Each year, America takes a day to celebrate and honor Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And each year, I try to watch one of his speeches or read one of his articles on that day. Thanks to the internet, those of us born after his death can now watch him deliver those speeches and hear the power and fire of his conviction. Through a friend's posting, I stumbled upon a sermon he gave six months before his death that I hadn't read before. He is teaching on the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace from Daniel 3. Specifically, he focuses on their response to the evil Babylonian king who is about to toss them into the world's hottest fire for disobeying his commands.
"Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18)
I encourage you to listen to the whole sermon, which can be found here on YouTube. But the concluding statement (quoted below) punched me in the ribs this morning, especially in light of the fact that King did die for what he believed. We have a long way to go to realize Dr. King's dream, but there has been significant progress because of his work. His words still inspire, convict, and challenge us today.
"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 38 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're 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, and so you refuse to take the stand. Well you may go on and live until you are 90, but you're just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90!
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. These boys stand before us today, and I thank God for them, for they had found something. The fiery furnace couldn't stop them from believing. They said "Throw us into the fiery furnace." But you know the interesting thing is, the Bible talks about a miracle. Because they had faith enough to say "But if not," God was with them as an eternal companion.
And this is what I want to say finally, that there is a reward if you do right for righteousness' sake. It says that somehow that burning fiery furnace was transformed into an air-conditioned living room. Somebody looked in there and said "We put three in here, but now we see four."
Don't ever think you're by yourself. Go on to jail if necessary but you'll never go alone. Take a stand for that which is right, and the world may misunderstand you and criticize you, but you never go alone, for somewhere I read that "one with God is a majority," and God has a way of transforming a minority into a majority. Walk with Him this morning and believe in Him and do what is right and He'll be with you even until the consummation of the ages.
Yes, I've seen the lightning flash, I've heard the thunder roll, I've felt sin breakers dashing trying to conquer my soul, but I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on, He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone; no, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. Where you going this morning, my friends, tell the world that you're going with truth. You're going with justice, you're going with goodness, and you will have an eternal companionship. And the world will look at you and they won't understand you, for your fiery furnace will be around you, but you'll go on anyhow. But if not, I will not bow.
God grant that we will never bow before the gods of evil."
--Martin Luther King Jr.
Sermon given at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA
November, 1967
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