Extreme on Love

As I sat in church on Sunday, excited to learn and know more about the character of God, my pastor briefly paused to remind us of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and prayed that we would be reminded of his message. I’m sure many are sitting at home today relaxing or perhaps using this day off of work to get important or not-so-important things accomplished, or if you are like me, you have to work today. In the midst of all of this, I have to stop for a moment and reflect back on Mr. King, Jr. Honestly, I don’t think I ever take this holiday as a time to reflect on what it is for, but today while eating my lunch, I decided to hop online and read “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Mr. King.

I’ve read it before. I remember the first time I did. I was in high school and thought it was better than his “I Have a Dream” speech. He challenges all people in his letter – even the church, which is really what brings me to write today.

He was, as King stated, a “creative extremist.” Jesus loved those who were treated as outcasts, those who were misunderstood, people who were rejected for their looks – what disease they had or “may have had.” He challenged the Pharisees, the righteous, who thought they knew everything, and he loved the innocent children who could be so easily misled. He loved the average, ordinary, poor, wicked, whore, sick, lame, adulterer, murderer, back-stabber. No one was safe from His love. And that remains true even now. Luther questioned if that love drove the church, or if conformity and laxity perverse it.

The church is the body of Christ – the ones who are to be most representative of who Jesus Christ is, yet I have a feeling the church sits comfortably in the walls of religion and is not brave to go out and live in tension. Either that or we are too righteous, judgmental, and let our focus on our commitment to God get in the way of loving those who need it most and need the presence of God behind their fight.

I do no exclude myself from questioning if I live in the tension of “be in the world, but not of the world.” It is a very hard balance, but I wonder how much more of God I will know and understand when I begin to step out of my comfortable walls of religion and begin living out love.