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Message is delivered by Reverend Dr. Bruce Wheeler Thielman. Today's sermon, Great 20th Century Christians. Martin Luther King Jr. Let us continue in worship by giving attention to the reading of God's Word as it is recorded in the second book of Moses, Exodus, chapter 3, beginning with the verse numbered 1. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law

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Jethro the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked, and lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, "I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt." When the Lord

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saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses." And he said, "Here am I." Then he said, "Do not come near. Put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." And he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look

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at God. Then the Lord said, "I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites,

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the Ammonites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt." And may God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his Word.

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Pray with me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. August 28, 1963, was a very hot day in Washington, D.C. I was there with more than 250,000 other people to march supporting the civil rights legislation, which was at that time

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before the Congress of the United States. Now there is no doubt that the high point of that day came when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood to speak. He was standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, and the great statue of Lincoln looked down on him and the assembled crowd. 1963 was the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and King referred to that in his

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speech. But in his very opening words, he invoked the spirit of Lincoln. He began by saying, "Four score years ago." Thus, you see, framing his speech with the same words with which Lincoln had framed his speech at Gettysburg. And the conclusion, of course, of the address was that great parolation recognized by all of us now, "I have a dream." That day will always live in my

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memory, because on that day I became convinced that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a 20th century Moses, and that there were remarkable parallels between the life of Moses and the life of King. I ask you to think with me then of Moses and of Martin, two servants of God. Notice initially that they were both the descendants of slaves, yet neither of them was raised in material poverty.

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Moses was raised in the house of Pharaoh, knew all kinds of abundance, and Martin Luther King's father was a very successful businessman and clergyman in Atlanta, so he was reared without privation also. Notice further that both of these men came out of very strict faith backgrounds. Moses' Judaism was no doubt taught to him by his mother, who was his nurse, and King learned his

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religion at the feet of his father, who was a fundamentalist Baptist preacher. Both of these men had superb educations. Moses was educated in the house of Pharaoh, where of course was the finest teaching in all the land of Egypt. Martin Luther King, Jr. went to Morehouse College, then to Crozer Seminary, where he was graduated with honors, and then took his doctor of philosophy

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degree at Boston University. We must in honesty acknowledge also that both of these men, like all of us, were sinners before God. We have a tendency sometime to think that those who assume places of greatness and prominence in our society are because of their greatness or their prominence, without the temptations, the victories, and the defeats which we experience. But if we study the

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lives of these persons carefully, we find that their feet are made of clay just as are ours. Roosevelt was a philanderer. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the same. Richard Nixon was a liar. George Washington was the richest man in the United States at the time of his presidency, and sent the troops here into western Pennsylvania to put down the Whiskey Rebellion, not only to

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preserve the union of states and colonies, but also to protect his own lands, for he was the broadest landowner in all of this part of America. Einstein stole some of his mathematics ideas from his sister, but never gave her any credit. Mohandas Gandhi was known for beating his wife. The Apostle Paul was a bigot and a murderer. Peter was a liar and a deserter. David,

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who's described in scripture as a man after God's own heart, well, he was an adulterer and a murderer. Insofar as Moses is concerned, he was a man of overwhelming anger, and on at least one occasion, his anger led him to murder a fellow human being. With regard to Martin Luther King, there is evidence that he plagiarized in some of his academic work, and there is some suggestion

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that perhaps he liked the women more than he ought to have liked them, although that evidence has never been conclusively demonstrated. So both men were sinners before God, as are we all. Both Martin and Moses had dramatic calls into the ministries which were theirs. Moses was called by God at the sight of the burning bush in the wilderness of Midian. Martin Luther King received

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his call into the specific ministry which became his when he was already the minister of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. There was a woman by the name of Rosa Parks who was riding on a bus one day and who refused to stand to give her seat to a white man when she was ordered to do so. She was arrested and jailed for breaking that state's laws of segregation.

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That night, a great rally was held amongst the people, the black people of that town, and it was decided to boycott the bus lines. And without his seeking the office, Martin Luther King Jr. was elected chairman of the group. It's interesting that both Moses and King tried to resist the specific call which they received. Moses said that he didn't have the

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gifts that were necessary, and King, his great goal was to become a professor, a scholar in a seminary or in a university. But both of them, in spite of their own personal desires, accepted the calls they received. And their calls were the same, "Set my people free." God never calls anyone to any particular task or ministry without giving them the gifts that are necessary for that

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ministry. And it seemed to me particularly evident that when he calls someone to be a drum major, that is to march at the head of one parade or another, he gives particular gifts to such persons. Both King and Moses were great orators. At the beginning of his ministry, Moses claimed that he couldn't speak at all and that he needed Aaron to speak at his behalf. But by the end of

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his ministry, we find that some of the greatest speeches in all of the Old Testament are recorded as coming from the mouth of Moses. And Martin Luther King was one of the most eloquent preachers of his day. Saul Hurok, the great impresario of the lecture circuit, offered him $100,000 a year to go about and make speeches. He, of course, refused the offer. Both of these men had a

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magnificent courage given to them by God. Think of the courage that it took for Moses to stand before Pharaoh time after time, demanding that his people be set free and knowing that at the slightest command from Pharaoh, his life would be brought to an end. Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed 12 times. He was beaten more times than could be counted. He was stabbed once. His home

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was blown up twice. And he received an average of 50 death threats a day throughout his public ministry. But neither of these men ever surrendered to fear. It's interesting, I think, to notice that these men did not hesitate to criticize their own people. Moses, for example, took on Aaron and some other leaders of the Jews when they wanted to stop the march toward freedom and return to the sweet

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cucumbers of Egypt. King, on the other hand, was very, very vigorous in his criticism of the black people, calling them to responsibility with regard to things like grammar, the cars that they drove, how so many blacks, once they have achieved prominence, separate themselves from other blacks. He called them to reminders about illegitimacy and crime. And he said to the

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black people, "These are things which we can correct in ourselves. We need no help from anyone in doing these things." Both Martin Luther King and Moses were ready to die for what they believed in. Indeed, they offered up their lives. You remember how when the Jews had sinned, Moses cried out to God, "Lord, hold this not to their account. If someone must suffer, take my life and

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not the lives of my people." And Martin Luther King said, on the night before the first boycott in which he participated, "Lord, I hope no one will have to die. Certainly I don't want to die. But if anyone has to die, let it be me." And he always marched at the front of the parade. Both of these men, in their service of God, knew times of great despair. Moses would cry out to God and would go

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off into the mountain to wrestle with God in confrontation with his Creator. King, on the other hand, had those times when he would retreat into brokenness and silence. One night he returned home as his phone was ringing. It was a bomb threat. He sat down at his kitchen table, put his head on the table, and began to weep. He didn't know how much longer he could hold out. And then

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he said he heard the voice of God saying, "Stand up for righteousness, and I will be with you until the end of the world." And when he heard those words, just as Moses received the words of comfort from God in his moments of trial and hurt, the fatigue of despair changed into the buoyancy of hope. It's also, I think, very important to notice that both Moses and King were committed to what

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we would call today a nonviolent approach to social problems. That is, they did not lead their people in any type of militant activity against those who fought them. Moses faced Pharaoh many times, but he never faced him with weapons or with the aid of soldiers. And in the same way, in none of the marches or in none of the rallies with which Martin Luther King Jr. was connected was a

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gun or any other kind of weapon ever found. In fact, it was his deep commitment to nonviolence that led Martin Luther King Jr. to become known throughout the world, not only for his defense of the colored people of the world, but specifically because of his commitment to nonviolence, the first Westerner ever to make such a commitment. It was for this that he was given the Nobel Peace

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Prize. He was the third black to receive it, the first being Ralph Bunch and the second Chief Lathuli of the Union of South Africa. But Martin Luther King was the youngest man ever to receive the Nobel Prize. He was only 35 years old at the time. King came to his understanding of nonviolence in an interesting way. When he was serving in his first church, he was trying to discern what

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Christ would have him do. He knew that he was called to confront the forces of evil which existed in the land at this time and subjugated his people. But he knew also that this same Christ who called him to this ministry said, "Don't take a sword," said, "Love your enemies." It was this difficulty that led King to begin to read the writings of Mohandas Gandhi. And there he discovered

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Gandhi's principle of Satyagraha, which Gandhi himself claimed he received from his study of the life of Jesus. Satyagraha means literally "soul force." The idea is that by approaching someone without any violence, without any hatred in your heart, but only with love and an effort to do what is right, you will not only build your own self-respect, but you will also eventually

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stir the consciences of those who fight you so that they finally will be one to your perspective. Make no mistake, nonviolence is not non-resistance. Martin Luther King Jr. led his people in what we commonly call today civil disobedience. And he did this because following the teachings of Thomas Aquinas, the great theologian of the Roman Catholic Church, and of John Calvin, the great theologian

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of our Presbyterian Church, he believed that any law which contradicted the law of God was not a just law, and therefore such a law did not need to be obeyed. Let me give you an example of what I mean. When the confrontation came in Birmingham, the forces of the city were led by a man named Bull Connor. He had assembled scores of police with police dogs, fire hoses, electric cattle

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prods, each officer carrying a billy club. The blacks came, led by King, and they were driven back, beaten back. The next day they came again, led by King, and they were forced back by the hoses and hurried back from the teeth of the dogs and the electric cattle prods. But the third day, when the black people came, again led by King, bearing on their bodies the marks of the punishment

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they had received, when they came close to the police, Bull Connor cried out, "Okay, let them have it!" And not a single one of his police officers obeyed. In fact, some of them stood there and wept while the blacks walked by. Martin Luther King had said to his people, "They will seek to inflict upon us suffering, but we will learn to absorb that suffering. They will

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come at us with physical force, but we will meet them with soul force. We will not hate them, and we will never permit them to force us to hate them." And eventually that idea so permeated even the forces marshaled against him in Birmingham that the march went forward. King, you see, said that God was both tough and tender, that his one arm was a strong arm of justice,

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but that his other arm was the gentle arm of grace and of love. He pointed out that God is great enough to be transcendent over everything that he had ever made, but at the same time that he was loving and humble enough to live with us in the midst of our lives. On one occasion when he was preaching, Martin Luther King said that God combines the creative synthesis of love and

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of justice. Moses believed that too. Well, there are many other parallels between these two men that I might mention, but we have insufficient time. Both of them learned that freedom is never free. Both of them were challenged by some of their followers. Aaron, as you know, led the Jews to the worship of the Golden Calf at one time, and Martin Luther King had to put up with people

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like Stokely Carmichael and Malcolm X, but they persevered. Which brings me to the last parallel between their lives, which I want to call to your attention, and that is this, that neither one of them ever crossed over into the promised land. You remember how Moses was led by God to the top of Mount Nebo, and God said to him, "There across the river is the land of promise. You may

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see it with your eyes, but you may not cross over into it." And Moses died there on Mount Nebo and never walked one step in the place of promise. Martin Luther King had a remarkably similar death He seemed to develop a premonition with regard to his dying. For example, in the last sermon he preached to his own people in his Ebenezer Church, he talked about what he wanted his own funeral to

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be, and he said he wanted no mention of any awards or honors that he had ever received, but that he would be remembered only as a man who sought to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and free the imprisoned. A few days after he preached that sermon, he flew to Memphis, Tennessee, to participate in a black boycott effort there. On the night before the march, he spoke to the assembled people,

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and strangely enough, the passage of Scripture from which he spoke was the death scene of Moses. For King said, and I quote him exactly, "I have been to the mountaintop. Like anybody, I'd like to live a long life, but I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountaintop, and I've looked over. I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but

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I want you to know that we will get to the promised land. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, and we will be able to achieve a new day when all God's children, black and white, Jew and Gentile, Catholic and Protestant, will be able to join hands and sing with the Negroes in the spiritual of old, free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

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The next day, he was assassinated. When he died, he was 39 years old. And what of today? Well, today the highest paid entertainer in the world is a black man. The two athletes who are talked about most on television are both black men. The mayor of Atlanta, of New York City, of Los Angeles, of Detroit, and of many other cities across this land are black mayors. Colin Powell, the chairman

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of the Joint Chiefs of Staff now leading our military operations in the Middle East, is black. A black sits upon the Supreme Court of the United States. Voting rights have been achieved for blacks throughout all the country, and in many places the laws of segregation have vanished forever. But my friends, we need to remember this morning that America has more people in jail per

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100,000 citizens than any other nation in the world. 436 out of every 100,000 Americans is in jail. The closest to us is the Union of South Africa, where there are 334 for every 100,000, and then comes the Soviet Union with 269 for every 100,000. And the vast majority of the men and women in those prisons are black. And why is this so? Because they still know poverty, because they

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still have not been given schools that are as good as schools in white suburbs, because a sense of hopelessness has settled upon them. Fewer black young boys and girls are going to colleges and universities than did just a few years ago. The chief cause of death amongst black men in their 20s in America today is homophobia. And this breakdown that is occurring within the black

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society is in large measure because of the nature of the welfare program of our country. For you see, we will not give a black woman welfare assistance for herself and her children if her husband is living at home. And so the husband must separate himself from the home in order that the home might get any aid. And the absence of the black male is weakening the social fiber of the

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black people. There are many who are quick to blame America's narcotics problem on blacks. Even a moment's thought shows the stupidity of that, for the blacks constitute only 15% of our population. And a much higher percent of our population than that, more than three times that, is engaged in one way or another with the use of illicit narcotics.

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And right now we see the sad spectacle of the President of the United States who last year vetoed the 1990 civil rights legislation, and yet who at this very hour is sending black men and women and white men and women to the Middle East to fight and die. And the percentage of blacks in our military forces

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is almost three times the percentage of blacks in our whole society. The society which will not treat them equally calls on them to die in greater numbers to defend it. We still have cross burnings and bombings. Churches and synagogues are desecrated.

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There are college campuses on which students have admittedly and proudly racist groups. Prejudice is growing across the face of America. Which leads me to say that we need another Martin Luther King Jr., someone who will not serve God just with his lips, but with his life.

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It was Longfellow who said that everyone must decide whether he or she will be an anvil or a hammer. We need a man like King who was ready to hammer out freedom on the bell of justice. The last chapter of the book of Deuteronomy is an epitaph for Moses.

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And as I read it earlier this week, it struck me in an awesome way that it might also be used as an epitaph for a 20th century Moses named Martin Luther King Jr. Both of these men, Moses and Martin, were called by God to set their people free. And they both did it until their deaths.

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So the epitaph given in scripture to Moses, I give today on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday celebration to that great 20th century Christian. And this is the way that epitaph reads.

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"And there has not risen again a prophet since like Martin, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him. For all the signs and the wonders the Lord sent him to do." Let us pray.

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Oh God our Father, make us one people in fact as well as fancy. Drive from our hearts, root up any seed of prejudice. And may we not, guided by thy spirit, be satisfied with words alone. But may we commit ourselves to aiding our friends of color

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with all those things that will aid them in achieving what they, by virtue of their birthright, deserve. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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Make us, if you will, divinely dissatisfied until all our people are treated, respected, and loved as all our people deserve to be. We pray our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.

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