By Rev. Dr. Paul Baxley
This day that is given to the commemoration of the life, ministry and leadership of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a fitting day to offer a declaration that beloved community and genuine racial justice find their foundations in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Their faithful, tenacious pursuit is nothing less than participation in the mission of God.
The Scriptures make clear that Jesus Christ comes not only to draw human beings into right relationship with him but also with one another. The Gospels not only show Jesus in relationship with people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds (Jews, Samaritans and even a man from Northern Africa who carries his cross), he also tells parables that call people from different backgrounds into genuine relationship with each other, most clearly seen in Luke’s record of the parable of the Good Samaritan.
As Paul wrote the Corinthians, when anyone is joined to Christ, there is new creation. Or, as he wrote the Ephesians, Christ came to create one new humanity in place of two and to tear down dividing walls of hostility between people. Or, in the letter to the Galatians, Paul declared that when people were in Christ, there were no longer divisions among Jews and Greeks, men and women, slave and free because we are all one in Christ Jesus.
The Church born on the day of Pentecost was drawn, according to Acts, from people who lived in every nation and spoke many languages. Revelation promises us that the last day, followers of Jesus will gather from every land and every tongue. These are only some examples of the ways in which the Gospel of Jesus Christ moves people toward beautiful and beloved community with each other.
Jesus announced, quoting heavily from the Prophet Isaiah, that his mission was to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind and to let the oppressed go free. (Luke 4:16-21) He taught that welcoming the stranger, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the prisoner and caring for the sick was so much a part of his mission that to do these things for other people was to do them for him (Matthew 25:31-46).
Paul wrote the Corinthians that God had entrusted to the church the message and ministry of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:16-20). The pursuit of a world where all are treated as beloved children of God, where strangers are welcomed, where the poor experience good news, is to join the heart of the mission of God.
I share these truths because in this era I often hear it suggested that the pursuit of beloved community and genuine racial justice is a political agenda. It is even sometimes characterized as “carrying the water” for a political party. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It is about receiving the remarkable and relentless grace of God in Jesus Christ and sharing it with others. It is about extending the mission of God in the world. It is about discovering that the Samaritan or someone else I had come to fear might be the instrument of God’s healing in my life. It was the Gospel of Jesus and the mission of God long before any of today’s political parties existed – it has been the mission of the church throughout time and space.
When the Church is at our best, we use our voices and our actions to follow Christ toward beloved community. When we fail most tragically and at greatest cost, we allow other interests (personal, political, cultural or national) to pull us away from a world remade by Jesus’ love and toward cultures marked by division, demonization and dominance.
Let’s not forget that before and beyond anything else, Martin Luther King, Jr. was a follower of Jesus and a pastor. He understood the vision he pursued as an expression of the Gospel and a participation in Christ’s mission. Today is the best day to affirm that cultivating beloved community and pursuing genuine racial justice and reconciliation are the work of people being remade by Jesus and who are drawn further and further into his mission of love and healing.
Rev. Dr. Paul Baxley is Executive Coordinator of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.