Great joy Sunday in celebrating Rev. Martin Luther King’s legacy. At times, in reading a bible narrative it is hard not to scream “Look!” Yesterday was much that way. Look at Acts 2. Do we notice the three references of amazement as astonished listeners from many lands note they were hearing the disciples speak in their own language? Do we notice as well the cynical few who failed to get “it”, who never heard, readily dismissing the words of the disciples as the words of drunks? I love the New Church language that what the above all references is our sacred fire – the passion we all carry around what we know to be true.
And what we know to be true, our sacred fire, is often buried, softened, and narcotized by the culture find ourselves. Buried so deep in fact that we no longer “know it” until the prophetic wakes us from our sleep.
One part of King’s genius was in pushing through those layers to get at the bed rock of the human heart, a heart that does want to feel, a heart that does want to live, a heart that is built for compassion, not hate. Hands that want to build. A head no longer satisfied with theological conjecture about God but yearning to know God. His “I have a dream” speech spoke directly to what we all knew and know and yet had forgotten.
That waking will put us at odds with culture. We will, to many, appear drunk. King was a “beautiful fool.” Our lives, if we choose to allow ourselves to fall deeper into “what we really know,” will appear “foolish” as well. How can they not? But what beauty …!
Tags: Martin Luther King