A COMMITTED LIFE Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20 Before Israel had kings, the Hebrews had judges. These judges were essentially freedom fighters. In the Book of Judges we read, Then God raised up judges, who delivered them (the Israelites) out of the power of those who plundered them. (2:16) The main qualification of biblical judges was not their religiosity but their willingness to fight for other people s freedom. The judges were temporary leaders who ruled in times of crisis. They were not a ruling class, per se, and for a long time Israel rejected the idea of a king or even of a centralized government. The premise behind this was the belief that God alone is sovereign. This attitude was carried over into the New Testament, as when Jesus is offered the kingdom of the world by Satan during his time in the desert and he rejects the offer, saying he will serve no one but God who alone is supreme. The name for this precept is malkuth shamayim, Hebrew for the sole sovereignty of God. This was the basis for all of the resistance movements that arose in Israel in the course of its history the people will bow to no earthly king, God alone is sovereign. It was both a religious principle and a political principle. In the Gospels, malkuth shamayim is rendered in terms either of kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God, but whether in the Hebrew scriptures or the Christian scriptures, it is a term that has traditionally evoked the spirit of resistance. If governments and rulers exercise their power in defiance of God s sovereignty, which is to say, if their rule is unjust, unrighteous, and loveless, they must be opposed. 1
Before the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark is finished, John the Baptist has been arrested and Jesus has declared, The time is fulfilled and the realm of God has come near. This is the good news that Jesus brings. But how near is the realm? It is as near as the willingness to live lives in which God is sovereign and thereby to live as persons who reject the forces of injustice and unrighteousness and lovelessness. This is the nature of repentance. John the Baptist has preached this, and doing so has landed him in jail and will ultimately result in his execution. Jesus will take up John s mantle and will also be arrested and ultimately put to death. However much this message may be good news to the poor and powerless, it is evidently bad news to the rich and the powerful, at least insofar as their wealth and power are based on injustice and unrighteousness and lovelessness. But even though they are the ones who have the ability to arrest and execute, they are on the wrong side of history and will not prevail. Martin Luther King, Jr. was no stranger to arrest and jails. The nation knows him as a great civil rights leader, but this leadership was nothing more nor less than the practice of his Christian faith in the cause of civil rights, and it is this that brought about his arrests.. Two months before his assassination, he preached a sermon titled The Drum Major Instinct in the church that he co-pastored with his father. Toward the end of this sermon is the following: Every now and then I guess we all think realistically about that day when we will be victimized with what is life s final common denominator that something we call death. We all think about it. And every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my own funeral. And I don t think of it in a morbid sense. Every now and 2
then I ask myself, What is it that I would want said? And I leave the word to you this morning. If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the euology, tell them not to talk too long. Every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize. That isn t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards. That s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. I d like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I d like for somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day, that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try, in my life, to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day, that I did try in my life, to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice, say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won t have any money to leave behind. I won t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. (I Have a Dream, p. 191) A committed life. Committed to what? Committed to the malkuth shamayim, committed to the causes of justice and righteousness and steadfast love in the name of God; a Christian life that begins with faith in the sovereignty of God as God is known in 3
the life and the teachings of Jesus, who inherited his vision from the judges and prophets of Israel, and in whose name we are here gathered. As a Christian in this tradition, Martin Luther King, Jr. s vision was far-reaching. He understood that there will be nothing like full civil rights until there is economic justice and wrote in a speech, also delivered in 1968, We must see that the struggle today is much more difficult. It s more difficult today because we are struggling now for genuine equality. And it s much easier to integrate a lunch counter than it is to guarantee a livable income and a good solid job. It s much easier to guarantee the right to vote than it is to guarantee the right to live in sanitary, decent housing conditions. (The Star Ledger, 1/15/12) King says it is more difficult today meaning 1968, but what he has to say is obviously to the point in 2012. Moreover, we see in these words and in so many other places in King s speeches a vision that transcends race even as it never lets go of race as a measure of how we are doing as a people and a nation. King s faith allowed him to see farther and more clearly than would otherwise have been possible. It gave him a large-heartedness and a broad-mindedness that is at once particular and timeless. The parable of Jonah is about the overcoming of that religious narrowness that stunts and distorts human vision of God and of the world. Jonah is the story of a prophet of Israel who will not accept God s sovereignty, the malkuth shamayim. Jonah flees from God so that he can maintain his heartlessness and his bigotry. God has told Jonah to bring good news of God s wisdom and mercy to the Ninevites. Nineveh was the capitol of Assyria, Israel s arch-enemy, and Jonah doesn t want anyone besides Israel and especially not Israel s enemy to have the blessing of God s wisdom and mercy. The lesson of the story, after all is said and done, after Jonah has even had his time in the 4
belly of a great fish, is that the love of God is for all people and that the Jewish mission is to make this know to all nations and peoples. This is the lesson of God s sovereignty told in a way that is peculiar to the people of Israel. As Christians, we know this lesson best in the life and teachings of Jesus. In more recent history, we have this lesson displayed in the committed life of Martin Luther King, Jr., who showed us what Jesus looks like in 20 th century America. It is, to be sure, a lesson that is more admired than it is heeded and a message that is always in danger of being left to languish as a dream for want of the commitment to its cause: a commitment which we might say is nothing more nor less than the Christian faith. Amen. Third Sunday after Epiphany, January 22, 2012 Emanuel Lutheran Church 5