Preached 1-20-08 by Bruce Calkins.

Many of the quotes are from Hold Fast to the Dream

Remembering

Isaiah 49:1-7    1 Corinthians 1:4-9

#379 "My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less";  #404 "Precious Lord, Take My Hand"

"We Shall Overcome"

Today's sermon will different from any that I've ever given.

      To some it won't sound like I'm explaining the Bible.

            To others it will.

I'll be reading some powerful words and speaking about some powerful actions.

            They're based on what Jesus said and did.

(AMERICA IN THE 1940's AND 1950's)

Martin Luther King Jr. has change the way many people understand the Gospel, democracy, race relations, and human relations.

As he was growing up, he couldn't buy a Coke or a hamburger at any downtown store.

            He couldn't sit at a lunch counter.

He couldn't drink water at the "whites only" water fountains. He couldn't ride on the "whites only" elevators.

He said: "Being a Negro in America means trying to smile when you want to cry.

It means trying to hold on to physical life amid psychological death.

It means watching your own children grow up with feelings of inferiority.

It means having your legs cut off, and then being condemned for being a cripple. ..."

But he never tried to go-it-alone.

      One of his favorite songs was,

Precious Lord, take my hand,

      lead me on, let me stand,

            I am tired, I am weak, I am worn;

Through the storm, through the night,

      lead me on to the light:

Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.

MONTGOMERY

The treatment of blacks in Montgomery was terrible.

      It was more than sitting in the back of the bus.

A black who was blind took too long getting on the bus, so the driver closed the door with his leg in it and dragged him for two blocks.

A man argued about the bus fare.

      The police shot him for arguing with a white man.

Tensions were high.

There was a meeting of the Black churches.

                  Martin Luther King was elected to organize a response to the crisis.

Here's what he said at that meeting.

"In our protests, there will be no cross burnings.

                  No white person will be taken from his home by a hooded Negro mob and brutally murdered.

We will be guided by the highest principles of law and order...the deepest principles of our Christian faith.

            Love must be our regulating ideal....

If we fail to do this, our protest will end up as a meaningless drama on the stage of history. ...

We must not become bitter and end up by hating our white brothers.

Let no people pull you down so low as to make you hate them."

They organized a boycott of the Montgomery buses.

      And they sang, "We shall overcome."

And there was SELMA.

Voting rights ? bloody Sunday - - -

On Tuesday - - -

(I sat right behind Martin Luther King. I thought "Wow!")

On Wednesday, they began the long, slow, and dangerous march from Selma to Montgomery.

                        Thursday, I returned to the Bronx and followed the progress on the news.

A member of the church, Mrs. Thelma Duany, gave me an oil painting she had made. - - -

                  Years later, I visited the Martin Luther King memorial - -

            I wrote in the visitors book, "I went part of the way.

                        Martin Luther King Jr. went all the way."

¶ And the people were able to sing.

We are not afraid

We are not afraid, ...

Oh, deep in my heart,

I do believe,

that we shall overcome some day.

And there was BIRMINGHAM

 CHURCH BOMBING ?

                  On the way to Hattiesburg, we went by the church in Birmingham. - - -

THE STAINED GLASS WORK OF ART - - -

The police commissioner in Birmingham was "Bull" Connor. ...  He promised that "blood would run in the streets" before Birmingham would desegregate.

On April 3, 1963, the protest in Birmingham began, with boycotts, sit‑ins, and marches.

Protesters were arrested by the hundreds, and hundreds more came.

            The jail was packed with over three thousand people.

                  King was one of them. ...

He read a letter in a newspaper in which several white clergy criticized him for pushing integration too quickly.

King used the backs of envelopes and other scraps of paper to write a response.

It became known as the "Letter from the Birmingham Jail."

      Here's part of it:

"You told us that our protests were "untimely" and that we should trust you and "wait."

For centuries, the Negro has heard "wait;"

      and "wait" has nearly always meant "Never."

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God‑given rights..."

Later in the letter he said,

... "We will have to repent not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.

                        In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

Out on the streets, "Bull" Connor had firemen turn the hoses on the marchers.

Water crashed into children and adults, knocking them down, ripping their clothing, smashing them against walls.

Then he let the dogs loose.

      You've probably seen rebroadcast of it on TV.

The turning point came when three thousand young people went on a prayer vigil to the Birmingham jail, where King and others were being held.

The police threatened them and screamed at them,

      but all they did was kneel in prayer.

Finally, one of the protesters stood up and said,

      "We're not turning back.

            We haven't done anything wrong.

                  All we want is our freedom...."

"Bull" Connor yelled at his men to turn on the hoses!

      Nobody moved.

The young people kept praying.

      Bull yelled again, but the men dropped their hoses.

            One of the firemen began crying.

One of them said, "We can't continue to do this."

Nobody spoke again.

      Nobody got hurt.

                        Soon after that, the businesses of Birmingham agreed to integrate.

And the people sang:

The only Chain that we can stand,

is the chain of hand in hand...

Keep your eyes on the prize, Hold on.

Hold on.

Hold on.

Keep your eyes on the prize, Hold on.

WASHINGTON D.C. - August 28, 1963:

      It was the largest civil rights demonstration ever.

Our church brought a bus full of folks from the Bronx.

I still remember my skin tingling as King said:

      "I have a dream that one day "every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains,

            and the crooked places will be made straight,

                  and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed."

Then he started naming places ? safe places, up North.

"... So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let Freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!"

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain Georgia!"

I stood up taller when he mentioned Georgia.

You could get killed for talking like that in Georgia.

Then he said, "Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi."

            There was moisture in my eyes!

                  He mentioned Mississippi by name!!!

I'd been there when someone who tried to register to vote was arrested for drug possession because he had Aspirin!

The crowd was cheering. I was cheering.

And the people sang:

"We Shall Overcome,

... Oh, deep in my heart,

I do believe,

we shall overcome some day.

The danger was still great.

JFK was assassinated.

      Martin and his wife Coretta attended the funeral.

            Quietly Martin said to Coretta.

                  "Someday this will be me."

                        She said, "I know."

MEMPHIS

King was asked to go to Memphis.

He was sick with the flu.

He asked Ralph Abernathy to fill in for him at the rally, but Abernathy called and said, "The crowd wants to hear you.

                        Do you have enough energy to came and say a few words?"

King drove through the rain.

                  He stumbled to the podium with nothing planned about what he would say.

And he gave his last speech.

      The "I've Been to the Mountain Top Speech."

            Here is some of what he said on April 3, 1968.

"... Let us stand with determination.

Let us ... make America what it ought to be.

...I don't know what will happen now. ...

                  But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountain top.

... Like anybody, I would like to live a long life; ...

            But I'm not concerned about that now.

                  I just want to do God's will.

And God'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 I'm happy tonight.

      I'm not worried about anything.

            I'm not fearing anyone.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!"

¶ The next day, at 6:05 p.m., Martin Luther King, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, and others were standing on the second floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

The car that would take them to dinner pulled up.

                  Martin recognized the driver as the young man who would sing for them after the dinner.

He yelled down. "Ben, make sure you sing ?Precious Lord, Take My Hand' tonight.

            Sing it real pretty."

                        Ben yelled back, "Okay, Doc, I will."

There was a gun shot. Martin Luther King fell.

During the next few minutes Ralph Abernathy held the head of his closest friend in his lap while waiting for an ambulance.

He spoke to Martin, but Martin could only respond with his eyes.

Years later Ralph said that he heard much from those eyes that night.

With his eyes he seemed to be saying,

      "Ralph, it isn't over.

It's only in other people's hands now.

      Don't give up. Never give up. Never give up."

            Then he died.

We haven't given up.

            We're still working.

                  We're still singing that song ? real pretty.

Precious Lord, take my hand,

      lead me on, let me stand,

            I am tired, I am weak, I am worn;

Through the storm, through the night,

      lead me on to the light:

Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.

Sing it real pretty now.

SOME GREAT MATERIAL THAT WAS NOT USED IN THE SERMON

When I am in the shelter of my home,

      I must remember the homeless.

When I eat,

      I must remember the hungry.

When I feel secure,

      I must remember the insecure.

When I see injustice,

      I must remember that it will not stop unless I stop it.

- - - - - -

Dr. King's words challenge us:

"?injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

We will listen to the cries of the poor;

we will stand in solidarity with those who suffer oppression;

we will take as our own the hopes of all who long for full human life;

we will create in our midst the Beloved Community

      with room for all, justice for all, joy for all, Shalom for all.

We will listen to the voice of the Christ.

- - - - - -

Proclamation of the Power of Love

"We can stand up before our most violent opponent and say: We will match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good, and so throw us in jail. We will go in those jails and transform them from dungeons of shame to havens of freedom and human dignity.

"Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities after midnight hours and drag us out on some wayside road and beat us and leave us half-dead, and as difficult as it is, we will still love you. Somehow go around the country and use your propaganda agents to make it appear that we are not fit culturally, morally, or otherwise for integration, and we will still love you. Threaten our children and bomb our homes, and as difficult as it is, we will still love you.

"But be assured that we will ride you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we will win our freedom, but we will not only win freedom for ourselves, we will so appeal to your heart and your conscience that we will win you in the process."

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, on July 4, 1965

- - - - - -

"I Shall Not Be Moved"

(The Choir will lead us in the first two verses. Please stand and join in for the other verses.)

3.   We're standing up for freedom; we shall not be moved.

4.   We want our right to vote now; we shall not be moved.

5.   For freedom, peace and justice; we shall not be moved.

6.   When we love our neighbor; we shall not be moved.

7.   We are all God's children; we shall not be moved.

(Most of the statements about MLK and quotes from MLK are from the document "Hold Fast To the Dream.")

He went to Selma, to challenge the voting discrimination.

      Thousands joined the struggle for freedom and justice!!

He said:

"I choose to identify with the underprivileged.

      I choose to identify with the poor.

            I choose to give my life for the hungry.

This is the way I'm going.

If it means suffering a little bit, I'm going that way.

            If it means sacrificing, I'm going that way.

            If it means dying for them, I'm going that way."

For Dr. King - for us -

      Anything less would be too small a thing.

¶ He talked about war and peace.

      That caused some folks to hate him even more.

And some of his supporters to said, "No Martin, don't get into that!!

Stick to racial justice and fairness."

But he said, I identify with those who are being called gooks and enemies and those who are being burned to death by bombs.

            They are my sisters and brothers.

He believed that for the church and the nation,

      Anything less would be too small a thing.

¶ Shortly before he was killed, he plead with the nation:

"America, listen to me, please.

                  You are being burdened down by some terrible commitments.

Any nation that chooses to spend more on armaments than on social reform is a nation in trouble."

He said, "America, I would not say these things to you if I did not love you.

                        But you are in danger of giving in to militarism and materialism, as well as racism."

TAKEN OUT TO SHORTEN THE SERMON

[FROM THE BIRMINGHAM JAIL LETTER]

While confined here in Birmingham jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely."...Since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.

"You are right when you note that we are outsiders coming in to your community, but we have come to Birmingham because there is terrible injustice here, and we must respond like the Apostle Paul did to the Macedonian call for help. ... I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. ..."