47/96

As I say in the meditation , dr King wanted us to be more offended by poverty and disparity of opportunity and whole segments of the society not being able to enjoy the American ideal , and promise More upset about that than political personality .

There's a lot of things coming up , and you based your devotion off of 1 Corinthians , chapter 12 , verse 31 . And there's also inspiration from Dr King's remaining awake through a great revolution dated 1959 .

And , of course , we're also going to be celebrating not only the inauguration of our president , who is going to be president again , donald Trump , and it's also going to be coinciding with the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King's birthday .

His election was overwhelming . I think that's fair to say . It was clear . The American people were clear about who they wanted to be their president going forward , and his inauguration takes place on the same day as this nation celebrates the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King's 96th birthday . So I entitled the meditation 47 and 96 . He's the 47th president .

Donald Trump will be and Dr King obviously will be 96 years , and so I think it's worthy of just stopping a minute and at this intersection and thinking about the way we go forward . Those of us who admire , even adore , president Trump , and those of us who detest him .

I think that there are some real lessons from Dr King's writing and Dr King's example for how to stand at an intersection with presidents and with politics and be a Christian .

Obviously , all of us are concerned about leadership , especially as we stand at an important intersection in this nation in regards of , in terms of economy , in terms of our politics , our divided state , in terms of the poor , seem to be getting poorer . The gap , the wealth disparity , seems to be widening . So all of us care an awful lot .

What concerns me are those people who , on the one side of the coin , idolize a politician , and I worry about that . I worry about the negative side effects of that . As I've written , it seems to me that an extreme idolization of anybody can lead to what I call blindness and paralysis .

A blindness in that you're so in love or you so adore someone , in this case a politician , that you refuse to see the gaps , you refuse to even hear legitimate concerns or questions . That's the blindness part . And then the laryngitis part is that those who may want to raise a constructive criticism but not be partisan .

Their voices get squelched such that they end up sort of in what I would call an inaudible whisper , and so that's not good for the nation , that's not good for the soul of anybody . And then those people who are hypercritical and they want better for the nation . But they find themselves becoming bitter .

In this 24-hour news cycle where it seems like there's breaking news every three minutes , what worries me is the soul of folks on either side of the equation . And as a Christian and I think this is why I quoted Dr King Dr King found a way to work with all kinds of presidents .

Nowhere in his addresses , nowhere in his writings do you see him either idolizing or castigating . He worked with the Kennedys , he worked with LBJ . I mean , he worked with all kinds of folks . You know , and as I say at the very end of this meditation , so I think we should be on guard , for , you know , extreme preoccupation in either direction .

You know , remember who we are right . We're the baptized , we're the followers of Jesus , first and foremost . And so , you know , occupants of any political office are transitory Right , and so Jesus is yesterday , today and forever . And so , while I have my own thoughts about politics .

What I'm arguing against is really an excessive and extreme preoccupation to the neglect of the work that Jesus set for us to do , you know , and the neglect of neighborliness . You know , the campaigns are over , the people have decided . Will we still have concerns ? Yes , do we still have strong feelings ? Absolutely , but the work must continue .

As I say in the meditation , dr King wanted us to be more offended by poverty and disparity of opportunity and whole segments of the society not being able to enjoy the American ideal , and promise More upset about that than political personalities . And I just think that media is making a killing off of this constant state of outrage that we find ourselves in .

And I do think it is fair criticism to say that some media has been weaponized . Is fair criticism to say that some media has been weaponized . And so , while I have no control over any of that , I do have an encouraging word for people on both sides of the political spectrum , and that is if we are baptized , then Jesus is first .

The decision has been made by the American people . Let's get to work .

Sometimes I think the trap we fall into is abdication , and that we abdicate the humanities work that I think we're called into as followers of Jesus and we abdicate that and we ask the government to do that for us . And so I really love your quote here .

You say Dr King had a more excellent way and you go on to say that that way seeks partnership , especially among non-traditional partners , while finding solutions for pernicious problems , and all as an act of worship , that's right .

The best examples are men and women who found a way to make coalition and to get work done with people that they might not necessarily agree with on every matter . And they did it because , number one , they love the Lord , their God , with all their heart , mind , soul and strength and neighbor as self .

And , number two , that they understood that , look , we are an American family . It's big , it's complicated , it's messy yes , of course , all of that , and maybe twice on Sunday . But here we are .

Jimmy Carter , in something I quoted not long ago , said that you know , there's really no future and I'm paraphrasing there's really no future for hating the country Right .

And so if we are upset , if things have not turned out our way , then will we just allow bitterness to have its corrosive effect , or can we redeem the time right , make hay over this next four years , those who have a problem with the president , president-elect at this point , can we make hay during his term , can we find ways to work together on those problems

that are neither red nor blue , right ? I mean , you know our grandchildren's education , our children's education , poverty , this generation , if the scholars are to be believed , will be less educated than their parents and make less than their parents and , as a general matter , have more melees and despair and depression than their parents , right ?

So there are more serious issues afoot than if we like a politician or if we don't like a politician .

Look , it's interesting to me to watch how Dr King worked with Lyndon Baines , johnson , and while there's all kinds of things that have come out based on the Freedom of Information Act and people had conversations and off-color remarks primarily LBJ off-color remarks about things , and those guys were not drinking buddies it is easy to argue that more constructive work got

done while Dr King was with us and LBJ was the president , and I think it's fair to say . If you would ask LBJ at the beginning of his term if he was going to appoint the first African-American Supreme Court justice and get the legislation done 64 and 65 , I think he would have said no way , and so I think that you know .

Look , I take a cue and I've told the story , I think , before , but I remember very vividly not long ago ago , during President Trump's very first term , the very beginning , ambassador Young was with us and he was going to sort of lead some high schoolers in a reflection on Dr King's life and some young clergy were around and they were just sort of castigating

and dumping on . You know , president Trump and you know Andy Young listened like any good grandfather would and I think he reached a sort of his boiling point and boy , he just let these clergy folks have it and what he said stayed with me and I think it's what I'm trying to get at with this meditation .

He said when did you ever see Dr King launch into personal attacks on elected officials ? When did you ever see it launch into personal attacks on elected officials ? When did you ever see it ? And then Andy went the next step and said you don't have a share in Dr King's ministry if that's your approach . Whoa .

So you know , and I just I remember , like everybody sort of you know , was sufficiently chastised and thank God the kids filed in and then he turned his affections and attentions to the kids and just did a wonderful presentation . But I think that I'm saying that for the baptized , more is expected of us .

I mean , what is the strategy the next four years we're going to rant and rave ? Or is the next four years for those of us who are Christian and who are very happy about President Trump's election ? Are we just going to sort of be blind ? You know , blind and gleeful and not see the cracks and not see the problems right ? I think you know why I quoted .

You know scripture here about . A more excellent way is is that Dr King , both with his life and his lips , showed us the middle way . So I don't actually have to castigate anybody personally to get up every day and work on a policy .

So I think one of the first strategies we can do is find some people who are wiser than us , right ? I mean , I think Dr King was mentored by Howard Thurman and a whole host of people , to say nothing of his own father , who grew Ebenezer to an amazing prominence before Dr King , while Dr King was just a young fella .

So I think we have to talk to people , and I think the other thing we have to do is actually talk about what's important here . What is important , you know , ambassador Young again here's another mentor of mine grew up in New Orleans , louisiana , and his dad taught him to find ways to build bridges with all kinds of people .

That was just what was ingrained in him , and so you know , I was talking to Dr Franklin , a former president of Morehouse College and now the Laney Moral Leadership Chair at Candler Theology School , theological School , and he was saying that if we want to be moral leaders number one , you have to sort of immerse yourself in the story of those moral leaders who

went before you , so we don't have to strike on our own right Now . Do we all need a chance to vent and do we all have really passionate ideas about politics and the direction of the nation ? Of course we do about politics and the direction of the nation , of course we do .

But what I'm worried about is that really that sort of , you know , being in a constant state of vent , and I worry about how that diminishes our energies . Look , all of us are finite creatures and we have finite energies and if we spend so much time being hyper watchful and hyper critical of people , we won't get the work done .

The work is not to be critical , hypercritical . The work is to move the needle , such that we can move the needle . We do this by looking at examples , we do this by finding mentors who can help us , and we do this by picking the thing that we think really a lot about that touches our heart .

So for some of us it is poverty , for some of us it is domestic violence . For some of us it is that we have an obscene mortality rate , child mortality rate , here in a great nation , in an industrialized nation , I mean .

So there is a piece of work for all of us to do , and so , in some ways , the invitation that we get from Dr King's example is find the thing you care about and immerse yourself in this , spend your energies on that . It's not the same thing as putting your head in the sand like an ostrich .

People who have a big heart and who care , I find are absolutely magnetic partners and people I hope would say they found a partner in me , somebody who doesn't agree with them about every jot and tittle , but we can agree on this thing and we can make our way down the road .

And so I think this is what Dr King does , and he finds , you know , he finds partners in the Jewish community and he finds partners who are Republican and he finds partners who are Democrat . He finds lots of different kinds of partners .

In fact , that was what was so dangerous about Dr King and I do believe one of the reasons why he was killed and that is he was finding he was building consensus . He was building consensus across vast segments of the population and I think this was the absolute danger of him . And so , in a funny way , here he is .

He's showing us how not to fall asleep , either with sort of undue adoration or undue castigation of anybody . He's showing us how to stay awake in this season of great social change by finding our purpose . Finding our purpose and then , of course . What I like to say at the end of all this is look , there is no Republican or Democrat . Heaven right .

This life is a dress rehearsal for an eternity where we will finally see face-to-face that you have always been my sibling , I've always been my sibling , I've always been your sibling , and that where we will be embarrassed of our smallness . So why not rehearse now , right and find ways and look .

This essay , this meditation , is on some big , sweeping , national sort of scale , but this thing can happen and it is happening at neighborhood levels , people being neighborly one to the other . It's happening in congregations . I was at an event at the Carter Center and we were there talking about representatives from the faith community .

You know , jews , muslims , baha'is , methodists , episcopalians , I mean there we were all of God's children and after we got done talking , I overheard and this made my day . I overheard a Palestinian woman and a Jewish woman talking about resuming their baking group together , apparently .

Their solution , right , their progress on enmity and hatred , was to get together as women who have children and want a better tomorrow and bake together and get to know one another and dismantle a couple of saints at a time .