(Message given on January 28, 2024 at Wayside Friends Church. If you would like to read more of Dr. King’s words, I’ve collected and organized many quotes at this link.)
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
Isaiah 43:19a, ESV
…the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.
2 Cor. 5:17b, ASV
Look, I am making everything new!
Rev. 21:5a, NLT
In what surely is a sign of my privilege, there was a time in my life where I didn’t necessarily need God to do a “new” thing.
I loved life, and loved the church I got to serve. I loved the good we were trying to do in the world. I wanted mostly to keep doing the things that we were doing, because it felt right.
But now…now I feel in my marrow the need for the old things to pass away and new things to come.
“Look, I am making everything new!”
Jesus’ announcement through the apostle John in the book of Revelation is now what I need, what I long for. And bringing new things is what God does, as I was reminded a few weeks ago on the Pray-As-You-Go podcast, with a bible reading about the prophet Samuel as a young boy.
In a time when “messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon,” (1 Sam. 3:1, NLT), the little boy Samuel heard the voice of God. And what God told this little boy was that the religious establishment needed a new thing. The priest Eli’s sons were corrupt—the same priest Eli who himself was caring for Samuel as a father figure—and God spoke words of judgment to Samuel about Eli and his sons.
God’s voice, God’s intervention meant the old way of corruption in the religious institution must pass away, and something new must come.
It’s a pattern in the bible, this destruction of broken institutions and harmful human ways, and the coming of something new from the heart of God.
Through the prophet Isaiah:
“I am doing a new thing.”
Isaiah 43:19a, ESV
Religious institutions, political institutions, will be turned upside down.
Through Mary’s poetic song of power, the Magnificat:
“His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble.”
Luke 1:51-52
Through Anna and Simeon, as Elizabeth reminded us a few weeks ago:
“This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise.”
Luke 2:34
Look! Behold! I am making everything new.
This is the work of God I need. This is the work of God we need.
Recently I’ve been learning from and taking solace in the words of Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.. We celebrate him as a nation on his birthday, but too often we celebrate only the man with a dream in 1963, and not the full totality of who he continued to be right until his life was taken on April 4, 1968.
Before the holiday a few weeks ago, I read and pondered four messages from the last year of Dr. King’s life.
- Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, his powerful critique of the war—given exactly one year before he died, on April 4, 1967;
- The Three Evils of Society, delivered on August 31, 1967;
- Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, preached at the National Cathedral on his last Sunday, March 31, 1968; and
- I’ve Been to the Mountaintop, given that last night of April 3, 1968…which happens to be two weeks and a day before I was born.
He spoke freely of being booed by young black leaders, young people who had heard his eloquent promises of cashing a promissory note at the bank of justice—but years later, true change had not come. He spoke of these young black leaders who doubted his message of non-violence, who longed for a more potent power to truly change the old things, these old things that were NOT passing away very quickly at all.
I identified with Dr. King’s despair over this, and with his moment of defensiveness and self-pity.
Because he had been at this justice work for a long time. But as riots and molotov cocktails exploded in the cities of our nation, as napalm fell on the jungles of Vietnam—as congress delayed and defused and refused to address racism or poverty while pouring money into an immoral war—Dr. King very much understood why the young black leaders booed. He felt their pain and their longing for true change.
So he took stock, and he dug in. He spoke out. He organized and he marched and he lobbied all the more, keeping and doubling down on his long-held practice of non-violence. The truth is that Dr. King wasn’t naive. He knew of more activist ways, a use of resistance and power like Malcolm X and others were advocating. They didn’t appear after he was gone, taking over when non-violent means failed.
Dr. King’s choice of non-violence as a tactic and as a way of life was a different choice, a choice consciously made. It co-existed alongside other more activist choices.
That message he preached on his last Sunday used the very text from Revelation I quoted at the start: “Behold, I am making everything new.”
He knew in his bones the “new” that was needed from Jesus. On the night of April 3, he said this:
“The world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion is all around…But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.”
I’ve Been to the Mountaintop
My eyes see the dark all too well these days. It is time to look for the stars.
Dr. King was consistent in his message, summed up well here from his Three Evils of Society message. These are the things that need to pass away:
“We are now experiencing the coming to the surface of a triple prong sickness that has been lurking within our body politic from its very beginning. That is the sickness of racism, excessive materialism, and militarism. Not only is this our nation’s dilemma, it is the plague of western civilization.”
The Three Evils of Society
We cannot truly be part of making a positive difference for black people, we cannot truly deal with racism without dealing with how our excessive materialism leads to poverty. And we cannot truly deal with poverty without addressing militarism. In his Beyond Vietnam message, he said:
“I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube.”
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
How different our world might be, if we had accepted the truth in these words!
How different might we be as a nation, if we listened, learned, and changed 55 years ago, working together to alleviate poverty for all. Instead, as US weapons are falling right now in Palestine and Yemen, we see that the military industrial complex has done nothing but grow.
Earlier this month, congressional leaders and the White House came to an agreement on budget numbers, an agreement which allocates $886 billion dollars to the military…and $772 billion dollars to everything else. (Source)
Every single political discussion on poverty reduction today has been effectively constrained to one small part of that $772 billion, that less-than-half-our-total-budget amount. We—Democrats, Republicans, Independents—we all are in dire need of an entire rethink of our militaristic structure.
In Dr. King’s words:
“A nation that continues year after year, to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
The Three Evils of Society
In his last Sunday sermon, Dr. King highlighted the way the bible demands that we refuse to ignore poverty, to let it be invisible. Rather, we must take it on together.
In the sixteenth chapter of Luke, Jesus tells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Dr. King calls the rich man “Dives,” which is the Latin word for rich man:
“Dives [the rich man] went to hell because he passed by Lazarus every day and he never really saw him. He went to hell because he allowed his brother to become invisible… Indeed, Dives went to hell because he sought to be a conscientious objector in the war against poverty.”
Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution
As a nation, we consciously accept militarism and war, and we have become conscientious objectors in the war on poverty.
Dr. King recalled the parable of the Good Samaritan, from Luke 10:
“On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway.”
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
Systemic issues require systemic change, in other words.
“We must also realize,” said Dr. King, “that the problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power.” (The Three Evils of Society)
This is what the early church did, in the book of Acts. Followers of Jesus shared all their possessions and took care of each other, redistributed their own wealth. When Greek widows were being overlooked and not treated fairly in the distribution of food, they put Greeks in charge of making things right. Power was yielded, power was shared, just as much as food and money.
Reading Dr. King’s words reminded me that the things that concern me most today (Palestine, health care, houselessness, mental health care, unfair distribution of wealth, to name a few) are all related.
When we write to our congressional leaders protesting the out-of-all-proportion response in Gaza, we are raising our tiny voice against our nation’s out-of-all-proportion militarism.
Our willingness to question the American Empire’s militaristic answer to every problem begins the possibility of a reallocation of our mis-allocated national priorities to address things like health care and poverty and mental health needs.
And while we work and wait for systems to change, we can also ask Spirit to guide our individual choices and our like-minded group choices, to bring something better.
Dr. King talked about the power of economic withdrawal, of boycotts, of supporting businesses of people of color and other marginalized folk.
How can we better spend our money in this complex economic world? With supply chains literally spanning the globe, perfection in spending isn’t really possible. But how can we become better?
For the things we choose to buy, how can we support local business, small business, businesses owned by marginalized folk? To go a step deeper, how might we examine or change the things we desire and choose to buy, toward more sustainable and less exploitive items?
How might we, like the early church, redistribute our wealth to those around us who need it?
We’ve been exploring this a little bit since COVID with the young adults. People give to this Cash app fund, and then anyone can request money from it, no questions asked, to have a fun date, or get dinner out, or pay a small bill. It’s gone dry a couple times, had some long stretches of no activity…but it’s also tangibly helped people in beautiful ways!
The word from Salem is that we are going to get a very large rebate on our state taxes, a big kicker, very soon. That is “my” money, of course, that I’m getting back. But it’s unexpected. What might we all, together, do with that kicker to invest in the lives of others in positive ways?
In our young adult group, we are discussing Randy Woodley’s book “Becoming Rooted.” In this morning’s discussion, the group brought up some helpful distinctions between generosity and hospitality. Hospitality is something we can do mutually, for each other. You can even be a “hospitable presence” at a party that you aren’t hosting!
On the other hand, generosity implies I am giving to someone “less fortunate.” We can create a subtle hierarchy even with the idea of generosity.
I love the idea of how we can mutually be hospitable with each other, even with things like “my” tax rebate kicker!
Some of us have a 401k, savings accounts, checking accounts. Where is that money invested? In whom is it invested? Is there a way that I could keep resources I need, but put them in banks or stocks or investments that also benefit people of color or indigenous people or other marginalized people, rather than just giving more benefit to the ones who already have most of the wealth?
The “new” that God is bringing is a tangible love, love that goes beyond just those who are like me.
Dr. King again:
“This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond ones’ tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all [humanity]…When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response…Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality…ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of St. John: ‘Let us love one another, for love is God. And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God…If we love one another, God dwells in us and his love is perfected in us.’”
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
May God’s Spirit explode in us an all-embracing and unconditional love for all humanity.
May the love of Jesus unlock in us the ability to love one another, in practicality and in truth. May God dwell in us and perfect love in us, a love that takes action for others—individually and systemically.
And may we see some stars in this present darkness.
“Look! I am making everything new.”