Today the world is taking a moment to remember Dr. King. 40 years ago he was gunned down on the balcony of the Loraine Motel in Memphis. A lot of people are talking about him today. He's all over the radio and the television. In the last forty years he has somehow become fairly universally recognized as a hero and a prophet. But his death reminds us that he was not always so esteemed by the general public. Especially not the comfortable, white, middle and upper class conservatives. He was seen as a trouble maker. He was a threat to those for whom the status quo was working well.
If Dr. King was alive today, and if he was speaking out against the Iraq war the way he spoke against Vietnam. If he were standing up for poor people and demanding ongoing strides towards racial justice. If he was speaking out in such a "political" way today, I wonder how many of our churches would invite him to speak from their pulpits. I wonder how many would be willing to associate themselves with him. My guess is not many. All of us want to claim Dr. King as hero, but very few want to walk where he walked. We would rather "keep the peace" than trouble the waters. We have made Dr. King safe, just have we made Jesus safe. They are both easier to stomach that way. But it makes our celebrations of them both empty and hypocritical.
The world remembers Dr. King today as a great civic leader, but Christ-followers should remember him as Pastor to a generation. Pastor to us still. I long for a voice like Dr. King's to speak into me, into my neighborhood, my church, my nation. And I long to have the courage to listen and respond.
I think I hear God still speaking these words to his Church today:
Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!
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