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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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?
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.
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.
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 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.
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?
- Christianity and the Social Crisis by Walter Rauschenbusch
- The Trumpet of Conscience by Martin Luther King Jr.
- Stride Toward Freedom by Martin Luther King Jr.
- Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
- God, the Invisible King by HG Well
- The Palace of Art by Alfred Tennyson
- Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- The Pathology of Race Prejudice by Dr. E. Franklin Frazier
- Man Against Himself by Karl A. Menninger
- The Neurotic Personality of Our Times by Karen Horney
- Modern Man in Search of a Soul by C.G. Jung
- Peace of Mind and Peace of Soul by ???
- Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
- The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
- Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
- Journal by Henry David Thoreau
- Confession by Leo Tolstoy
- Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
- Confession in My Religion by Leo Tolstoy
Good Quotes:
- First Line: If there is one book Martin Luther King, Hr has written that people constantly tell me has changed their loves, it is Strength to Love. (In Forward, written by Coretta Scott King.).
- Last Line: In a dark, confused world, the Kingdom of God may yet reign in the hearts of men.
- 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. Chp A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart
- The greater the lie, the more readily will it be believed. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
- The hardhearted individual never sees people as people, but rather as mere objects or as impersonal cogs in an ever-turning wheel. Chp A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart
- we as Christians have a mandate to be nonconformists. Chp Transformed Nonconformist
- 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. Chp Transformed Nonconformist
- Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. Ralph Waldo Emerson, essay, Self-Reliance
- We are gravely mistaken to think that Christianity protects us from the pain and agony of mortal existence. Christianity. Chp Transformed Nonconformist
- The real tragedy of such narrow provincialism is that we see people as entities or merely as things. Chp On Being a Good Neighbor
- 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. Chp On Being a Good Neighbor
- True altruism is more than the capacity to pity; it is the capacity to sympathize. Chp On Being a Good Neighbor
- Forgiveness is not an occasional act. Chp Love in Action
- Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. Chp Love in Action
- if American democracy gradually disintegrates, it will be due as much to a lack of insight as to a lack of commitment to right. Chp Love in Action
- The call for intelligence is a call for openmindedness, sound judgement, and lover for truth. Chp Love in Action
- The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. Chp A Knock at Midnight
- When one believes this*, he knows that the contradictions of life are neither final nor ultimate. Chp A Knock at Midnight *The this is that God is good and just and faith brings the morning.
- Only an irrelevant religion fails to be concerned about man’s economic well-being. Chp The Man Who Was a Fool
- 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. Chp The Man Who Was a Fool
- Freedom is always within the framework of destiny. But there is freedom. Chp Shattered Dreams
- Our capacity to deal creatively with shattered dreams is ultimately determined by our faith in God. Chp Shattered Dreams
- Christianity insists that man is an end because he is a child of God, made in God’s image. Chp How Should a Christian View Communism?
- Segregation is dead. The only question remaining is how costly will be the funeral. Chp Our God Is Able
- He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Courage
- 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. Chp Antidotes for Fear
- 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. Chp Antidotes for Fear
- Foreword Coretta Scott King ix
- Preface xiii
- 1 A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart 1
- 2 Transformed Nonconformist 11
- 3 On Being a Good Neighbor 21
- 4 Love in Action 31
- 5 Loving Your Enemies 43
- 6 A Knock at Midnight 53
- 7 The Man Who Was a Fool 65
- 8 The Death of Evil upon the Seashore 75
- 9 Shattered Dreams 87
- 10 How Should a Christian View Communism? 99
- 11 Our God Is Able 109
- 12 Antidotes for Fear 119
- 13 The Answer to a Perplexing Question 133
- 14 Paul's Letters to American Christians 145
- 15 Pilgrimage to Nonviolence 155
- Sources 165
References:
- Publisher's Beacon Books and Penguin Books
- King Center
- Wikipedia-Book
- Wikipedia-Author
- Amazon-Book
- Amazon-Author
- Barnes and Noble
- GoodReads-Book
- GoodReads-Author
- Time Magazine - Five Things Written by Martin Luther King, Jr
- King Institute at Stanford - repository of King’s papers. This link is a link to the book and King’s sermon notes.
- Commentary web site
- Fayetteville Observer, North Carolina-opinion piece from January 2021
- AP News article discusses the relationship between King and President Carter.
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