“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest.” Isaiah 62: 1-5
The Reverend Shearon Sykes Williams, Second Sunday after the Epiphany, January 19th, 2025
“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest.” Isaiah 62: 1-5
Today we remember the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. MLK was a prophet, very much in keeping with the Old Testament prophetic tradition. In our reading from Isaiah today, the prophet speaks to a people who had been in captivity in Babylon for many years and are now experiencing a kind of PTSD. They are divided, disillusioned, and lack a common vision. Some have stayed in Babylon. Some have returned from exile to their homeland. And a new generation has been born after their return that do no share that earlier experience of captivity with their parents and grandparents.
“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest.”
Isaiah has been called by God to be God’s mouthpiece, reminding the Israelites that God is with them and that God liberated them from oppression and will continue to be with them as they establish their new identity. Throughout Isaiah, the prophet reminds his people of God’s deliverance in the distant past when their ancestors were led out of bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land, and that because of God’s salvation in the past, they can trust in God’s deliverance in the future. Their suffering now will not last forever.
“You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall be no more termed desolate; but you shall be called My Delight is in (you)... for the Lord delights in you.”
Isaiah describes a covenantal relationship between God and God’s people, an everlasting bond, and God promises to restore their dignity, which is their birthright. Isaiah brings them this word of hope, this word of expectant justice, when their name will be changed from “Forsaken” to “God’s Delight.”
Martin Luther King Jr would have been 96 years old on Jan 15th. He was martyred when he was 39 years old, after being the primary face and voice of the Civil Rights Movement in this country during the 1960s, a movement that very much understood itself to be a continuation of God’s everlasting commitment to God’s oppressed people. Martin Luther King and the many brave women and men of the civil rights movement would not keep silent. And faithful people of every generation are called to stand up for justice and to work for equality through non-violent means.
Today we too are called to stand up for justice and peace. The Episcopal Church has long advocated for the rights of those who are marginalized because it is one way we live out our baptismal promises to “strive for justice and peace among all people and promote the dignity of every human being. When we reaffirm our baptismal covenant, as we did last Sunday, we are reminded that it is important to put our faith in action, just as the ancient prophets called people to do in their day and time. The particular social context is different from age to age, but the timeless, covenantal love of God and our call to love our neighbor as ourselves never, ever changes.
Many in our country are lamenting the erosion of empathy in our culture and that is one of the many reasons that the Church is so very important. We are reminded every Sunday, in a myriad of ways, that it’s not all about us. Every person is precious in God’s sight.
“You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall be no more termed desolate; but you shall be called My Delight .. for the Lord delights (in each of us).”
As Christians, we are called to minister to the oppressed and lift up the down-trodden because God is particularly and peculiarly interested in the marginalized, the oppressed, those that our society often sees as “less than”. People of color, people who identify as LGBTQ+, people who are poor, people who have mental health challenges. We are all especially aware of the threat to undocumented immigrants right now. In God’s eyes, there are no “less-than” people, only God’s beloved ones. Martin Luther King Jr understood this. Our faith is not only about our own private salvation, although it is most certainly that as well. It is primarily about the salvation of the world. And God’s kingdom starts now. It is not just something that we are rewarded with when we die. It is also about bringing the kingdom now, being God’s agents in the world and working to make the world look more as God intended, a world that Jesus came to show us, a world where we love God and love our neighbors as ourselves, a world where we see ourselves and everyone we meet as the apple of God’s eye.
“You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall be no more termed desolate; but you shall be called My Delight.. for the Lord delights in you.”
Like the prophet Isaiah, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr saw a day when God would bring everything and everyone to fullness, where everyone would be seen as a precious child of God in whom God delights. On August 28th, 1968, King gave the speech that captured our nation’s imagination in an indelible way, filled with scriptural images of the journey to freedom fueled by God’s vision for all people. And a call to remember our founding principles as a nation that have yet to be fulfilled for everyone. As he stood at the Lincoln Memorial and looked out into a crowd of 250,000, King gave one of the most memorable and enduring speeches in our nation’s history, a speech that would reverberate around the world.
But this part of the speech, the key line that is etched in people’s consciouses, was not part of his prepared remarks. We have Mahalia Jackson, the Gospel singer, to thank for the “I have a dream” portion. She stood up from behind the podium where MLK was speaking and said,
“Tell them about the dream, Martin. Tell then about the dream.”
And in that moment, he left his manuscript behind and improvised the most powerful and memorable section of all.
…”Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
So this week-end as we remember MLK’s legacy, we are all reminded that the work he called us to is the same work today. The journey is long and arduous, and the work will never be finished this side of heaven, but continue it we must. Our responsibility as people of faith has not changed. God’s call for justice is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. That clarion call was issued by the prophet Isaiah thousands of years ago and it still resounds today.
“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest.”