Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Forum, First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, Feb . 19, 2017

Feb. 19, 2017 Forum,

First Congregational Church of Los Angeles

The Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech 

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

December 10, 1964

When Laura approached about what I’d like to do with this series, it didn’t take me long to choose this piece of it, with its focus on two remarkable prophets, and how two “simple” verses were woven into Dr. King’s acceptance speech.

The Peaceful Kingdom

Isaiah 11

¹      A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,

      and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

²      The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him,

      the spirit of wisdom and understanding,

      the spirit of counsel and might,

      the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

³      His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.

      He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

      or decide by what his ears hear;

⁴      but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,

      and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

      he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,

      and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

⁵      Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,

      and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

⁶      The wolf shall live with the lamb,

      the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

      the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

      and a little child shall lead them.

⁷      The cow and the bear shall graze,

      their young shall lie down together;

      and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

⁸      The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

      and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.

⁹      They will not hurt or destroy

      on all my holy mountain;

      for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD

      as the waters cover the sea.

Peace and Security through Obedience

Micah 4

¹      In days to come

      the mountain of the LORD’S house

      shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

      and shall be raised up above the hills.

      Peoples shall stream to it,

²      and many nations shall come and say:

      “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,

      to the house of the God of Jacob;

      that he may teach us his ways

      and that we may walk in his paths.”

      For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,

      and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

³      He shall judge between many peoples,

      and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;

      they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

      and their spears into pruning hooks;

      nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

      neither shall they learn war any more;

⁴      but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,

      and no one shall make them afraid;

      for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.

⁵      For all the peoples walk,

      each in the name of its god,

      but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God

      forever and ever.

*The film clip …*

Both Isaiah (the text for today) and Micah (737-696 bce) are 8th Century Prophets, a time wherein the Judean Kings were at their greatest level of power in a kingdom now divided.

After Solomon’s death, his son, Rehoboam, assumed the throne and issued a number of mean-spirited “executive orders” (1 Kings 12.6-11) and so the Kingdom split into Northern (Israel) and Southern (Judah) … ultimately the Northern Kingdom fell to Assyria (722 bce) and the Southern, or Judah, fell to Babylon (587 bce) and led to the “Babylonia Captivity.”

The Northern and Southern Kingdoms were often enemies and combatants. After Israel’s fall (the remnant of which was know in the New Testament as Samaritans (treated by the Jews {Judeans} as half-breeds and spiritually defective). 

Jesus, himself, from the “northern” area, while not a Samaritan, was still considered an outsider to the true land of Judah that saw itself as the pure expression of faith and blood.

By the time of the 8th Century, Israel was gone, so the prophets in our purview are directing their thoughts to the Southern Kingdom, i.e. Judah and its capital city, Jerusalem. 

The prophets grew in influence as the kings/queens grew in power, along with their religious support staff (ha!) … the prophets challenged the kings/queens and the priestly guild of Jerusalem, with all of its pomp and circumstance and its enormous wealth (certainly the case which Jesus addresses time and again). The prophets were bold, frequently in trouble, accused of treason and heresy, suggesting that if Judah continued on its way, it would all end badly.

Yet the prophets also looked to better days … days of peace and prosperity … the peaceable kingdom wherein opposing realities would come together and people were no longer prepping for war, but for peace, and would thus experience a great sense of safety and comfort - not just psychologically or spiritually, but materially, with everyone enjoying their own figs and vines.

All of this and more was in the mind and heart of Dr. King, a man of the Bible, engaged intelligently (as opposed to ideologically, or literally) with the text, and with theologians who tackled the vast social questions and systemic systems of the day, as well as the personal matters that so occupied evangelicalism (i.e. swearing, drinking, dancing, smoking, card playing, theater attendance) … on these good thinkers, like Paul Tillich, Dr. King built his ideas, his resistance and his blueprint for a just society, upon their work, and that of the Prophets, and the Prophet we honor in life and faith, Jesus of Nazareth.

Gandhi, and others, too, were influential … those who worked for peace, but never at the expense of justice, those who saw life in all of its wholeness … and for his work, Dr. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and for his work, his faith, his vision, we honor him today.

That to Which I Am Utterly Devoted ...

Wow, and then some ...

Tillich takes to task "orthodox Lutheranism" for two shortcomings: 1) to contrast the salvation of the individual with the transformation of historical groups and separating them; 2) to contrast the realm of salvation with the realm of creation, and separating them ... leaving the Kingdom of God as something beyond time and space and history, something which the "saved" enter upon death.

"Finally, this view interprets the symbol of the Kingdom of God in a static supernatural order into which individuals enter after the death - instead of understanding the symbol, with the biblical writers, as a dynamic power on earth for the coming of which we pray in the LORD's Prayer and which, according to biblical thought, is struggling with the demonic forces which are powerful in churches as well as empires."  ~ Vol. 3, p.356.

Much of the 20th Century Evangelical World fell into this trap, on the one hand, and on the other, in its "reconstructionist mode" in the last 40 years, envisions itself as "God's mighty army marching off to war," conquering this world for Christ, eliminating all ambiguity, and in such war (possibly literal), ushering in the Kingdom of God as a utopian end of history, with Christians in charge and "everyone bowing the knee," whether they like it or not.

If a former orthodoxy led Christians out of the world, allowing the orders of the world to lumber on without complaint or challenge, the current kind of Christianity, extremist and angry, will bring incredible disorder to the world by conquering the various orders and bending them toward a full and complete Christian hegemony, which has never worked, and never will, since the creative impulse of God's love engenders creativity and spontaneity and freedom rather than absolute control and management.

There are different kinds of Christianity, some of which are decidedly dangerous; some of which are purposeful and driven by justice and peace and a serious hope that, at least in fragmentary ways, history can be transformed and actually reflect the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

To this end, and to these purposes, I devote my life.

Doubt

A letter to a friend who's teaching a course on doubt.

David,

I've given a lot of thought to doubt - or whatever it is ... and there have been times in my life when "belief" in any conventional sense seemed impossible.

For my doctoral work, I wrote a chapter about the role of doubt in the believer's life - focusing on St. John of the Cross' "Dark Night of the Soul" - that doubt is always a segue to another chapter - doubt signals the close of one chapter, a chapter that worked well for a period of time, but since time never stands still, neither does faith. But we cling to "our faith" because it feels secure, but faith clung too, when it's no longer apropos become dysfunctional, if not destructive, which, I think, is the problem with fundamentalism (an issue Rob Bell is trying to address). Fundamentalism/various forms of evangelicalism have a harshness to them because they're angry about a faith no longer working, so they shout ever-louder, denounce all the more, and pump one another up in endless self-congratulating worship services and hyped up high-school-like pep rallies.

St. John of the Cross (late 1500s) suggested that God's best work was being done in our lives when we had no idea what God was doing. God conceals God's work from us, lest we rush in and muck it all up with our suggestions. It feels as if God is absent, but God is only moving ahead of us, and when the time is right, will reveal to us a further work.

John Calvin, too, works with doubt from a slightly different angle - that we needn't fear doubt, because faith is God's gift, and what God gives, God preserves. Our faith, at best, mostly limps along, but it never dies, because God sustains it.

For me, there's no sense fighting it or faking it - it is what it is ... and biblically, we are very much the one who says, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief."

Perhaps most important, Paul Tillich - his book, "The Dynamics of Faith" - he says that all faith, if it's a living faith, has the possibility of doubt, even radical doubt, and sometimes the possibility becomes reality.

A faith that cannot doubt is no faith at all. It has ceased to live.

It's not that doubt is always there ... sometimes in a moment, it's gone, and we believe with a rare purity ... even for months at a time, but then, doubt comes along.

Doubt is friend that keeps faith on its toes, so speak, or on its knees. Doubt is faith's best friend, keeping it honest and humble (another issue for fundamentalists/evangelicals - not the Rob Bell kind) who have to have all the answers all the time.

When it comes to dealing with doubt, it’s sort of like dealing with a cold – we let it run its course, and in the case of doubt, do its work.

But at the same time, we take Aspirin and get some rest … when doubt comes our way (and it’s really always there, sort of like a neighbor whom we only see from time-to-time), we can call upon some resources.

In yesterday’s message, I wrote:

And God sees to it that we have help along the way:
We have the Bible …
We have Moses and the Prophets …
We have the Apostolic witness of the early church …
We have the Holy Spirit …
We have great women and men to inspire us …
We have prayer and fellowship …
We have the gathered wisdom of the ages …
We have one another …
And we have Jesus!


I have never seen doubt as the opposite of faith; rather, doubt, is a traveling companion, if not beside us, at least only a few rows removed from us.

The opposite of doubt, if we can even speak of such things, might well be hyper-faith – faith that fearfully refuses to think, fearfully refuses to be honest about itself and what others might be thinking and feeling, too.

I don’t think God has a problem with someone who says, “I don’t believe” – sometimes they can’t, because they’ve only seen bad examples of faith … or sometimes, because they’re too proud to believe, and pride is only the flip side of fear and self-doubt – but whatever, this isn’t an issue for God.

The central issue in the Bible are people who “believe too much” but without mind and heart in the right place – they “talk the talk, but they don’t walk the walk) – the people of ancient Israel who spoke of the LORD Almighty in traditional terms, and then went off after the baals! They were hyper-religious – that’s an issue for God. When they “take the name of God in vain” – talking the talk, but not walking the walk.

I think God might well say to the fundamentalists/evangelicals – relax! Learn to appreciate the doubt within your hearts and minds, and be kind to those who express such thoughts and feelings to you.

Hell is not made for those who doubt – we’d all be there, but hell is an experience right now of those who have neither the grace nor the courage to admit it.

When someone enters a period of doubt, we journey with them, because it’s our journey, too.

We’re all in this one together.

And then trust God … in some sort of basic way … the sun sets and the sun comes up again.

Things are born, and then born again …

Relax!