Finding the proper tone for celebrating and remembering the life of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has always been an uneasy experience for me.  This is true partly to the fact that our society honors him more in his death than was done during his life.  The life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is often summed up in a reductionist and revisionist recitation of portions of his “I Have a Dream” speech which often betrays the radical transformative power of Dr. King’s message and way of life.

This year was different for me.  Hosting a service with none other than the Rev. Dr. James Lawson, Jr., the person that Dr. King called “the leading theorist and strategist of non-violence in the world” as our preacher for the occasion, held at Hartzell Memorial United Methodist Church in Chicago was a blessing for the Northern Illinois Conference and an experience that I will not soon forget.

In his message Lawson cited the sixth chapter of the book of Ephesians, “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil”.  Lawson spoke of four spiritual poisons; Racism, Sexism, Violence, and a Plantation Capitalism- where the bottom line is property, income and wealth and not people.  Lawson’s message, part sermon part teach-in, was a challenge to the church to preach the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ over against messages of superiority and exploitation”.

King wrote, “The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor.  It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it.  It gives them a new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know that they had.  Finally, it reaches the opponent and so stirs his conscience that reconciliation becomes a reality.”

While spending time with Lawson over the phone and face to face our conversations covered topics from Palestine-Israel, violence in the city of Chicago, and yes, “the crucifixion” of Dr. King”.  It was abundantly clear in those conversations that he is what Dr. King proclaimed him to be but also one who has committed his life to being a practitioner and teacher of non-violent social change.

On nonviolence, Dr. King once said,

I’m not going to let my oppressor dictate to me what method I must use.  We have a power, power that can’t be found in Molotov cocktails, but we do have a power.  Power that cannot be found in bullets and guns, but we have a power.  It is a power as old as the insights of Jesus of Nazareth and as modern as the techniques of Mahatma Gandhi.

Indeed, we have a power; let us use our power wisely.