 |
| "New" Ebenezer Baptist Church - follow the fenceline |
 |
| Ebenezer Baptist Church, down the street from M.L.K.'s birth home |
I'd never seen a light-up cross in a church sanctuary before, but this one didn't impress me as garish instead seeming to match the rest of the dignified architecture of its surroundings - maybe fitting as well. because of the history of the place. Martin Luther King Jr.'s voice was playing into the space on a recording.
The words below, an excerpt from one of his sermons, reveal a few different things. For one, they show an incredibly intelligent
and educated man. To be perfectly honest, I didn't know this. Until recently I
thought Martin Luther King, Jr. was a charismatic man; a symbol, maybe an object of people’s worship; a convincing person; a tragic figure. This sermon and others of his however, reveal a deep, abiding revelationary, personal relationship with God. They also show that he was brilliant and extremely educated. In terms
of what civil rights demonstrators had to face at that time, these words offer clues as to where they got
their strength and determination.
It wasn’t from a quaint, emotionalism-heavy “Black
church” experience. It wasn’t pumping one another up to go out and, "fight to win." It
was calm wisdom and powerful truth, enabling them to put one foot in front of the other down an ordinary street, for miles. Knowing fully that they might die, be spit on, injured, or maimed, for walking. Knowing that they would not defend themselves.
They weren't protesting, the way we think of it now. They weren't taking a political stand one side or another, risking being derided or insulted for their opinions. They weren't shouting. Dignified, they were marching for voting rights, or sitting at a counter simply to be served. With each step, they were establishing and declaring their personhood. Their value.
They weren’t self-righteous, full of hateful anger or revenge –
those would’ve been counter-productive.
[Note: yes, these were ordinary people and I know they felt fear, anger, everything, but their behavior demonstrated restrained courage.]
In the sermon below, Martin Luther King, Junior mentions Highway 80 and alludes to the march from Selma to Montgomery.
Titled “Unfulfilled Dreams," [an excerpt] it was preached back at Ebenezer Baptist, his growing-up church down the street from the house where he grew up, a month before he was
killed:
(I love that the text includes the verbal responses from
the congregation, an integral part of the message.)
[From the book, “A Knock at Midnight,” edited by
Clayborne Carson & Peter Holloran.]
So many of us in life start out building temples: temples of
character, temples of justice, temples of peace. And so often we don’t finish
them. Because life is like Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony.” At so many points
we start, we try, we set out to build our various temples. And I guess one of
the great agonies of life is that we are constantly trying to finish that which
is unfinishable. We are commanded to do that. And so we, like David, find
ourselves in so many instances having to face the fact that our dreams are not
fulfilled …
And each of you this morning in some way is building some
kind of temple. The struggle is always there. It gets discouraging sometimes.
It gets very disenchanting sometimes. Some of us are trying to build a temple
of peace. We speak out against war, we protest but it seems that your head is
going against a concrete wall. It seems to mean nothing. (Glory to God) And so often as you set out to build the temple of
peace you are left lonesome; you are left discouraged; you are left bewildered.
Well, that is the story of life…
Now, let me bring out another point. Whenever you set out to
build a creative temple, whatever it may be, you must face the fact that there
is a tension at the heart of the universe between good and evil. It’s there: a
tension at the heart of the universe between good and evil. (Yes, sir) Hinduism refers to this as a
struggle between illusion and reality. Platonic philosophy used to refer to it
as a tension between the body and soul. Zoroastrianism, a religion of old, used
to refer to it as tension between the god of light and the god of darkness.
Traditional Judaism and Christianity refer to it as a tension between God and
Satan. Whatever you call it, there is a struggle in the universe between good
and evil…
But you know some of us feel that it’s a tension between God
and man. And in every one of us this morning, there’s a war going on. (Yes, sir) It’s a civil war. (Yes, sir) I don’t care who you are, I
don’t care where you live, there is a civil war going on in your life. (Yes it is) And every time you set out to
be good, there’s something pulling on you, telling you to be evil. It’s going
on in your life. (Preach it) Every
time you set out to love, something keeps pulling on you, trying to get you to
hate. (Yes, Yes, sir) Every time you
set out to be kind and say nice things about people, something is pulling on you
to be jealous and envious and to spread evil gossip about them. (Yes. Preach it.) There’s a civil war
going on. There is a schizophrenia, as the psychologists or the psychiatrists
would call it, going on within all of us. And there are times that all of us
know somehow that there is a Mr. Hyde and a Dr. Jekyll in us. And we end up
having to cry out with Ovid, the Latin poet, “I see and approve the better
things in life, but the evil things I do.” We end up having to agree with Plato
that the human personality is like a charioteer with two strong horses, each
wanting to go in different directions. Or sometimes we even have to end up
crying out with Saint Augustine as he said in his Confessions, “Lord, make me pure, but not yet.” (Amen) We end up crying out with the
Apostle Paul, (Preach it) “The good
that I would I do not: And the evil that I would not, that I do.” Or we end up
having to say with Goethe that “there’s enough stuff in me tomake both a
gentleman and a rogue.” (All right. Amen)
There’s a tension at the heart of human nature. (Oh yeah) And whenever we set out to dream our dreams and to build
our temples, we must be honest enough to recognize it.
And this brings me to the basic point of the text (the
eighth chapter of First Kings). In the final analysis, God does not judge us by
the separate incidents or the separate mistakes that we make, but by the total
bent of our lives. In the final analysis, God knows (Yes) that his children are weak and they are frail. (Yes, he does) In the final analysis, what
God requires is that your heart is right. (Amen.
Yes) Salvation isn’t reaching the destination of absolute morality, but
it’s being in the process and on the right road. (Yes)
There’s a highway called Highway 80. I’ve marched on that
highway from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery. But I will never forget my first
experience with Highway 80 was driving … to California.
… Salvation is being on the right road, not having reached a
destination.
… Now, the terrible thing in life is to be trying to get to Los
Angeles on Highway 78. That’s when you are lost. (Yes) That sheep was lost, not merely because he was doing something
wrong in that parable, but he was on the wrong road. (Yes) And he didn’t even know where he was going; he became so
involved in what he was doing, nibbling sweet grass, (Make it plain) that he got on the wrong road. (Amen)
And the question I want to raise this morning with you: Is
your heart right? (Yes. Preach) If
your heart isn’t right, fix it up today; get God to fix it up. (Go ahead) … And I can hear a voice
saying, crying out through the eternities, “I accept you. (Preach it) You are a recipient of my grace because it was in your
heart.
… I don’t know this morning about you, but I can make a
testimony. (Yes, sir. That’s my life)
you don’t need to go out this morning saying that Martin Luther King is a
saint. Oh, no. (Yes) I want you to
know this morning that I’m a sinner like all of God’s children.
… It will be dark sometimes, and it will be dismal and
trying, and tribulations will come. But if you have faith in the God that I’m
talking about this morning, it doesn’t matter. (Yes) I’ve felt sin-breakers dashing, trying to conquer my soul. But
I heard the voice of Jesus, saying still to fight on. He promised never to
leave me, (Yes, sir) never to leave
me alone. (Thank you, Jesus) No,
never alone. No, never alone. He promised never to leave me. Never to leave me
alone. (Glory to God)
And when you get this faith, you can walk with your feet
solid to the ground and your head to the air, and you fear no man. (Go ahead) And you fear nothing that
comes before you. (Yes, sir) Because
you know that God is even in Crete. (Amen)
If you ascend to the heavens, God is there. If you descend to hell, God is even
there. If you take the wings of the morning and fly out to the uttermost parts
of the sea, even God is there. Everywhere we turn we find him. We can never
escape him.
Delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, 3
March 1968
