Psalm 123

Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us, 
          for we have had more than enough of contempt. 
Our soul has had more than its fill 
          of the scorn of those who are at ease, 
          of the contempt of the proud.

(Psalm 123:4-5)

            On Monday night, Brianne and I went and saw the Academy Award nominated film, Selma. As I'm sure you're aware, this film details Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s three marches in Selma, Alabama in 1965. It is a remarkable film because it begins at the Noble Peace Prize award ceremony. It begins after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It begins, in short, when Dr. King could've easily felt as if all the world were his oyster. In an early scene, President Lyndon B. Johnson makes it clear that there is a standing offer for Dr. King to join LBJ's administration and work within the system to reform it. Again, the world was his oyster. Yet those are just the opening minutes of the film. The rest of the film is a bloody, painful, violent, sorrowful affair that left me on the verge of tears more than once and - even as I write this and recall those scenes - brings tears that need to be blinked away. "...for we have had more than enough of contempt," indeed.

            There are a number of ways that we can value our martyred brother, Martin. We can value his oratory. We can value his power and influence. We can value his theology. But it is my hope that we choose to value him for a more understated reason: his continued, perpetual, unwavering identification with the culturally despised and derided. When Dr. King could've taken a cozy desk job two doors down from the Oval Office, he didn't. When Dr. King could've went on a book tour and made millions from it, he didn't. When Dr. King could've got his own talk show or secured a tenured professor position, he didn't. When the world was his oyster, he didn't cash in the pearl found within. Well, he didn't cash it in for his own sake. No, instead, Dr. King sacrificed this pearl of prestige in order to stay with those whose "souls have had more than their fill, of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud."

            I know I sound like I talk political a lot, but I don't think its politics at work. I think, instead, it is the faithfulness that we see in Dr. King. It just so happens that - at certain times (but probably more often than we realize) - the faithful thing is inadvertently a political thing. This is always true for anyone with any cultural prestige. And we are - by and large - a congregation full of such prestige. Yet for Dr. King, the faithful thing was to shirk his privilege and prestige for the sake of serving those in need. No one would contend that avoiding vice and pursuing virtue is unfaithful. Yet in doing so, Dr. King made a political statement to the world. He proclaimed - like Jesus before him - that the world does not belong to the Oval Office or to the political pundits or to the county sheriffs. No, the world belongs to the Lord and the Lord gives it to the faithful, the persecuted, the peacemakers, and the despised. And the only reason that this is political is because it is a threat to the political powers that be. Yet Dr. King - and I hope you don't either - didn't look at those powers. Instead, he proclaimed with his whole life: "To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!" (Psalm 123:1). Once our gaze rests upon our enthroned Lord, we will find that His gaze is on the poor and needy. And that's not politics; it's faithfulness.