?   What of that voice can we discern?   What can we vision?   What does “being a people of God in the world” look like?   For us… here and now?     We can talk all day about the God of compassion, the God of love, the God of grace.  But to now have to put that into practice… in our practical world… in our world of beliefs, of the politics of everyday living… that’s where the REAL God dwells!    Because, don’t forget, that’s where Jesus lived… and died.