On Monday, as we do every January, we honored the words and witness of Martin Luther King Jr., whose world-changing leadership led us to dream of something better for our country and for all who would come behind us.
On Monday, we also inaugurated a new president, a leader who has proven over and over again that he does not share the same dreams for our country as Martin Luther King, Jr. did.
Though the irony of these two events sharing the same day must not be overlooked, perhaps we can use this strange confluence as an opportunity to reflect on who we are and who we really want to be as Americans.
Some of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s most powerful words were spoken in an address in 1967 titled, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence,” delivered in the nave of the Riverside Church in the City of New York on April 4, 1967. I had the honor of serving as senior minister at The Riverside Church in 2017, when that historic cathedral and the worshipping community there marked the 50-year anniversary of the delivery of that speech.
In 2017, on the 50th anniversary of that groundbreaking speech, we marked its anniversary by reading King’s words again. They echoed through decades of history, painfully and powerfully still critically relevant:
“A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”
This remains the work ahead of us, as people of faith or good conscience, as Americans whom the world is watching with careful attention — today must be a day for thoughtful reflection that will move us to action that heals and offers hope. The dissonance we feel today must push us to decide who we really want to be.
To do that, it is critical that we reject the rhetoric of hatred and division and choose instead to listen carefully to the words of leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., still calling us to pay attention. He said: “Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world.”
As Americans we may now be living a dissonance that works to kill hope, but today it’s worth remembering wise words that have led us through painful history toward something better: It’s never too late to begin again that bitter, beautiful struggle for a new world.
Perhaps we should begin today.
Amy Butler is pastor of Community Church of Honolulu in Nuuanu.
