Freedom
/Almighty God, by the hand of Moses your servant you led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last: Grant that your Church, following the example of your prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of your love, and may secure for all your children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
- the collect for the feast day of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have A Dream” speech concluded with the stirring and assuring words, “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last!” These words were borrowed from an African American spiritual that would have been very familiar to his listeners - a song written and sung during the era of American slavery. It was not written after the slaves were emancipated. It was written and sung by slaves during the era of slavery. As hopefully and joyfully as the song speaks of freedom, it was sung during a time of often harsh captivity, by people who had been denied literal freedom for generations.
Their song expressed a radical and rebellious hope that one day justice would prevail and that God would break their bonds of slavery. They claimed significant inner strength in knowing that ultimately they answered to God alone, even though their earthly masters demanded their constant submission. The radical hope they claimed in captivity somehow arose out of an inner freedom in Christ.
It’s hard to talk about this kind of inner freedom as someone who has not lived through slavery or inherited the legacy of slavery. How could those who were so dehumanized and mistreated generate such profound hope in anything at all? The slaves’ unfathomable faith helped them survive the nightmare of slavery and claim their belovedness despite slavery’s vicious abuses. To me, it is nothing short of a miracle that the American slaves were able to claim for themselves the hope they found in the Exodus story, were able to find courage for themselves in the teachings of Jesus and were able to find such strong inner strength and faith through their relationship with Christ. It is a miracle to me whenever anyone’s faith is affirmed in the very jaws of horror, rather than just succumbing to what would be understandable despair.
Equal rights for African Americans had not been enacted or codified in our country, even more than a century after the Emancipation Proclamation. Dr. King proclaimed their freedom in the closing words of his “I Have A Dream” speech nonetheless. His words echoed the hymn, that had been sung by their ancestors, and that expressed the life-saving, deep-seated spiritual freedom that had brought African Americans through the troubled waters of slavery, and which was still sustaining them through the abuses of the Jim Crow era. The freedom in faith that Dr. King proclaimed gave him the boldness to speak truth to power. It gave him the inner liberty to demand justice from unjust leaders. And though his work and ministry put him in mortal danger with the rulers and authorities of his time, it gave him the courage to keep moving forward in hope.
There is profound liberty in trusting the One who shepherds us and leads us through the valley of the shadow of death. It is by the consolation of His rod and staff that we are able to do anything more than merely survive. It is by his anointing that we are given the ability go forth and serve as Christ’s hands, feet and voices in this unjust world, offering words of hope, enacting deeds of compassion and courage.
We will celebrate the life and ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King this Sunday. May the faithful freedom that Dr. King proclaimed help us follow his lead in offering our lives for the liberty for all.
