Responding to suffering: Lessons from Dr. King
For MLK Day weekend, we continue our look at the tension of alleviating suffering and embracing suffering for a good, full life, learning from some of Dr. King's 1967 speeches.
SPEAKER NOTES
Responding to suffering: Lessons from Dr. King
Introduce series
- To start off the new year we are doing a series of messages on suffering.
- And last week we introduced a tension we all may feel in life- the tension between a desire to alleviate suffering and a desire to embrace suffering.
- Longing to bring about change AND longing to radically accept what has taken place.
- To find a solution AND to sit with the pain
- While one or the other may be stressed by popular culture or the groups we are a part of, a full life (and a realistic life) has both: alleviate AND embrace
- We see this tension navigated in really helpful ways through the life of Jesus, who is the synthesis- the bringing together- of embracing and alleviating suffering.
- Navigating this tension is a helpful reminder that our identity is not our suffering nor is it removed from our suffering.
Introduce today’s topic
- This weekend, we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to look to the work and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr, especially through the ways he engaged with suffering in his speeches, sermons, and prayers.
- In a few moments we will have the chance to listen to some of his words but I wanted to briefly talk about the beauty of his ability to present both embracing and alleviating suffering as necessary.
King examples
- I typically revisit Letter from a Birmingham Jail around this time each year. It’s a letter Dr. King wrote while imprisoned after participating in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation.
- In it, King is responding to the criticism of white clergy members who have deemed his approach “unwise and untimely”.
- He talks about his disappointment with the white moderate and with the white church.
- And throughout the letter, King talks about this dangerous and unhelpful call to wait. A call that comes from the white clergy and white moderate - be patient for progress, now is not the time
- King says that “wait” has almost always meant “never” when it comes to the oppressor offering up freedom.
- Liberation cannot wait, we must take direct and nonviolent action now, this a call to alleviate suffering.
- King writes that our lives are inextricably tied together; whatever affects one, affects all. Our suffering is as tied as our liberation
- The immediacy of his call is not placing hope only in some far off freedom but the possibility of freedom now. He writes, “the urge for freedom will eventually come.”
- At the same time, Dr. King’s prayers and speeches also offer a sustaining hope in the face of present injustice. He has messages of comfort for right now:
- He prays for an inward acceptance of personal shortcomings as well as perseverance in external circumstances.
- He prays to be aware of inadequacies
- He prays, asking for mercy, asking for strength.
- He prays, confessing the weaknesses of our lives
- He says that “we must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.”
- This is embrace language.
- Dr. King’s words read and sound so powerful for many reasons- but this year I am especially struck by his ability to weave together alleviating suffering with embracing suffering.
- I’m moved by his willingness to both challenge and comfort.
- And he looks to the image of God to guide his understanding in doing so-
- We talked last week about Jesus as the synthesis of alleviating and embracing
- Similarly, King talks about the creative synthesis found in a God of justice that has both a tough mind and a tender heart.
- In one of his sermons he says that “God is tough minded enough to transcend the world and tender hearted enough to be in it. He leaves us not alone in our agonies and struggles. He seeks us in dark places and suffers with us.”
- The balance of alleviating and embracing comes together in the way that Jesus suffers with us. The closeness of a tenderhearted Christ that Dr. King presents is a fellow sufferer and a partner in bringing about justice
Instructions
- We are going to spend some time together listening to excerpts from Dr. King’s speeches and responding to his words through some group discussion time.
- If you are in the theater, we have some group leaders ready to lead discussion- Vince is going to help people get settled into groups here (move around a bit).
- If you are joining online and would like a video option for discussion, you can join in a small group on discord— small group room 1 under “meeting rooms”
- or you can discuss with whoever you are watching with at home.
- We’d love for discord to be the collection place for our responses, so regardless of how you’re participating in the discussion, you can feel free to jot down any ideas in the chat on discord. (If you are in a group, it’d be great if there is a scribe)
We will have two excerpts to listen to with some discussion questions after each one. (Name poor people’s campaign?) The first clip is from Beyond Vietnam. After we all listen, we’ll put the questions up to guide your small group time. (Ask for any questions)
Beyond Vietnam
Nonviolence and Social Change
Bring Chicago Home
- One of the major ways to help the poor gain power is to alleviate the suffering of housing insecurity — so much becomes possible when you’re not worried about shelter!
- There are 68,000 unhoused in Chicago, and tens of thousands more experiencing housing insecurity
- There has been an organizing effort in Chicago for the past decade called “Bring Chicago Home” to try to get a dedicated fund of city government dollars to address housing insecurity, so it doesn’t have to be clawed for every year at budget meetings (LA and NY have this, but Chicago doesn’t!)
- That decade long effort comes to a climax on March 19th!
- BCH have succeeded in getting a referendum on the March Primaries Ballot that will ask voters a yes or no question
- And what a “yes” vote will do is make a change to the real estate transfer tax when someone buys a home.
- Any sale over $1 million, that transfer tax will be higher (at a graduated rate) and those taxes on the amounts above $1 million will go to this dedicated fund to address homelessness
- The transfer tax for sales under $1 million will actually go down (so good for middle class too!)
- Comparatively, the increase for this “mansion tax” in Chicago will still be a bargain compared to cities like Philadelphia and New York, where it’s twice as much or more.
- This is not well known about, so we are doing our part to highlight this
- Estimated turnout for the March primary Ballot is like 20% — So we’re trying to tell everyone: You may not care about the primary, but you care about this! Prioritize getting out to vote this March for the sake of the unhoused
- If you’re not a Chicago voter, you can still help spread the word
- 51% “yes” means a dedicated fund to care for the unhoused and under-housed in our city
One last thing:
- Some of us (or our families) may be affluent enough personally or may work for organizations who have to buy commercial real estate that this transfer tax increase will mean you have to pay more
- We don’t want to sugar coat that
- We’re asking you to consider, even so, the value of a dedicated fund to address housing insecurity.
One more quote from Dr. King:
“I choose to identify with the underprivileged. I choose to identify with the poor. I choose to give my life for the hungry. I choose to give my life for those who have been left out… This is the way I’m going. If it means suffering a little bit, I’m going that way… If it means dying for them, I’m going that way.”
Prayer of Affirmation
A Prayer from the Affirmations of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Join me as we pray aloud together…
I refuse to believe that we are unable to influence the events which surround us.
I refuse to believe that we are so bound to racism and war, that peace and fellowship are not possible.
I believe there is an urgent need for people to overcome oppression and violence, without resorting to violence and oppression.
I believe that we need to discover a way to live together in peace, a way which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of this way is love.
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.
I believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.
I believe that what self-centered people have torn down, other-centered people can build up.
By the goodness of God at work within people, I believe that brokenness can be healed.
“And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and everyone will sit under their own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid.”
Amen.