Today is the day that we honor the life and legacy of one who labored to his death for the cause of justice, a true modern-day saint, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In an address he gave at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference just eight months before his assassination, he offers us an incredible and provocative view of history and our role in it.
He says that we must 'realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.' To read the entire address, click here.
This goes beyond optimism to a reckless and revolutionary hope. Because when I look through history and at current events, it seems that justice is nowhere to be found. It seems that this arc has gone haywire, spinning out of control. It seems to bend toward injustice. And as it bends toward injustice, what do we see? Hundreds of millions of orphaned children. Preventable diseases wiping out entire continents. Extreme poverty. Wars and rumors of war.
But we can be a part of bending the arc more and more, little by little toward justice. There is a moment in history at which this happened in the greatest and most definitive way. Jesus delivers his first sermon in Luke 4. He is handed the scroll of Isaiah and reads that the Spirit of God is living in and through him in order that the poor would hear good news, captives would be released, the blind would see, the oppressed would be freed, and that this is the year of the Lord's favor. The whole of his sermon can be summed up in one word: 'TODAY!' Today is the day. Today the arc of justice takes a decided turn toward what is good and right and holy.
This year of the Lord's favor refers to the year of Jubilee which is found explained in Leviticus 25. Every 50 years, people would return to their own property and their own family. Every 50 years all would enjoy a year of holy rest. Jesus is saying that this begins NOW! (Incidentally, many scholars think that this year of Jubilee was never observed by the Jewish people. I wonder how history might be different if they had.)
Dr. King extended his reach to bring great change to the critical issues affecting our nation in the 1960s. He extended his reach to take hold of the arc of justice and bend it toward what honors God and honors God's most prized creation: humans. He extended his reach so far that it cost him his life. By extending your reach, taking hold of the arc of justice and bending it more and more toward jubilee, toward good news, release, recovery of sight, freedom, and favor, we become co-conspirators with Jesus Christ. We can say also that TODAY is the day!
Today is the day.
Thank you, friend, for this great word. I look around me and I see despair and troubled souls who have lost their focus. Jesus is real. And today He is near.
Miss you.
Posted by: Mike O'Donnell | January 23, 2008 at 02:50 PM