Reverend John Fife is Pastor Emeritus of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona, having retired in 2005 after leading a dynamic, activist community for 35 years. On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 2012, he preached a wonderfully stirring tapestry of memories and challenges that I have transcribed here with his permission. May we all read it, and feel stronger individual resolve to do our part to make the world a better place for every single one of God’s people.

Sermon on Martin Luther King, Jr Day, 2012

by Reverend John Fife, Pastor Emeritus

Southside Presbyterian Church, Tucson, Arizona

One of my favorite Liberation Theologians is a Catholic priest – Leonardo Boff. He was silenced by the Vatican for a year – not permitted to preach or teach for a year. When that silent year ended, Leonardo Boff began his first sermon with these words, “As I was saying…” So, after 6 years, that seems like a good way to begin – As I was saying!

Do any of you remember what I said that July Sunday in 2005? (Anyone?) Well, I remember! I told you it would be a long, and arduous, and trying, and bureaucratic process ahead: two interim Pastors; interminable meetings; search to call a permanent Pastor.

I told you it would be long and frustrating. And I told you: don’t forget who you are! You are a faithful and courageous people. You are a tough and loving people. And, the last thing I said to you was: DON’T SCREW THIS UP!

Now, I’m back to say THANK YOU. You not only didn’t screw it up – You all did better than I could have hoped for. You have a vibrant congregation with many new young families; a vital worship experience; a better children and youth program than we ever had; strengthened the Cross Streets Ministry; become a sanctuary for day laborers and their families. You have done Good! Gracias – Thank you!

(Now, will someone help the preacher and cover Sister Alison’s ears?)

All of you who served on the Session and all of you who went to those interminable meetings, and especially those of you who served on the Pastor Nominating Committee: God Bless You – You called an extraordinarily faithful, tough, learned, gifted woman/sister/prophet to be the Pastor of Southside Church. You done GREAT when you called Sister Alison.

I only wish I had been asked to preach on last Sunday’s text from the gospel of Mark – Chapter 1, verse 7, where it says, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me.” I could have spent the whole sermon preaching on that text.

(Now uncover Sister Alison’s ears.)

The texts I have been given this week to preach on relate the stories of God’s Call: God’s call to Samuel to be a Prophet to Israel, and God’s call to Nathanael to be a disciple and follow Jesus.

I love the way Hebrew scripture begins the story of the call of Samuel. “The word of the Lord was rare in those days – visions were not widespread.” Sounds like a commentary on the American Congress – or the Presidential campaign debates. But in the midst of the deafening silence, God calls Samuel – and promises, “See, I am about to do a great thing in Israel – that will make both ears of anyone who hears it tingle.” (Both ears.)

And then Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael to be disciples – and at the end of this story Jesus says to Nathanael, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than that.” Jesus uses a Hebrew word that goes way back to the earliest traditions of that tribal people. This phrase GREAT THINGS is a special word that refers to the most momentous transformations in the history of the people of Israel. The Exodus from slavery in Egypt was a GREAT THING and is described by that Hebrew word. The gift of manna in the desert: GREAT THING. The gift of the Promised Land: GREAT THING. The return from exile in Babylon: GREAT THING. Same Hebrew word.

And Jesus calls disciples and says, “You will see GREAT THINGS.” Things that will make both ears tingle when you hear them.

That’s always been the drumbeat of the call of God – to prophets and disciples. No – more than a drumbeat. God means to do GREAT THINGS; to move the mountains; to shake the foundations; to light the sky with fire; with the prophets and disciples God calls.

And so we gather this Sunday to remember another prophet and disciple – called by God to move the mountain of racism and hatred in this nation; called by God to shake the foundations of slavery and Jim Crow; called by God to light the sky with the fire of his prophetic words. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the past few months I have been invited to join a group of old folks – a group called The Council of Elders – organizers of the significant movements for social change in the 20th Century – to support and mentor the young leaders of movements of social change in the 21st Century.

And so I have met with – and learned from – and listened to stories late into the night of Dr. King’s brothers and sisters in the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Vincent Harding – the speechwriter for Dr. King and an eminent ethicist and historian. Dr. Jim Lawson – the teacher of non-violence for Dr. King. Dr. Zohara Williams – Snick [Ed. note: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, pronounced “snick“] organizer in Albany, Georgia. Bernice Reagan Johnson – Snick organizer and lead singer, “Sweet Honey in the Rock”.

The rest of this sermon is what I have heard and learned from these great leaders of the Civil Rights Movement about Martin King.

Let us begin with the words of the poet/prophet Carl Wendell Hines, Jr.:

Now that he is safely dead, let us praise him; build monuments to his glory; sing hosannas to his name.

Dead men make such convenient heroes: They cannot rise to challenge the images we would fashion from their lives.

And besides, it is easier to build monuments than to make a better world…

Isn’t that exactly what America has done with this prophet/disciple Dr. Martin King? When our children ask us why they have Monday off school, we tell them Dr. King believed in equality and equal rights. That’s all. When we think about the King holiday, we can’t miss the sales at the mall urging us to be better consumers. We say he was a dreamer – and a powerful Preacher – and only remember he said something about “I have a dream”. We’ll walk together in our Nike sneakers in comfortable parades – and sign petitions for the latest political candidates. And forget the prophet/disciple Martin King.

These are the words of Vincent Harding. He is the most faithful interpreter in our time, of Dr. King’s life and ministry.

“In 1968, just a few months after our friend Martin King was assassinated, my wife, Rosemarie, was visiting the home of two poor, older black women in Atlanta. In their two-room apartment, on the wall in the place of honor next to the picture of Jesus, was a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. One of the women told Rosemarie that King had come to her a number of times since his death. That seemed right, and totally at one with the meaning of Martin Luther King, Jr. in our lives.”

“As I reflected on that, what is also clear, especially in light of the establishment of the King holiday, is that there is a tremendous danger of our doing with Martin King precisely what we have so often done to Jesus. That is, put him up on the wall and leave him there, or use his birthday as a holiday and an excuse for going wild over buying things, or domesticate him – taking him according to what we want, rather than what he is demanding of us. The temptation is to smooth him off at the edges and forget what the assistant director of the FBI said about him in 1963: ‘We must mark King now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro to the future of this nation.’” A dangerous Negro, then, a national holiday now. What shall we do with that?

“What we have tried to do and are being tempted to do is forget that King was a dangerous man, a dangerous black man. He was dangerous in the midst of a society that had chosen to live in a way that was filled with inhumanity to itself and to the rest of humankind. He was dangerous to all of the keepers of the status quo and to all the lovers of a pleasant Christianity. He was indeed, I think, the most dangerous Negro to the future of this nation, partly because, unlike Malcolm X, lots of people didn’t realize how dangerous he was, and still don’t.”

“Toward the end of his life, King said this: ‘The dispossessed of this nation – the poor, both white and Negro – live in a cruelly unjust society’; therefore, ‘they must organize a revolution against that injustice, not against the lives of their fellow citizens, but against the structures through which the society is refusing… to lift the load of poverty’.”

“Martin King was saying many things that challenge us. He was saying for one thing that there are adequate resources, human and natural, for the load of poverty to be lifted. He said this society refuses to lift that load; it insists on structures that will keep the load of poverty. Then society tells us that this is consistent with Christianity and all Christians ought to be free market capitalists. And we believe it.”

King said, “For years I labored with the idea of reforming the existing institutions of this society, a little change here, a little change there. Now I feel quite differently. I think you’ve got to have a reconstruction of the entire society. A Revolution…

(Feel both ears tingle… See GREAT THINGS)

King (in a speech at Riverside Church) pleaded with America to come to its senses – accusing the government of being “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today” – calling America to stand with, not against, the revolutions of the poor.

He said the United States needs to struggle to free ourselves from the triple evils of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism. He said, “that the evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and the evils of racism.”

And he called for a “Poor People’s March on Washington”. “We’ve got to camp in – put our tents in front of the White House. We’ve got to make it known that until the problem is solved – America may have many, many days, but they will be full of trouble.”

(Feel both ears tingle…)

There will be no rest, there will be no tranquility in this country, until the nation comes to terms with (the problem of poverty and war).

I guess that on this Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, we need to remember what really got Dr. King in trouble. It wasn’t because of his dream we quote – although he got in trouble for that. It wasn’t because he believed in voting rights, although he was in trouble for that, too. What finally got everyone, even his own people and tribe in fervent opposition, was that he finally said, “You can’t separate race and war in this nation; that they are the same thing, and they’re built on the same foundation. He said, as a pastor and as a believer, “I cannot separate the two”. And when he declared that those who would walk with him and who would follow his movement had to be as fervently opposed to war in any form as they were opposed to racism, he really got in trouble. He said, “You must combine the fervor of the Civil Rights movement with the peace movement. We must demonstrate and teach and preach until the very foundations of our nation are shaken.”

That’s the Martin King we need to remember in the faith communities this Sunday. Martin the prophet. Martin the disciple – whose call was the same as Samuel’s, Philip’s, Nathanael’s, Jesus’. God’s call to the vision of the Kingdom of God.

Same vision seen in Tunisia and Egypt and Syria and Iran. Same vision seen as people pitched their tents on Wall Street. Same vision as our young people go out to the desert to welcome the poor of Mexico with food and water. Same vision that will never die.

Come to think of it, Arizona today and Alabama in 1963 have a lot in common.

Then in Alabama: White Citizens Councils, Ku Klux Klan (don’t forget the Klan had two agendas – segregation and anti-immigration.) Now in Arizona: Minutemen; Militias; United for Sovereign America; Riders, U.S.A.; Patriots Border Alliance.

Then in Alabama: Collaboration by law enforcement agencies – police; sheriffs; FBI; Bull Conner; Jim Clark. Now in Arizona: Collaboration by the law enforcement agencies – police; sheriff; Joe Arpaio; Homeland Security and Border Patrol 287(g).

Then: Hate speech that used ”nigger” and “boy”. Now: Hate speech that uses “illegals”, “criminals”, “aliens”, and “terrorists”.

Then: Politicians that tried to “out-seg” their opponents [Ed. note: Back then, politicians had to “out–seg” (as in, segregation) their opponents in order to get elected]. Now: Elect politicians that are toughest on border security and illegals.

Then: Nightriders and the disappearance of family members off the streets and from their homes. Now: ICE raids, traffic stops, disappearance of family members.

Then in Alabama: You had lynching – cruel suffering and death as a DETERRENCE. Now in Arizona: We have lynching in the desert: The strategy of using death and suffering of the poor in the desert as a deliberate strategy of deterrence. Border Patrol Strategy: over 5000 documented deaths. Arizona is the epicenter. It is death as deterrence.

Some others see clearly the parallels between the experience of segregation in Alabama and our experience here in Arizona of border militarization and immigration enforcement strategies, and bigotry and hate speech. Both systems – Segregationist Alabama and Anti-immigrant Arizona – were (and are) designed to keep a cheap, easily exploited work force in its underclass place by oppression, fear, racism – and law and order.

You see, that’s the good news of the Gospel – you can’t kill the prophets and disciples. Oh, you can nail ‘em to a cross – or gun ‘em down on a balcony – but they keep coming back to give life and hope.

Edith Lovejoy Pierce wrote a poem titled, Drumbeat for a Dream

Above the shouts and shots, the roaring flames and the sirens’ blare,
listen for the still voice of the man who is no longer there.
Above the tramping of the endless line of marchers along the street,
listen to the silent step of the dead man’s feet.
Lock the doors.
Put troops at the gate.
Guard the legislative halls.
But then tremble when a dead man comes,
whose spirit walks through walls.

A Wisdom Keeper once said, “The prophet will come – when the people are ready.”

Do both ears tingle? Do you see GREAT THINGS?

God is calling us to become disciples – and prophets – together – today. Because Martin still walks through walls and calls us to walk with him.