Martin Luther King, Jr Sunday January 15, 2017 Doris Hunter

One advantage of cleaning out old files is the surprise find of a lost literary gem. And this was my delight when I found the Beacon Press publication of “Witnessing for the Truth,” (Beacon Press, 2014) including Martin Luther King’s eulogy for the Reverend James Reeb given in the Brown Chapel, Selma, Alabama, March 15, 1965 and the

1966 Ware Lecture, “Don’t Sleep Through the Revolution” given at our

General Assembly in Hollywood, Florida, May 18,1966. Both of these addresses are literary and I would add, moral gems that continue to shine nearly fifty years later.

In “A witness for Truth,” King addresses the question, “Who murdered James Reeb, Unitarian Universalist Minister from Roxbury,

Massachusetts who joined the civil rights protest in Selma, Alabama?”

The answer was obvious. He was murdered by a few sick, demented and misguided men who have the strange notion that you express dissent through murder. (p.12) But then Dr. King turns the question

around and asks “What killed James Reeb?” And then the answer he gives is a list we can all hear again for the “what” is still with us today.

He was murdered by every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. He was murdered by a church that stands amid social evil and serves as a taillight rather than a headlight, an echo rather than a voice. He was murdered by the irresponsibility of every politician who has moved down the path of hate, who has fed his constituents the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. He was murdered by the brutality of every sheriff and law enforcement agent who practices lawlessness in the name of the law. He was murdered by the federal government who can spend millions of dollars a day to keep troops in

South Vietnam (we can list of own continual wars) and yet cannot protest the lives of its own citizens seeking constitutional rights. And yes, Dr. King adds, he was murdered by the cowardice of every Negro who tacitly accepts the evil system of segregation, who stands on the sidelines in the midst of a mighty struggle for justice. (p.12-13)

Perhaps you can hear his voice, that moving cadence calling his listeners to join in the mighty struggle for justice.

Dr. King was very pleased to accept the invitation from Dr. Dana

Greeley to give the Ware Lecture at our General Assembly in 1966.

Ware Lecture is given every year and it is in honor of three generations of the distinguished Ware family, the first being Rev. Henry Ware Sr. that liberal but controversial Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard who precipitated the Unitarian movement. The list of distinguished speakers is awesome and to give the lecture continues to be an honor and a privilege. Last year the Ware Lecture was given by Krista Tippet well known for radio show “On Being.” And I remember a recent one when Mary Oliver shared recent poems and those familiar ones. So Dr.

King felt the honor and privilege being included in this distinguished list of Ware lecturers and he also felt at home with our Unitarian

Universalist audience. Like so many ministers gathered to speak to UU

Congregations he knew that the art of persuasion was not necessary

but it was only necessary to speak with passion about the gospel of social justice to a gathering of friends. And he was indeed among friends the night of May 18, 1966 in Hollywood, Florida. What a contrast when two years later he stood on a balcony and was murdered by an assassin’s bullet.

The title of his address, ‘Don’t Sleep Through the Revolution,” gave

Dr. King the opportunity to recall that familiar story “Rip Van Winkle” written by Washington Irving. Remember how our character slept twenty years in the mountains overlooking the Hudson River. When he awoke, Rip Van Winkle was amazed to see a sign that had the picture of

King George the III of England when he left to take his nap in the woods was now replaced with a picture of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Rip had slept through a revolution!

Maybe some of us feel that he was a lucky person. Oh, to sleep through the next years of our political turmoil. But of course, that is not the moral of Dr. King’s relating this tale. Without a moment

hesitation, he told his listeners that the greatest misfortune of human history is that all too individuals and institutions fail to awake to new attitudes and outlooks that a new situation demands. There is nothing more tragic, Dr. King tells us, than to sleep through a revolution. And there is nothing more tragic than when the church sleeps through a revolution.

The church, that’s you and me! What can we do as individuals and as members of this church to refuse to sleep through our revolution which is not so different from the revolution that Dr. King experienced almost fifty years ago? His call to awake is our call to awake. Here are some of the challenges he gave in that address which are challenges for us making as headlights and not tail lights in the cause for justice and nonviolent love. We are a world tribal community sharing the struggles of those distant relatives who face unspeakable violence in their daily lives. Our insular tribal communities must open their doors to this suffering as our Church recently did with its outreach to the

refugees with clothes and physical support. Every day we face those cruel words and deeds against our religious neighbors making friends into enemies. How we need to confront these prejudices with words and deeds demanding religious understanding and appreciation for our neighbors. How we need to shine forth with messages that stand for racial and economic equality and speak out against such unspeakable ignorance such as Dr. King mentions hearing from one of his brothers.

“All men are made in the image of God. God, as everybody knows, is not a Negro, therefore, the Negro is not a man.” We can tune in these days and hear similar words of unspeakable ignorance and hateful prejudices. It is not enough to tune off but to respond with words of truth and conviction. And finally against all the violence of our world

Dr. King calls us to affirm the principles of nonviolence, principles which guided his life and if possible, our lives.

When I first heard these principles and again as we heard in this morning’s read, I thought how they related to the Beatitudes Jesus

spoke to his disciples and it is not surprising knowing how committed

Dr. King was to the Christian Gospel of Love.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for there is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they

Shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness ‘sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5: 3-10

This famous message, The Sermon on the Mount, inspired Dr. King to articulate these principles of nonviolence. He believed that nonviolence in words and deeds is not for cowards and certainly his life

as well as the lives of those who marched for civil rights such as James

Reeb exemplified this truth. And in this day when it seems to be the smart game to humiliate one’s opponent, this was a call to understanding and a commitment to compromise and even more important, to the art of listening. How amazing that would be! Dr.

King’s dedication to accept suffering without retaliation and to resist physical and emotional/spiritual violence was a daily test for all those who faced the force of those water hoses and the teeth of the police dogs. He concluded his Ware Lecture and for that matter, his own life, with his belief in the agape, self-giving love of God operating in the human heart. And what a love that is; making no distinction between friend and enemy, loving all people because of their need to be loved, and being willing to go the second mile forgiving everyone because we are all sisters and brothers.

“With this faith we (you and me sitting in these pews this morning) will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a

beautiful symphony of brotherhood and speed up that day when all of

God’s children all over our nation and the world will be able to walk the earth as brothers and sisters, and then we can sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last.” (p.16)

Now what shall we sing this morning to honor the spirit and life of Dr.

King? James Russell Lowell’s words sing out: “Once to every soul and nation comes the moment to decide, in the strife of truth with false- hood, for the good or evil side: then to stand with truth is noble, when we share its wretched crust, ere the cause bring fame and profit, and

‘tis prosperous to be just. Though the cause of evil prosper, yet ‘tis truth alone is strong, though its portion be the scaffold and upon the throne be wrong. Then it is the brave one chooses, while the coward stands aside, till the multitude make virtue of the faith they have denied.” Hymn no 119. Let us sing!