The Mountaintop

In Romans 13, we read about the importance of walking in the light, putting on Christ and rejecting 

the flesh - here is a helpful passage that can be applied in a number of areas:
12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

Verse 13 says we are to "walk properly" - we can adopt a philosophy having our lives rooted in the Scriptures and viewing one another in the way that Christ would intend.  This is incredibly important in the area of race relations.  We can choose to be selfish or caught up in strife, defined by our divisions - or, we can be defined as the body of Christ, united by His blood and devoted to following His Spirit, who brings us together so that we might be a strong example to the world of what His love can actually do.

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In Galatians 3, we can see some verses that give us insight into how we are to regard one another - as members of the body of Christ, united in Him:
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

He wasn't scheduled to speak that night in Memphis over 50 years ago.  But, when the crowd of three thousand people gathered at the Mason Temple Church of God in Christ demanded to hear Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., his associate, Ralph Abernathy, the keynote speaker that night, called him at his hotel room and asked him to come.  That's according to the National Park Service website.

When he arrived, he delivered a 40-minute impromptu speech, the content of which foreshadowed what would occur the following day - King died on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel as the result of an assassin's bullet.  King was part of a delegation of black leaders who had come to Memphis to join with 1,300 sanitation workers who were on site.  There had been protests that had occurred - the site notes:

Following a bloody confrontation between marching strikers and police the week before, a court injunction had been issued banning further protests. King hoped their planned march would overturn the court injunction.

That speech, the "Mountaintop" speech, has been described as "prophetic," and in the course of the speech, you can surmise that Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized the life-threatening dangers he faced.  The full text can be found at the ABCNews.com website.  He likened the purpose and significance of standing with the sanitation workers to the Biblical parable of the Good Samartian.  He said:

And so the first question that the priest asked -- the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

That's the question before you tonight. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?" The question is not, "If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?" The question is, "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" That's the question.

Interestingly enough, he recounted how he had been stabbed at a book signing in Harlem a few years before - he noted that the blade had come very close to his aorta; that the New York Times had noted that if he had sneezed, that would have been the end of his life.  He named some of the events and accomplishments that he would have missed: in Albany, GA, Birmingham, and Selma.  He mentioned how there were security concerns about the plane on which he traveled to Memphis.

 Then, these amazing words:

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

And so I'm happy, tonight.

I'm not worried about anything.

I'm not fearing any man.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

So, what do we take away from this speech and the 50th anniversary of the death of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.?  There are many principles, but I wanted to highlight some things that come to mind.  For one thing, King was solutions-based.  He was always looking forward - certainly, he came up against adverse attitudes and actions, yet he was continually moving ahead.  Sometimes, we can look back at past failures and fail to grasp what could occur in the future.  We approach current issues, but allow the clouds of past injustice and conflict to restrict our progress in the area of race relations - we can certainly move beyond, in the strength of the Lord.

He was also Scripture-focused.  We have to develop that attitude toward matters of race.  And, we have to recognize that as Christians, leading the way to racial reconciliation, that first and foremost, as Dr. Tony Evans has said, are believers redeemed by the blood of Christ.  I came across this incredible quote, which I believe serves us well today.  It was published on the Gospel Herald website.  The article reports that Dr. Evans said:

...it is technically incorrect for someone to call themself a "black Christian," or a "white Christian," or a "Hispanic Christian."

"Then you make your color or culture an adjective. It's the job of the adjective to modify the noun. If you put Christianity in the noun position, and your color or culture in the adjective position, you have to keep shaping the noun so it looks like the adjective that describes it. So if your color stays in the adjectival position, you got to keep shaping Christianity to look black or to look white or to look red," he said.

He also said:

"The truth is an objective standard by which reality is measured; it's God's point of view on any subject. Just because you were raised a certain way. Once how you were raised disagrees with what God says, how you were raised was wrong!" he proclaimed.

"If our pulpits were right, we would have solved this problem of racism a long time ago. Slavery would have been solved, Jim Crow would have been solved, segregation - all of this would have been solved," said Evans.

The Bible calls us to be sober-minded.  I believe Rev. Dr. King evaluated and observed the way things were, make no mistake.  He recognized the obstacles and the challenges.  But, he set the example that we can move forward - together.

He spoke clearly and boldly for civil rights, but, as he noted in the "I Have a Dream" speech years before, he desired that people be known for the content of their character, not the color of their skin.  He envisioned a reconciled people, but He also carefully evaluated the conditions that existed in his day; there was no attempt to gloss over those conditions.  We can be challenged to recognize how things are, but not accept them - constantly moving forward, with the Church, as one body of Christ, setting the example.  That is perhaps what King saw from the mountaintop; can we see unity through God's eyes, from His perspective?