“Nothing that is concealed that won’t be revealed, and no secret that won’t be known. You see, what you say in the dark will be heard in the light. And all those things whispered to you behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops” (Luke 12:2-3).
I don’t know much about Dr. King. But that shouldn’t be a surprise.
I grew up in the South, Memphis, TN to be exact. The place Dr. King was murdered. He was here because of the sanitation workers’ strike. And when they first declared the third Monday in January a holiday, we didn’t get that day off from school.
I learned about Dr. King’s visit to the city from my parents; though, not as part of a history lesson but in response to something. Maybe it was the first time we discussed him in school, which was probably my Sophomore year. They didn’t tell me about the strike or the Mountaintop speech Dr. King gave. I remember that they thought he should have minded his own business.
I think it was in Seminary or perhaps a year or two before when I first read his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” I often wonder what I would have thought about it had I heard it when I was young. The words sounded Biblical. You could have probably told me it was out of Romans or Ephesians and I would have believed it. He sounded like some of those Bible people.
But I didn’t hear those words when I was young. As the years went on, we did get his holiday as a day off from school. One of the radio stations used to play the “I have a dream” speech. I knew that statement, of course. There were clips of it on TV and in movies. I think I was in college before I knew the context.
All of this may seem like it’s about me, but it isn’t. It’s about a problem we have. It’s been a problem for a long time, and now it seems like it’s bubbling over because we didn’t tend to it. Like one of those small leaks that if you ignore them they end up flooding the bathroom. One minute you’re not recognizing a holiday, the next you’re breaking windows in the Capitol.
See, it’s a problem I didn’t ever deal with; because, I always got my way. And when I say my way I mean the way white people want things. I didn’t need to read Dr. King or listen to his speeches. The world seemed pretty dreamy. Nobody aimed a fire hose at me. I can count on one hand the interactions I’ve had with Police.
Jesus tells us that nothing concealed won’t be revealed. Whispers and secrets will be told from the rooftops. Nothing you try to hide won’t be revealed. Nothing you neglect, I suppose, will fail to show that neglect. In one way or another.
Would teaching my generation about Dr. King’s words prevented what happened at the Capitol earlier this month? Would bringing ignorance like mine into the light sooner have prevented so many from waving flags and threatening lives? I don’t know.
But I know what happened because we didn’t.
Jesus, forgive us when we are willfully ignorant.