Pastor King

God paints a vivid picture for us in 2nd Corinthians 5, declaring us to be new creations in Christ.  Our new life enables us to be people of peace, because we have been reconciled to God:
18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

We are told that we are Christ's ambassadors.  We have a distinct responsibility, and we have been empowered for the tasks at hand related to that.   Because of what Jesus has done in our hearts in bringing us to God, we can powerfully testify to how He has come to bring reconciliation.  As the Church, we can be on the front lines and proclaiming how because Christ has come, we are one with Him and have the potential to be at peace with one another because of the activation of the love He has poured out upon us.

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It is God's nature to bring peace - He is a reconciler and a restorer, desiring to bring people together with Himself and with one another, and He calls us to be partners with Him in doing that.   If we are right with God, then we can enter in to right relationships.  Ephesians 2 says:
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

There is much you can say about the role of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in our culture:

Change agent.

Orator.

Leader.

Influencer.

But, one thing that we can also remember about Dr. King is that he was also a pastor.  There's a piece by Rick Warren at the Pastors.com website, in which he says:

People forget that, first and foremost, Martin Luther King was a PASTOR, He was not a politician. He was a Baptist minister of the Gospel, and a pastor of a local church. Everything he did to promote freedom, justice, and racial equality flowed out of his understanding of God’s Word. I have read hundreds of his sermons and they are rich biblical content.

In the article, which was written last year to coincide with Dr. King's birthday, Pastor Warren points out that he spoke at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on the 40th anniversary of Dr. King's death. He also related 10 quotes from Dr. King, two of which I'd like to share: One is, “The purpose of life is not to be happy, nor to achieve pleasure nor avoid pain, but to do the will of God, come what may.”
Another is, “The early Christians rejoiced when they were 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.”

The role of Dr. King as pastor was also highlighted in a recent Baptist Press story, which featured quotes from Montgomery 1st Baptist pastor Dr. Jay Wolf and Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions Executive Director Dr. Rick Lance.  The piece said that the Montgomery Bus Boycott "occasioned advice to pastors by King that some Southern Baptists say they still take to heart."

King, in this 1958 book "Stride Toward Freedom," recounted the struggle in Montgomery, then asked, "Where do we go from here?" Pastors, he concluded, were an important part of the answer.

"The important thing is for every minister to dedicate himself to the Christian ideal of brotherhood, and be sure he is doing something positive to implement it," wrote King, then pastor of Montgomery's Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. "He must never allow the theory that it is better to remain quiet and help the cause to become a rationalization for doing nothing. Many ministers can do much more than they are doing and still hold their congregations."

Jay Wolf told the publication that "biblically-oriented pastors" took such advice to heart, noting that his predecessor, longtime First Baptist Montgomery pastor J.R. White, spoke "powerfully against the sin of racism."  Pastor Wolf said that Rev. White "pushed against the dark currents of his day with Christ-centered truth that eventually prevailed."  He added that Dr. King's call for pastors to be "moral and spiritual guardians within a community" remains "a compelling standard for a pastor's ministry."

Rick Lance, according to an SBC LIFE story referenced in the Baptist Press article, was touched by news of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham in 1963, in which 4 African-American girls around the same age as he lost their lives. He is quoted as saying, "Early on in my ministry, I tried to lead my churches to open their doors to all people," adding, "Some resistance remained to such efforts, but in the main, my church families began to see people as individuals of worth created in the image of God. They became more receptive to people from all backgrounds and all walks of life. This was no small victory for Southern Baptist churches in the Deep South."

Terry Turner, pastor of the predominately African-American Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church in Mesquite, Texas, and former president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, highlighted to BP the relevancy of Dr. King's comments. He said that white pastors must preach "to convert any prejudiced hearts that possibly exist within their congregations while black pastors have to preach against racism to comfort their congregations from the evils of racism they experience weekly."

Turner is also quoted as saying: "America has ... perpetuated the shame of racism by not teaching every person to love every people group as their own and has kept the races divided. The process of integrating the church must be intentional."

So, on this Martin Luther King holiday, we can think together about some important concepts.  One is the potential influence of the pastor.   All of us can reflect on the importance of pastors to us, and we can be appreciative of their contribution in leading our churches, as well as providing leadership in our community.  In response to the call of God, I believe that there is a strategic placement of pastors to represent Christ and to be His voice.

I also want to hearken back to Rick Warren's critique of Dr. King's content: "Everything he did to promote freedom, justice, and racial equality flowed out of his understanding of God’s Word."  These are important concepts, and all of us do well to embrace what God has to say about the impact of His truth in building relationships, even across racial lines.   All of us are Christ's ambassadors and we can seek ways for God to use us to speak and demonstrate His truth.

Finally, we can strive to do what Dr. Lance mentioned - to "see people as individuals of worth created in the image of God..."  When we embrace and celebrate the differences that do exist and not allow cultural differences to divide, reaching out to one another with the love of Christ, we provide a powerful witness for how He wants His people to operate in the world.