Bishop L. Jonathan Holston speaks at High Point University’s MLK service. (Photo courtesy of HPU)
Bishop L. Jonathan Holston, resident bishop of the South Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, delivered the sermon Monday at High Point University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Chapel Service.
Bishop Holston’s sermon asked the question, “Does it matter?” and centered on Romans 12:9-21:
“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Here are excerpts from his message:
About the day
“Today, as we celebrate the life and dream of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it is a day to reaffirm the American ideals that he espoused: freedom, justice, responsibility. It’s a day for us to love and not hate. For us to understand and not be angry with one another. It’s a time for peace and not war. It’s a day for the family, for the community, for all of us to come together. It’s a day when a community has to rise above itself in order to become what God intends for it to be. If for one day we can come together to be drum majors for peace, drum majors for justice, then we ought to do it.”
Commitment
“As a people of faith, the jury is still deliberating on whether we are truly committed to social justice and opposed to gun violence and racism. The jury is still deliberating on you and me, whether we are called to be witnesses, not only to be disciples of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but to be a witness in the world in which we live to the injustices that we see every day, the lost and the dispossessed.”
A calling
“Following God’s call is not always easy. You have to ask, ‘Do you have the stamina? Do you have the perseverance? Do you have the gifts of the spirit and the gifts of the heart to do what God is asking you to do? Because when you come face-to-face with stuff that humiliates you, you have to ask yourself, ‘Will I rise above it, or will I lower myself to it? Does it really matter to you in the world that we live in today? Because if it matters, you will stand up, and you will be counted.”
MLK’s challenge
“Martin Luther King said it this way: ‘The ultimate measure of humankind is not where it stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where you stand in times of challenge and controversy. Where do you stand? Who are you standing with? Have we become so comfortable with our own lives that we refuse to see the people in need all around us?”
What matters
“It should matter whether we’re out doing good. It should matter whether I wake up every day seeking to make a difference in the lives of the people I come into contact with. It should matter, when I sit down in a restaurant and a server comes to me, that I treat that person in the same way that I want to be treated. It should matter, when a person comes to pick up my garbage, that I treat them with the same love and compassion that I would treat the president of the United States. It should really matter, and I’m hoping it will matter to you.”
Priorities
“Every now and then, we need to understand that God is calling us to be something greater than ourselves. But it’s all about priorities… whatever you put the most time into is your priority. The question is not whether we love and care. It’s not whether we will be people who stand up for social justice and who will combat the evils of racism or sexism or classism. It’s whether it’s really our priority… The question is, does it really matter?”
Don’t settle
“If you’re really going to make a difference in the world in which you live, you’ve got to stop settling for what you see. How do we settle? We settle when we watch television and we laugh at things that we should not even laugh at. We settle when we walk away from people who we know we need to be attentive to. We settle when we’re in this place of learning, and we don’t put our attention to the things that matter most. To live up to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, you’ve got to stop settling.”
Confession
“Merciful God, I confess that I have not loved you with my whole heart. I have seen people hungry, and I walked away. I have seen people thirsty and didn’t offer them any of my Perrier. I saw them without clothes, and I had so many, but I knew that I would wear them in another 20 years. I had a room, but I don’t need for them to stay in my place. I’ve got a car, and they need a ride to go to work, but I want to ride by myself these days.We have to confess that we have failed to be an obedient
“We have to confess that we have failed to be an obedient church, because we talk about love, but we are unloveable. We talk about hate, but we hate a lot of folks. We talk about justice, and we have justice for no one. We talk about racism, and we can’t even go to the same church together. We talk about sexism, and we won’t even take a female to be our pastor or pay her the same salary of the gentleman who just left.”
Benediction
“I pray that, as we leave here, we would take who we are and go out into the world and be who God needs for us to be. Some will find it very comfortable to find those places, and some will be challenged. But if you take one step, that will be the difference in moving toward a place where you should be, and getting up from the place where you once were. When you leave this place, be the difference makers in the world.”
