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Pondering Martin Luther King on Inauguration Day

Pondering Martin Luther King on Inauguration Day

Last updated on: January 19, 2025 at 5:44 pm by Bruce Epperly

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Pondering Martin Luther King on Inauguration Day 2025-01-19T17:44:23-05:00 Bruce Epperly

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Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where he delivered his famous, “I Have a Dream,” speech during the Aug. 28, 1963, march on Washington, D.C. | Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

One evening after a particularly stressful and conflict-ridden day, Martin Luther King retired for the night. On the verge of falling asleep, he received an angry phone call, threatening his life and the lives of his wife and children. Unable to sleep, King went downstairs to fix a pot of coffee. King describes an unexpected encounter with God, during his spiritual crisis:

I was ready to give up. I tried to think of a way to move out of the picture without appearing to be a coward. In this state of exhaustion, when my courage was almost gone, I determined to take my problem to God. My head in my hands, I bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud…. “I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength or courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.”

Standing on Solid Rock

As members of twelve-step movements and people in crisis often assert, when you hit rock bottom, you may discover that you are standing on solid rock! And that’s what King found out!

At that moment I experienced the presence of the divine as I had never experienced him. It seems as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice, saying, “Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth, God will be at your side forever.

Following his experience of God’s still small voice, King affirms, “The outer situation remained the same, but God had given me inner calm.” Three days later, King’s home was bombed. But King remained rooted in God’s faithfulness. His encounter with the divine in the midnight hour gave him strength and faith to face whatever storms would lie ahead not only in the Montgomery Bus Boycott but over the next decade as King championed civil rights of African Americans and called America to seek justice and peace at home and abroad. Longevity is good, as King said the night before his death. But, more than that is our vision of the Promised Land, and our quest for justice.

Fear, Trembling, and Trump

Many of us share Martin Luther King’s fears for the America of his time as we face the prospect of the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States. For us the contrast of Martin Luther King and Trump is breathtaking. Trump has called for unity, but nothing has changed in his message of divisiveness, dishonesty, intimidation, and bullying of his fellow Americans and the United States’ closest allies.

With a thin majority in both Houses and a narrow election victory, Trump is claiming a mandate to turn back the clock on social programs, human rights, environmental protection, and global leadership. His loyalties are to himself and his fellow oligarchs and not to the vulnerable or even the people who elected him. More devastating is that his most loyal minions are those who claim to be orthodox Christians, who in their currying for favor at the throne of Trump have abandoned the way of Jesus for the way of their Secular Savior, who threatens destruction to all who cross him.

We struggle with the irony that the most un-Kinglike man will be inaugurated on the day that celebrates America’s conscience in civil rights and justice.

Our anxiety is not misplaced. Trump gleefully threatens the progress our nation has made in human rights and environmental protection. Fires rage and he bullies and cares not to prevent weather crisis, for crisis is his trump card and notoriety. Democracy itself is at stake. Yet, in our anxiety, those of who are privileged as a result of race, nation of birth, profession, and income, best remember that the experience of devastation and hopelessness is nothing new to people on the margins.

Changing What We Cannot Accept

King grew up and began his ministry in Jim Crow America, in which African Americans faced retribution, physical harm, jail, and death for everyday behaviors and aspirations. Some who claimed a close relationship to Jesus’ Cross were the first to turn to the lynching tree to keep African Americans in line and promote white supremacy. King, in the words of mystic activist Howard Thurman, knew what it meant to have his back against the wall and so do millions of Americans today – undocumented workers, economically vulnerable, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and persons of color. Those of us who have enjoyed the benefits of privilege, power, and prosperity best not give up the quest, or all is lost,

When we begin to feel hopeless, we would do well to remember King’s words, spoken just two months prior to his assassination, “We accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.” We must recognize our fear, anxiety, and hopelessness as we observe with Harry Emerson Fosdick, spoken to his own privileged yet powerful congregation:

“Lo, the hosts of evil round us
scorn the Christ, assail his ways.
From the fears that long have bound us
free our hearts to faith and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage
for the living of these days,
for the living of these days.”

We must seek courage in “infinite hope,” recognizing that God is God and Trump isn’t. Recognizing that as weak as it seems to be right now, like the weak force of gravity, the arc of the universe is running through history, and it aims toward justice. We must recognize that the mustard seed grows into a great plant and just a little light can pierce the darkness and reveal hate and falsehood for what they are “sound and fury, signifying nothing,” before the God of the Universe, the God of the Ages whose love outlasts every self-proclaimed empire and potentate.

In our anxiety and hopelessness, we need to follow the better angels of our nature. We must with power and perseverance, and resistance and resilience, take the high road. Protesting and praying, challenging and contemplating. We must examine ourselves, so that without condescension, purify ourselves of evil intent and the violence in our own hearts. We can recognize with the author of Psalm 139 that we “hate” those who would turn back the clock on the environment and human rights with a “holy hatred,” and we must also ask God to search us and know us, and keep us on the path of righteousness even as we walk through the valley of national death and destruction. We must ask God to help us love our enemies, even as we confront what we believe to be their evil intent and behavior, for they too are God’s children.

On Not Giving Up Hope

Those of us with privilege must not give up hope. We need to gain strength and courage from the wise persistence of Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King, James Baldwin, Fannie Lou Hamer, Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Mahatma Gandhi, and Henry David Thoreau, to persist in what is right regardless of the consequence. We must recognize that despite the fact we may be experiencing “life after doom,” we can also live with “defiant joy” as Brian McLaren counsels. We must pray with Harry Emerson Fosdick:

Save us from weak resignation
to the evils we deplore;
let the gift of your salvation
be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage
serving you whom we adore,
serving you whom we adore.

This Little Light of Ours

Then as we face the darkness, remember that the true light enlightens all, that we are the light of the world in all our fear and fallibility, and we can let our light shine. Then with Fannie Lou Hamer, we can sing, “This Little Light of Mine.” (This Little Light of Mine)

This little light of mine
I’m gonna let it shine
Oh, this little light of mine
I’m gonna let it shine
This little light of mine
I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine

Hide it under a bushel, no!
I’m gonna let it shine
Hide it under a bushel, no!
I’m gonna let it shine
Oh, hide it under a bushel, no!
I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Everywhere I go,

I’m gonna let it shine,

Everywhere I go,

I’m gonna let it shine,

Everywhere I go,

I’m gonna let it shine,

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

+++

Bruce Epperly is Theologian in Residence at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda, MD, and a professor in theology and spirituality at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is the author of over 80 books including: “Homegrown Mystics: Restoring the Soul of Our Nation through the Healing Wisdom of America’s Mystics” “Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet,” Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet,” and his upcoming book, due out in February, “God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality and Social Change.”

prayer in times of trial

About Bruce Epperly

Bruce Epperly is a theologian, spiritual guide, healing companion, retreat leader and lecturer, and author of nineteen books, including Holy Adventure: 41 Days of Audacious Living; God’s Touch: Faith, Wholeness, and the Healing Miracles of Jesus; Reiki Healing Touch and the Way of Jesus; and Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry. He may be reached for questions and engagements at [email protected]. You can read more about the author here.

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