Book: Strength to Love
Basic Information :
Synopsis :
Thoughts :
Evaluation :
Book Group :
Book References :
Good Quotes :
Table of Contents :
References
Basic Information:
Author:
Martin Luther King, Jr
Edition:
ePub in Libby from Los Angeles Public Library
Publisher:
Augsburg Fortress Publishing
ISBN:
9780800614416 (ISBN10: 0800614410)
Start
Date: November 11, 2021
Read
Date: December 20, 2021
155
pages
Genre:
Christianity,Essay,
Language
Warning: None
Rated
Overall: 5 out of 5
Religion:
Christianity
Religious
Quality: 4 out of 5
Christianity-Teaching
Quality:4 out of 5
Synopsis:
There
are fourteen sermons of Martin Luther King, Jr, plus a final sermon
all packed into one book. Most of the sermons are divided into three
parts.
Thoughts:
Written
in 1963, before King was assassinated. The forward by Coretta Scott
King was written much later. So much of the book is relevant and
maybe even more so today. We still have racial issues 50 years later.
Our nation is divided. If anything, we have not learned the lessons
King talked about. It is time to read this book and try again.
I
was surprised by how knowledgeable King was. I had always pictured
him as being a powerful speaker and dynamic leader. But this book
also showed the depth of his wisdom as well as his reliance and faith
in God. His faith shows through.
There
also was a real surprise for me. Not that he was intelligent, but how
intelligently.he talked with his congregation. He did not talk down
to his congregation, but lifted them up to where his thinking was.
While there is an undertow of emotion, these are well put together
sermons. He quotes notable, thoughtful people.
Sherri,
my wife, is also reading this book. She has marked several parts of
the book as well. You can see what interested her when you see quotes
looking like this, usually at the bottom of a sermon.
It is interesting seeing what strikes her and what strikes me.
Foreword
Coretta Scott King
Written
by his wife, she says that this is a book which people recognize
changes lives. She gives some background to his preaching. Also talks
about how he believed the key was how we are mutually connected. What
he aimed for was redemption
and reconciliation.
Isn’t this the end of what we want to do anyway?
Even
the most intractable evils of our world—the triple evils of
poverty, racism, and war which Martin so eloquently challenged in his
Nobel lecture—can only be eliminated by nonviolent means.
This is so much different than how we approach things today. He was
both a messenger of love and action. King did not win the battle. The
battle still rages.
King’s
goal was to integrate life lived for eternity with that which is on
earth.
Preface
Sermons
written around the time of the Montgomery bus strike. King felt that
a
sermon is not an essay to be read but a discourse to be heard. It
should be a convincing appeal to a listening congregation.
1
A
Tough Mind and a Tender Heart
Reading
The
strong man holds in a living blend strongly marked opposites.
King uses this as the basis for what he envisions resistance to be.
I
First
he defines a tough mind as being sharp
and penetrating, breaking through the crust of legends and myths and
sifting the true from the false.
People do not willingly engage in the tough matters required to have
a tough mind. There
is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked
solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.
Which brings up, do I shy away from the tough questions? I do have a
tendency to shy away from confrontation. But I usually wrestle with
differences of opinions.
He
points out that many times, people view the printed word as truth. I
wonder what he would say in today’s world where electronic media
has taken over the printed word. Where misinformation is ramped-can
we even identify misinformation these days? There is a tendency to
believe only what falls into our way of thinking rather than engaging
contrasting ideas.A new idea is challenging. Kings says that the
greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.
He
talked about new
truth.
He does not define what new truth is. I think he is meaning when
there are different ways to think about life and what is around you.
But can truth be created? Or is he talking about undiscovered truth
or truth in a different form? .
Science
investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which
is power, religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals
mainly with facts; religion deals mainly in values.
Interesting way to look at the perceived conflict between religion
and science. The way I look at it is that both have the task of
describing the life we see, they use different ways of looking at it.
Like science, religion will get things wrong. The problem is that it
seems to be harder for religion to change its thinking. But when you
read about the disputes between Muir and Whitney you think that
religion does not have a monopoly on keeping wrong ideas.
The
greater the lie, the more readily will it be believed.
Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf (I cannot verify this quote).
King
now brings the soft mindedness to racial situations. There
are softminded persons who argue that racial segregation should be
perpetuated because Negroes lag behind in academic, health, and moral
standards. They are not toughminded enough to realize that lagging
standards are the result of segregation and discrimination.
Which comes first-chicken or egg; learning or the tools to learn?
II
Not
only a tough mind, but a tender heart. To love, your heart needs to
be tender, not hard. The
hardhearted individual never sees people as people, but rather as
mere objects or as impersonal cogs in an ever-turning wheel.
While King is speaking to Blacks in this sermon, I think there is
truth for all. Hard-hearted people breed violence.
III
A
third way is open in our quest for freedom, namely, nonviolent
resistance, that combines toughmindness and tenderheartedness and
avoids the complacency and do-nothingness of the softminded and the
violence and bitterness of the hardhearted. King
thinks that God is our example. God is both strong and gentle. He
gives out justice, but also freely gives mercy to those who seek.
This is not a God who is helpless, but provides justice in a world
filled with evil, mercy in a world needing love. We are not alone.
2
Transformed
Nonconformist
Reading
Matthew
10:16-Sending out as sheep to wolves. But King starts off by quoting
Romans 12:1
King
points out that we are in a society which teaches us to conform. We
want the path of least resistance.
I
we
as Christians have a mandate to be nonconformists.
Yes but in what way? Every
true Christian is a citizen of two worlds, the world of time and the
world of eternity.
And that is the way-what brings heaven to earth. King gives a good
example of Rome. To make an area Roman, they established a colony of
Roman citizens whose allegiance is to Rome. That influence spread
until the area accepted Roman law and rule. Similar to a Christian
living in this world is to live under heaven’s rules and laws. As
Christians we must never surrender our supreme loyalty to any
time-bound custom or earth-bound idea, for at the heart of our
universe is a higher reality—God and his kingdom of love—to which
we must be conformed.
King
takes the Beatitude of suffering
for righteousness
as an imperative, rather than optional.
He
goes on and says that Jesus’ love ethic contrasts with the ugliness
of the world around us.
most
people, and Christians in particular, are thermometers that record or
register the temperature of majority opinion, not thermostats that
transform and regulate the temperature of society.
This is powerful. The normal is not God’s normal. So why am I
comparing my behavior to the norm of the world and not heaven? King
points out that there were many whites in his day in the SOuth who
found segregation appalling, but did nothing about it. Blind
conformity makes us so suspicious of an individual who insists on
saying what he really believes that we recklessly threaten his civil
liberties.
II
Called
to be the moral guardian of the community, the church at times has
preserved that which is immoral and unethical.
This is what happens when the Church gets worldly power, we fear
losing it and cave into worldly ways.
Whoso
would be a man must be a nonconformist. Ralph
Waldo Emerson, essay, Self-Reliance.
But is being a non-conformist good in its own right? But isn’t it
good to be on the side of right? Of course, in our day and age, we
have forgotten what that means.
James
Russell Lowell: They
are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak; They
are slaves who will not choose Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think;
They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three.
III
Nonconformity
in itself, however, may not necessarily be good, and may at times
possess neither transforming nor redemptive power.
And that is the part-nonconformity must have a purpose and that
purpose must be to the good, the good God wants of us. Otherwise, the
nonconformist works towards evil, even if they started towards what
looks good. Is that what is going on today? A
reformer may be an untransformed nonconformist whose rebellion
against the evils of society has left him annoyingly rigid and
unreasonably impatient.
The
transformation must first happen in the person. Not only just the
works of goodness, but also the Spirit working in them. This will
cause us to walk through suffering. It is not an easy road. We
are gravely mistaken to think that Christianity protects us from the
pain and agony of mortal existence. Christianity
King
says we have a choice: to conform to this world or be changed and
work towards the good God has for us in this world.
Thomas
Jefferson wrote, “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal
hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
If
Americans permit thought- control, business- control, and
freedomcontrol to continue, we shall surely move within the shadows
of facism.
Have
we ministers of Jesus Christ sacrificed truth on the altar of self-
interest and, like Pilate, yielded our convictions to the demands of
the crowd?
the
church of Jesus Christ is to regain once more its power, message, and
authentic ring, it must conform only to the demands of the gospel.
nonconformist!
In his essay “Self- Reliance,”
Nonconformity
per se contains no saving value, and may represent in some
circumstances little more than a form of exhibitionism.
By
opening our lives to God in Christ we become new creatures. This
experience, which Jesus spoke of as the new birth, is essential if we
are to be transformed nonconformists and freed from the
coldhardheartedness and self- righteousness so often characteristic
of nonconformity.
Only
through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to
fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving
spirit.
3
On
Being a Good Neighbor
Reading
Luke
10:29-Wj\ho Is My Neighbor-the parable of the Good Samaritan
King
talks about the parable of the Good Samaritan. He defines what being
good is: a life displaying the love ethic. He was good because he
made concern for others the first law of his life.
He
was good because he was a good neighbor.
King points out that the lawyer wanted to debate Jesus, instead Jesus
gives an unforgettable example.
Each
section deals with a different type of altruism: universal,
dangerous, and excessive.
I
universal
altruism:
King’s phrase. He does not seem to define it. As King goes through
this section, he talks about how the Samaritan did not stop and
consider who he was benefitting, rather he was considering the
person.
Our
unswerving devotion to monopolistic capitalism makes us more
concerned about the economic security of the captains of industry
than for the laboring men whose sweat and skills keep industry
functioning.
Very pointed. Today it manifests in CEO’s getting such enormous
salaries while fighting against giving pennies per hour for
workers.It gets worse that I as an American gets to take advantage of
the work of those in other countries who are barely able to survive.
The
real tragedy of such narrow provincialism is that we see people as
entities or merely as things.By
seeing others in terms of race, gender or political party we fail to
see them as human.
II
dangerous
altruism-he
risks his own life for someone who might have hated him if they
passed by on the street. I
imagine that the first question which the priest and the Levite asked
was: “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?”
Isn’t this the normal response. Also another normal response is
that this might be someone else's responsibility. The Samaritan’s
thought is not what will happen to me, but what will happen to him if
I do not respond?
The
ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of
comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge
and controversy.
III
excessive
altruism.
The Samaritan paid personal responsibility rather than let someone
else do it, or delegate the responsibility. He went beyond the call
of duty.
True
altruism is more than the capacity to pity; it is the capacity to
sympathize.
Money
devoid of love is like salt devoid of savor, good for nothing except
to be trodden under the foot of men.
The
real tragedy of such narrow provincialism is that we see people as
entities or merely as things. Too seldom do we see people in their
true humanness. A spiritual myopia limits our vision to external
accidents. We see men as Jews or Gentiles, Catholics or Protestants,
Chinese or American, Negroes or whites. We fail to think of them as
fellow human beings made from the same basic stuff as we, molded in
the same divine image. The priest and the Levite saw only a bleeding
body,
The
ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of
comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge
and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his
prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous
valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten
brother to a higher and more noble life.
Morality
cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees
may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.
His
altruism was universal, for he thought of all men, even publicans and
sinners, as brothers. His altruism was dangerous, for he willingly
traveled hazardous roads in a cause he knew was right. His altruism
was excessive, for he chose to die on Calvary, history’s most
magnificent expression of obedience to the unenforceable.
4
Love
in Action
Read:
Luke
23:24-Father forgive them, they do not know what they do.
King
makes a point that the verse starts with Then.
What happens before is that Jesus is on the cross and in pain when he
says this. It is not an abstract concept to Jesus, but reality. There
are two basic lessons from the text.
I
First,
Jesus matches words with his actions. One
of the great tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf
between practice and profession, between doing and saying.
When Peter is faced with Jesus talking about forgiveness, he asks how
often? Jesus says 70x7. Forgiveness
is not an occasional act.
You take this with what Jesus says in Luke, you realize the power of
forgiveness. We as a society are quick to punish and slow to forgive.
Look at the pregnant woman who is alone. Look at the man on death row
for proof.
II
The
second lesson is that we are blind. King’s hypothesis is that the
men who wanted Jesus dead were blind men, not evil.He goes off and
says that war is obsolete because it does not solve anything.Now the
stakes are the destruction of the whole race. He extends out that
slavery is the result of blindness than badness. He traces this
blindness to misunderstanding who God is.This blindness has led to
blacks being crucified. King calls for them to honor the same cry of
Jesus: Father forgive them, they know not what they do.
III
Virtues
have a way to degenerate into vice. The church is the moral guardian
of the community. We have a moral obligation to remind people of the
need to be intelligent. The church has an obligation to conquer sin
and conquer ignorance. Nothing
in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and
conscientious stupidity.
Our
heart can never be totally right if our head is totally wrong. And
if American democracy gradually disintegrates, it will be due as much
to a lack of insight as to a lack of commitment to right.
And The
call for intelligence is a call for openmindedness, sound judgement,
and lover for truth.
Some
men still feel that war is the answer to the problems of the world.
They are not evil people. On the contrary, they are good, respectable
citizens whose ideas are robed in the garments of patriotism. They
talk of brinkmanship and a balance of terror. They sincerely feel
that a continuation of the arms race will be conducive to more
beneficent than maleficent consequences. So they passionately call
for bigger bombs, larger nuclear stockpiles, and faster ballistic
missiles.
Slavery
in America was perpetuated not merely by human badness but also by
human blindness.
clothed
obvious wrongs in the beautiful garments of righteousness.
So
men conveniently twisted the insights of religion, science, and
philosophy to give sanction
.5
Loving Your Enemies
Sermon
Preached by King
Note:
King preached various versions of this sermon.
Matt
5:43-45 Love your neighbor. Pray for those who use you. Looking at
what I highlighted, this sermon must have been the most thought
provoking. King says this is the hardest command to follow. Not
idealistic, but practical.
I
King
asks the question, which is the basis for this sermon: How
do we love our enemies? First, we must develop and maintain the
capacity to forgive.
We cannot love if we cannot forgive. It is the person who is wronged
who initiates forgiveness
The
forgiving, does not mean ignoring the wrong, but acting in such a way
it no longer is a barrier to our relationship. when
we forgive, we forget in the sense that the evil deed is no longer a
mental block impeding a new relationship.
He goes on and says that Forgiveness
means reconciliation, a coming together.
Next
second,
we must recognize that the evil deed of the enemy-neighbor.
I think this is what Bishop Tutu calls naming the hurt. Not ignoring
it. King goes on and and notes that the evil-deed is not all of the
person. There is an element of goodness as well. I do not think King
means that we forgive because of the goodness in a person rather that
we are not to demonize a person/ The corollary, this is mine, is that
we also have an element of evil, badness, in us as well.
Consequently, we are also in need of forgiveness. We do not want our
lack of forgiveness to degenerate into hate.
Third,
we must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy but to win his
friendship and understanding.
It is so easy to talk about our political climate in black and white
terms without thinking about the second and where it leads to in the
third. I call this recognizing God’s image in each of us.
King
goes into the Greek. It is the third, agape,
which is the love Jesus is talking about here. We do not forgive and
love based upon reciprocation, but on giving love as we got love when
we were unlovable.
King
says that love is different than like. We tend to picture this as a
gradient rather than a quantum difference. Like is an emotional
attachment; love, as Jesus and King is talking about is the doing the
best for another person regardless of our emotional reaction to a
person.
II
King
gets into practics with this section.Hate, like love, multiples. Hate
destroys rather than builds up. Every
word and deed must contribute to an understanding with the enemy and
release those vast reservoirs of goodwill which have been blocked by
impenetrable walls of hate. As
Sherri asks, how do you get out of the cycle of hate?
Why
should we love our enemies
-
The
first reason is fairly obvious. Returning hate for hate multiplies
hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars
- Another
reason why we must love our enemies is that hate scars the soul and
distorts the personality
-
Third
reason why we should love our enemies is that love is the only force
capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
References
an essay by Dr E Franklin Frazier called The
Pathology of Race Prejudice.
(The formatting is pretty bad on the link.) Hate
is just as injurious to the person who hates. Like an unchecked
cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity
King
notes that love transforms an enemy into a friend.
I
am not so sure about that. While Lincoln formed a team of rivals who
worked together. He also was also killed by someone who viewed
Lincoln as an enemy. But the example of his council, particularly
Stanton, is evidence of the power of reconciliation. Lincoln said,
“Madam,
do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.
While
abhorring segregation, we shall love the segregationist.
To
our most bitter opponents we say: “We shall match your capacity to
inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet
your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we
shall continue to love you.
He
realized that every genuine expression of love grows out of a
consistent and total surrender to God.
First,
we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is
devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.
Forgiveness
does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on
an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as
a barrier to the relationship.
Second,
we must recognize that the evil deed of the enemy- neighbor, the
thing that hurts, never quite expresses all that he is. An element of
goodness may be found even in our worst enemy.
This
simply means that there is some good in the worst of us and some evil
in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate
our enemies. When we look beneath the surface, beneath
We
recognize that his hate grows out of fear, pride, ignorance,
prejudice, and misunderstanding, but in spite of this, we know God’s
image is ineffably etched in his being.
Third,
we must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy but to win his
friendship and understanding. At times we are able to humiliate our
worst enemy. Inevitably, his weak moments come and we are able to
thrust in his side the spear of defeat. But this we must not do.
Every word and deed must contribute to an understanding with the
enemy and release those vast reservoirs of goodwill which have been
blocked by impenetrable walls of hate. The meaning of
When
Jesus bids us to love our enemies, he is speaking neither of eros nor
philia; he is speaking of agape, understanding and creative,
redemptive goodwill for all men. Only by following this way and
responding with this type of love are we able to be children of our
Father who is in heaven.
How
do you get out of the cycle of hate. Returning likd for like etc?
third
reason why we should love our enemies is that love is the only force
capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
We
cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because
noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is
cooperation with good.
6
A
Knock at Midnight
Sermon
Preached by King
Luke
11:5-6. Parable of the friend begging for bread.
I
King
says it is midnight in our society and we are begging for spiritual
bread. Science and politics have not shown they can save us. There
are limits to their power. Science has done a lot for us, breaking
us free from many diseases. It has also brought us massive weapons to
destroy ourselves. We obey a single commandment: Though
shalt not get caught.
In politics, we have substituted Darwin’s survival of the fittest
with the survival
of the slickest.
II
Remember
this was spoken in the early 60’s. Since then, church membership
has declined. King points out that We
must not be tempted to confuse spiritual power and large numbers.
This is particularly appropriate today. He also points out that
disillusionment is a cry for the bread of faith, not of stability or
power. We are not to worship at the
shrine of inevitable power.
III
King
pictures Blacks as being the man knocking at the door asking for
bread. What will they receive? One
of the shameful tragedies of history is that the very institution
which should remove man from the midnight of racial segregation
participates in creating and perpetuating the midnight.
He
does not just talk about blacks as where the church is deficient, but
also the church's attitude towards war. He says that
What more pathetically reveals the irrelevancy of the church in
present-day world affairs than its witness regarding war?
The
church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of
the state, but rather the conscience of the state.
This may be the single most important statement in the book. But how
do we do this without falling into being like the Pharisee, scolding
rather than showing love as in the previous sermon? Today, churches
are know for their moral opposition to gays and abortion rather than
the lov we have for those people.
He
talks about how the “so-called” Negro church has responded. The
so-called is because there is no such racial church, rather a church
which has been arbitrarily divided along racial lines.
IV
In
the parable, the man does not give up. This is the same way with
Blacks should be with our society, keep knocking.
Midnight
is a confusing hour when it is difficult to be faithful.
Midnight does not hang around forever. It will pass and then the
morning.When
one believes this*, he knows that the contradictions of life are
neither final nor ultimate. *The
this
is that God is good and just and faith brings the morning.
When
we were in the midnight of crippling ignorance and superstition,
science brought us to the day- break of the free and open mind.
science,
through surgery, sanitation, and the wonder drugs, ushered in the
bright day of physical health, thereby prolonging our lives and
making for greater security and physical well- being.
The
Darwinian concept of the survival of the fittest has been substituted
by a philosophy of the survival of the slickest. This mentality has
brought a tragic breakdown of moral standards, and the midnight of
moral degeneration
In
this country the roll of church members is longer than ever before.
Church
membership is going down
The
church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of
the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the
guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church
does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant
social club without moral or spiritual authority.
worship
at its best is a social experience in which people from all levels of
life come together to affirm their oneness and unity under God.
7
The Man Who Was a Fool
Sermon
preached by King
Luke
12:20-The man who built barns to house his prosperity and dies. I
wonder why King felt the need to preach this to people who were
mostly not rich.
King
lays out the scene of the parable. Jesus indictment of the man is
not his wealth or the planning to acquire more, but the direction of
his wealth, or as King said, misuse
of wealth.
… Nothing
in wealth is inherently vicious, and nothing in poverty is inherently
virtuous.
I
Jesus
calls him a fool because the reason why he lived was to make more
money.
The rich man was a fool because he permitted the ends for which he
lived to become confused with the means by which he lived. The
economic structure of his life absorbed his destiny. King
says we have two selves: internal and external. Internal is that
which is directed towards art, literature, morals and religion.
External is techniques, devices, mechanisms, and instrumentations.
The man had lost his internal to his external.
Only
an irrelevant religion fails to be concerned about man’s economic
well-being.
This
is the problem of being rich, it is too easy to strive for more at
the expense of who you are.
II
The
“I” is prominent in this parable. The
rich man was a fool because he failed to realize his dependence on
others.
We are never able to make it on our own. We
are everlasting debtors to known and unknown men and women.
(As a note, the “America First” is very short sighted. It looks
like “America Only” reducing others to slaves to our wealth.
Eventually this will breed resentment and it will be “America
Last.”) He
thought that he could live and grow in his little self-centered
world. He was an individualist gone wild.
What
should be done with our excess? Provide for those who do not have.
III
The
man had grown so large in his mind that he thought he could control
all things pertaining to himself, including the seasons and rain.
There was no place for God in his life. It was materialism. Two
people King quotes:
-Sir
James Jeans, the physicist:
the universe seems to be nearer to a great thought than to a great
machine,
-Arthur
Balfour, the philosopher: we
now know too much about matter to be materialists.
We
as a race are heading to be that man, the fool. Now
we have come to see that science can give us only physical power,
which, if not controlled by spiritual power, will lead inevitably to
cosmic doom. The words of Alfred the Great are still true: “Power
is never a good unless he be good that has it.”
King has laid out the groundwork to say that humanism sees us as
being good, while it is obvious from the last century we are
not.Those
who formerly turned to God to find solutions for their problems
turned to science and technology, convinced that they now possessed
the instruments needed to usher in the new society.
The
basic problem: We
have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish,
but we have not learned the simple art of living together as
brothers.
The
means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live
The
richer this man became materially the poorer he became intellectually
and spiritually. He may have been married, but he probably could not
love his wife. It is possible that he gave her countless material
gifts, but he could not give her that which she needed most, love and
affection. He may have had children, but he probably did not
appreciate them. He may have had the great books of the ages shelved
neatly in his library, but he never read them. He may have had access
to great music, but he did not listen. His eyes did not behold the
majestic splendor of the skies. His ears were not attuned to the
melodious sweetness of heavenly music. His mind was closed to the
insights of poets, prophets, and philosophers. His title was justly
merited—“ Thou fool!”
All
of this tells us something basic about the interdependence of men and
nations.
In
a real sense, all life is interrelated. All men are caught in an
inescapable network of mutuality,
I
can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be,
and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to
be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.
Our
hope for creative living lies in our ability to re- establish the
spiritual ends of our lives in personal character and social justice.
Without this spiritual and moral reawakening we shall destroy
ourselves in the misuse of our own instruments. Our generation cannot
escape the question of our Lord: What shall it profit a man, if he
gain the whole world of externals— airplanes, electric lights,
automobiles, and color television— and lose the internal— his own
soul?
8
The
Death of Evil upon the Seashore
Reading
Exodus
14:30-Crossing of the Red Sea with the Egyptians swept away.
Evil
is here in our world.Jesus does not explain it, he just states it.
William
Cullen Bryant affirmed, “Truth crushed to earth will rise again,”
and what Thomas Carlyle wrote, “No lie you can speak or act but it
will come, after longer or shorter circulation, like a bill drawn on
Nature’s Reality, and be presented there for payment—with the
answer, No effects.”
I
This
[the
story of the Egyptians and the Red Sea]
tells us something about evil that we must never forget, namely that
evil is recalcitrant and determined, and never voluntarily
relinquishes its hold short of a persistent, almost fanatical
resistance.
King talks about how those in power are reluctant to give it up. The
Pharaoh had his army chase the Hebrews. Even when Churchill told
Gandhi he was not letting India go. In America, we have had a long
time.
King
goes into a brief overview of Blacks in America. He calls Thomas
Jefferson an abolitionist.
All of this reminds us that evil carries the seed of its own
destruction. In the long run right defeated is stronger than evil
triumphant.
He quotes Charles A. Beard:
-
First,
whom the gods would destroy they must first make mad with power.
-
Second,
the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.
-
Third,
the bee fertilizes the flower it robs.
- Fourth,
when it is dark enough you can see the stars
III
Just
because an evil in one form has been vanquished, it does not mean all
evil is gone.Another sin will pop up. The good part is as a
Christian, knowing we do not need to go it along. God is there also
fighting evil.
That
raises the why question. Why does God allow evil to come into our
lives? King does not answer that question. He just notes that we
cannot have it both ways-our own way and God removing evil.
Power is the ability to fulfill purpose.
This is in God’s will and in our life.
King
talks about a scene in India where they saw the setting sun and the
rising moon. This
would be an unbearable world were God to have only a single light,
but we may be consoled that God has two lights: a light to guide us
in the brightness of the day when hopes are fulfilled and
circumstances are favorable, and a light to guide us in the darkness
of the midnight when we are thwarted and the slumbering giants of
gloom and hopelessness rise in our souls.
In
a sense, the history of man is the story of the struggle between good
and evil.
evil
has a self- defeating quality. It can go a long way, but then it
reaches its limit. There is something in this universe that Greek
mythology referred to as the goddess of Nemesis. III We must be
careful at this point not to engage in a superficial optimism or to
conclude that the death of a particular evil means that all evil lies
dead upon the seashore.
But
just as we must avoid a superficial optimism, we must also avoid a
crippling pessimism. Even though all progress is precarious, within
limits real social progress may be made.
Above
all, we must be reminded anew that God is at work in his universe. He
is not outside the world looking on with a sort of cold indifference.
Here, on all the roads of life, he is striving in our striving. Like
an ever- loving Father, he is working through history for the
salvation of his children. As we struggle to defeat the forces of
evil, the God of the universe struggles with us. Evil dies on the
seashore, not merely because of man’s endless struggle against it,
but because of God’s power to defeat it.
By
endowing us with freedom, God relinquished a measure of his own
sovereignty and imposed certain limitations upon himself. If his
children are free, they must do his will by a voluntary choice.
Therefore, God cannot at the same time impose his will upon his
children and also maintain his purpose for man.
but
we may be consoled that God has two lights: a light to guide us in
the brightness of the day when hopes are fulfilled and circumstances
are favorable, and a light to guide us in the darkness of the
midnight when we are thwarted and the slumbering giants of gloom and
hopelessness rise in our souls.
9
Shattered Dreams
Reading
Romans
15:24-When Paul goes to Spain, he will see the Roman Christians. Of
course, he does not get to make this trip.
This
is a phrase of shattered dreams. Who
has not set out toward some distant Spain, some momentous goal, or
some glorious realization, only to learn at last that he must settle
for much less.
King goes through a series of people who dreamed and did not live to
see the dream fulfilled. Shattered
dreams are a hallmark of our mortal life.
I
How
we react to unfulfilled hope tells us a lot about ourselves.
Bitterness? Withdrawl? (Too
unconcerned to love and too passionless to hate, too detached to be
selfish and too lifeless to be unselfish, too indifferent to
experience joy and too cold to experience sorrow, they are neither
dead nor alive; they merely exist.)
Fatalism? (King elaborates and refutes this with: Freedom
is always within the framework of destiny. But there is freedom.)
Fatalism,
furthermore, is based on an appalling conception of God, for
everything, whether good or evil, is considered to represent the will
of God. A healthy religion rises above the idea.
God
permits evil in order to preserve the freedom of man, he does not
cause evil.
II
How
do we deal with unfulfilled hope? Acceptance, but with hope. The key
is whom to hope in. King then brings it to the Black dream of
freedom from segregation and discrimnation. Accepting an evil system
is not the plan, but working to change the evil which is in the
system. By
recognizing the necessity of suffering in a righteous cause, we may
possibly achieve our humanity’s full stature.
III
There
will be times where the winds of change will push us forward, other
times it will blow against us. The
peace of which Paul spoke is a calmness of soul amid terrors of
trouble, inner tranquility amid the howl and rage of outer storm, the
serene quiet at the center of a hurricane amid the howling and
jostling winds.
King clarified that this peace is not one of forced tranquility, of
no battles, but an inner calmness brought about by faith. Our
capacity to deal creatively with shattered dreams is ultimately
determined by our faith in God.
Would
not this be a strangely irrational universe if God did not ultimately
join virtue and fulfillment, and an absurdly meaningless universe if
death were a blind alley leading the human race into a state of
nothingness?
One
of the most agonizing problems within our human experience is that
few, if any, of us live to see our fondest hopes fulfilled.
One
possible reaction is to distill all of our frustrations into a core
of bitterness and resentment.
Another
common reaction by persons experiencing the blighting of hope is to
withdraw completely into themselves and to become absolute
introverts.
A
third way by which persons respond to disappointments in life is to
adopt a fatalistic philosophy stipulating that whatever happens must
happen and that all events are determined by necessity.
To
sink in the quicksands of fatalism is both intellectually and
psychologically stifling. Because freedom is a part of the essence of
man, the fatalist, by denying freedom, becomes a puppet, not a
person. He is, of course, right in his conviction that there is no
absolute freedom and that freedom always operates within the context
of predestined structure.
Fatalism,
furthermore, is based on an appalling conception of God, for
everything, whether good or evil, is considered to represent the will
of God. A healthy religion rises above the idea that God wills evil.
Although God permits evil in order to preserve the
10
How Should a Christian View Communism?
Excerpt
read from sermon
Amos
5:24-Let judgment roll and righteousness be as a mighty stream.
He
feels that a minister should speak out about Communism. It comes in
three parts:
-The
first reason recognizes that the widespread influence of Communism
has, like a mighty tidal wave, spread through Russia, China, Eastern
Europe and now into our hemisphere.
I think he is saying that it is not a minor force, but one which must
be dealt with.
-A
second reason is that Communism is the only serious rival to
Christianity
-A
third reason is that it is unfair and certainly unscientific to
condemn a system before we know what that system teaches and why it
is wrong.
He
then states clearly that: Communism
and Christianity are fundamentally incompatible.
That is why this sermon is being preached.
I
First,
Communism is based on a materialistic and humanistic view of life and
history.
This by itself makes it antithetical to Christianity. But the same
can be said for Capitalism. King notes that Communism has an
underlying principle that it can save man from himself. I think
Capitalism is similar except that it is every man for himself. In
either case there is no room for God in those systems. At
the center of the Christian faith is the affirmation that there is a
God in the universe who is the ground and essence of all reality.
Second,
Communism is based on ethical relativism and accepts no stable moral
absolutes.
What is justified? Anything which promotes the State. Today in
America, we would agree more with this principle of Communism than
agree with Christianity’s absolutism.
Third,
Communism attributes ultimate value to the state.
The theory is that as the society goes classless, there will not be a
need for the state. Would that ever happen as long as you have people
who themselves have greed in them? Christianity
insists that man is an end because he is a child of God, made in
God’s image.
The
late Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, referred to Communism
as a Christian heresy. He meant that Communism had laid hold on
certain truths which are essential parts of the Christian view of
things.
And that may be why I have been attracted to a communal way of
thinking in the past and still think that there is a need to move
Christianity away from Capitalism.
II
Marx
was born into a Jewish family which adopted Christianity.
Christians are bound to recognize any passionate concern for social
justice. Such concern is basic in the Christian doctrine of the
Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
King after talking about the aspirations which this makes on us, says
In
spite of the noble affirmations of Christianity, the church has often
lagged in its concern for social justice and too often has been
content to mouth pious irrelevances and sanctimonious trivialities.
This
cry I think is similar to Jesus’ who laments over Jerusalem. Today
we take the cry as condemnation rather than sorrow: How
often the church has been an echo rather than a voice, a tail-light
behind the Supreme Court and other secular agencies, rather than a
headlight guiding men progressively and decisively to higher levels
of understanding.
III
King
talks about the same things as I say in section I. In
all fairness, we must admit that capitalism has often left a gulf
between superfluous wealth and abject poverty, has created conditions
permitting necessities to be taken from the many to give luxuries to
the few, and has encouraged small-hearted men to become cold and
conscienceless so that, like Dives before Lazarus, they are unmoved
by suffering, poverty-stricken humanity.
King does not belittle what has been accomplished in America, but he
also talks about that we are only partway across the chasm.
IV
King
calls for Christians to dedicate themselves to Christ as Communists
do to Communism. He calls for us to be pro-Christianity rather than
antiCommunism. I think he is being broader than just harvesting
souls, but also bringing just and righteous laws and practices to our
society. God
intends that all of his children shall have the basic necessities for
meaningful, healthful life.
Historically,
capitalism failed to discern the truth in collective enterprise and
Marxism failed to see the truth in individual enterprise. …
Finally, we are challenged to dedicate our lives to the cause of
Christ even as the Communists dedicate theirs to Communism
He
meant that Communism had laid hold on certain truths which are
essential parts of the Christian view of things, although bound to
them are theories and practices which no Christian could ever accept.
II
The
broad universalism standing at the center of the gospel makes both
the theory and practice of racial injustice morally unjustifiable.
Racial prejudice is a blatant denial of the unity which we have in
Christ, for in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor
free, Negro nor white.
the
church has often lagged in its concern for social justice and too
often has been content to mouth pious irrelevances and sanctimonious
trivialities. It has often been so absorbed in a future good “over
yonder” that it forgets the present evils “down here.”
Any
religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and yet
is not concerned with the economic and social conditions that
strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is the kind
the Marxist describes as “an opiate of the people.”
In
America slavery could not have existed for almost two hundred and
fifty years if the church had not sanctioned it, nor could
segregation and discrimination exist today if the Christian Church
were not a silent and often vocal partner.
How
often the church has been an echo rather than a voice, a tail- light
behind the Supreme Court and other secular agencies, rather than a
headlight guiding men progressively and decisively to higher levels
of understanding.
The
judgment of God is upon the church. The church has a schism in its
own soul that it must close. It will be one of the tragedies of
Christian history if future historians record that at the height of
the twentieth century the church was one of the greatest bulwarks of
white supremacy.
In
the face of the Communist challenge we must examine honestly the
weaknesses of traditional capitalism. In all fairness, we must admit
that capitalism has often left a gulf between superfluous wealth and
abject poverty, has created conditions permitting necessities to be
taken from the many to give luxuries to the few, and has encouraged
small- hearted men to become cold and conscienceless so that, like
Dives before Lazarus, they are unmoved by suffering, poverty-
stricken humanity. Although through social reform American capitalism
is doing much to reduce such tendencies, there is much yet to be
accomplished.
God
intends that all of his children shall have the basic necessities for
meaningful, healthful life. Surely it is unchristian and unethical
for some to wallow in the soft beds of luxury while others sink in
the quicksands of poverty.
can
make men so I- centered that they no longer are Thou- centered. Are
we not too prone to judge success by the index of our salaries and
the size of the wheel base on our automobiles, and not by the quality
of our service and relationship to humanity?
Finally,
we are challenged to dedicate our lives to the cause of Christ even
as the Communists dedicate theirs to Communism.
we
must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty,
insecurity, injustice, and racial discrimination which are the
fertile soil in which the seed of Communism grows and develops.
11
Our
God Is Able
Pastor
Andrew Wilkes preaching this sermon
Jude
24-To Keep you from falling
God
has the power to do all. King says The
ringing testimony of the Christian faith is that God is able.
King goes on and notes that The
devotees of the new man-centered religion point to the spectacular
advances of modern science as justification for their faith.
This is true-science and technology has advanced. But in my mind it
has made the problems more complicated and much more intensified. The
reason why man will fail? This
problem, namely, the problem of evil, has always plagued the mind of
man.
I
King
reviews the mastery which science has made of what is known on earth.
Science seems to have supplanted religion.
II
King
notes that Christianity does not deny evil, rather says that evil
will have its day and then be removed: Hitler, Mussolini, Napoleon, …
These are people who are examples where might does not make right.
Christianity
contends that evil contains the seed of its own destruction. It is
a reminder of today with Putin. He may win for a while, but will fail
because he tries to supplant God.
King
is eloquent with our own country. Segregation
is dead. The only question remaining is how costly will be the
funeral.
III
After
the period of a day, the darkness of night comes where evil will
prevail. But we know that the dawn is coming.That is hope. In the
meantime, There
is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods
rather than God.
But King does not leave us there. Instead he points us to, that God
is good and will transform our dark into bright tomorrows. Our hope
is to become better. He says our mandate is to make a better world.
This
problem, namely, the problem of evil, has always plagued the mind of
man. I would limit my response to an assertion that much of the evil
which we experience is caused by man’s folly and ignorance and also
by the misuse of his freedom.
Let
us notice that God is able to subdue all the powers of evil. In
affirming that God is able to conquer evil we admit the reality of
evil.
Was
it possible that Napoleon should win this battle? We answer no. Why?
Because of Wellington? Because of Blücher? No. Because of God. . . .
Napoleon had been impeached before the Infinite, and his fall was
decreed. He vexed God. Waterloo is not a battle; it is the change of
front of the universe.
Sherri’s
Note: Trump will be taken out becsuse He vexed God.
I
knew now that God is able to give us the interior resources to face
the storms and problems of life.
12
Antidotes for Fear
Jackson
Hole Presbyterian church sermon reading
(Start about the 29th minute)
1
John 4:18-There is no fear in love, perfect love casts out fear.
The
uncertainty of these days causes us to fear. We seek relief in things
like drugs, and sex. Realizing
that fear drains a man’s energy and depletes his resources, Emerson
wrote, “He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every
day surmount a fear.”
Fear does have its place as it motivates us to exceed what we think
we can do. Also it has played a part in medicine, discovering
remedies, cures and relief. Angelo
Patri has rightly said, “Education consists in being afraid at the
right time.” (Note:
There is some thought that Angelo Parti may not have said this. From
a footnote on Stanford’s site: Fosdick,
On Being a Real Person, p. 110: …. Fosdick may have gotten this
quote from William H. Burnham's book The Normal Mind (New York: D.
Appleton, 1924), p. 417. Patri, an educator and expert on child
psychology, disavowed any use of fear in child-rearing (Child
Training [New York: D. Appleton, 1922], pp. 19, 250).)
I
King
feels we need to bring fear to the forefront so our imagination does
not take over. fear
involves the misuse of the imagination.
He goes on and says that: “Ridicule
is the master cure for fear and anxiety.”.
II
Courage
is the key word in this section of the sermon. In
his Journal Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Nothing is so much to be
feared as fear.”
It stands up to fear. Courage
is an inner resolution to go forward in spite of obstacles and
frightening situations.
He goes on and talks about how cowardice gets into destruction and
removal of one’s self.
III
King
emphasizes that it is love which drives out fear. But the love of
what? He points out hate is rooted in fear. We fear war, economic
loss, and racial differences.
Is not fear one of the major causes of war.
Instead of decreasing the arms which lead to this fear, we have
increased them. Then again, we get situations like Putin in Ukraine
which appears to the Western world more like a raw grab of ground.
How does love work with a situation like that?
By
following the path of escape [arms
build up],
some seek to ignore the question of race relations and to close their
mind to the issues involved.
King says that armed attacks against racism will only lead to more
fear. Neither
repression, massive resistance, nor aggressive violence will cast out
the fear of integration; only love and goodwill can do that.
How to combat the fear which whites have about retaliation? The
Negro must convince the white man that he seeks justice for both
himself and the white man.
There is also the element of truth. Not to look down on the person
who aggrieved you, nor to be looked down upon. We
are afraid of the superiority of other people, of failure, and of the
scorn or disapproval of those whose opinions we most value.
…. Hatred
and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear, only love can do
that. Hatred paralyzes life love releases it. Hatred confuses life,
love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life, love illumines it.
IV
Fourth,
fear is mastered through faith.
Some fears can be cured by psychiatry. But there are deeply rooted
fears such as death, nonbeing and nothingness which can only be
addressed by spiritual means. A
positive religious faith does not offer an illusion that we shall be
exempt from pain and suffering, nor does it imbue us with the idea
that life is a drama of unalloyed comfort and untroubled ease.
Rather, it instills us with the inner equilibrium needed to face
strains, burdens, and fears that inevitably come, and assures us that
the universe is trustworthy and that God is concerned.
Religion
endows us with the conviction that we are not alone in this vast,
uncertain universe.
King states that death is not the ultimate evil-being outside of
God’s love is.
Fear
knocked at the door.
Faith
answered.
There
was no one there
“Education
consists in being afraid at the right time.” If man were to lose
his capacity to fear, he would be deprived of his capacity to grow,
invent, and create. So in a sense fear is normal, necessary, and
creative.
But
we must remember that abnormal fears are emotionally ruinous and
psychologically destructive.
13
The Answer to a Perplexing Question
Mat
17:19-Why couldn’t we cast it out?
Human
life through the centuries has been characterized by man’s
persistent efforts to remove evil from the earth. Seldom has man
thoroughly adjusted himself to evil, for in spite of his
rationalizations, compromises, and alibis, he knows the “is” is
not the “ought” and the actual is not the possible.
This is a widely unrecognized issue in our lives (at least in
mine)-why do I still allow that which is not God’s in my life?
I
How
can evil be cast out?
Two methods: First, Man removes evil by his own power. This is to be
accomplished by science or a person’s own willpower. The
answer is rather simple: Man by his own power can never cast evil
from the world. The humanist’s hope is an illusion, based on too
great an optimism concerning the inherent goodness of human nature.
He does not condemn those who are trying to better themselves or the
world. Rather he sees this as a futile struggle. He does say that
I would rather a man be a committed humanist than an uncommitted
Christian.
II
The
second idea for removing evil from the world stipulates that if man
waits submissively upon the Lord, in his own good time God alone will
redeem the world.
This says only God can remove evil. Which is true, as far as it goes.
While
rightly affirming the sinfulness of human nature and man’s
incapacity to save himself, the Reformation wrongly affirmed that the
image of God had been completely erased from man.
This leads into that man has no part in correcting the wrongs of the
world. Such as when A
pulpit committee listed as the first essential qualification for a
new minister: “He must preach the true gospel and not talk about
social issues.” This is a blueprint for a dangerously irrelevant
church where people assemble to hear only pious platitudes.
Our prayers become a command for a cosmic bellhop.
It
is the blending of God being all-powerful and loving but with us
being the feet which His goodness is carried out. We
must learn that to expect God to do everything while we do nothing is
not faith, but superstition.
III
What,
then, is the answer to life’s perplexing question, “How can evil
be cast out of our individual and collective lives.
…. both
man and God, made one in a marvelous unity of purpose through an
overflowing love as the free gift of himself on the part of God and
by perfect obedience and receptivity on the part of man, can
transform the old into the new and drive out the deadly cancer of
sin.
Two
types of faith in God are clearly set forth in the Scriptures. One
may be called the mind’s faith, wherein the intellect assents to a
belief that God exists. The other may be referred to as the heart’s
faith, whereby the whole man is involved in a trusting act of
self-surrender. … Gabriel
Marcel
claims that faith is believing in, not believing that.
One is active, the other passive. That is something I need to work
on-more than just assenting to creeds, but living what the creeds
implies, or as King notes, believing
in.
Moral
victory will come as God fills man and man opens his life by faith to
God, even as the gulf opens to the overflowing waters of the river.
Racial justice, a genuine possibility in our nation and in the world,
will come neither by our frail and often misguided efforts nor by God
imposing his will on wayward men, but when enough people open their
lives to God and allow him to pour his triumphant, divine energy into
their souls.
King
gives an example of what he is talking about. If I make a New Year’s
resolution, chances are that next year, the resolution will be the
same. On the other hand, if I pray and only pray, that will be the
prayer until I die. One
cannot remove an evil habit by mere resolution nor by simply calling
on God to do the job, but only as he surrenders himself and becomes
an instrument of God.
14
Paul's Letters to American Christians
King
preaching sermon
King
writes a letter to America, not necessarily to Crhistians in
particular, in the style of the Apostle Paul.
He
talks about the technological progress we have made, but wonders
about the moral progress. He quotes Thoreau, saying:
“Improved means to an unimproved end.”
He
talks about how Christians in America (1960’s) gave their
allegiance and faith in man-made institutions and technologies rather
than to Christ. I
understand that there are many Christians in America who give their
ultimate allegiance to man-made systems and customs. They are afraid
to be different. … You have unconsciously come to believe that what
is right is determined by Gallup polls.
He points to Romans 12:1 about being transformed. Also that we hold a
two world citizenships.
There
is a disproportionate distribution of wealth. I
am told that one tenth of 1 percent of the population controls more
than 40 percent of the wealth. America, how often have you taken
necessities from the masses and given luxuries to the classes? If you
are to be a truly Christian nation, you must solve this problem.
How do you solve this in a democratic way?
… the
church is the Body of Christ. When the church is true to its nature,
it knows neither division nor disunity.
The problem is not so much the number of denominations, but the
disunity which each has. Not only do the denominations fight, but
there are divisions along racial lines. I
am told that there is more integration within the entertaining world
and other secular agencies than there is in the Christian church. How
appalling this is!
Some Christians think other brothers and sisters are inferior based
upon race (and these days it may be based upon economic or political
divides.)
But
the church can play and should play a part in creating unity without
regard to racial or economic differences. Let
no man pull you so low that you hate him … avoid violence. If you
sow the seeds of violence in your struggle, unborn generations will
reap the whirlwind of social disintegration.
It
is love which will unify. Love of God which causes us to love like
God loved us-a love for all people.
15
Pilgrimage to Nonviolence
King
talks about how his present thinking was developed. He was turning
towards a liberal theology until he started examining all which it
encompassed. There
are aspects of liberalism that I hope to cherish always: its devotion
to the search for truth, its insistence on an open and analytical
mind, and its refusal to abandon the best lights of reason.
It was the liberal underpinnings of the goodness of man which caused
him to search elsewhere. Neibuhr helped him to understand the
complexities of that which was involved.
[I]
came to see that the superficial optimism of liberalism concerning
human nature overlooked the fact that reason is darkened by sin.
King felt the neo-orthodoxy was too dark. If
liberalism was too optimistic concerning human nature, neo-orthodoxy
was too pessimistic.
It also went against rational thought. It felt inadequate for both
personal and corporate spiritual life.
Each
gives us a partial set of truths. He went on to existentialism. An
understanding of the “finite freedom” of man is one of the
permanent contributions of existentialism, and its perception of the
anxiety and conflict produced in man’s personal and social life by
the perilous and ambiguous structure of existence is especially
meaningful for our time.
Through this, he became interested in social ethics.
II
In
the early 1950’s,, King read Walter
Rauschenbusch’s Christianity and the Social Crisis.
He became aware of how the gospel fit into social causes. He was not
a fan of Walter Rauschenbusch’s thinking about the nature of man.
But it was a step to looking at Gandhi’s work. I
came to see for the first time that the Christian
doctrine of love, operating through the Gandhian method of
nonviolence, is one of the most potent weapons available to an
oppressed people in their struggle for freedom.
This was before he became involved in any of the work he is known for
today.
Then
he became involved in the Montgomery bus boycott. They
came to see that it was ultimately more honorable to walk the streets
in dignity than to ride the buses in humiliation.
Through this action, it cleared up and sharpened what he had learned.
Many
issues I had not cleared up intellectually concerning nonviolence
were now resolved within the sphere of practical action.
This
led to a practical pacifism. I
now believe that the potential destructiveness of modern weapons
totally rules out the possibility of war ever again achieving a
negative good
King’s
life was not peaceful. My
personal trials have also taught me the value of unmerited suffering.
Can react with either bitterness or creatively. (Actually there is a
third way-to withdrawal.) Through all of this, he drew closer to
God. Now
it[God]
is a living reality that has been validated in the experiences of
everyday life.
When
the underprivileged demand freedom, the privileged at first react
with bitterness and resistance. Through
it all, King became convinced
that the universe is under the control of a loving purpose, and that
in the struggle for righteousness man has cosmic companionship.
Behind the harsh appearances of the world there is a benign power.
Evaluation:
This
book is a collection of 14 sermons of Martin Luther King, Jr and one
essay on his personal development. They are from about 60 years ago.
The big question, are they more of a historical relic, to be examined
because King’s times or are they relevant to today’s situation?
Through
the sermons, he gives instruction, not only to Blacks, but to all
Americans-one could say to all peoples. He would obviously talk about
the effects of racism-segregation in his day. But he went further and
talked about economic inequity, redemption and reconciliation, our
mutual connectedness, the Church’s mission to be the conscious of
society, truth, and a variety of other topics.
Many
times the spoken word transferred to a written media losses the
ability to captivate and to motivate. King’s words have a rhythm
which transfers well, even if you have never heard him speak. I can
only imagine being in a crowd hearing his voice.
So
much if this book is relevant and maybe even more so today. We still
have racial issues 50 years later. Our nation is divided. If
anything, we have not learned the lessons King talked about. It is
time to read this book and try again.
Notes from my book group:
It
is easy to look at a book of sermons as something to study like a
Bible Study. Also it is easy to read it rather aloof such as one
might read a science book. King noted that a
sermon is not an essay to be read but a discourse to be heard. It
should be a convincing appeal to a listening congregation.
What do you think is an effective way to discuss this book?
Which
sermon affected you the most? Were there any sermons which left you
cold? What surprised you when you read this book?
Coretta
Scott King noted that the key to understanding Martin Luther King,
Jr’s sermon, writings and life is the concept of mutual
connectedness.
Can you describe this concept? How is it illustrated in these
sermons?
There
were also the concepts of redemption
and reconciliation?
What are these concepts? Did King present them as two different
concepts or ties to together? How so? How did he illustrate these
concepts?
Mrs
King noted that King’s goal was to integrate life lived for
eternity with that which is on earth. This seems like our church’s
mission statement is similar: In
Fresno as it is in Heaven.
Discuss any similarities or differences you find in these two goals.
King
studied Gandhi’s way of dissent. From his sermons, how do we gain
insight into how he approached his opponents? In a divided country as
we currently face, what can we learn how to dissent? How to confront
the wrongs which we see in our society today? Was King’s times of
opposition non-violent? Why did they turn violent? Would you have
been able to have kept a non violent attitude if you were attacked
like the marchers were?
These
sermons show a deep reliance on King's vision of who God is. Describe
the God which King spoke about. How was he reliant on this God?
What
makes an effective sermon?How do King’s sermons exemplify being
effective? How has your pastor been effective in his preaching?
As
you read through King’s sermon’s, which passages did you start
seeing in a different way?
What
ideas have you wrestled with in reading these sermons?
Did
reading his sermons motivate you to take any action? If so, what is
it?
Sermon
Questions
1
A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart
What
does King mean by having a Tough Mind and a Tender Heart? How does he
say we can achieve this state?
King
uses the phrase, new
truth.
What does he mean by this phrase? Is it truth which is being created?
Do
you agree with King’s statement of Science
investigates; religion interprets? What
implications does this have in how we integrate science and our
Christianity?
What
examples of soft-mindedness does King give? What examples would he
use today?
He
says that hardhearted
individual never sees people as people, but rather as mere objects or
as impersonal cogs in an ever-turning wheel.
Is this true only of his time? Give examples from past or present of
the trueness (or falseness) of King’s statement. Where does
hard-hardness lead to? How come?
How
does combining tough mindedness and tender heartedness get combined
to make strength?
2
Transformed Nonconformist
King
points out that we as Christians are citizens of two worlds. How does
that affect our actions in both worlds? How does this lead King to
the conclusion we are to be non-conformists in our physical world?
Are there wrong ways in being a nonconformist? King says A
reformer may be an untransformed nonconformist whose rebellion
against the evils of society has left him annoyingly rigid and
unreasonably impatient.
What is key in this sentence?
As
Christians we must never surrender our supreme loyalty to any
time-bound custom or earth-bound idea, for at the heart of our
universe is a higher reality—God and his kingdom of love—to which
we must be conformed.
Is this in conflict with things like the Pledge of Allegiance?
Swearing of oaths in entering the armed forces? Being employed? Or
joining an organization?
King
uses the illustrations of being a thermometer and a thermostat. What
is the difference? According to King, what happens when the Church
and Christians are thermometers? Thermostats?
3
On Being a Good Neighbor
In
going through the parable of the Good Samaritan, he goes through
three types of altruism: universal, dangerous, and excessive. What
does King have to say about these? How have you seen them exhibited?
The
ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of
comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge
and controversy.
How does this get to who a person is?
Talk
about the difference between pity and sympathy, as King used in his
statement: True
altruism is more than the capacity to pity; it is the capacity to
sympathize.
4
Love in Action
Why
does King start with Jesus on the cross as the starting point for
love?
What
lessons does King give about loving being in action?
He
talks about we are blind to what God wants to do on earth? Why does
King say this? What consequences does he lay out? King does not agree
with those who say man is totally evil or good, rather we are a
mixture. How does this lead King to his concept of man being blind to
God’s purposes? Do you think this is correct? How would you explain
today’s world in those terms?
The
call for intelligence is a call for openmindedness, sound judgement,
and lover for truth.
How are all three applicable today?
5
Loving Your Enemies
How
do you answer King’s, and the lawyer’s question, How
do you love our enemies?
when
we forgive, we forget in the sense that the evil deed is no longer a
mental block impeding a new relationship.
How does this fit in with Desmond and Mpho Tutu’s book, The
Book of Forgiving?
We
talked about King’s philosophy of a man. How does his thoughts on
the nature of man fit into forgiving a person because of the goodness
in them?
we
must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy but to win his
friendship and understanding. Discuss
what this looks like. How did King go about doing this? Kings says
Every
word and deed must contribute to an understanding with the enemy and
release those vast reservoirs of goodwill which have been blocked by
impenetrable walls of hate..
Discuss what this looks like in the context of our discussion on
humiliation and friendship.
Talk
about the differences between like
and love,
particularly what King describes in agape.
6
A Knock at Midnight
King
starts off by saying it is midnight in his time. What does that
phrase, knock
at midnight,
mean? What symptoms does he give?
What
problems does King identify? What kinds of solutions do we as a
society turn to?
What
place does the church have in society according to King? Is this your
view? How do you differ? Did the church of his day live up to the
role King saw? How does today’s society view the church’s role?
7
The Man Who Was a Fool
Why
did King feel the need to preach this sermon to his listeners?
What
does King mean by external and internal life? How does the external
life of a person affect their internal life?
We
are everlasting debtors to known and unknown men and women.
What significance does being a debtor to unknown people have on a
life lived? How does the concept of self-sufficiency matter on how we
view others?
8
The Death of Evil upon the Seashore
How
does King's statement: evil
is recalcitrant and determined, and never voluntarily relinquishes
its hold short of a persistent, almost fanatical resistance.
What parts of history does his statement explain? Is there anything
in the last 20 years which this explains?
King
notes that evil will eventually be conquered. But that a new form of
evil will rise up again. Give examples of this. Why doesn’t God
just win and finally conquer evil? What places does the Church have
in fighting evil like this? How does King’s story of the setting of
the sun and rising of the moon illustrate what he is talking about?
9
Shattered Dreams
King
goes into how to respond when you have dreams and circumstances or
your own limitations cause you to fall short. What traps does King
say we can fall into? According to King, what is the proper way to
work through realities which are barriers to your dreams?
King
talks about evil and how it thwarts our plans. How does King view
God’s relationship with evil? Does this help with your perspective
on when confronted with restraints on your dreams?
10
How Should a Christian View Communism?
What
reasons does King give for the incapability of being a Christian and
a Communist? Do you agree? Why or why not? Can the same
incapabilities be said about Capitalism or other financial systems?
Why
did Archbishop Temple say that Communism is a Christian heresy? What
does this imply about how Christianity has been practiced?
What
lessons does King say that Christians can learn from Communism and
Communists?
11
Our God Is Able
King
continues on with two points from previous sermons: man’s ability
to control his own fate and the place of evil in this world. What
additional thoughts does King add that his previous sermons did not
have in there? Why does he place emphasis on these themes? How do
these fit into his larger concerns of racial divides?
How
does King say that God is able to take care of situations?
12
Antidotes for Fear
What
causes fear in a society? In you? Where is relief sought? When is
fear something which is good?
What
is King’s remedy for fear? For the fear of the racially prejudiced?
Do
you agree with King that the ultimate fear is not of death, but being
outside of God’s love?
13
The Answer to a Perplexing Question
King
gets personal with the statement of: Human
life through the centuries has been characterized by man’s
persistent efforts to remove evil from the earth. Seldom has man
thoroughly adjusted himself to evil, for in spite of his
rationalizations, compromises, and alibis, he knows the “is” is
not the “ought” and the actual is not the possible.
Can we remove evil from society when there is failings in each
person’s life? Where does a person go to find correction to their
own life?
Can
the gospel be taught concentrating on a person’s failings? Is there
a place in the gospel to identify the failings of a society?
King
talks about how a person’s understanding of how God uses prayer may
lead to an improper view of God and man’s relationship to God.
Describe what King says is the appropriate relationship. How does
King’s example of making a resolution explain his view?
14
Paul's Letters to American Christians
King
writes a letter in the Apostle Paul’s style to Americans. Why does
he write in this style? What points do you think he makes which are
more effectively put in this manner than other means? Do you think he
is effective?
One
point King makes is that American Christians are susceptible to
trying to be the same as non-Christian Americans (I
understand that there are many Christians in America who give their
ultimate allegiance to man-made systems and customs. They are afraid
to be different. … You have unconsciously come to believe that what
is right is determined by Gallup polls.)
How is this an issue in America? Do you think we are more or less
striving for sameness? How can we break out of that trap?
He
also calls out the disproportionate distribution of wealth. How is
this an issue? Is this so intrinsic to a Capitalistic economy that
America will not be able to provide more equitable distribution?
What
divisions in the American church do you see today? Are this a
situation getting better or worse from King’s day?
15
Pilgrimage to Nonviolence
King
talks about the various phases in the development of his theological
understanding. Describe them. Talk about the strengths and weaknesses
of each. What understanding did he eventually land on?
What
attracted King to the approach Gandhi took to institute change in
society? How did King incorporate this into his way of approaching
change?
Does
pacifism lead to peaceful change? Does this approach entail personal
suffering? How did King deal with his own suffering?
King
became convinced
that the universe is under the control of a loving purpose, and that
in the struggle for righteousness man has cosmic companionship.
Behind the harsh appearances of the world there is a benign power.
Why did King draw this conclusion?
King
identified many issues confronting America. Which ones were important
to him? How did King’s influence help correct some of those issues?
What still needs to be done? Do you think Kings sermons have helped
these situations?
How
do you want your life to change because you read this book?
Many
of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
Why
the title of Strength
in Love?
Every
book has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world
view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
In
what context was religion talked about in this book?
How
did King show his religious thinking?
Was
the book overtly religious?
How
did it affect the book's message?
Why
do you think this book was published?
What
would you ask the King if you had a chance?
What
“takeaways” did you have from this book?
What
central ideas does the author present?
Are
they personal, sociological, global, political, economic, spiritual,
medical, or scientific
What
evidence
does the author use to support the book's ideas?
Is
the evidence convincing...definitive or...speculative?
Does
the author depend on personal opinion, observation, and assessment?
Or is the evidence factual—based on science, statistics, historical
documents, or quotations from (credible) experts?
What
implications for you, our nation or the world do these ideas have?
Are
these idea’s controversial?
To
whom and why?
Are
there solutions which the author presents?
Do
they seem workable? Practicable?
How
would you implement them?
Describe
the culture talked about in the book.
How
is the culture described in this book different than where we live?
What
economic or political situations are described?
Does
the author examine economics and politics, family traditions, the
arts, religious beliefs, language or food?
How
did this book affect your view of the world?
Of
how God is viewed?
What
questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
Talk
about specific passages that struck you as significant—or
interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
What
was memorable?
