Pastor's Ponderings: Monday – “Martin Luther King Jr. in my life and ministry for justice” (January 19, 2026)

January 19, 2026:  Monday – “Martin Luther King Jr. in my life and ministry for justice”

Dear Ones in Christ Jesus our Savior and Lord.

I want to share some thoughts on this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in our nation.

A few things that you probably already know:

I grew up in a city of 10,000 people on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, in a city named Ludington.  My family heritage on my Mom's side was Scandinavian, both Swedish and Danish who settled in Michigan in the 1860s, and a few years later in the 1870s built the Lutheran Church in which my faith formation began.  On my Dad's side things get a little foggier the farther back we go, but we do know that the Hulls and Taylors were in the country prior to 1812, and that in some time period a member of the family married a Native American.  Of course, this was a very common practice in the early days of the colonies and western expansion.  On Dad's' side the family was Methodist, but as so often happens in marriage, the husband follows the Christian Tradition of his wife, as my Dad did.  I grew into my teenage years in the years of extreme upheaval in our nation, with the killing of President Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and in the late 60's the death of Martin Luther King Jr. in the same manner.  We were caught in the midst of the Vietnam War, and we lost over 40,000 men and women in the battles fought in that nation that seemed so far away.  Oh yes, we landed men on the moon in the late sixties too.  In my high school there was one black student.  I believe that Joe commuted some 30 miles each way to attend our school.  When I left for college in 1968, it was not long before race riots covered many of the larger cities in our nation, of course, especially after the killing of MLK Jr.  Students at Kent State were murdered by national guards who had been placed there to prevent demonstrations.  That weekend our college closed, and we all tried to find quick rides home to avoid a similar situation in the small town where our college was located.  I was an active member of several youth groups in our community while I was in high school.  President of my own Luther League, and at the Methodist Church, while I attended the Presbyterian youth group, and from time to time the group at a small Episcopal Church too.  During those late 60s years my faith formation continued surrounded by the racism and hatred between people who really had no reason to be the way that they were.  At college, I studied to become a special education teacher, where my compassion for those who appeared to be different mentally, physically, socially, and racially from my life experience grew.  At that time, I was the church choir director for a Swedish Lutheran Church for 9 years.  There, my wife Melody and I met people whose lives were also compassionate and filled with the hope of Christ's passion for all people.  It was from this congregation that I realized Christ's call on my life needed to be met, to serve as a person of faith, compassion, and knowledge in the midst of Christ's people, the church.  From our 10-acre historical farm and house near Lake Michigan, we moved to the south side of Chicago where we lived in a six-flat walk-up apartment with our three-year-old son, and our nine-month-old daughter. This was the less than adequate housing for the Lutheran School of Chicago, and for the very first time we shopped and traveled and did my on-site parish education in south side of Chicago Black communities, one in the Pullman area of East Chicago in an all-black community, and a little later in Harvey, Ill on the farther south side of the city in a salt and pepper congregation that did their ministry in harmony with each other.  After graduation with my Master of Divinity degree, which in the Lutheran Church took 3-4 years to attain, and which meant I could be ordained to serve parish ministry, I was called to serve the Gospel.  At my first call in the mid-1980s I had an opportunity to attend the International Ecumenical Conference in Atlanta, GA.  While there, we were invited to visit the parish where MLK Jr. had served as their pastor.  We were graciously hosted to a congregational prepared meal and invited into the Sanctuary to rest and pray.  During that time, I was able to move to the altar area, and pulpit from which MLK Jr had preached, to place my hands on his large Bible, well-worn from his hands pressing forward on it during his preaching.  I already thought that MLK Jr. was a man of great faith, courage, and love of peace, all the while working hard to help the Black community receive the justice and freedom from racial bias and doing it calling for peaceful actions and demonstrations that met that injustice straight on.   By the time that I once again was in Atlanta for a national youth gathering with youth from our parish in Tucson, the entire area had become a national park.  Now the church I had been in, and where I had stood, were no longer available except for a peek through the nave doors.  But what had been added to other areas of the park, was a life size bronze of the people peacefully walking for justice and peace for themselves and others who were treated as different and undeserving of the justice of their nation.  That bronze of about forty people walking enabled me to stand in their midst with a great sense of humility, knowing that their courage was based in their faith in Jesus Christ, who lived, in His own ministry, to bring justice to all who were living with the injustice of illness, political upheaval in their nation, and the lack of God's truth for His children because manipulators of God's fierce judgement meant outsiders having to pay money to those who only wanted power and wealth in their Temple authority, any who were different, the poor, the sick, the downtrodden, were all considered unclean and unapproachable, deserving only of separation from God's Holy Grace as defined by the power wielders and wealthy. 

My heart for the "others" in our world has too often been broken by the hatred and distancing that Christians do in the name of our Savior.  In Christ there is no pushing away of those who are difference from who is "acceptable" in His Church.  I find it unbearable that today's immigrants in our nation, are suffering once again at the hands of the wealthy and powerful.  These people, whether Christian, Moslem, Jewish, or those who have not yet come to faith, are the Children of our Risen Lord and Savior, just like my family who traveled by steam ship, horseback, and covered wagon to find their new home in the midst of native peoples, today's immigrant peoples are seeking the same loving, warm, and hope-filled reception into their new home.  And it is not just immigrants!  It is citizens of our nation who we would like to judge, as so many have historically thought it was their privilege in the church, to believe that there is sin and error in others’ lives.  Oh yes, have we looked in a mirror lately?  There is an underserving sinner looking back at each of us!  The communities of LGBTQ+ folks, the Hispanics who have lived on this land for years before us, the unsheltered, people of color, race, and languages other than ours, and the immigrants who have come into the midst of Christ's Church with longing for justice, and finding the fulfillment of the hope they have known in Christ's justice for all people, are our forebears who were also treated in some cities as interlopers and unworthy people.  In our home we have the joy and thanksgiving to God for children of differing racial heritages.  We have Hispanic American children, a son of African American heritage, and a son of Native American heritage, As well as, children of European American heritage, and children of French-Canadian heritage.  It has been our good fortune to have them to love and cherish.  Some of our treasured friends in church and at work in the community, and some of our grandchildren, have been people who identify as LGTBQ+, and I know that each of them is a golden treasure to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

On this day of remembering and honoring a very special Christian man who lived calling for peace, and the granting of civil justice, I have tears and a sense of  how little we have actually moved forward in faith to trust the Love of Christ in the face of the injustice of the world, in our nation, and yes, sometimes even in the church.

I pray with love for every one of you, we are the Love of Christ in today's world.  Jesus tells us we are to have the faith of children, and that those who come to Him should never be sent away from His Church empty of His Grace and Love.  You and I are the Body of Christ in His world today.  It is His justice which we live under and share.

I will be back with you tomorrow as we continue the journey of the disciples and Paul to bring God's Love in Christ to those who have never encountered His Grace.

Pastor Kim Taylor, called to serve the Gospel in your midst.