MLK Sunday 2023: From Rage to Shout

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January 15, 2023

In this sermon, we commemorate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We'll reflect on the life events that formed him, hear portions of the last sermon he preached, and be encouraged by the music that shaped the Civil Rights Movement.⁠

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I’d like to begin with a land acknowledgment to honor the Native people that existed here before us.

I honor the First Peoples of current day downtown Phoenix, the Tohono O’odham (Thaw-naw-Awe-Thumb) Nation.

They were scientists of the environment and master dwellers of the desert, creating sophisticated canal systems to irrigate their crops of cotton, tobacco, corn, beans, and squash. They built vast ball courts and huge ceremonial mounds and left behind fine red-on-buff pottery and exquisite jewelry of stone, shell, and clay.

In the words of Lisa Sharon Harper:

“They were and are here. We see you. We honor you. And we thank you for laying foundations of harmony, balance, truth, and honor. Thank you for stewarding the land where Creator settled your people. We bless you. We bless your elders: past, present, and emerging.”

INTRODUCTION

Today is significant for me because it is officially the beginning of my second year as a pastor here. When I reflect on that, sometimes I still can’t believe it — me, a Black woman, co-lead pastor of a justice-centered, liberating church.

On top of that, today is MLK Sunday at Kaleo – my favorite Sunday of the year (next to Juneteenth).

MLK Sunday is significant for me because before I ever became a pastor here, it was the first time I went to church on the weekend of MLK Day and didn't just see a screen graphic of a palatable quote. He didn’t just get an honorable mention during the offering time to boost the giving. It was the first time I had ever been in the space of faith where the entire service was centered around commemorating the life and work of Dr. King.

For three years now we’ve spent our gathering time listening to a live reading of the Letters from a Birmingham Jail.

Last year, was even more special because the following day, we joined Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church for the MLK March.

On the evening of that march, Kendall and I had dinner with Linda Morris and her husband for the first time and we listened to them ignite within us a passion to know our ancestral story. It was from this dinner that my one-year pastoral anniversary message “Liberation In Genealogy” was born.

So now I stand here before you today privileged to speak to you on MLK Sunday…still feeling the tension of the darkness of the world in light of the murder of Keenan Anderson as he was tased to death by police officers…still feeling the tension of the reality that love is greater than hate…and the ways of Jesus (which we practice) are greater than empire…

But I believe that the world bends towards justice…and the second coming of Christ will come with it the rising again of Keenan Anderson, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and the millions of others who have died unjustly.

I still feel the tension of the life and work of Dr. King because he was assassinated for saying things that I’m going to say to you today.

His words ring in my ears when he said:

“When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a great benign Power in the universe whose name is God, and he is able to make a way out of no way, and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. This is our hope for becoming better (women and) men. This is our mandate for seeking to make a better world.”

I still feel the tension of that…

I still feel the tension of rage, courage, confusion, uncertainty, And the responsibility of Truth-telling, which sometimes feels like shouting in the fire.

I still feel the tension of the reality that we are the continuation of a story Dr. King couldn’t finish telling.

Take a deep breath and let that sink in.

LET’S PRAY

Father Son and Holy Spirit as we commemorate the life and work of Dr king, would you speak to us. Would you instill inside of us and give us a vision of what it means to have courage; to stand 10 toes down in the face of white supremacy, opposition, and oppression. Would you give us a vision of what it means to shout in the fire. Amen.

SHOUTIN’ IN THE FIRE

Kendall and I spent Christmas and New Year's in Iowa and the frigid and bitterly cold winter of the Midwest - West Desmoine, Iowa. We took a couple of books that Chris had given to us for Christmas, one being called “Shoutin’ In The Fire” by Dante Stewart.

(hold book) This book is essentially a memoir and stirring meditation of being Black and learning to love in a loveless, anti-Black world. Stewart uses his personal experiences as a vehicle to reclaim and reimagine spiritual virtues like rage, resilience, and remembrance.

Kendall was so touched by this literature that he handed it to me, and urged me to read chapter 6.

At first, I was a little annoyed because, he knows how many books I'm trying to read right now; and even with this information, he continues to urge me to read this chapter.

So I take it…and as I look down upon the chapter title… that annoyance immediately turned into a deep curiosity. Chapter 6 in this book is called “Rage.” Now, this is not a word often talked about and somewhat culturally forbidden to be used to describe the way the Black people feel. And yet, I read it feels like the right word to use. It feels like the last puzzle piece that makes the whole thing come together…it just…fits.

And so I read.

In this chapter, Dante Stewart shares an interesting story about how his Black wife lead their family in wokeness but he himself did not have a personal epiphany until another Black woman at his job gave him the harsh reality that he as a complacent, comfortable, sleeping Black man had nothing to offer to Black people. This confrontation was embarrassing, hurtful…but true…and propelled him into a journey of cultural self-reflection. and it was in these moments that he was given a book called, “Where Do We Go from Here?” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Stewart pens these words:

“I walked upstairs and into my office, and sat at my table. I pulled out the book and began to read. I read for hours. I read and read and read. I couldn’t put it down. I lost track of time. I grabbed my pen and began underlining as much as I could. It was as if Martin had showed up in my room. This was a different Martin than the one the white Christians around me quoted about judging others by the content of their character. This was a different Martin from the terrible ways they talked about his Christianity, and how he had been a Marxist, and that he didn’t believe like they believed, and that he wasn’t as important as we had thought.

It was like reading the gospels; I felt the power of Jesus, the news of the liberation of the oppressed. I read through King’s critique of white people, their lack of reeducation out of their racial ignorance, their myths of America as a Christian nation, their commitment to white supremacy. I read through his thoughts on Black Power, both his critique and praise, his radical imagination of Black politics and the fierce urgency of liberation. I had gotten used to the people I was around sanitizing King, making him the prophet of white gradualism and colorblind Christianity.“

KING’S LAST SPEECH

Let’s go back in time for a moment.

It’s April 3, 1968.

Dr. King had come to Memphis, TN twice to give aid to the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike. On March 18, he spoke at a rally before 15,000 people and vowed to return the following week to lead a march. James Lawson and King led a march on March 28th, which erupted in violence and was immediately called off. Against the advice of his colleagues in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King returned to Memphis on April 3, 1968, seeking to restore nonviolence back to the movement in Memphis.

This was the day before he was assassinated. Let’s listen to a few of his final public words:

WHAT FORMED THIS YOUNG KING?

Take a moment and just sit his words…

I couldn’t help but wonder…

What makes a human respond that way?
What makes a human say the things that he said?

Maybe ask yourself, what has made me the way that I am? Why do I stand in front of injustice and say what I say.. or why do I at times choose to shut my mouth in silence? What makes me who I am?

I'm fascinated by Dr. King. I took a look at his autobiography, and couldn’t help but ask these questions as I read about him…what made him that way?

What made him unafraid of the dogs and firehoses?
What made him unafraid of the difficult days ahead…which for him would become his own assassination?
What made him both a pastor and an activist?
What made him a preacher and a political figure?

As we take the next few minutes and journey through his childhood and upbringing…I would invite you to keep asking these questions.

The following are notes from Clayborne Carson. “The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.” Apple Books.

SO WHAT ABOUT HIS FAMILY?

Dr. King said he had a marvelous mother and father. Could hardly remember a time that they ever argued or had any great falling out.

It was quite easy for him to lean more toward optimism than pessimism about human nature mainly because of his childhood experiences.

His father always had an interest in civil rights and was the president of the NAACP in Atlanta, and always stood out in social reform.

Before King was born, his father refused to ride the city buses after witnessing a brutal attack on a load of Negro passengers. King’s Dad led the fight in Atlanta to equalize teachers’ salaries and was instrumental in the elimination of Jim Crow elevators in the courthouse.

King said, “I have never experienced the feeling of not having the basic necessities of life.” His father never made more than an ordinary salary, but knew the art of saving and budgeting. So for this reason, King grew up being provided for with the basic necessities of life with little strain.

“Although I came from a home of economic security and relative comfort, I could never get out of my mind the economic insecurity of many of my playmates and the tragic poverty of those living around me.”

SO WHAT ABOUT HIS FRIENDS?

At the age of 6 one of his good friends had to go to a different school than him because he was White. Although, before that time they played together all the time. But now, all of a sudden his white friend’s Dad forbid him to play with King.

King was so hurt, he presented this scenario to his parents which became a teachable moment for King as they used it to help him see and understand the many other racial implications of White rage against Black bodies.

King said, “I was greatly shocked, and from that moment on I was determined to hate every white person. As I grew older and older this feeling continued to grow.”

WHAT ABOUT HIS FAITH?

Dr. King also had his own unique faith journey of belief in Jesus.

He said, “At the age of thirteen, I shocked my Sunday school class by denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus…I never regretted going to church until I passed through a state of skepticism in my second year of college.”

WHAT ABOUT HIS DIGNITY?

Another significant moment in King’s life was when he was asked to stand up on a bus and give his seat to a White person. He refused at first but was urged on by a family member, and became somewhat forced to stand up in the aisle for 90 miles to Atlanta. King said that night will never leave his memory. It was the angriest he had ever been in his life.

He goes on to say, “I remember seeing the Klan actually beat a Negro. I had passed spots where Negroes had been savagely lynched. All of these things did something to my growing personality.”

“After that summer in Connecticut, it was a bitter feeling going back to segregation. It was hard to understand why I could ride wherever I pleased on the train from New York to Washington and then had to change to a Jim Crow car at the nation’s capital in order to continue the trip to Atlanta.”

He said, “During my student days I read Henry David (Throw) Thoreau’s essay on Civil Disobedience”.... Here, in this courageous New Englander’s refusal to pay his taxes and his choice of jail rather than support a war that would spread slavery’s territory into Mexico, I made my first contact with the theory of nonviolent resistance.” He said, “I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.”

King said, his call to the ministry was not a miraculous or supernatural something. On the contrary, it was an inner urge calling him to serve humanity.

THE PATTERNS OF KING

As I read the significant moments of Dr King's life story and journey, I noticed patterns:

His family and the community that surrounded him…formed him.
Social encounters he had as a little boy…formed him.
Struggles with his faith and belief in Jesus…formed him.
His dignity being stripped away by White supremacy…formed him.
Books from authors with new thought and teachings from Howard Thurman, Ghandi, and Henry David (Throw) Thoreau...taught him a new way.

All of these things did something to his growing personality.

All of these things grew inside of him...what Dante Stewart calls..."RAGE"

Dr. King came face to face with injustice at almost every stage of his life – as a boy, at school, he saw the poverty of his friends. He was denied the right to play with his White friend. On the bus he was classified as less than. While taking a walk he was seeing himself in the Negro that was being severely beaten by the KKK. At church he was challenged with a belief in Jesus…yet inspired by books and theology from authors who learned how to take a nonviolent Savior and make him a political way of being in the world and the call to Ministry urged him to rise up as such.

Again, take a moment and ask yourself…

Are the things forming my life, helping me see the Injustice in the world or causing me to grow inside a holy rage?

These moments made Martin Luther who he was. These experiences formed inside of him both a rage and a shout.

Rage for the tolerance of a system that oppresses people…and a shout of prophetic non-violent resistance to participate in a system that needs a death sentence.

What about us?

The books we read, the voices we listen to, will form within us a rage and a shout or complacency and a hush.

King saw the dignity gap and wanted to close it.
He saw the slums of Chicago and wanted to change it.
He saw the underpaid jobs of negroes compared to the wealthier high paying jobs of white people and wanted to do something about it.

King was who he was because he saw and he refused to unsee. He was not blinded by the darkness but searched for the luminating light in the darkness. And once he saw, he could not unsee.

Are we so comfortable with our houses that we forget there are many who sleep without homes?

Are we so comfortable with our jobs that we forget there are many who commit suicide because their jobs don't pay enough to live?

Are we so comfortable with our cars that we forget there are those who have no transportation at all?

Do we care enough to want to close the gap or are we so disconnected from humanity and the Creator's desire to make all people “fully human” that we are content to leave injustice… unjust?

It was these gaps, these injustices, these wrongs not being made right that created inside of King a rage and a fire that could not be shut up.

He could not ignore it; he could not throw a blanket over it; he could not turn a blind eye to it; he could not pretend it did not exist. King was so enraged and that rage turned into a prophetic shout in a world that is on fire he shouted from within the fire...that all wrongs be made right!!!

Oh, I don't know if you're hearing me today!

Friends, I have reached the point in my life that I am enraged by Injustice. I am enraged when people cannot see. I am enraged by the complacency and our culture that encourages us to sit in our comfort and not get up for the human right of all to be in Comfort.

A decent job is not a privilege it's a human right. A roof over your head is not a privilege it's a human right. Good health care is not a privilege it's a human right and if you stop seeing privileges as privileges but as human rights you will get in the fight.

For what did our Creator create us for? To starve? To go without? To be tazed to death? To be unjustly sentenced to life in prison? To be sick and die? To be driven to commit suicide because we cannot our bills?

Where are those creating beauty?
Where are those creating peace?
Where are those wanting all to flourish?

I too have rage…and like Dr. King, I'm standing 10 toes down for the rest of my life in the fight for what is right. Are you gonna be there with us?

STRENGTH TO LOVE

It was the rage over injustice. it was the shout of truth-telling. and surrounding himself with like-minded people that gave King the strength to love.

THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH

In his book, Dante Stewart talks about how the prophet Nehemiah taught him about rage. I think he says it so eloquently…he said:

“For the first time in my life, I realized that someone in the Bible was angry. My Christianity up until that point had neither room nor language to talk about the ways rage could be a fuel for love and a balm for healing. Christians were not to be angry or enraged at the terrible things going on around us. Christians were meant to just love, and that love never meant marching in the streets, testifying in the halls of Congress, preaching audacious messages of liberation from pulpits. Calls for unity were an excuse for silence in the face of Christian complicity in abuse, injustice, and disrespect. Jesus had been weaponized to keep us silent about white supremacy and anti-Blackness. That Jesus, I had to get rid of him. The sanitized version of Nehemiah’s story, where the rage that he spoke of was seen more as a misunderstanding than a spiritual necessity, I had to get rid of. I started to read his story as my story, my story as his story. “The people in the Bible were not just distant figures. They were those who knew the struggle of oppression, fighting for your personhood, and the ever-complex relationship with God in the midst of struggle. I, like James Cone, began to read the Bible through the lens of Black power, Black arts, and the Black consciousness movement. Nehemiah for me had become not just a gifted spiritual leader but a revolutionary. He had become my Fred Hampton. I pulled out my journal, grabbed my gel pen, and wrote: ‘Nehemiah’s rage set them free.”’

As my Mama would say, “MMMM—mm-mm-mm.”

After listening to Dante Stewart described Nehemiah this way. I had to go back and re-read the book in the Bible.

After re-reading the book, I think I’m kind of over Nehemiah being used for church building campaigns… there's something much deeper here.

I never saw it before…but Nehemiah was enraged because of what the oppressors had done to his ancestors. He petitioned to the King for supplies, he had to get permits, he gathered workers and volunteers and delegated that each have a section of responsibility to rebuild. He wasn't trying to build a 4.2 million dollar building with smoke machines and lights…He was trying to restore something that was much deeper than that.

Nehemiah is teaching us what to do with our rage.

Nehemiah is showing us how to organize. Nehemiah is making it plain and clear that the rebuilding of what oppression has torn down takes all of us doing our part to rebuild. With his rage, he built something up. He restored something. With our rage, we too can rebuild what White Supremacy has torn down.

Dante Stewart had rage. Dr. King had rage. Nehemiah had a rage. And all of us in this room are filled with some version of Rage at Injustice in our world.

And we are gathered here because we believe that practicing the ways of Jesus together as a multi-ethnic family of God is what will rebuild our world.

Every time I open my mouth you're going to hear me talk about Injustice. You're going to hear me talk about Jesus. You're going to hear me talk about Liberation because we are facing a system that has been in existence for over 400 years and so the only way we can build something different is if we prophetically speak fire from a heart of rage and then organize to build something different.

Let’s spend our time building a world of love from a heart that is enraged at oppression…which is the very heartbeat of God…expressed in the way Jesus moved in the world.

PROPHETIC FIRE

Band, you can come up.

As we conclude in the commemoration of the life and work of Dr. King, if you feel comfortable, just close your eyes be still as you take in the weight of Dr. King's life story.

Breathe in…breathe out.

Jesus, speak to us.

Breathe in…breathe out.

What do you want us to know?

Breathe in…breathe out.

What do you want us to do?

Father Son and Holy Spirit, our world is on fire, our hearts are enraged. Give us the courage to tell the truth. Give us the courage to walk in the ways of Jesus. Give us the courage to rebuild what White supremacy has torn down. Help us to see and take note of our own life story. Help us pay attention to the things that are forming us. May we be formed to be like Jesus, to be like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. May we spend THIS next year…10 toes down…joining those who have been shoutin’ in the fire. Amen.