Putting your life on the line.
What are you willing to die for?
A spouse, friend, or child? I read something today that made me think about my life and what I value and hold dear to my heart. I was reminded of messgae by Cecil Williams pastor of Glide Memorial to his congregation in San Francisco one Sunday morning. Apparently someone was concerned that he did not talk about Jesus enough in his sermons. "What’s all this talk about Jesus? Everybody always talkin’ bout Jesus. Jesus this, Jesus that. If you want to do Jesus, then do Jesus. Go out and put your life on the line."
Those words penetrated my soul. I think he was right. All too often I want my safe faith. Me and the Holy Spirit making life better for Rick. It is easy to talk church and spirituality, it is much more difficult to live the Gospel. I am not talking about personal morals and sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. I am talking about justice and mercy. Perhaps that is why we get hung up on pontificating theology and concerned about what others believe, it is a great escape from transforming the world through love, mercy, and justice. I often say that I am afraid to really follow Jesus so I settle for being a Christian. Sound a bit radical? Read the very powerful message below.
"I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and so precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren't fit to live. You may be thirty-eight years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You're afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you're afraid that somebody will stab you or shoot at you or bomb your house. So you refuse to take the stand. Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at thirty-eight as you would be at ninety. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit. You died when you refused to stand up for right. You died when you refused to stand up for truth. You died when you refused to stand up for justice…
Martin Luther King Jr. Sermon at Ebenezer, November 5, 1967
5 Comments:
Rick, you can't beieve how this spoke to me...challeged the hell out of me. I'm just about to lose my job. You know wife, kids...bills. Fear...yes! anxious!
Am I willing to let it die...when it feels like I'm dying...I'm trying. Am I content with just his hand in my life...or can I be content with just his presence. Seems weird to say thanks Rick...but thanks!
wow.. amazing. thanks Rick for the challenge and for reminding us of MLK Jr.'s very inspiring words.
jeff
Powerful words - strong enough to draw one deeper into change, into truth.
Perhaps that is why we get hung up on pontificating theology and concerned about what others believe, it is a great escape from transforming the world through love, mercy, and justice.this is so true.
i love reading MLK's speeches, they were so powerful and so very simple. when i go over the 10 commandments with my ccders, i ask if they've ever killed anyone?
of course not.
paraphrasing both MLK and Jesus: you kill their spirit when you are mean to them...or gossip about them...or utter untrue or unkind things to them. and anything you do to them, you do to Jesus.
man, to see Jesus in everyone i meet, and to be able to stand up for that alone? that would be so cool.
still trembling from the resonance. i work in the church. am i willing to die for the cause of church? i don't think so? the spirit is leading...i think...but the question is, will i follow?
great and timely post.
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