Dr King, Jesus and Huck Finn

SOCIAL ISSUES

Dr King, Jesus and Huck Finn

January 20, 2002

John 4:1-9

As I was thinking about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday, I couldn’t help but think about my own childhood. 

I was a boy in Texas in the 40’s and at that time segregation was a way of life there.

Segregated neighborhoods. 

Segregated schools. 

Segregated churches. 

Segregated restaurants and public transportation and movies and rest rooms and drinking fountains and swimming pools, etc., etc., etc..etc.

Dehumanizing, shocking stuff.

And as I read through some of Dr. King’s speeches, I also began to think of the role that the Christian Church has played in supporting some of the prejudice and bigotry of the past.

I thought about the silence of the European Church in the 1930’s and 40’s.as ethnic cleansing was going went on.

I thought about the South African Church which for  decades and decades was a part of the establishment and sustenance of apartheid.

I thought about the southern church in our own country which supported not only slavery, but also taught the inferiority of anyone not white and Christian.

Dehumanizing shocking stuff.

As the Christian Church we must constantly guard ourselves against this same kind of blindness, this same kind of feeling of superiority, this same kind of  cultural conformity, this same kind of violation of our human brothers and sisters but also of the spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Christian Church must speak out when prejudice and bigotry occur, and we must do more than speak out. 

As the Church we must be activists for freedom, equality and Justice.

Now, within the Church of Christ we’re going to have our differences.

We’re not going to agree on a lot of things.

We might not agree on the best kind of religious music.

We might not agree always on money matters.

We might not agree on programs and methods.

We might not agree on what color to paint a ceiling or a wall.

This is the Baptist way and it’s what a democratic institution is all about. We bring our agreements and our differences to the table and in the name of love and the name of Christ we work through them.

But we should always agree on one of our most basic, essential missions….we must be activists in our world for freedom, equality and justice.

One of the greatest things in the world is when we’re in difficulty and someone is willing to show faith in us and defend us.

And as I thought about this I thought about something which happened to me as a kid.

I got beat up by a big tough bully.

My brother Lew found me…then went searching for the bully.

I tried to stop him…so did my friends.

He saw the gang that the bully was a part of (by a snow cone stand)….he walked in…he asked the big kid if he had beat me up…..the tough guy, planted his feet, swore at my brother out and said he was the one.

I’m not going to tell you the specifics of what happened next. 

The details aren’t important. 

The important thing was that my big brother was willing to lay it on the line for his little brother. The odds were huge against him, but it didn’t matter.

In a much, much more serious way, isn’t this what Martin Luther King Jr. did in the 1960’s?

He walked right into a cruel gang and laid it on the line for his brothers and sisters. 

As a human being, as a Christian and as an ordained minister he understood that his brothers and sisters were being dehumanized and

in great pain and he knew what he had to do.

And isn’t this what Jesus did in an even more profound way?

He stood with the sick.

He stood up for the poor and powerless.

He defended those considered racially inferior and spiritually inferior.

He defended those who were thought of as immoral.

He stood up for women and he even defended tax collectors, those considered the scum of his society.

As Christians and as the Church of Jesus Christ, is there any question about what our role is to be in regard to freedom, equality and justice?

Some of you might remember Mark Twain’s wonderful book the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It’s the story about a wayward boy raised on the Mississippi. His father Pap is a cruel drunk. 

Huck doesn’t go to school. He smokes a corn cob pipe. He swears. He does what he wants day and night. 

The parents in the little community try to keep their kids away from him. 

Another of Mark Twain’s famous fictitious characters, Tom Sawyer is a good friend of Huck’s.

Huck and a runaway slave, Jim float down the Mississippi together in a raft.

A crisis comes when Huck begins to feel that if he doesn’t inform Jim’s owner, a Mrs. Watson, about Jim’s whereabouts, that he’s going to go to hell.

You see, Huck’s culture and the warped religion he has been raised in have taught him that helping a slave escape is about the most immoral thing that can be done, worthy of the fires of hell.

So Huck begins to think about this and secretly he writes a letter to Mrs. Watson telling her where Jim is.

But let’s pick up on the story in the book and see just what Huck does. Huck starts thinking about how good Jim always was to him and how Jim said he was the only friend he had. 

Huck thought about how they had laughed and cried together and how they had floated down the river looking up at the stars.

And then Huck said:” I studied for a moment, sort of holding my breath, and then I said to myself: All right then, I’ll go to hell”. 

And  Huck tore up the letter.

He was very clear. 

He would rather burn himself than see his brother burn in slavery.

As we think about Dr. King in these days, and the Lord that he served and about little Huck Finn with his corn cob pipe and his crystal clear ability too see what was important, may we assume again the role we as Christians and as the church, we know we must assume.

As long as there are those in our world who are wounded, deprived and oppressed we have the clear imperative about who we are to be.

We are to be the prophets.

We are to be the defenders.

We are to be the champions for the oppressed.

We are to be the warriors for justice

 And the people said…..Amen.