Community or Chaos: The Danger of Doing Business as Usual John 21: 1-12
John 21:3 “I go a fishing.”
The life and times of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reflects the Black Church and Black people at their best. We are all proud of his academic and social accomplishments. Unfortunately, generations born after 1968, only know of him through stories told be others, through books, through electronic media. Sometimes, it seems that Dr. King’s life work makes him appear larger than life. Particularly when contrasted with the leadership styles we see on the national and local stage today.
We are in an era of people first asking what’s in it for me, versus asking what’s in it for my people. In these days and times, people does not understanding the meaning of commitment to the liberation struggle? People vacillate from developing a deep sense of true meaning. King would suggest, “If you don’t have anything to die for, you will fall for anything.”
Dr. King was a real person. He was authentic in every way. Human fears, frailties, and faults, but God used him in a mighty way to remind all of us – what a mighty God we
serve. His life and times was tied to the church. While he may have received a (B-) in his homiletics’ class, he is credited as being one of the greatest preachers of all time. His sermon, “I Have a Dream” is one of the most repeated oratorical presentations of all time.
Dr. King was a real person. He frequented Baltimore. I’m told he shared in discussions in our own Harvey Johnson Center. That’s no surprise to me because he and Gus Adair where childhood friends. Gus would call him Mike King. Dr. King and Rev. Dr. Logan Kease where good friends. Dr. Kease and Rev. Dr. Baxter Matthews were also good friends. The network of Civil Rights was connected to the Black Church.
Any true student of Civil Rights knows the movement flows through Baltimore, this community, and this church. Dr. King knew that and all across the country religious leaders understood that the prototype for the civil rights movement had been developed here in Baltimore.
June 22, 1885 – The pastors of Union Baptist Church, Rev. Dr. Harvey Johnson, Sharon Baptist Church, Rev. Dr. William Alexander, Trinity Baptist Church, Rev. Waller and others form the Mutual United Brotherhood of Liberty of the United States of America.
This puts structure in the Civil Rights Movement. Frederick Douglas, growing up in East Baltimore, and later attending Sharp Street Methodist Church knew that. Baltimore’s contribution to the Civil Rights Movement is largely unknown because we have not told Union’s story.
Nevertheless, I recognize that God used Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life to keep us from every forgetting the move of God’s hand in America.
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In 1967 as Black Power forces began to impact the non-violence perspective of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King wrote a powerful analysis of the conditions of that day in his book: Where Do We Go From Here: Community or Chaos?
This book should be mandatory reading for every African American man, woman and child. Dr. King analyzes Black Power:
1) Cry of disappointment
2) Call to black people to amass the political and economic strength to achieve their legitimate goals.
3) Call to pool black financial resources to achieve economic security.
4) Psychological call to manhood.
Dr. King focused us on the “basic and primary tasks of liberation:
1) To organize our strength into compelling power so that government cannot elude our demands.
2) To subordinate programs to studying the levers of power.
3) He describes the forces of power as ideological, economic and political.
Dr. King challenged us to realize that liberation as an ideological soul force was rooted in Biblical and religious thinking and was crystallized if properly understood in the life of Jesus Christ. Promoting the theology of love gave us the ideological edge in the world of ideas.
Dr. King wanted us to know that not owning land was tantamount to misunderstanding the quest of the Hebrew people to possess Canaan land. Some of our time has to be placed on gaining economic equity. If we are 30% of the population we should have 30% of the economy, he suggests.
That’s why its tragic to think that in the State of Maryland with the unemployment rate at a little under 5% why our community has a unemployment and those not in the labor force rate of 55%.
He also let’s us know that our soul power must result in political power. People favorable to our interest must be elected to political offices. People unfavorable should be voted out. He did not distinguish on the basis of color.
Finally, he informed us that we as Black people are world citizens. We have a significant place in the World House.
Some of you may know that Alvin Jr. after completing his undergraduate education, returned to study for a MBA. He called me after his first class to tell me that there where a total of 19 students in the class. He said six of the students where from Germany and
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12 of the students where from China. Remember there are only 19 students in the class. 18 from out of the country and him.
Because we are occupants of this world house, Dr. King reminds us that we are world citizens.
Dr. King sought to create the Beloved Community, an all embracing fellowship of unconditional love.
The question is still on the table: Where do we go from here: Community or Chaos. I would argue that we must recognize the Danger of Doing Business as Usual.
If we are honest with ourselves we are not moving towards the Beloved Community. We are moving towards chaos.
We’ve slipped backwards. Our families are being challenged. Our churches are under assault. Our communities are in disarray. Our children are dropping out of school in surprising numbers. A way of violence is the norm. Disparities in health care. Economic inequity. Schools are places of institutionalization instead of places of liberation. The very fabric of our communal way of life is being ripped apart. We are distance in our dealings. We are apathetic to human suffering. We have lost of voice of advocacy. We have become disrespectful to our elders.
We are moving rapidly towards chaos because we have resorted to business as usual.
Please allow our text to inform us:
John is now writing about the period of Jesus time on earth after the resurrection. This period is important because it gauges the reaction of his disciples to the impact of his ministry while on earth. They had seen hungry people feed. They had witnessed the lame to walk. They participated in the ministry of reconciliation. How many times do we forgive Jesus – seventy times seventy? They where there.
They saw the President sign a voting rights bill. They attended college and universities whose doors had previously been shut tight. They worked in job settings that they did not know existed. We where there.
A close examination of the actions of the disciples in this text outlines for us the danger of returning to business as usual.
You have Simon Peter, who earlier had been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Who had been asked by Jesus, do you love me – then feed my sheep and feed my lambs.
Who had cut off the ear of a soldier who threatens Jesus. Simon Peter who walked on water to come to Jesus. Simon Peter says to the disciples, “I go a fishing.”
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1) The first danger in returning to business as usual is that you will miss your mission.
a) When Jesus entered into the life experience of Simon Peter and changed his name. He told him that you will become fishers of men. His mission was not to fish for fish, but to fish for men. We have had this tremendous witness of Dr. King and others in the Civil Rights movement, but yet we have abandoned the bridge that bought us across. We have missed our mission and gone fishing.
b) Our intellectual acumen is not being applied to our liberation struggle. We are wasting our talent and resources on unproductive ventures.
2) Second you will see that while they are spending there time all night long fishing. They catch nothing. It is not until Jesus comes and he tells them to cast their net on the right side of the boat do they catch any fish. And after they do what Jesus says they find that they catch more fish than ever before. When they come to the shore to be with Jesus they find that he already has a fire, some fish, and bread. Which means is what they where fishing for, looking for, searching for – Jesus already had. The second danger in doing business as usual is that you will miss your miracle.
3) That’s why the pre-exilic prophet would say that I look to the hills from which cometh my help, may help cometh from the Lord. We don’t pray enough. We don’t study God’s word enough. We have gone fishing.
4) The danger of doing business as usual is that you will miss your mission; you will miss your miracle.
5) Finally, you will notice that Jesus who had been with them all the way. Jesus who is the Master of the Sea. The Lilly of the valley the bright and morning star. Jesus who is the great Shepard, the way the truth and the life, appears to them again, and they do not know that it is him.
6) The final danger in doing business as usual is that not only will you miss your mission, not only will you miss your miracle, but you will also miss the master.
