Martin Luther King Day 2012

Today we remember the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his legacy of working toward justice in America and in the world. It's pretty amazing to think about the fact that less than a century ago, the civil rights movement was in full sway. Less than a century ago, schools were segregated, restaurants were segregated, and even bathrooms and water fountains were segregated. Our nation has come a long way since Dr. King's death but there is still much work left to do in the realm of justice.

This weekend, I pulled a book off the shelf called "A Testament of Hope." It is a collection of the writings and speeches of the late Dr. King. I read a sermon, which was Dr. King's last Sunday sermon and it was given at the beautiful National Cathedral in Washington DC on Passion Sunday 1968, just a few years before I was born, almost to the day.

As I read the sermon, all I could think was that it could have been given yesterday just as easily as it could have been given 34 years ago. The words ring as true today as they did in 1968. Here's a small section.

"First, we are challenged to develop a world perspective. No individual can live alone, no nation can live alone, and anyone who feels he can live alone is sleeping through a revolution."

And another.

"Something positive must be done, everyone must share in the guilt as individuals and as institutions."

And yet another.

"There is another thing closely related to racism that I would like to mention as another challenge. We are challenged to rid our nation and our world of poverty. Like a monstrous octopus, poverty spreads its nagging, prehensile tentacles into villages and hamlets all over our world."

Dr. King, in this sermon centered the message around these words of Jesus, "Behold I make all things new--former things are passed away."

And as a closing remark, may the closing words of Dr. King's sermon be our prayer today, and every day, until Jesus returns.

"God grant that we will be participants in this newness and this magnificent development. If we will but do it, we will bring about a new day of justice and brotherhood and peace. And that day the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy. God bless you."

Obama at Notre Dame?

Well here's the latest hotbed of controversy . . . people say you should avoid talking about two things with others, faith and politics. I'm going to ignore that wise advice and talk about both.

Our Nation's President has been invited to speak at commencement at Notre Dame University. Notre Dame, as you may know, is a Catholic Religious University. The Catholic Church has been very vocal about the issue of human life, and our President has been very vocal about a woman's right to choose. Typically, when a person speaks at a university commencement, they receive an honorary degree. Typically, when a national leader speaks at a commencement it's a pretty big deal for the university too!

And yet, it looks like a recipe either for greater controversy or huge reconciliation. I've heard that every North American Catholic bishop has spoken in opposition of this event. On the flip side, universities are considered to be hubs for the liberal exchange of ideas. I wonder what the subject/content of such a graduation speech might be.

I wonder how this will all resolve, and I wonder what people think about the issue in general. Your thoughts?

Great Quote I Read This Morning

I saw this quote on my friend noel's blog and thought I would share it with you--I hope you enjoy! May it speak life into your soul!!!

“I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live.

You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.
You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand.

Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.

And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

You died when you refused to stand up for right.

You died when you refused to stand up for truth.

You died when you refused to stand up for justice.”

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the sermon “But, If Not” delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church on November 5, 1967.

May we live this life deeply and stand up to make a difference in the world during our short lives.

Graduation Speech

Graduation Speech, originally uploaded by chanchanchepon.

In my life, I have received a few distinct honors and privileges, but one of the greatest happened on Friday night. I had the privilege of speaking to the graduating class of Trinity Christian School in Morgantown.

I had the privilege last Fall of walking through the Dolly Sods wilderness with some of these graduating seniors in a search for a young man named Jacob Allen. The search itself made national news, and we were among the first to see Jacob when he was found.

Why was this such a privilege for me? Well there were a number of reasons. In a sense, this speech made up for the fact that, while I was valedictorian at my high school, we didn't have a valedictorian speech. So here I was, years later, giving a commencement speech to another group of graduating seniors. The irony is that I highly question whether I would have anything to say back then that would have any eternal significance--I didn't know Christ, and God has poured so much into me in the years since then.

So I spoke to this group of seniors, and this class is dynamic. Many of us frail two-legged human beings have aspirations of changing the world. These graduating seniors will change the world. They've already marked themselves as leaders on their campus, in the city, and in the region.

As I talked with these seniors, I remembered stories we had shared over the last several months, and opportunities these men and women will have.

I challenged them to passionately live out their faith, and to seek to live with their eyes open so that a future generation might not accuse them of sleeping through some of the critical issues their generation of the church will have to deal with and find solutions to for the glory of Christ.

You see, a couple hundred years ago, slavery was endorsed in America and Europe. The church of that age was quietly conceding to what the rest of society had dictated. We look back from 2008 and wonder how in the world could the church have slept through that one. Of course it is noteworthy that eventually it was individuals in the church who worked to end slavery. You see, we are called to be part of the solution.

Future generations might ask them about what they did to eliminate extreme poverty--or "stupid poverty" as Bono calls it. This is the kind of poverty that can and will have a solution--the question is will our generation of the church be part of the solution?

The environment is another issue demanding our attention. Future generations will probably wonder how we could produce refuse on such a grand scale with so little regard for future generations. Among my own people, we are challenged with a cultural responsibility to think about how our decisions will impact seven generations beyond us. That is helpful in an effort to become a better steward.

But in the end, it is not only what we do, but how we do it that is important. We could grab hold of every cause in the world, and it wouldn't be a bad thing, but if we grabbed hold of these causes and leave Christ behind--we have missed the point and lost the plot.

You see, our challenge is to hold the newspapers in one hand and the Bible in the other, and allow the Word of God to direct our communities to find solutions to the problems we read about, and we do all of this for the glory of Christ!

May we all look to contribute our share to solving these problems and telling people of the great King whom we serve as we labor that they also might join in service to the King for the sake of the whole world.