Sunday Sermon with Dr. King #1
Strength to Love
I am a researcher (occupational hazard from obtaining my PhD) and also Christian++. As a pursuer of social justice, I decided recently that I wanted to get to know Dr. King the Preacher. My best friend gave me a gift card for my birthday, so I bought three Dr. King books by which to begin my research. The first is Strength to Love*, with a foreword by Coretta Scott King, who stated, "The struggle to eliminate the world's evils...can only occur through a profound internal struggle" (p.xii). So, herein lies the foundation for this Sunday blog series: to tease out my thoughts through reading Dr. King's sermons, to become a better human through his inspiration. Before you read on, these blogs are in no way your easy way out into Dr. King's genius, so I encourage you to read everything he wrote in its entirety instead of going solely by this diluted version you will soon thoroughly enjoy reading :)
#1 "A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart" is a sermon believed to have been preached in late August of 1959 in Montgomery, AL.** My notes in the margin (yes, paper book with pen written notes in the margin. After much self-study, I realize this is my best method of reading and processing) include the word "genius" a few times and only within the preface and this first sermon. This sermon is based on the book of Matthew in The Bible chapter 10, verse 16 - Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Dr. King breaks this down to mean that Jesus expects us to have both characteristics of a serpent and a dove, which he admits it's difficult to imagine. What he means is we "must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart" (p2). Now, my immediate thought was my marriage, with me as the tender heart and my husband as the tough mind. We frequently see how we complement each other in our marriage and why God put us together. However, to strive to possess both these characteristics inside one being seems impossible, right? God can do this. "God is neither hardhearted nor soft minded. He is tough minded enough to transcend the world; he is tenderhearted enough to live in it. He seeks us in dark places and suffers with us and for us in our tragic prodigality" (p9).
Dr. King goes to share how having a tough mind is not seen in many these days (late 1950s) and I will say that this continues to be true today. "Nothing pains some people more than having to think" (p2). I would agree with this in today's society especially where anyone reading this knows at least one person who gave up something they really wanted, or even needed, because it required too much thought and effort. However, Dr. King does go on to say that the media brainwashes us from all angles - "the press, the platform, and in many instances the pulpit" (p3). But having a tough mind enables us to judge critically and discern what is true and what is not. He adds on how soft minded people fear change and that sameness is not always for the best but it is always comfortable. I've been here many times: with nutrition and healthy habits. Who wants to cook from scratch when you can order out? Or why not just pop something in the oven that's from a box, with plenty of processed ingredients? Because this is what was comfortable for me. The ingredients list was long and indecipherable, but it was easy and what I was used to. I recently embarked on a journey to a healthier lifestyle and I was instructed to eat one pound of vegetables daily. Was this uncomfortable? Yes. But it was one of the most beneficial changes I made. But again, am I consistent with it? No, because it's difficult. So, I completely understand the ebb and flow of tough mind vs. soft mind. We just have to be aware of it and be honest with ourselves.
A tender heart, Dr. King says, allows us to be warm, attached, have passion, love, experience true friendship, as well as joy and sorrow. A hardhearted person is "unmoved by the pains and afflictions of his brothers, ...never sees people as people" (p6). Instead, Dr. King reminds us that "the good life combines the toughness of the serpent and the tenderness of the dove" (p6). This is Jesus' goal for us.
Lastly, how does Dr. King preach how this dichotomous goal applies to social justice? Combining the tender heart and the tough mind will help move toward the goal of freedom and justice. A soft-minded person will yield to oppression and cowardly go with the flow. However, "we must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil" (p7). In addition, the hardhearted person in favor of physical violence only "brings temporary victories...by creating many more social problems than it solves" (p7). This is why his solution at the time of this sermon was nonviolent resistance, which is to combine the tender heart and the tough mind, working "passionately and unrelentingly (p8)" for justice, without using "inferior methods of falsehood, malice, hate, and violence" (p8). He ends with extended praise to God that He possesses both characteristics, giving us hope and fulfillment while we navigate within this world, with all its evil and pure joy, or as Dr. King so eloquently writes, "life's dark valleys...and sunlit paths" (p9).
I end with how I have hard days and good days just like all of you reading. But I will forever reflect on my newfound goal to continue to have a tender heart, but to strengthen my tough mind. What are some of your goals on your way to becoming better tomorrow than you are today?
++ I believe that The Bible is God's living word and Jesus is my Lord and Savior
* King, M. L. (1963). Strength to love. New York: Harper & Row.
** https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/tough-mind-and-tender-heart