There is biblical record wherein a discourse is taking place between God and man. God says to man, come now let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet I shall make them white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. God then says I, even I am He that blots out your transgressions for my sake and will remember thy sins no more. There are two dynamics to note, an invitation is given, and an opportunity for discourse is presented to man to dialogue with God, the Creator. Why does the Creator choose to discuss anything with man? After all, He is God! It is certainly a question that certainly deserves resolve. We have already noted two things, an invitation is given, and an opportunity for dialogue is given by God to man. Let us also then note here these three things: 1) service 2) responsibility and 3) sacrifice. God, He uses the word blot, not as a metaphor but as an actuality. He says I will blot out, or even stamp out; make non-existent what existed before. What once was there, after God blots it out it is no longer there. It no longer exists. It is God’s agreement with man to place man in an acceptable position to have dialogue with Him. The only way for man to have dialogue with God because He is so holy is that sin has to go. Sin cannot be present in the presence of a holy God. He gives man this opportunity for dialogue by choice or by invitation. “Let’s reason shall we”, so He says. God indicates I want to do something for you, O man to bring you closer to me.
Whenever an invitation is given, a response is required or expected. A person can either accept the invitation or decline it. An invitation is given by God and an opportunity for dialogue is present. So, God, He has something to say!
A holy God makes himself accessible to sinful man and gives man a choice, in fact, two choices: 1) to be cleansed from sin and 2) to talk it out; have conversation, and even reason with God. Now somewhere along the way, someone made it difficult to get to God, when clearly here all He says is “come”.
What then makes a person accept an invitation to come? I submit to you that a person that accepts an invitation to come is a person that is service-oriented; a person that has a servant’s heart. Remember now service is one of the three attributes that we previously mentioned. You have 1) service, 2) responsibility, and 3) sacrifice.
The question is what makes a person accept an invitation to come? Since February is marked as Black History month and the month of love, entering the scene now is a young man born in Atlanta, Georgia, as Michael King. His father changed both his own name and his son’s name to Martin Luther King in connection with Martin Luther—that great reformist that led the Protestant movement. The movement which led many to accept the direct invitation to come to Christ by faith and to walk in grace.
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a preacher, is an example of service. King demonstrated to us that we must learn how to serve. We must learn how to serve others more than we serve ourselves. Others in history, Frederick Douglas, Rosa Parks, Bayard Rustin, A. Phillip Randolph, Jackie Robinson, Langston Hughes, W.E.B DuBois, Elijah McCoy, George Washington Carver, Coretta Scott King, Harriet Tubman, Dr. Charles Drew, Thurgood Marshall, Benjamin O Davis Jr., General Colin Powell, Adam Clayton Powell, Booker T. Washington, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, and yes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., are just a few names that ring out when we speak of Black History. These are the names of those that served. Any day, any one of these could have chosen to not come; to not accept an invitation to serve. Despite opposition, within their core, there must have been a driving force to answer the call to serve called,
responsibility.
In my visit to the historic Lorraine Hotel in Memphis Tennessee, now the Civil Rights Museum; while walking through the street outside of the hotel it dawned on me that I am sharing the place and occupying the space of leaders that came before me. One in particular, Dr. King who left an indelible impression on the lives of many by standing up when fatigue and insult should have had him sit down. He is a leader who sat down in protest when racist oppressors tried to get him to stand up and act foolishly. They baited him in an effort to get him to throw the first punch. They attempted to incite him to throw the first Molotov cocktail; to turn over the first police car; to be the first to throw a brick at authorities. No, Dr. King’s nonviolent responsible approach helped him when he answered the invitation to come and opened doors for him to dialogue; to reason. As an ordinary citizen, he sat in the oval office of the highest ranking, most powerful leader of the U. S. and he dialogued. He had conversation. He talked with President Lyndon B. Johnson and was heard. President Johnson was not the only high-profile leader with whom Dr. King reasoned. Dr. King used sensible,
responsible English language. It was not his platinum R&B, Country, Rap, or Pop album that got him a seat at the table. It was not his money. He had none. He could not even afford his own funeral. What got him access to sit and to dialogue was his service to mankind and responsibility!
Finally, an additional element that would help us understand what would drive a person to come and reason, is the notion of sacrifice. While there in Memphis, staring at the Lorraine Hotel, trying to take myself back in time in my mind, I began reflecting on a time period that occurred almost sixty years ago. I stood there breathing in that Memphis air laced with the woodsy smell of Memphis barbeque. A smell that was free from the stench of decaying garbage because a man, a mortal man with righteous Godly values, spoke out with intelligent language. He spoke out when two sanitation workers; two human beings who happened to be black, were crushed to their death because there were not allowed to integrate with whites. In order to avoid the torrential rains, (as one movie suggests) these two black men while on break climbed into the rear of a sanitation truck. Because they were not allowed to integrate with the whites in the breakroom inside, they were forced to find shelter in whatever was readily available. They sat in the back of the compact department of a sanitation truck, which malfunctioned, pushing the men in, trapping them, and causing their death.
Dr. King sacrificed his reputation when he helped lead the effort in speaking out about unfair working conditions and treatment within the Memphis sanitation department. He shifted gears and took on the Poor People’s Campaign which appeared to take him off focus of what he started. He sacrificed his reputation. His views were challenged. His commitment to Civil Rights was questioned as he took on this venture to decry the senseless and tragic death of these two black sanitation workers and to speak out against unfair treatment, unfair pay, and unfair working conditions in the sanitation department.
It was there in Memphis in that same year, 1968, that Dr. King gave the ultimate sacrifice after his epic “Mountaintop Speech” at Mason Temple Church of God in Christ. He was shot to death on the balcony of the Lorraine hotel. It is conjectured that during the last years of his life that Dr. King faced opposition everywhere. Tavis Smiley in his book “Death of a King”, talks about the last year of Dr. King’s life. He talks about how Dr. King became unpopular in certain circles because of his expansion in his speeches to include his stance against poverty and economic injustices, and his antiwar rhetoric. He vehemently opposed the Vietnam War that President Lyndon Johnson had his hand of involvement. He, therefore, became unpopular with the President that earlier had invited him to come and reason. Dr. King sacrificed his name, his reputation, friendships, and connections, to speak out against social injustice.
He gives his mountaintop speech there at Mason Temple Church of God in Christ, a Pentecostal church. Smiley, in his book, says that everyone had turned their back on Dr. King, even members and affiliations of the Baptist Church. It is conjectured that Dr. King perhaps speaks at the historic Mason Temple only because those Pentecostal folk, those “holy rollers” as they were called, will accept in anybody.
Tavis Smiley goes on and he does not paint a pretty, historically euphoric picture of Dr. King’s final year. He speaks of the dark nuances of that final year. He speaks of the loneliness and depression that Dr. King undoubtedly endured. He speaks of one instance where Dr. King is so depressed so heavy and burdened with the weight of having to endure hateful treatment. He is mentally and emotionally depleted from speaking out, fighting, and advocating for social injustices for Black people and all people. Smiley tells how Dr. King is fully dressed one evening and is about to go out to whatever engagement was on schedule. He gets to the door and depression hits him. He is immobilized, and can’t move beyond the threshold of the door. He turns around goes back into his hotel room, and gets into bed fully dressed in his suit, tie, and shoes. He pulls the covers over his head and cries for hours inconsolably until he cries himself to sleep. Sacrifice!
This is a scene that is reminiscent of Jesus in Gethsemane. Jesus the ultimate sacrifice. Everybody has abandoned him, his friends, even the disciple brothers. The disciples can’t even stay awake to help him pray. He cries in the garden of Gethsemane! He prays alone to the Father. “Father if it is possible, let this cup pass from me!”
We should understand what’s in the cup. In the cup is separation from the Father, symbolically. In the cup are your sins and my sins! In the cup are agony and rejection. In the cup are pain and suffering. In the cup are the lashes He received on his back. The cup is the sacrifice of the servant.
Jesus knew that if he accepts the cup, every time the Father says to whomever, “ come” they could come. No matter what they had done. They could come and reason together with the Father. Though our sins be as scarlet, He can make them white as snow. Though they be red as crimson. They can become pure as wool.
Why does He do it? Why does Jesus do it? Why does He take the cup? He does it because of his love for you and me! So Jesus says, “nevertheless, ( sacrificially), not my will be done, but thy will be done.”
Dr. King must have read how Jesus was abandoned for he says, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others.”
Dr. King seems to point us to Jesus. If Jesus Christ sacrificially offered himself for us, shall we not offer our service to others? If, instead of shifting responsibility, what if we take responsibility, and become second, putting others first? What if we accepted the invitation and answered the call to come and reason together? I think we would discover the grace of God and the true depths of His love for us all that teaches us how to love one another.