Consideration of “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution”
A sermon delivered at the
National Cathedral in Washington D.C., on March 31, 1968
by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Luke 16:19-31
Before the holidays, I overheard a conversation between two people concerning the damage done to the Gulf Coast area following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Person #1 said, “the damage down south isn’t nearly as bad as they are making it out to be.” Person #2 responded, “Really? It looks pretty bad to me.” Person #1 interrupts, “Absolutely not true! My brother who lives in that region tells me that most places have been repaired and continued television reports are highly exaggerated.”
I am always surprised and shocked when I hear blanket, absolute statements such as that one. What seemed so clear and so real to my set of eyes - came across to someone else as something fabricated or as some kind of scheme to get relief funds for personal benefit. Too often fear of those messy, ugly, painful things in life are handled by turning a blind eye to them or finding someone to blame rather than finding a solution. We fear poverty or violence in our own backyard – but poverty and violence won’t go away if we simply pretend they aren’t there. At times we all have selective vision and see what we want to see even when overwhelming evidence is right before our eyes.
On March 31, 1968, 4 days before he was assassinated, Rev. King delivered his last Sunday sermon at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. entitled Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution. In that sermon Rev. King talked about ways to make the “invisible visible” and he dealt with four challenges for our country. Those four challenges were; the need to develop a world perspective, the need to eradicate racial injustice, the need to rid our nation and world of poverty and the need to find an alternative to war. Rev. King based that morning’s sermon on two Biblical texts; Revelation 21:“See, I am making all things new” and Luke 16: the story of Lazarus and the rich man. As a lifelong Baptist I appreciate and am inspired when I read his sermons and remember that Dr. King’s motivation, as well as the risks he took, were based on his Christian faith and love for the Lord. There is no doubt that he was a man grounded in his personal faith. He once said that a positive faith “instills us with the inner equilibrium needed to face strains, burdens, and fears that inevitably come and assures us that the universe is trustworthy and that God is concerned.”
In his first point, he challenged the country to develop a world perspective. He mentioned the amazing scientific progress that had occurred (it was 1968) which had brought the world closer together – into a neighborhood. However he warns that this closer neighborhood was still not a “brotherhood.” In other words technology, specifically the jet airplane, had brought people closer together physically but not in how they demonstrated care for one another. I wonder what he might say today? Our “neighborhood” is even closer today with internet, emails, instant messages and cell phones connecting people across the globe instantaneously. Rev. King would be amazed at the advancement in technology and I can only wonder what he might think about the state of the “neighborhood.”
The second challenge in his sermon was to continue to rid our nation of racial injustice. He brought up two myths that are held around the subject of racial injustice; the myth of time and the myth of the bootstrap philosophy. First he says that too many people are content to “wait out” racial injustice – because some believe that in time it will just get better. To do nothing - is just indifference which won’t help at all. And then he comments on the myth of the “bootstrap” philosophy – people who believed that the black person should just pull themselves out of their situations all by themselves. King points out that you really can’t say that to a “bootless” man. It reminds me of those who have said that people stranded in New Orleans during the hurricane should have left when they were told – as if it were their fault. One hundred thousand people did not have their own means of transportation and so you can’t get yourself out of the path of a hurricane - if you don’t have a car, resources or a place to go.
The third challenge was the need to work on the issue of poverty. In the sermon King points out that in America, “forty million people are invisible because America is so affluent, so rich; because our expressways carry us away from the ghetto, we don’t see the poor.” He then uses the text from Luke to illustrate that Jesus directs us to care for the poor – the often invisible poor – before it is too late.
Jesus tells a story to a group of sneering Pharisees about a rich man with selective vision. There were two men, a well-dressed, well-fed rich man and a sick, hungry poor man who lay by the wealthy man’s gate hoping for any leftovers that might fall to the ground. Lazarus, the poor man, was barely noticed (except by the dogs) and appeared to be invisible during his life. Both men die. Lazarus is gently carried into Heaven while the rich man is sent to Hades to endure eternal torture. We discover that the rich man must have been aware of the beggar on his doorstep because he requests Lazarus’ assistance calling him by name. But in the parable it is now too late - the gap is too wide. In telling the story Jesus is pointing out that it is apathy and indifference to the poor and the lack of care for one another that need to be changed. Jesus cared about the poor and we are to be following his example.
King says “Dives (the rich man) didn’t realize that his wealth was his opportunity. It was his opportunity to bridge the gulf that separated him from his brother Lazarus. Dives went to hell because he allowed his brother to become invisible.”
King also used an image that intrigued me when he talks about poverty; “we spend far too much of our national budget establishing military bases around the world rather than bases of genuine concern and understanding”. What an intriguing thought – to build bases of genuine concern and understanding around the world! Imagine the United States approaching another country about building a base of care on their soil…or imagine building a base of care down in Johnson Bayou, Louisiana or the New Orleans 9th Ward.
We could always use more bases of care in our world – but as I see it we do have bases of care that are established when people of passion and purpose get ministries started. Those bases of care are called Loaves and Fishes, Habitat for Humanity, the Salvation Army, church pantries, halfway houses and even mission groups from little country churches and big city churches who travel out of their comfort zone to help those in need. All of those efforts – are bases of care and concern.
The fourth challenge in his sermon had to do with the Vietnam War and we remember that Rev. King was a believer in non-violent resistance. Non-violent resistance – which was resistance, was a big part of his philosophy. He tells a story about a newspaper man who asks him if he was thinking about changing his position on the war because King’s organization was now losing money and contributions because of this stand against it.
King responded “Sir, I’m sorry that you don’t know me. I’m not a consensus leader. I do not determine what is right and wrong by looking at the budget of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference…ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus. There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right”.
There comes a time when all of us must decide what we stand for, what we believe, how we want to help others by serving, helping or by changing policies. There comes a time when we all must open our eyes and see clearly the needs that are before us and we must take a stand on an issue or problem because our conscience tells us it is the right thing to do. It is always right – do what is right.
Jim Wallis tells a story about a time that he was in seminary when he and a friend went through an old Bible, found every reference and use of the word “poor” and cut that particular verse out of the Bible leaving a blank hole in its place. Their Bible was shredded and full of holes and the two seminary students used that cut up Bible as an object lesson to show the importance God placed on being an advocate for the poor. It is clear in the stories and commandments of scripture that God calls the community of faith to care for the poor, the misfortunate and the marginalized of society.
I got to thinking that I might do the same thing with one of my own Bibles – I thought it might be a good object lesson on this Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. So I found one of my old Bibles, got out some markers and some scissors, sat down with a cup of tea – ready to cut the poor out of the Bible – but I just couldn’t do it.
I got to thinking...what if I took out the 200 Biblical references to the poor in my Bible? What kind of Bible would that be? Would I forget that poverty was a subject of importance in the scriptures? Out of sight – out of mind?
What if I took out all the 137 references to war out of my Bible? What kind of Bible would that be? What if I took out the over 300 references to money, the wealthy and the rich from my Bible? What kind of Bible would that be?
What if I took out the over 500 references to love and the 231 references to peace from my Bible? What kind of Bible would that be?
We can’t cut out the poor. We are called to do something to make a difference in the world and we can begin right in our own neighborhood and in our own homes.
You have, over the years, heard me encourage people to take part in the Kindness and Justice Challenge, a program emphasized during the weeks surrounding the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. It is a national challenge that adults and children of all ages can participate in. The challenge is to perform an act of kindness or an act of justice when you are able. An act of kindness is simply doing something helpful for another person or for your community and an act of justice is standing up for what’s right. We really shouldn’t need a national challenge that asks us to do what God already calls us to do – to give a helping hand to those who need it and to make those who are invisible – visible.
Rev. King said once “Evil is not driven out, but crowded out ... through the expulsive power of something good" and so on what would have been his 77th birthday may each one of us perform acts of kindness and justice to crowd out the indifference and the apathy laying on our own doorsteps.
Amen
Rev. Deborah J. Blanchard
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