Compelled to Carry the Gospel of Freedom
Rev. Dr. DeWayne L. Davis
January 19, 2025, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday
Scripture: Isaiah 59: 11a-16
Not only has justice become a debatable, partisan concept in our current politics, but now the very idea of advocating or organizing for justice, of holding neighbor and nation to the call to do justice, has become suspect, mocked, and resisted, especially in some churches. But on this MLK Sunday, when we honor and remember not just Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but the struggle for Black freedom in America in which King played a critical role in leading and shaping, it would be a mistake to gloss over the social and theological imperative of justice in the vision of and the aspiration for a just and good society. Even those well-intentioned efforts to honor King and the work he did fall a little short because of the outsized focus on his most famous speech, the “I Have a Dream” speech. Focusing on King’s dream at the expense of what it would take to realize it causes us to inadvertently miss the prophetic tradition that grounded both King’s ministry and his activism. The Hebrew prophets often reminded Israel of God’s unrelenting, inexhaustible requirement to do justice. And their oracles echo unto this day.
For those who wonder where the oft-chanted mantra, “no justice, no peace,” at social justice rallies and marches comes from, it comes from chapter 59 of Isaiah. This morning’s Scripture lesson takes us to that moment in Israel’s life when the prophet Isaiah confronts the nation about its hypocrisy and faithlessness. Isaiah has the risky task of informing Israel that God had rejected the essential practices of their faith tradition—their prayers, sacrifices, and psalms—because of Israel’s failure to do justice. They had gotten to the point where their worship is no longer acceptable to God. God is looking for faith and worship that loose the bonds of injustice, that leads people to share their bread with the hungry, and that inspires people to bring the homeless poor into their homes for shelter. But Israel has failed. Israel knows what justice is supposed to be, for Israel walked out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt at God’s hand of justice, but they have failed to make justice a concrete reality in an unjust world. When people fail to live and worship with this kind of justice in their hearts and minds, they fix a barrier between God and themselves. When God’s people fail to do justice, there is conflict with God. Communities of faith that have turned their backs on justice are out of sync with the covenant agreement with God. Thus, there is no peace.
And so Israel confesses her failure. Israel admits that it has turned away from following God. Israel oppresses, revolts, and lies, becoming like all the other nations that are bent on pursuing power, wealth, and status. Isaiah names the state of affairs: Justice is turned back. Freedom is far off. Truth does not prevail in the public square. Uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking. And God saw it and is displeased. God was appalled that there was no one to intervene. Who will do justice? Who will join God in upholding righteousness?
These are the questions that King had to wrestle with as a young minister thrust into the movement for justice. This is where we are invited to take seriously what King’s work can mean for the church, nation, and world. As a son of the Jim Crow South, with its ironclad segregation of schools, churches, neighborhoods, and the public square, where Black American were relegated to the margins by law, King experienced firsthand a society where justice was turned back, where freedom for all was a dream deferred, where truth was denied in the public square, and where uprightness among the political leadership was few and far between. King opened his heart, soul, and mind to Isaiah’s prophetic declaration that God is displeased that there is no justice and is appalled that there is no one to intervene. Dr. King intervened. To do so was risky and, for King, eventually fatal, but King heeded the prophetic call to work for justice. One theologian described King’s civic and ministerial pursuit of justice as the practice of a “theology of radical involvement.”[1] King heard the call of a proactive God who is displeased with the absence of justice. King heard the call of the God of love, whose covenant mandate is freedom, redemption, and a beloved community. King intervened.
So, when King became the leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, those who believed that faith should remain a private affair, those who feared violent backlash, and those who counseled the Black community to be patient and wait a little longer wondered why this Baptist preacher would get involved this way. When King organized the Birmingham campaign to fight for desegregation in public places, some wondered why he would risk backlash, violent retaliation, and potential death. When King went to Selma to help push for voting rights, his critics didn’t see a person of faith; they called him an outside agitator, a charlatan looking for fame. And, in response, the faithful minister who knew that God was displeased because there was no justice, declared:
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Just as the eighth-century prophets left their little towns and villages captured by ‘thus saith the Lord,’ just as the apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus, and decided to ‘hotfoot’ it all around the Greco-Roman world to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ, I am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom everywhere [people] are oppressed.”
Compelled to carry the gospel of freedom everywhere people are oppressed. As far as he can, King will honor God’s desire to see justice done. He intervened.
So many thought King’s agitating, organizing, and protesting couldn’t be about justice. The FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, convinced himself that King’s work had to be about a communist ideology that opposed America, so he spent most of his time trying to discredit King. Not once did he allow himself to think about or address the injustice the movement sought to highlight. Some people thought King’s uncompromising embrace of an ethic of love and the principle of nonviolence were all about King’s ego and the desire for fame and notoriety, so they attempted to buy him off or buy his silence. Not once did they allow themselves to see that the movement for freedom and equality was bigger than King and a prophetic mandate from God. When justice is turned back, when the truth is lacking and stumbles in the public square, when freedom is a dream deferred, when uprightness cannot enter, God is looking for people to intervene. God is determined to see justice done. Dr. King heeded the call, carrying a gospel of freedom into the public square.
Tomorrow, as we celebrate the King holiday, another president will be inaugurated. Whether you voted for him or not, whether you believe the threats to fundamental rights are real or not, the pursuit of justice cannot wait, regardless of who inhabits that office. Whenever justice is turned back, whenever truth is lacking, and whenever freedom stands at a distance, God is looking for people willing to intervene to do justice. God is looking for the faithful to practice a theology of radical involvement. Why us? Why do we have to do it?
One of King’s famous quotes that we often hear came from a phrase in his last Sunday morning sermon at the Washington National Cathedral four days before he was assassinated: “The arc of a moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” But if we are wondering if and why we have to intervene to do justice, one of my colleagues recently added a coda to that quote worth considering: “The arc of justice won’t bend itself.” King worked tirelessly to bend that arc. He gave his life for it. Lest we think King was a singular figure in the work of justice, many other interventionists joined God in God’s displeasure that there was no justice. They stepped forward to bend that arc: Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, John Lewis, and so many more heeded the prophetic call to carry the gospel of freedom and justice into the public square. Will we join them? I know people will criticize us for intervening. They will question the sincerity of our involvement.
Read on a little further in Isaiah, and we see that God will have justice even if we shrink from the call to let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. God will make things right. Justice will be done. The victory will be won. The question is, will we join God in the work of justice? Will we intervene when injustice threatens to win the day and oppress God’s beloved? A God of covenant loyalty has bequeathed us a prophetic mantle to be doers of justice. Dr. King has left us a legacy of radical involvement. The world is hungering for a gospel of freedom and justice. May we carry the gospel of freedom into the public square and to the world, doing what we can to bring justice.
[1] Luther Ivory, Toward a Theology of Radical Involvement.
