MLK, Your Message Lives On

On Sunday, we commemorated the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Today we are asked to remember another man who preached non-violence in the face of hatred and brutality, a man who also paid the ultimate price for his faith and his convictions and his love of humanity. April 4 marks the 50^th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Because the occasion demands it, I feel the need to speak more boldly than I am accustomed. Something deep within me calls for it. The message that Dr. King shared calls for it. I feel compelled to speak, if not for Dr. King himself, then for the message he shared. In invoking the words and message of a great man, I consider it not flattery or arrogance but obligation that motivates me to do so. His memory dispels timidity, because his courage was great and demands courage of others. And so I will do all in my power to reflect not only Dr. King’s thoughtfulness but to carefully blend and balance it with a boldness appropriate for the situation humanity faces.

Fifty years ago, someone tried to kill the message Martin Luther King Jr. shared with the world, a message of the redemptive power of love. Speaking in the language of violence and hate—the only language some know—he (or they) sought with physical violence to erase the spiritual message of love Dr. King bore witness to.

I wish to tell you today, from the bottom of my heart, that they have failed. Oh, the wound was deep, the pain inflicted upon the movement and countless individuals was great. It was incapacitating for a time, but in the end it only served a higher purpose. It showed the stark contrast between hatred and love, showed how absolutely ugly and destructive the one was, how necessary the other. Martin knew the price, and was willing to pay it, was willing to stand for love and for justice. Such was the beauty of his message that even the threat of death was not enough to silence him. In putting an end to his life, they sought to steal the narrative of peace-through-love and turn it to their own, a narrative of hatred and violence. But they could not erase what had been said, and in the final analysis, the fatal shot was but the exclamation point of King’s life.

It is said that the message does not die with the messenger, that the spirit lives on, lives among the community and each individual that has taken it to heart. Dr. King’s message did not die. I know that because of the miraculous feeling I have at the core of me. It does not speak of hatred, of bitterness or hopelessness. It speaks of a love that will in time conquer all. And as Dr. King once shared that message to his followers, I now share it with you who sought to silence it, who even today seek to silence it. I share it with you who feared to embrace it, who fear to emerge from the nest and take flight and live out your spiritual destiny. I share it with you who shuddered in fear at the price that was paid by our heroes and might in some lesser degree be asked of us. I share it with those who seek the safety of the herd though they see that the truth of Dr. King’s message was not mere words but words made flesh, words acted out for us by someone who saw and understood more clearly than us the beauty and truth of those words.

This is the message I share with you today, a message that is an answer to the darkness and doubt that is in your heart. It is a message to all those who have acted contrary to the teachings of Martin Luther King, or have failed in picking up the baton he so heroically carried for as long as it was given to him to carry. It is a message to all who hate and doubt and fail to act when deep in your heart you know action is required.

I say to you today that I do not hate you, because I know you have acted through pain and hatred, and such black emotions will never be cleansed except through love.

I do not hate you, because in your redemption will be proven the immensity of the power of love.

I do not hate you, because King’s message cannot be shaken so easily.

I do not hate you, because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

I do not hate because though he did not get there himself, Dr. King saw the Promised Land and we even today march toward it. However hard the road, no matter how often we have stumbled, the way is yet clear. It becomes clearer the further we walk. The contrast between the path of hatred and violence and the road to salvation, one we could once convince ourselves was not so clear, becomes starker the further we travel, until the difference will soon be as obvious as Heaven and Hell. We will live in love, or we will perish in hate.

I do not hate you, because my eyes have seen a glory and my heart has felt a truth too powerful to be stopped with violence.

I do not hate you, because all the pain and violence that have sprung from hatred have only gone to prove its futility.

I do not hate you, because you have killed the messenger but you did not kill the message to love your enemies and to do good to those who hate you.

I do not hate you, because hate is your message, not his.

I say to you now as Dr. King said then “I love you. I would rather die than hate you.” Because love will build our future, while hatred will only destroy.

I love you, because hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.

I love you, because I am aware of a power great enough to cause the blind to see and the deaf to speak, a power that can cleanse the sinner and set him on a righteous and caring path.

Even to those who ignore Dr. King’s message or limit it or abuse it by using it to sell automobiles, I say I do not hate you…though I do not have to like you. I am not obliged to accept your version of reality, but I am obliged to treat you as I would desire to be treated. I can disagree with you and dislike what you do to me and others, but I need not hate you, can still find ways to love you. The road will not always be smooth but it will be lit by love.

I love you in a way you cannot understand...but will, because you did not kill the message, could not kill the message, because the man was greater than you can as yet appreciate. And love is far greater than you can yet comprehend. It is the task of all those who have taken to heart Dr. King’s message to deliver it to you. Not merely in word but in deed, to show through our lives and our capacity to love that love is the only answer. Erich Fromm said: “Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.” Martin Luther King said the same thing, only much more eloquently. Not only with his words, but through actions that shine across the span of a half-century. That light still shines today.