Dr. King: A Higher Level Of Faith

A 26-year old, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was preaching at his church in Montgomery, Alabama one night when he saw people rush into the building and start whispering into the ears of church leaders. King, sensing that something was wrong summoned the men to the pulpit. Turns out his house had bombed with his wife and children inside.

Dr. King left the pulpit and rushed home. God knows what thoughts must have raced through his mind. The front of the house had been blown up but his wife and children had been in the back of the wood frame structure. Who could have done such a dastardly act? In the beginning of his journey, Reverend King came to understand that freedom is not free. There were plenty of people intent on keeping the world segregated and they were willing to kill him and his family if that was what it took.

At that point in his career, Reverend Dr. King contemplated leaving Montgomery. And really, who would have blamed him? On the night of January 29th, 1954, the phone rang. A grisly voice threatened, “Nigga, we’re tired of your mess now. If you aren’t out of town in three days, we’re going blow your brains out and blow up your house.”

Later he recalled, “The words I spoke to God that midnight are still vivid in my memory. ‘I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I've come to the point where I can't face it alone.’

“At that moment, I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced God before. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying: "Stand up for justice, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever."

King made the stand that started it all and changed the world. However, God’s promise to be by his side did not mean that Dr. King would not suffer. King faced imprisonment, beatings and endless threats. There was constant criticism and second guessing even from noted clergy and even other blacks. A march in a segregated Chicago suburb almost took him under. He said later, “I had given myself over to the inevitability of death.” And yet he refused to turn around.

There were powerful people who had sworn that they would never let segregation die and yet, in the face of the guns they waved at him and the curses uttered, Dr. King still believed that racial segregation would indeed fall. In fact, the day before he was murdered, King said to an all black audience, “I may not get there with you but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land.” He knew that he would never live to see it but he believed that we would.

Many things made Dr. King a great man. He was an intellectual. He was an incredible public speaker. He had a charismatic personality. However, it was the faith that created the courage that created the historical figure named King. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” That is the definition of what pulsed in Dr. King’s soul.

There will never be another Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The times have changed. Black America is so diverse, that the day that it can be represented by one figure is over. And yet, we have never faced a time when the community is so starved for leadership, especially from the church.

What constitutes a great African-American leader? The answer to that is not a blog article; it’s a book. However, I can point to one attribute. The person has to a high level of faith.

In 1965, Dr. King went to live in one of Chicago’s most hardcore hoods. He sat down with high level gang members and talked peace. To do the same thing in 2016 would take a high level of faith. It would take faith that would produce not just more sermons and symposiums. It would be that kind of faith that produces passion, endurance and perhaps even the willingness to pay the ultimate sacrifice if need be.

Ice Cube raps to the neighborhood preacher in his song, “When I Get To Heaven.” He calls it as he sees it. He says,

“You are blessed with the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost

But my whole neighborhood is comatose…”

Looking for survival

The devil made you a slave and he gave you a Bible…”

Obviously, Cube is not impressed with the courageous efforts produced by the local pastor to bring peace to the drug and gun infested hood. However, if change will come, the local preacher must be at least be as passionate about the gospel as the local gangster is about the game. And such passion would not go unnoticed. It would be respected by the people in the streets, the people whom the pastor wants to talk into putting down their high power weapons of war.

An up and coming rapper named Gilladelphia says, “I’m bout’ that life/Two hitters by my side/I only got two options and it’s do or die…” If hell raisers on the block make that their credo, how much more committed would the pastor have to be to living out the words of the gospel in the same, exact neighborhood? Do or die pretty much describes it.

Oh that God would give our faith leaders the faith that Dr. King used to changed the impossible.

#MartinLutherKing #Jr #UrbanMinistry