"What Motivates us to Do Justice?"

In my doctoral dissertation at Marquette I asked the basic question: “What led the ELCA Lutheran Church of which I am a part, and its predecessor Lutheran bodies, to go beyond individual concerns for mercy and care for others to doing social justice?" Was it just a response to the events of the world that led to the church taking positions on social issues or was it an increasing understanding that the prophets and Jesus Himself called for “doing justice?” Ultimately I was able to demonstrate that a response to the Word of God, as it was incarnated in Jesus and interpreted for the time, led to such a response.

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. When we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. we celebrate justice. In recent years community service projects have been done to commemorate the day in order to remember that justice can be brought about in small ways, as well as big ways. Dr. King, though, worked for justice in a big way. Interestingly, on Easter weekend 1963 he responded to the question of several leading clergypersons about why he approached change in civil rights with demonstrations. Sitting in solitary confinement in a Birmingham City Jail he wrote his famous letter relating to the subject of justice. “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eight century B.C. left their villages and carried their ‘thus saith the Lord’ far beyond the boundaries of their hometowns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own hometown. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid…. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere…. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts…. You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme… Was not Jesus an extremist for love: ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Was not Amos an extremist for justice: ‘Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream….’ So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice…. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”

Dr. King was moved by the prophets and Jesus and Paul to do something about injustice in the world in 1963. It was both the circumstances of the time (context) and his faith in the Word (in Jesus and interpreting the text of Scripture) that led him to do justice. So we should be led when we face any injustice today. Whether the need be that of clearing up the lingering residue of racism or simply standing up for that which we believe, we get our impetus and sustaining drive for justice in Jesus’ words that call us “to deny ourselves, take up our Cross and follow Him.” When any injustice presents itself, it is both our call and our heritage to respond. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself quoted in Letter from Birmingham City Jail: “Was not Martin Luther an extremist: ‘Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.’” Let us find ourselves standing with our brothers Martin and work for the betterment of humankind.