Daily Lesson for April 5, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Romans 8:18-23:

18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

I am writing this reflection on the 51st anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and remembering not only Dr. King’s famous words but also the words of his teacher and mentor Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays on the sad occasion of Dr. King’s memorial at Morehouse College on April 9, 1968:

“[Dr. King] was not ahead of his time. No man is ahead of his time. Every man is within his star, each in his time. Each man must respond to the call of God in his lifetime and not in somebody else’s time.”

Dr. Mays was telling the mourners that Dr. King’s death was not in vain. Dr. King’s message and ministry were not too much too soon; and he did not give his life for a non-viably premature cause. Though many who were opposed to full equality and justice for all were publicly blaming Dr. King’s death on the unreadiness of the times, Dr. Mays was adamant that the time for the world Dr. King lived and died for was at hand.

In today’s Lesson St. Paul speaks of a world in wait, a creation waiting and “longing for the revealing of the children of God.”

The world is waiting. Held in bondage, it longs for God’s children to rise up and say something, intervene, organize, make a difference, care.

We are God’s children. And the time is now; it’s always now.

Or as Dr. King himself put it, “The time is always right to do what is right.”