To celebrate Christmas, we are submitting to you a few quotes from and adaptations of some of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Christmas sermons.
My friends, this Christmas season finds us again a rather bewildered human race.
We have neither peace within nor peace without.
Everywhere we turn, we see war, conflict, division, and fear.
Our world is sick with violence, and its ominous possibilities are never far from our minds.
And yet, in the midst of this darkness, Christmas comes to us with a stubborn, shining message:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” [Luke 2:14]
The Christmas hope for peace and goodwill can no longer be dismissed as a pious dream of some gentle soul out of touch with reality. If we do not learn to live together as brothers and sisters, we will perish together as fools. If we do not choose goodwill, we will destroy ourselves by the misuse of our own power.
Christmas reminds us that all life is interrelated. We are all caught, as Dr. King said, in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. No nation can live alone. No person can live alone. We were made to live together—Black and white, rich and poor, from every race and every land—as children of the same God, created in His image.
So if we truly want peace on earth, we must do more than sing carols and exchange gifts.
We must embrace the way of nonviolence—in our homes, in our communities, and among the nations.
We must refuse to believe that we can reach peaceful ends by violent means. You can’t reach a good end through evil ends; the end is in the fiber of the means.
We must lay down the weapons of hatred and take up the powerful force of agape—that selfless love which seeks the good of all people, even our enemies, according to Jesus.
This kind of love does not mean we submit to injustice or accept evil.
No, it means we resist injustice without hatred.
We oppose evil without losing our capacity to love.
We say to those who hurt us…We will meet your physical force with soul force.
I still have a dream that there will one day be peace on earth and goodwill toward men. (Luke 2:14; Isaiah 2:4 and 11:6-11).
A prayer of Dr. King’s: “O God, our gracious heavenly Father, we thank thee for the inspiration of Jesus the Christ, who came to this world to show us the way. And grant that we will see in that life the fact that we are made for that which is high and noble and good. Help us to live in line with that high calling, that great destiny. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.”
