Perspective #34 Grace College Chapel January 13, 2022
I would like to invite you to the Martin Luther King event next Monday. I grew up in Chicago, but I was away at university (in fact, I turned in my senior thesis on economics) on the April day that Martin Luther King was assassinated.
In Chicago, the rioting and destruction related to the assassination were much less on the South Side than the West Side. Why? How? Dr. King had spent time with the leaders of two Chicago gangs, the Blackstone Rangers and the Eastside Disciples. Those two gangs kept things fairly calm on the South Side as a result of Dr King’s influence.
Later that summer I was an usher at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. There were riots there too.
When I first came to Grace that same fall, I was saddened to see that MLK was viewed with suspicion and even opposition by people on the Grace campus and in broader Evangelical circles at the time.
I’m happy to say that Dr. Manahan renounced that, and Dr Katip led the way in helping our campus family see that MLK was a man who was worthy of our deep respect due to his biblical views and transformative impact.
The purpose of MLK Day is not to patronize him as a saint; he had frail flesh as do we, but to renew our commitment to his commitments. I want to emphasize three aspects of his leadership and urge us to follow those three even as we honor his memory.
1 MLK’s fundamental understanding of human beings was that we are all created in the image of God.
There are no exceptions, no rankings, no alternative views. As God’s image bearers, we are accountable to him, and we are stewards of everything and everyone around us. We are also able to receive his forgiving grace and find ways to forgive others. This is bedrock.
2 While he was a forceful man and though he died in violence, he was committed to nonviolence. Today, as then, we see those of all political persuasions who do not share that commitment. Our own heritage of Charis churches has a root of exceptional commitment to Jesus pattern and teaching of nonviolence. I urge us all to share Dr. King’s commitment, his biblical commitment, to nonviolence.
3 Not to be separated from the other two, MLK had a focus on justice. Evangelicals, including me, in his day were overfocused on righteousness and neglectful of justice. Today it is common to overfocus on justice and neglect righteousness. As an educational community committed to biblical truth and the virtues of critical thinking, we are capable of holding those two values in balance without resorting to extremes. Let’s pursue that balance together.
I have spent much time in Atlanta for Encompass; the Charis Fellowship missions board. I do not rush so that I have time on either end of my brief visit to engage Atlanta. On one of my several trips to the Sweet Auburn neighborhood on a warm October afternoon, I sat in the Ebenezer Baptist Church for most of an hour before it closed. His speeches and some music filled the otherwise empty, silent room.
I came to sense the power of his words, of his presence, of his life, and of his commitments. That power is the power of God’s own image bearers, distressed by injustice, and (the hardest part) willing to lay down the world’s tools of power to achieve what cannot be achieved by the world’s power, but only by the transformative power of God in Jesus Christ. I was moved. I was encouraged.
Image bearers of the creator God.
Non-violent people of the God who forgives.
People committed to righteousness and justice.
May we renew our commitment to these biblical ideals as we celebrate MLK and the still-needed transformation he brought to our nation. Please join me at the MLK event on Monday.
Thaddeus Kosciuszko Instructs Thomas Jefferson on Slavery