mountaintop views
[my year in review station 10]
Watch/Listen/Read
Take in the scene. You are watching two experts of Martin Luther King Jr.’s last speech. He delivered it on April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. The next day, MLK was assassinated.
Recently I was listening to Ruby Sales with Krista Tippet, “Where Does it Hurt?” On Being episode. She was discussing the Civil Rights movement and how Dr. King was speaking much more broadly than many understood. Consider her words . . .
Ruby Sales on THE “MOUNTAINTOP SPEECH” BY Martin Luther King Jr.
And part of what happened after post-Civil Rights Southern Freedom Movement is that people thought that what the movement had been about was jobs, position, status. When, in fact, it had not been about that at all. It had been about —
when King talked about the mountain top, he was talking about a higher level of consciousness.
He was talking about a movement where we harmonized the “I” with the “we” and the “we” with the “I.”
- ON BEING • TRANSCRIPT FOR RUBY SALES — WHERE DOES IT HURT?
Take her words in for a moment. While the description “higher level of consciousness” might not be something we are used to in our vocabulary (or maybe it is) — can you see how this fits with the mountain top metaphor?
Can you see how the message/embodiment of Christ could fit that same description?
As merely one example, consider the “Sermon on the MOUNT” (AIN) in Matthew 5–7
You are like that illuminating light. Let your light shine everywhere you go, that you may illumine creation, so men and women everywhere may see your good actions, may see creation at its fullest, may see your devotion to Me, and may turn and praise your Father in heaven because of it.
From the mountaintop view, we see what is at stake.
Every life is a light, illuminating “creation at its fullest.”
You have been taught to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you this: love your enemies. Pray for those who torment you and persecute you — in so doing, you become children of your Father in heaven. He, after all, loves each of us — good and evil, kind and cruel.
From the mountaintop view, we define love differently.
Everyone is worthy — not just those who love us.
You know that Hebrew Scripture sets this standard of justice and punishment: take an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say this, don’t fight against the one who is working evil against you. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, you are to turn and offer him your left cheek.
From the mountaintop view, justice is turned upside down.
Forgiveness rules, not revenge or what is earned.
What are the voices that have pushed you toward a MOUNTAINTOP VIEW Where have the influences come from that have shaped your MOUNTAINTOP VIEW? Can we be a community, sharing — encouraging — enacting a MOUNTAINTOP VIEW?
“At the higher levels of consciousness, we can teach things like compassion, mercy, forgiveness, selflessness, even love of enemies.”
- Richard Rohr
Write / Sketch / Journal a prayer giving voice to the actions you want to take this year.
What is one aspect of a MOUNTAINTOP VIEW that you want to see incorporated in your life this year?
