When today we honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., who in 1964 received the Nobel Peace Prize for his heroic and painstaking work as a civil rights activist, I am struck by King’s words on the eve of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. \u00a0At the time, King was a young, relatively unknown Baptist minister who had just been chosen to lead the boycott. \u00a0In his first speech as the newly dubbed leader of the effort, he said this: “We have no alternative but to protest. \u00a0For many years we have shown an amazing patience. \u00a0We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were treated. \u00a0But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.”<\/p>\n
“To be saved from patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.”<\/em> \u00a0How often do we stop to think that our “salvation” includes deliverance from complacence with all that is wrong with our world? \u00a0Could this be what it means to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling,” as Paul in Philippians exhorts? \u00a0I can’t help but think so.<\/p>\n Today’s admonition in the devotional, Today<\/em>, was to be “peace makers”: \u00a0“Cosmic peace has been secured by God in Christ (Colossians 1:19-20), yet God tells us to ‘let<\/em> the peace of Christ rule.'”<\/p>\n When God “breaks into” our world in the person of Jesus Christ, God shows that “peacemaking” is not the same thing as just “keeping the peace.” \u00a0“Peacemaking,” I suspect, is nothing less than the disruption of our comfort with the status quo <\/em>wherever “business as usual” fails to reflect the peace that God in Christ has already made with our world. \u00a0A peace that, if real, is inseparable from justice or freedom.<\/p>\n And yet we remarkably have the freedom to choose whether “to let the peace of Christ rule.” \u00a0God does not force God’s Self on us: God gives us free wills; but when we decide to be part of the peace that God has made with our world, which sometimes can be as simple as not getting in its way, we have the opportunity to live into a God-given dream. \u00a0A dream that King not only preached about but died for.<\/p>\n It is easy to die for certain things. \u00a0We can work ourselves to death by trying to build ourselves a nice retirement nest. \u00a0We can smoke and drink ourselves to death in the spirit of Christopher Hitchens, who said his two bad habits made him a better writer. \u00a0We can kill our very selves and who we were meant to be because of others’ expectations. \u00a0We can die trying to be good. \u00a0These forms of dying are almost second nature to us. \u00a0But to die because we truly believe in God’s dream- a dream that all of us will one day be “saved” from the injustices of our world, including our own complacence- how many of us will do that?<\/p>\n Whenever I drive by Ebenezer Baptist Church in downtown Atlanta or, en route<\/em> to the gym, stroll down the “Walk of Fame” featuring the shoe prints of famous civil rights leaders, I cannot help but marvel at the proximity of King’s story and the deep legacy it leaves. \u00a0Which is a reminder, among many things, of the costliness of salvation and our invitation to be peacemakers. \u00a0Happy Birthday, Dr. King. \u00a0May you always rest in peace.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When today we honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., who in 1964 received the Nobel Peace Prize for his heroic and painstaking work as a civil rights activist, I am struck by King’s words on the eve of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. \u00a0At the time, King was a young, relatively unknown…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":461,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,180,25,15,136],"tags":[377,376,375,374],"class_list":["post-1041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-and-culture","category-christianity-in-politics","category-jesus","category-mission","category-social-justice","tag-christian-unity-week","tag-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-day","tag-jr","tag-martin-luther-king"],"yoast_head":"\n