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'For a Time Such as This'

January 18, 2017
Emmanuel Philips leads worship at Millbrook CRC.

Emmanuel Philips leads worship at Millbrook CRC.

Chris Meehan

Millbrook Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., was packed this week with people who came to celebrate the U.S. holiday marking the life and legacy of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Attendees had a chance to listen to stirring music presented by well-known performer Ken Medema and to take part in prayers of lament and repentance offered by representatives of the CRC’s Office of Race Relations.

“We need to lament those things that cause our hearts to weep, things on this earth that are not always how we want them to be,” said Pastor Shannon Jammal-Hollemans from the Office of Race Relations.

“We lift up to you, Lord, our grief for children who don’t know where their next meal is coming from . . . those who can’t find freedom from addiction . . . immigrants and refugees who are made vulnerable by the displacement of living in a place that doesn’t yet feel like home.”

Participants also heard a sermon from Dr. Michelle Loyd-Paige, executive associate for diversity and inclusion to the president at Calvin College.

Quoting from the Book of Esther (4:14), she said, “If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

“A Time Such as This” was the title of her sermon and a theme for the MLK gathering, which brought together churches from across western Michigan.

“We are here tonight not so much to honor Dr. King as to live out his message of freedom for all,” said Loyd-Paige.

Just as Queen Esther, in the Bible passage she read, had to choose whether or not to approach the king “in a time such as this” to save the Jewish people from being slaughtered, Martin Luther King, Jr., had to choose to fight against racism knowing it could one day cost his life, she said.

“That young Baptist preacher was not asked to be a leader for some time, but for such a time [as he was in],” said Loyd-Paige. “The thought had to go through King’s mind: ‘Who, me? Not me.’”

King was probably reluctant to get involved in what he knew would become an incredible drama in which he would be thrown in jail, spit on, heckled and challenged, have rocks thrown at him, and threats lodged, and then carried out, on his life.

“Today, as we honor the legacy and achievements of the late Martin Luther King, Jr. . . . do we really know what is going on at this time in our nation?” she asked.

“Do we realize that in the past year hundreds of hate crimes have been committed, 43 million people are in poverty, refugees are seen as a burden and not a blessing, and the U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the world’s prisoners?”

The recent election of Donald Trump, whose rhetoric on matters of race has been harsh and troubling, showed a painfully divided nation, said Loyd-Paige.

“If we ever wondered if we lived in a post-racial nation, we got our answer with this election,” she said. “It is not we the people, but we some of the people.”

At a time such as this, she said, people need to arise out of their comfortable places, shake off their routines, take a look at their hearts, and realize that we live in desperate times.

“Are we as God’s people desperate enough to change? Are we willing to put on sackcloth and ashes and go to the places where they govern and, if they turn their guns on me, then they turn their guns on me?”

In times such as these, said Loyd-Paige, are we willing to put ourselves into a movement that may literally mean life or death?

“Are we desperate for God? Will we place ourselves before God and do something about every area of lament talked about tonight?

“Will we cry out with our voices and bruised bodies and, as Christians, will we rise up? As a church, as the CRC, are we deeply disturbed enough to become people of empathy, to become people of prayer who show our desperate need for change?”

After the sermon, Rev. Reggie Smith of Race Relations offered people in the pews the chance to consider and write on index cards how they can become part of a movement for change in an age of renewed racial struggle and growing signs of hatred.

“We are called out of our comfort zones. Can we pledge to get involved in someone’s life?” said Smith. “I’m nudging you to stretch beyond your social network of church, home, and school. . . . Jesus is calling you, in whatever ways you can, to fight the good fight.”