Was MLK a prophet?

Although the public school system, at least in my own limited experience, shies away from even admitting that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Baptist minister, there are a great many churches that point to him a modern-day prophet. Labeling anyone as a prophet is a complicated business and has been for some thousands of years (see Deut. 13, 18). While the prophetic quality of King's message is endlessly debatable and depends more on what you bring to the analysis than the actual content of his speeches and sermons, I think a more interesting avenue to pursue is to compare King's life and work with those of the Old Testament prophets and see what correspondences, if any, exist. What one finds, I believe, is almost an exact replication of the pattern set by the likes of Ezekiel, Isaiah, Amos, Jeremiah, and Hosea and elucidated by Rabbi Abraham Heschel in his book The Prophets. Some of the distinguishing features of this pattern is a moment of call to an unsought after prophetic task, a visionary quality, a great sensitivity to evil and injustice, an engagement in the indictment of contemporary society, and a life tinged with agony.

Perhaps a more interesting line of inquiry would be into the consequences of the acceptance of modern prophecy into mainline denominations Is it possible that King's "Letter From Birmingham Jail" could be canonized as some have sought to do? What new voices would the church be opened to? How would the church incorporate these voices into its regular worship and communal life? Could it be open to such voices without causing increased denominationalism?

Jesus saves. But how?

Perhaps the most exciting theory I've learned about during my first year at HDS is the Giradian theory of atonement. Whereas most Christians understand the bumper sticker slogan "Jesus saves" to mean that "Jesus died to pay for our sins," René Girard argues that the Gospel, as a story about an entirely innocent victim, exposes the violence that forms the very foundation of human society.

His theory revolves around two principles: mimetic desire and the interconnection of violence and the sacred.

Girard understands all desire to be imitative: we don't desire objects for their own sake, we desire them because others do. As such, the people whose desire we imitate become obstacles to our obtaining the object, and thus our rivals. He suggests that if two people desire the same object there will soon be a third, then a fourth, and so on. Because desire is not for the object itself, the object is soon forgotten and what is left is only the antagonism of rivalry. With the object no longer in the picture, people cease to imitate others' desires and instead start to imitate their antagonism. Whereas before they wanted to share the same object, they now want to destroy the same enemy.

Due to this growing antipathy, an outbreak of violence occurs and an individual or group is made the arbitrary victim. After the victim's death, the group's desire for violence is suddenly appeased and peace suddenly restored. The victim comes to be understood as both the origin of the conflict and also the origin of the renewed peace. That paradox imbues the victim with a quality of sacredness. Girard argues that this process is cyclical and is at the very heart of human society.

In a survey of world myths, Girard discovered that most center on the culpability of the sacred victim and the righteousness of his or her killers. He found in the Gospels, however, a different pattern. The Gospels tell a story of an entirely blameless victim. In the accounts of Jesus' crucifixion everyone (from the disciples to Pontius Pilate) is culpable for Jesus' death BUT Jesus. The "good news," then, affirms the innocence of the victim and exposes the sacrificial means by which society maintains its equilibrium.

WHOA.

Love

One of the great leitmotifs of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s ethical and theological thought is his threefold conception of love comprising the categories of eros, philia, and agape. "Eros is a sort of aesthetic love.... Everybody has experienced eros in all of its beauty when you find some individual that is attractive to you and that you pour out all of your like and your love on that individual. Philia, however, "is a sort of intimate affection between personal friends. On this level, you like a person because that person likes you. You love on this level, because there’s something about the person you love that is likeable to you."

Of these three, agape represents highest form of love for King because it does not depend on personal preference but upon recognition of the other as a fellow child of God. It is this kind of love that is intended in Jesus's admonition to love your enemies. King explains it:

Agape is something of the understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. It is a love that seeks nothing in return. It is an overflowing love; it’s what theologians would call the love of God working in the lives of men. And when you rise to love on this level, you begin to love men, not because they are likeable, but be cause God loves them. You look at every man, and you love him because you know God loves him. And he might be the worst.

Which is funnier?

The original:

NOM Gathering Storm - The most amazing bloopers are here

Or the parody?:

Oy Vey

Although it is not my main reason for entering the ministry, I have to admit that having only one day of actual work a week (and that for 2 hours) is certainly an added perk of the job. That being said however, when one becomes accustomed to such a light workload it is all the more jarring when one is confronted with a week heavily laden with all sorts of services. I am now learning that Holy Week is to a minister what tax season is to an accountant.

In this coming week my church will be putting on a tenebraé service for Maundy Thursday, a Taizé/labyrinth-walking service for Good Friday, and two pretty standard worship services on Easter Sunday. Although I am only doing readings for the Maundy Thursday service and one of the Easter services, I have a lead role in putting together the Good Friday service and am completely in charge of one of the Easter services. It wouldn't be so bad I suppose except that because these are the "High Holy Days" of the Christian year, church attendance will be way up and we have to put on a crazy good showing or else risk turning the twice-a-year churchgoers off from coming even as little as they already do. Let us all pray that I don't say anything too blasphemous. 

Latest Sermon

Here is the link to my latest sermon (to be preached tomorrow):

Copyright. Wrong!

I am off to practice more. I'll let you know how it goes.

Style

I found this video while I was randomly looking up sermons on youtube and was overjoyed to find a black preacher whose style could actually be used in a predominately white, UCC church. This guy is just cool. He has serious style and serious class. So much so in fact that I, true to preacherly form, "borrowed" his opening routine for a pastoral prayer I did two weeks ago.

Here is the clip:



And here is my prayer:
Oh eternal loving God.

We join together today in this house of prayer because you have sustained us and ordained and appointed it to be so.

You have sustained us in our waking this morning, sustained us that we had clothes to put on our backs, sustained us that we had the energy and the will to travel to this place. Truly Lord you have brought us from a long way and willed this moment into being. We know you didn’t have to do it, but we know that you chose to and did do it.

And because you have chosen to sustain us, we can fully and heartfully understand the words of the psalmist, “I rejoiced when they said unto me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’”

You have given us our very being sovereign God and it is cause for much rejoice. But in our being you have endowed us with freedom, freedom that we too often waste in jealousy, in hate, in greed, and in anger. We lift up to you today all the pain and grief caused by these sins we commit one against another and we pray for the strength to free ourselves from these shackles with which we bind ourselves.

We pray likewise for all the sorrows and concerns of our community today.
We lift up to you all in our lives that falls short of the future glory you’ve promised us and for which we continue to strive. Through hardship and trouble, through pain and through fear Lord we struggle but we know we do so with the vision of a better world and a better humanity you provided us through Jesus the Christ.

And so dearest God, we thank you, we praise your holy name today, and pray to you in the name of your beloved son, Jesus the Christ. AMEN.