Martin Luther King Jr. on the Church

Today we celebrate the birthday of the great civil rights leader, but more imporantly, preacher of the gospel Martin Luther King Jr. It is more than just a day when school children have a day off and banks are closed. We remember his call for the church to arise and address the social injustices of her day. Here is what he had to say about the church in his "Letters from a Birmingham Jail."

• "In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great-grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists. There was a time when the church was very powerful in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society."

I too love the church. I believe Jesus mandated that his church transform the world by challenging its order and brokenness. May we answer the call to rise above the methods, philosophy, ethics, and morality of the world and proclaim loudly, through belief and behavior, that the kingdom of God is here.

HT: Between Two Worlds