Quick Summary:

Some people are called to serve their own, their people, their tribe. And some people are called to serve, teach, and reach beyond their tribe. Jesus was one of those people. Martin Luther King was one those people. God told Martin: It’s not enough that you should minister to, with, and among the Black community. As crucial as that is, my purposes for you are bigger still: to catalyze the conscience of a whole nation. And so he did.

In our gospel we watch the gravitational effect of love ripple through the relationships of Jesus’ first followers in a linked chain of testimony. Jesus’ invitation is compelling—COME AND SEE! And at the end of his gospel, during the final meal he shares with his disciple community Jesus leaves them with one singular command: LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU. When we answer Christ’s invitation to COME AND SEE; when we abide in him, graft ourselves to him, our lives—and the world as we’ve known it—are transformed.

But one look at our world today, at our nation, ourselves, and it’s clear: the work of transformation is hardly over. In fact, there is in our nation and around the world a resurgence in unapologetic white supremist thinking and entrenched tribalism.