Martin Luther King, Jr., Pastor and Martyr, 1968

The Collect: 

Almighty God, by the hand of Moses your servant you led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last: Grant that your Church, following the example of your prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of your love, and may strive to secure for all your children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

First Lesson: 

Exodus 3:7–12

And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.
Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.
And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.

Psalm: 

Psalm 77:11-20

 I will remember the works of the Lord *
 and call to mind thy wonders of old time.
  I will think also of all thy works *
 and my talking shall be of thy doings.
  Thy way, O God, is holy *
 who is so great a God as our God?
  Thou art the God that doeth wonders *
 and hast declared thy power among the people.
  Thou hast mightily delivered thy people *
 even the sons of Jacob and Joseph.
  The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee, and were afraid *
 the depths also were troubled.
  The clouds poured out water, the air thundered *
 and thine arrows went abroad.
  The voice of thy thunder was heard round about *
 the lightnings shone upon the ground; the earth was moved, and shook withal.
  Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths in the great waters *
 and thy footsteps are not known.
  Thou leddest thy people like sheep *
 by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
 

Gospel: 

Luke 6:27-36

But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also.
Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.
And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.
And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.
And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

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The Old Testament, New Testament and Gospels readings are from the King James Version of the Bible.

The Collects and Canticles are from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979. The psalm is from the Book of Common Prayer, 1662.

https://episcopalchurch.org/lectionary/martin-luther-king-jr-pastor-and-martyr-1968

King, Martin Luther, Jr. (Jan. 15, 1929-Apr. 4, 1968). Civil rights leader. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son and grandson of African American Baptist preachers. He received his B.A. from Morehouse College in 1948 and was ordained a Baptist minister on Feb. 25, 1948. King received his M.Div. from the Crozer Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, in 1951. While a student at Crozer, he was exposed to the writings of Mohandas K. Gandhi. He was deeply impressed by Gandhi's faith in nonviolent protest. In 1955 King received his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Boston University. On Oct. 31, 1954, he was installed as the twentieth pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where he stayed until 1960. On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, an African American woman, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. She was arrested. The African American community organized a bus boycott, and King became its leader. He soon became the leader of the civil rights movement in the United States and the nation's most ardent exponent of nonviolent social reform. The theme of the bus boycott was "We must stand up together so that we can sit down wherever we please." In Jan. 1957 the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was organized. King was its first president. Its motto was "To redeem the soul of America." On Jan. 24, 1960, King became the co-pastor with his father of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and stayed there until his death. King was frequently harassed and arrested. On Apr. 16, 1963, he published his well-known "Letter from Birmingham City Jail." In this letter he explained that Christian discipleship is at the heart of the African American struggle for justice. On Aug. 28, 1963, he gave the speech, "I Have a Dream," as the keynote address of the March on Washington for Civil Rights. King was given the Nobel Peace Prize on Dec. 10, 1964, for his efforts in getting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. In the last several years before his death, he was a leader of the opposition to the war in Vietnam. At the beginning of Apr. 1968 he went to Memphis to participate in a sanitation workers' strike. On Apr. 3, the night before he was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel, he gave his "Mountain-top" speech at the Masonic Temple in Memphis. In this speech he said that he dreamed of an America free of racism and full of freedom. His ministry and witness are commemorated in the Episcopal calendar of the church year on Apr. 4.

[https://episcopalchurch.org/library/glossary/king-martin-luther-jr]


 

Saturday in the Fifth Week of Lent

Martin Luther King, Jr., was martyred in Memphis on this date in 1968.

Almighty God, by the hand of Moses your servant you led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last: Grant that your Church, following the example of your prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of your love, and may secure for all your children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

MLK

First of all I’d like to thank you for coming out to the celebration today. The weathermen predicted an inch of slushy snow. So thank you for making the effort.

Thirty-one years ago today it was snowing in Washington, D.C. It was a light snow falling gently through a gray sky. A colleague and I were walking across the Mall at lunch time and past the Washington Monument we came upon a small gathering – small by National Mall standards.

There were thirty or forty thousand people standing in the snow, listening to Elihu Harris and other representatives from Congress, to celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., and to remind us what he meant to our nation and the world.

Stevie Wonder was there and sang a new song, Happy Birthday to Martin, written for the occasion. We can still sing the song – and now we have a holiday – Martin Luther King Day.

But why talk about Martin on a snowy day in Edmonds, Washington, thirty-one years later?

The gospel reading after all is about the calling of Jesus’ first disciples … and that is why!

Nathanael was the quietly faithful one – we next hear his name in the accounts of the Resurrection. Philip is the one who broke the news of the Messiah to the nations, by teaching the Ethiopian eunuch, the vizier of the kingdom of Meroe, all about Jesus, and baptizing him then and there. For all we know that Ethiopian, who went on his way rejoicing, was the first to bring the gospel to Africa. Well done, Philip. Good and faithful, Nathanael.

What does this have to do with Martin – and me?

Well, in 1955 Martin was a fairly successful person, who had recently taken a pretty good job at a nice church in Montgomery, Alabama. May be the disciples Philip and Nathanael had pretty good lives too. But they seemed to be searching for something – or someone – more. So – “we have found the one – the one we have been searching for.”

I suspect Martin was searching for something too. And it found him!

Rosa Parks in 1955 was a nice churchgoing lady who rode the bus to work, and home again at the end of the day. If you have ever been sitting on a crowded bus late in the evening, ready to go home, when one of these ladies comes down the aisle looking for a place to rest her feet, you know what tired looks like.

But back then, in Montgomery, Alabama, you had to move to the rear of the bus unless you were white. And if you weren’t white, and a white person wanted your seat, you had to get up and give it to them.

But this time, in December 1955, something happened.

Mrs. Parks sat down. She sat down in the front part of the bus. Even though she was black.

The driver told her to move. A white person wanted her seat. She did not get up.

Soon it was all over town.

“Every body can sit any where on the bus – or we won’t be on it at all.”

This caused some consternation – throughout the community.

And Martin Luther King, as a respected local pastor, was asked to speak – to say why. Why justice needs to roll down like a river just as much as buses need to roll down the street.

Since that day things began to change – for Martin, who was called to something more than Sunday-morning piety, more than success, to preach good news to the poor and justice to the mistreated.

And things began to change – for the people of Alabama – and for us, too.

What had happened? Martin had stood in his pulpit in front of the church facing his congregation. But now he and his church were facing outward – toward the world, where they were needed, where their witness was needed: their hearts, their hands, their faith, their prayers, their walk with the Lord hand in hand with the people of their city.

Like Philip and Nathanael, we seek something more, we are called to something more, than simply to be “Israelites” of no guile.

Like Martin we are called to something greater than our own success.

Even – like Rosa we are called to put aside our own quiet life – and join something larger. We call it the Kingdom of God.

What is the Kingdom of God to look like here? How will we seek it?

"I've been to the mountaintop"

Martin Luther King, Jr
"I've Been to the Mountaintop"
delivered 3 April 1968, Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), Memphis, Tennessee


Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world. And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, "Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?" I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch God's children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't stop there....

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop.
And I don't mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I'm happy, tonight.
I'm not worried about anything.
I'm not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm

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