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Morning Devotion for the Season of Lent
April 4, 2025
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Reading: Exodus 3:7-12
Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ He said, ‘I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.’
Meditation by Jeremy O’Neill
It may seem odd that the Episcopal Church remembers The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. today, as the National Holiday associated with him occurs in January. The church calendar has historically remembered people on the date of their death, as a contrast to National Holidays which usually remember peoples’ birthdays. I think this is particularly fitting for a figure such as Dr. King, whose dream of freedom ultimately led to his murder.
I would highly encourage anyone to visit the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where King was shot. There are very few places where you can see the place where someone that recognizable was martyred, and walking past his motel room set up with coffee and a newspaper as it was on April 4th, 1968 is truly evocative.
The scripture for today is fitting for such a remembrance. King is often linked to Moses as a figure who led an oppressed people out of a situation of suffering. But the stories of both of these individuals are incomplete if we just think about Dr. King in isolation or if we read this passage from Exodus with no context. As much as we love a singular hero, both of these leaders were able to harness the power of community. It is often forgotten that in addition to King’s leadership, part of what made the Civil Rights Movement successful was thorough organizing and activism from thousands of people. Similarly, the Israelites journey out of Egypt is not as simple as Moses telling Pharaoh to set his people free. Both events were a culmination of years of lamentation, faith, and action.
Both stories remind us of our dependence on God as well as our dependence on each other. As much as we love a hero, but creating what King called Beloved Community is nothing we can do alone. Christianity as a practice takes all of us, both in commitment to our faith in worship and in the living out of our faith through how we choose to be in the world.
Former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry began a number of his sermons with an invocation of the “Loving, Liberating, and Life Giving God.” Proclaiming such good news is often unpopular – a hateful, oppressive, dehumanizing power can be seductive. And yet we can work to model King’s perseverance as well as his steady commitment as we proclaim Good News that comes from God. In the words of Jesus: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed.” This is the Good News we have to share, even if it is hard to share it. And in those moments where we might feel like Moses, asking “Who am I that I should go?” we can take comfort in knowing that God is with us and that this is a proclamation we cannot do without others.
Prayer:
Almighty God, by the hand of Moses your servant you led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last: Grant that your Church, following the example of your prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of your love, and may secure for all your children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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