Love Opens the Door (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

A friend of mine, who is editor of Stoop Magazine, reminded me of a sermon which Martin Luther King, Jr. preached titled ‘The American Dream‘.

But be assured that we will ride you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we will win our freedom, but we will not only win freedom for ourselves, we will so appeal to your heart and your conscience that we will win you in the process.” And our victory will be a double victory.

Oh yes, love is the way. (Yes) Love is the only absolute. More and more I see this. I’ve seen too much hate to want to hate myself; hate is too great a burden to bear. (You bet, Yes) I’ve seen it on the faces of too many sheriffs of the South—I’ve seen hate. In the faces and even the walk of too many Klansmen of the South, I’ve seen hate. Hate distorts the personality. Hate does something to the soul that causes one to lose his objectivity. The man who hates can’t think straight; (Amen) the man who hates can’t reason right; the man who hates can’t see right; the man who hates can’t walk right. (Yeah) And I know now that Jesus is right, (Yeah) that love is the way. And this is why John said, “God is love,” (Yes, sir) so that he who hates does not know God, but he who loves (get in the door) at that moment has the key that opens the door (Yeah) to the meaning of ultimate reality. So this morning there is so much that we have to offer to the world. (Yes, sir)

I love it, not only for the charismatic exhortations to the congregation in brackets, but because this is what the story of Jesus offers the world. Another story. A second story. The story which is the hope of the world and puts an end to the world’s violence. MLK embodies this story, and most pointedly the Sermon on the Mount. Rather than seeing the Sermon on the Mount as a ‘Christian ethic’, he sees it as the ‘Christian identity’. Jesus sermon on the mount is not list of things Christians must do (though we certainly must do them), but a description of the Kingdom that is coming as Jesus gathers his community of disciples. This is the story we belong to, one in which victims do not retaliate, one which doesn’t tell delusional stories about one’s self righteousness, and one that treats women with respect and not as a possession. To live this way is to live the story of Jesus. MLK understood this and so he was blessed because he lived the story of his blessed Lord:

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matt 5:11–12)

Jesus Loves Gays

Jesus loves gays. He does. Some gays don’t believe it. Some homophobes don’t believe it. But it’s true.

He loves gays more than gays love gays. He loves gays more than gays love being gay. And he loves gays more than homophobes love hating gays. Simply, Jesus loves gays. (John 3:16)

Parents, friends, family, governments, businesses, schools and churches have at times failed to love gays. Jesus never has. And Jesus never will.

There is old folk song we sing at Vine Church called ‘Here is Love’, which is about the limitless love of Jesus.

Here is love vast as the ocean
Loving kindness as the flood.
When the prince of life, our ransom
shed for us His precious blood.

Grace and love, like mighty rivers,
Poured incessant from above,
And Heav’n’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love.

The beauty of the love of Jesus is that it is unlimited, unmerited, and unconditional. He loves us the way a good father loves their children, for we are all children of our Father in heaven. This is the good news which the story of Jesus speaks about.

God’s unconditional love for me doesn’t mean He approves of everything I think, do, or say. Every parent knows the difference. The problem with gays and straights is the way we look to our romances, or our work, or family, or possessions or something else, to give our lives meaning, to justify and save us, to give us what we should be looking for from God. It is not that we desire good things, but that we make good things into ultimate things. This idolatry leads to anxiety, obsessiveness, envy, and resentment. But the love of Christ, which we see in the story of his death for us, invites us to become part of a new story. This story is not one we write in order to give our lives meaning, or to justify or save us. This story is one which God is telling, and which justifies, saves and gives meaning to our lives because that is what our God gives his children. God accepts his children and provides a future full of hope. This story of love is not only our only chance for forgiveness, but our only hope for freedom. For what you love ends up owning you. And so we become slaves to our relationships, or slaves to our work, or slaves to our possessions. But there is a love, which when it ends up owning you, bestows liberating freedom, true meaning, and genuine salvation. (Matthew 11:29)

A friend of mine recently tweeted a photo of this T-Shirt with a guy bending his arm to try and steal love from a vending machine. Another friend replied, ‘u can’t buy or earn love! U also can’t steal it. It’s a gift!!!!’

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

(Eph 2:8–9)

Why not talk to a Christian friend and ask them what the love of Jesus means to them. Also you could read: Tim Keller, How Can I Know God.