Monday 27 April 2009

This week we continue with King's reflections on how fear is cast out by love.

Once a helpless child, the Negro has now grown politically, culturally, and economically. Many white men fear retaliation. The Negro must show them that they have nothing to fear, for the Negro forgives and is willing to forget the past. The Negro must convince the white man that he seeks justice for both himself and the white man. A mass movement exercising love and nonviolence and demonstrating power under discipline should convince the white community that were such a movement to attain strength its power would be used creatively and not vengefully.
What then is the cure of this morbid fear of integration? We know the cure. God help us to achieve it! Love casts out fear.

The way the world operates must change. King really catches it here. The gift that the oppressed can hand the oppressors is a new way to be humanity. The usual ways of violence fall short of our full humanity. The ways of injustice and hatred and retribution fall short of our full humanity. King is calling for a new day in which those who most would say deserve to be hostile - give up their hostility and fear so as to open up the vision of God's Reign. It is action that is not simply for one side. It is action for all. What a creative position. And yet, I imagine that it was not a word that was well received the first time he opened up this vision to others. Most of us cannot walk the way of love when our hearts long to get even or long to destroy the other. As King notes, we know the cure...but oh my it is not the easiest way to continue on through this day. Love demands that we reinvent the day within a domain of possibilities that we too often do not let into our lives.

Connection: How long does it take for love to cast out fear? I suppose it depends on the fear at hand and who we have to help us move from fear to love.

Lord of Love, your Reign continues to transform our days. Pull us into that Reign even as we resist and run back to the ways of violence and fear that are so familiar to us that they seem comfortable and secure. Open our eyes to your love that is able to work for the welfare of all your beloved. Ame n.