It’s Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) weekend this weekend in the US. MLK Day is celebrated tomorrow on Monday and something that is lifted up around the world. For example in BC we celebrate Black Excellence Day this weekend on both Friday and Saturday. One thing we often forget about Martin Luther King Jr. is that despite buildings, bridges, streets, and institutes named after him around the world, he was not well liked in his day. Specifically white people generally did not like him at the height of his influence. He was seen as divisive and not upholding proper Christian values. Even though now he is revered as a great Civil Rights leader and Christian leader who helped spark the Civil Rights Movement in the US and serve as an inspiration for millions.
This Sunday we also celebrate Jesus’ first miracle of the Wedding at Cana. Jesus turns water into wine reveals the abundance of his grace and hospitality. A party that is about to come to a crashing halt is saved. Some may wonder whether saving a wedding party is worthy of a miracle and especially odd that it’s the first miracle in the Gospel of John. It is a strange miracle if we’re honest. And the love Martin Luther King Jr. espoused was also strange. In a Letter from a Birmingham Jail, MLK wrote that some people called him an extremist. He offered if he’s stuck with the label he’s going to be an extremist for love. That phrase strikes us as odd at least at first. Often we think of love as a mean or middle, not an extreme. But MLK encourages people to put their bodies and lives on the line for Jesus’ love. To live a love of neighbour that others may feel threatening. And yet at its heart, it is joyful. Like Jesus’ first miracle, it’s about offering radical hospitality. Throwing a party for others without bounds. A love that overflows so that everyone has enough.
I want to share a story about my encounter with MLK’s extremism for love. Five years ago this very weekend in Lexington, Virginia I had the privilege of helping lead a MLK parade in rural Virginia. The danger of any preacher telling stories about themselves is a sneaking hagiography, of elevating one’s actions. In order to temper this, I’m happy to share the many mistakes I made in helping organize the parade.
To begin with I didn’t know what we were getting into. The idea in the beginning was to disrupt what had become a white supremacy parade in Lexington that weekend. While most of the country celebrated Martin Luther King Jr., some states including Virginia continued celebrating Lee-Jackson Day the Friday prior. Basically it was a celebration of the racist losers of the Civil War, the very people who fought to uphold slavery and were defeated. Over time Lee and Jackson, both Confederate generals, were covered with a kind of fallen hero veneer. Their evil covered over with mythic representations about honour and character that were simply not true. There was nothing honourable about any of the Confederate generals, but white supremacists were only too eager to resurrect their memories and histories in warped ways.
As a result the town where we lived was besieged by a parade of white supremacist groups on the Saturday of Martin Luther King Jr. They flew a hundred plus Confederate flags and led what resembled a modern Klan rally in broad daylight. In an effort for radical love to pour through the streets, we proposed a MLK parade to be held at the same time and place as the hate parade. The first year after months of planning we secured a parade permit after many bumps in the road. We held a MLK parade that nearly one thousand people attended, displacing the hate parade to the following day. While we marched down the streets in love, the white supremacist groups erected a Husky truck stop size Confederate flag at a nearby gun shop. Weeks later they were forced to remove the flag because they didn’t secure a permit for the flag pole which was located too close to the road.
Mistakes that were made on my part came from white privilege, not realizing the danger we were heading towards. When you disrupt a decades old white supremacist parade, dozens of people who legally carry handguns and assault rifles, suddenly turn in your direction. We were preparing people to march down Mainstreet in love, but we also were potentially inviting people to join a parade in which people could die. It also made anxious some folks among the historic Black community who did not relish agitating the white supremacists, who were already threatening enough, who would ride through their neighbourhood in the backs of trucks, flying hate flags. Thankfully no one was physically hurt as a result of the MLK parade. I remember law enforcement telling us during planning meetings that they could never guarantee our safety. That if someone opens fire they would respond, but there would be the possibility of casualties. That reality together with the fact that white supremacists were openly threatening us online that they would show up with guns and be prepared to shoot us. Several of us as organizers were doxxed having our home addresses and phone numbers published online. It was a tense couple of months. It was also highly absurd that a MLK parade held most other places in the US would be a walk in the park. Something people barely paid attention towards.
Nevertheless by grace of God, our foolishness for love did not lead to anyone getting physically hurt. Everyone more or less kept their distance from one another between the two different parades. I remember a friend asking what I thought we gained by holding the MLK parade. One thing that came to mind was holding space. We held space for love of neighbour. We took back space that had been stolen by hate and showed a town held hostage by white supreamacy, that liberation is also possible. It was a parade without spectators because much of the town had joined the parade. A town walking through its own streets in love, singing songs, chanting chants, smiling albeit nervously that we could reclaim our own town on a day normally filled with white supremacists and hate. In the end it was a joyful day and moment of liberation.
The MLK parade has continued until this day although unfortunately this year’s parade, which had been organized to be held tomorrow, has been cancelled due to extreme weather. The second year we moved the parade to the MLK Monday in order to avoid direct conflict with the white supremacists, who had also regained their parade permit for the Saturday. After tragic events in Charlottesville, months after the first MLK parade, and with Trump in office, fear grew among organizers and law enforcement that eventually someone would get hurt. We made our point the first year of the parade and continued celebrating King’s love the years that followed. I have gratitude for friends who continue organizing the parade and the burden they bear, underscored by the lightness of extreme love.
The idea that racism is over whether in the US or anywhere in the world just isn’t true. The fact is that in the US small civil wars have continued to play out unhindered since the 19th Century. Often I hear people reeling from the reality that things are increasingly becoming unhinged politically in the US ever since the election of Trump. The reality is that he and so many policies are symptoms of realities that have been true in the US since the founding of the country. None of this is new, but instead it’s just that now as white folks we have become increasingly afraid for our own safety. It’s not just Black folks and other people of colour fearing for their safety.
What that means for us in Canada remains to be seen, but in the meantime we cannot sit idly by while political situations become increasingly unhinged. Consider the kind of things Dr. King asked Christians to undertake in the 1950’s and 1960’s. He exhorted predominantly white Christians to start listening to the plight of Black neighbours and other people of colour. We have opportunities to listen to and support Black Lives Matter organizers in Victoria and BC.
We also need to think twice when we hear Indigenous people fighting for their liberation and being branded as extremists. How many stories continue recurring in BC and anytime they use their bodies to bar access to their unceded territories they are branded by government and media as extremists. As Christians we need to consider who is doing the story telling. Let us listen first to the Indigenous voices directly before letting ourselves being swayed by the dominant and powerful voices in these stories.
Through our Social Justice and Truth & Reconciliation Committees at Church of the Cross we reflect upon what it means for us to be extremists for love. What it means to be Jesus followers in difficult times. At the same time any of this work needs to be held together with the good news Jesus brings saving a wedding party. At a time when we continue to feel depressed, tired, mourning loved ones, that the world is too much, we desperately need grace. Liberation movements understand this because burnout becomes a real danger. God cannot use us to do good when we’re overburdened. When we’re crippled with exhaustion. And so we think about the Wedding at Cana. Jesus saw it worthy of his gifts to save a party, so that people could rejoice.
How much we all would give for us to gather as church community and party and rejoice without worry. That too is life giving. So as we reflect upon the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and the legacy of Black Canadian civil rights leaders like Viola Desmond among others, we work to sustain one another to run the race. We support one another in creative ways.
The Holy Spirit is here for you, filling you with renewed hope, inviting you into the life giving extremism of love. Amen.
