MLK Service@Highlands January 19th

• Sunday's worship service at Highlands titled "Martin, Mandela, ad More Light" honored the memory of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. Ronn Jeffrey joined me in reading the following which is composed of words taken from the speech Dr. King gave in Memphis the night before he was killed and the words of Jesus from the Gospel of John, spoken to his disciples on the night before he was killed in Jerusalem.

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way.

If I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, "Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?" I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch God's children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on to the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't stop there.

I would move on by Greece and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon. And I would watch them as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality. But I wouldn't stop there.

I would go on, even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldn't stop there.

I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance, and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and aesthetic life of man. But I wouldn't stop there. I would even go by the way that the man for whom I am named. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church of Wittenberg. But I wouldn't stop there.

I would come on up even to 1863, and watch a vacillating President by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. But I wouldn’t stop there.

”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”

Trouble is in the land; confusion all around. But only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding. Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee -- the cry is always the same: "We want to be free."

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

²⁸You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. ²⁹And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. ³⁰I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; ³¹but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.

Now, I'm just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period to see what is unfolding. And I'm happy that He's allowed me to be in Memphis. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God's children.

⁹As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. ¹²“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Now we're going to march again and force everybody to see that God's children are suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. That's the issue. And we've got to say to the nation: We know how it's coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.

¹⁸”If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you. ²⁰Remember the word that I said to you, ‘Servants are not greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. ²³Whoever hates me hates my Father also.

Bull Connor would say, "Turn the fire hoses on." Bull Connor didn't know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn't relate to the transphysics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. And we went before the fire hoses; we had known water. If we were Baptist or some other denominations, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist, and some others, we had been sprinkled, but we knew water. That couldn't stop us.

We'd just go on singing "Over my head I see freedom in the air." And then we would be thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. And they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, "Take 'em off," and they did; and we would just go in the paddy wagon singing, "We Shall Overcome." And every now and then we'd get in jail, and we'd see the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs. And there was a power there, and so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer.

I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them. “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:

Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must have a kind of fire shut up in his bones. And whenever injustice is around he must tell it. Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and saith, "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Somehow the preacher must say with Jesus, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me," and he's anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor."

¹³When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

We don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse. We don't need any bricks and bottles. We don't need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to say, "God sent us by here, to say to you that you're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God's children are concerned.

Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. ²¹When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. ²²So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

One day a man came to Jesus, and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters of life. That question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didn't stop to help him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, and with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to be concerned about his brother.

²⁸I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.” ²⁹His disciples said, “Yes, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech! ³⁰Now we know that you know all things, and do not need to have anyone question you; by this we believe that you came from God.” ³¹Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? ³³I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you. ⁶”I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; ¹¹And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!

After Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. ²Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus often met there with his disciples. ³So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. ⁴Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” ⁵They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus replied, “I am he.”

“'Ch'i 'hu nan hsia pei''

''Ch'i 'hu nan hsia pei'' is a Chinese proverb. Roughly translated it means, ''He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount.'' The proverb teaches us to avoid getting on the back of a tiger unless we have a good plan for how we’ll get off.

Another good translation would be, “When riding a tiger, the moment of greatest fear and danger is jumping from its back." That’s because while riding, one is protected from the tiger’s fangs and claws while on the animal’s back. That changes quickly upon dismounting.

That’s good advice legislative leaders should have taken before they started talking about impeaching State Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill. They’ve had a good ride but now it is time to dismount. And that’s the hardest part.

One of the great ironies is that the legislators who are trying to figure out how to get off the back of this tiger once thought that they were the tiger. Legislators are accustomed to being the intimidators. They aren’t used to be the intimidated. Suddenly these folks find themselves in unfamiliar territory, faced with someone who refuses to cow-tow to the self-perceptions of their power and authority.

And a woman, at that.

Last week Cindy Hill left three days of hearings orchestrated by the legislative leadership in an attempt to justify their expensive and time-consuming investigation that they hoped would justify a preconceived plan to impeach her. She then drove to Newcastle to announce her plans to run against Governor Matt Mead in the GOP primary.

Hill asked the crowd, “If you’re thinking, ‘Why should I vote for Cindy Hill?’ I’ve got an answer for you. I’m strong as hell!”

That quality may not be all it takes to be a good governor but it’s one that has been sorely missing in the incumbent and given what Hill has faced the last couple of years, it’s more than a trifling admirable. Leaving a showdown with those who have the power to impeach her and announcing for the governorship the same day proves that she is the tiger and they are the passengers.

A lot of folks in Hill’s position would have caved long ago, making it easier on these politicians. Some would have resigned and walked away from this battle. Actually most would have made peace with the good old boys long before the fight reached an incendiary stage.

But Cindy Hill was different. She seemed to know from the start that she could either be the tiger or the rider. She chose to be the tiger. Now the riders have few choices. How do the legislators dismount without getting clawed, chewed, eaten, and spit out?

It seems they can either vote to impeach her or admit they don’t have sufficient cause to do so.

This experience has taught us that there’s a good reason the impeachment process hasn’t been used in the state’s nearly 125-year history. Until now, legislators were reticent to intimidate other office holders by suggesting they might use the biggest gun in their arsenal. Not this time.

They could have stopped at stripping Hill of most statutory responsibilities. That action was, in itself, an unprecedented humiliation, and the state Supreme Court may yet find it in violation of the constitution. Legislators might have quit there had she been more conciliatory. But Hill wouldn’t back down. So step-by-step, the legislative leadership upped the ante as they unwittingly mounted the tiger.

Each step made the dismount more tricky, leaving them with fewer “next steps.” Now there are only two alternatives. They can vote to recommend impeachment. That choice has its own dangers by creating a cantankerous debate in the full House over whether to adopt articles of impeachment, leading to either an embarrassing defeat in the House or a politically charged, election-year trial in the senate.

Or they can admit they have no grounds for impeachment and acknowledge the whole thing has ben an expensive charade.

As the Chinese say, “'Ch'i 'hu nan hsia pei''

The death rattle of the anti-gay movement

Are you familiar with the term ‘death rattle’ ?

“Moriarty rarely smiled, and then usually to terrify some poor victim. The first time I heard him laugh, I thought he had been struck by a deadly poison and the stutter escaping through his locked jaws was a death rattle.”

Those words are used by Kim Newman to describe the protagonist in her novel “Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles.”

“Death rattle” is what the medical community recognizes as the beginning of the end. It’s a gurgling sound produced by air passing through the air passages of a dying person as fluids build up in a patient who is too weak to clear the throat.

The death rattle is a clear sign that death is near. The sound being heard around the country as the barriers to marriage equality continue to fall is that of the anti-gay movement being “struck by a deadly poison and the stutter escaping through its locked jaw.” In other words, a death rattle.

Take for example the recent gurgling noises from the throat of “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson. After using graphically obscene words to describe homosexuals, Robertson was asked by a GQ reporter to elaborate on his views about immoral behavior.

"Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there,” said the Duck. He compared homosexuals to people who engage in sex with animals. His words were the gurgling sound of a dying idea trying to clear itself through a duck’s throat.

All of this happened even as a federal court judge in conservative Utah ruled that the US Constitution provides equal protection for homosexuals and that the religious views of some cannot be a pretext for denying civil rights to others.

The death rattle was heard when a Cheyenne church showed the door to their Boy Scout troop because the Boy Scouts of America decided to allow gay youth to participate in scouting. The troop was chartered with the First Congregational Church more than half a century ago, in February of 1959. But that lengthy relationship meant little as a dying view of the world made one of its final desperate gasps.

Ironically, the church made its decision after the BSA partially reversed an earlier decision, which would have disallowed gay youth from joining a troop. That revised decision also sounded like a death rattle when it carved out a senseless exception for scout leaders. Based on anecdotes and disproved research, the Scouts said gay boys can join but gay adults cannot be scout leaders.

Then there is the spectacle of the Methodist church conducting a trial in which one of its ordained ministers was charged with violating church policy by performing his son’s wedding to another man. A church Bishop announced Rev. Frank Schaefer had been “defrocked.” She said, “As one church of Jesus Christ we must commit ourselves to engage in ongoing prayer and reflection, sensitive, peaceful dialogue and diligent study, so that we can better understand the needs and concerns of LGBT members and their broader community and so that we can more effectively and lovingly minister to all people in the name of Christ.” What?

Her words remind one of Professor Moriarty. “The stutter escaping through (her) locked jaws was a death rattle.”

The death rattle is sounded all the louder as this decision conflicts mightily with the theological teachings of the Methodist seminary I attended. The Iliff School of Theology teaches it’s the rules of the church, and not Rev. Schaefer, violating scripture.

The death rattle could be heard when Liz Cheney mixed political expediency with family relationships. Mary Cheney’s marriage to Heather Poe has outlasted Liz’s political ambitions. You know death is near for the anti-gay movement when the politics of homophobia begin to interfere with family values.

Prediction. Before 2014 is gone, the anti-gay movement in America will be dead.

The death rattle heard all over this land signals that its death is at hand. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.