Before Dr. King was a civil rights leader, a statesman, or a founding father of America, he was a gospel preacher. The word of God was his touch stone.
King knew God had called him and others to be trumpets, and he understood that the trumpet had to give a certain sound. There could be no movement of prophetic implementation where there was not clear prophetic imagination.
King understood this. As Richard Lischer argued in his book, The Preacher King, we cannot understand King without hearing him as a preacher. For King, preaching was not simply closing a sermon at the end and getting the people up to shout; the role of the prophet was to turn people‘s ears into eyes so they could see clearly.
It was to call them to walk by faith, which they could not do unless they heard.
It was to give a clear word in confusing times.
We still need that word today. I was glad to be with the St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Biloxi, Mississippi, for their Martin Luther King Sunday yesterday, and I’m grateful to them for helping me preach this message.
Every preacher knows that we cannot do this work on our own. It is a communal task of discernment. Which is why I’m glad to be able to share it with you here.
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