[Granville-Hough] 10 Apr 2009 - An Easter Legend

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:05:23 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: An Easter Legend - 10 April 2009


    I am not the proper person to write this story, but I have heard its 
essentials from Rev. Andrew Young and perhaps others who were there in 
the Atlanta home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, many years ago in the 
1960s reviewing what had happened in the last year and discussing their 
sermons and Easter Activities.  They wanted to present their victories 
and give hope to their congregations about the coming year.
     Then Dr. Martin Luther King got a call from Birmingham asking for 
help.  There had been a confrontation there, with violence to the black 
people who were involved.  The Birmingham brothers and sisters wanted to 
organize a march, or demonstration, protesting what had happened.  It 
was not long after Mrs. Rosa Parks had refused to give up her seat on a 
public bus to a white person, or some such misdemeanor.  There had been 
escalating tensions ever since, and the organizers of the protest 
movement asked Dr. King if he could bring moral support to their cause.
    Dr. King and all the others were either pastors of churches or 
church leaders.  Easter was the most important time of the year for a 
Christian pastor, and they were deeply involved in the planning for 
their congregations, from Easter egg hunts to sermons to Hallelujah 
Choruses to Holy Communion to possible baptisms.  The call for help was 
very disconcerting to all, and they did not see how they could stop what 
they were doing and help the Birmingham effort.
    Dr. King got very quiet and then said: "I must go into the next room 
and think and pray about this request from Birmingham."  So he left the 
group and went into the next room.  The church people continued to 
discuss their Easter programs. 
    No one knows Dr. King's thoughts in the next room.  Perhaps he 
recalled that Easter as Christians know it incorporates Passover, as 
Jesus knew it. And it celebrates how the Israelites were freed from 
slavery in Egypt and allowed to pass out of Egypt and eventually to 
reach the Promised Land.  And Jesus came, not to discard the law, but to 
fulfill it.  So Dr. King got his answer.  As long as there were vestiges 
of slavery  in Birmingham, there is where he must go. He dressed in in 
work jeans and shirt and joined the others.
    When the others saw how Dr. King was dressed, there was a brief 
silence.  Then someone asked: "When do _we_ leave?"  In that brief 
silence, everyone realized that this Easter would be different.  Instead 
of the comfort of their own churches, they would be facing armed 
policeman with attack dogs, high-pressure fire hoses, tear gas, the 
derision of whites who supported apartheid, and the unkempt cells of 
Birmingham jails.  And that is what  they got in full measure.  The 
protest demonstration was beaten down with all the tools available.  It 
was total victory for Birmingham authorities, and they boasted accordingly.
    But the United States and the whole world were shocked by what they 
saw and heard on live television.  The moral support provided by Dr. 
King and his associates made Birmingham the beginning of the end for 
apartheid in the United States.  We thank you God, for giving us role 
models who cling to the right instead of might.  Please give us 
judgment  on where and how to make our stands.  Thank you for Easter and 
all it means  for shaping our lives.  In the name of Jesus on the cross, 
we do pray.  Amen.  Grampa.