Katy's Life Story

Recently, I read Martin Luther King, Jr’s last Christmas sermon out of a book called The Trumpet of Conscience which contains five different lectures King delivered for the Massey Lecture Series of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is just as timely and appropriate now as it was back in 1967. And I thought on the day we celebrate MLK, I would share some highlights from this particular piece.
A major theme in this sermon is unity in love. He begins by talking about “negative good” which is similar to the phrase “a necessary evil” specifically when talking about war. He says, “the very destructive power of modern weapons of warfare eliminates even the possibility that war may any longer serve as a negative good.” Like Israel and Gaza, Russia and the Ukraine, the Congo, Sudan, where people use the end to justify the means they use to get there. But King has some really great words of wisdom for today.
First, he talks about embracing a world perspective. It’s the realization that every country, big and small, are interdependent on each other. All of life is interrelated. The clothes we wear, the food we eat, the things that make up the stuff we own, all come from somewhere else in the world. It’s a domino effect. How we treat others comes back to us in many ways.
Second, he discusses the sacredness of human life. All people are a created reflection of God. It has become so easy to dehumanize another person. Just look at any comment section on any social media platform. People are picked apart for the way they look or how they speak. There is a desire to legislate how we think it would be best for others to live instead of embracing the nuance and variety within God’s creation. People have different perspectives and talking to each other with humility and openness could get us much farther than trying to force people to fit into a certain mold.
And finally, he makes the point that “all reality hinges on a moral foundation.” He also mentions this as a “cosmic companionship” which I think is my new favorite way to describe the relationship we have with God. God calls us in Micah to “act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly” which King references in this sermon. He challenges people in authority to make inclusive legislation that helps all people. I think we’ve lost our way on this. We are so focused on power and money and making other people follow some arbitrary set of standards no one can or has lived up to that we aren’t doing the basic things Christ calls us to do – to love others, serve the poor and marginalized, and be slow to judgment and anger.
King challenges us with these words still today. It’s heartbreaking that this was the last time he would speak on Christmas eve, as the following April he was assassinated. In this climate, it’s so important to remember that we are all a small part of a bigger world. Our lives are too important and interdependent to dehumanize each other on news feeds or behind screens. We must understand our own responsibilities to ourselves, our loved ones, and our community. Most importantly, we need to learn to lead with love in our every day interactions and recognize our responsibility to share that love with the world around us.