“Great, But ...” - A sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King (7/2/1967)

preacher to the

sermon

of words, but I have said with you for five golden years that the first word is

great

, the next word is dollar and since the comma between the two big commas is reserved, I think one of the things we finally have to admit about life, whether we are thin

king

about our individual lives or whether we are thin

king

about our collective lives is that there is a disturbing incompleteness and in an agonizing partiality about it we cannot say about anyone or any institution or structure or thing created by the man. word big and just leave it there, we can never use the word big in an unqualified fence that follows almost every statement of

great

ness is the conjunction, but every statement of greatness is fallible not by a dot symbolizing completeness but by a comma that punctuates your annoying partial nest.

Now in the Old Testament we read that passage about a man named Naman. Have you heard of him. If you've read it, I should say you should have heard of it. People don't read the Bible much these days, so when a preacher speaks. About the ba ba, he usually tells people something new. The other day I asked someone where the book of Revelation was found and they told me it was an Old Testament and they thought the book of Genesis was in the New Testament, because I have to do it soon. You don't know the name, but that's the passage and the Old Testament that says that Naman was a great man, but and behind that, but if there's something tragic and disturbing, he goes on to say, "he was a leper." Naman was a great man, but he was a leper this is the tragic story of life it is a tragic story of much of man's individual life it is the tragic story of much of man's collective life and when we look back at through the long corridors of history, although the arrow began we must say about nations and civilization, that this is a great nation, but Greece was a great nation that left much in the history of the world.

King and I were in Athens, Greece, not long ago and we went to the Acropolis, there we stood around that magnificent Parthenon that has stood for so many centuries and I couldn't help but remember those centuries and think about the fact that some of the greatest minds in history gather around that papanov Greece was a great nation that gave the world the poetic ideas of Aeschylus Sophocles and Euripides the game for man time the philosophical ideas of Plato Aristotle and Socrates gave the world there is in Oracle, however, the month in which ELISA gave the world the historical knowledge of the region, all the time of man is in depth for Greece for its greatness in degrees of depth to make us all as a legacy of knowledge.

Greece was a great nation, but behind that blood it highlights the fact that Greece was an aristocracy for some people and not a democracy for all people behind that, but it highlights the fact that Greece was built burning big, the city states They were built on the backs of the flames. Greece was a great nation but she made the children of God slaves we do not have to return that fall Western civilization from the great saintil civilization what Western civilization has done it has given the world the magnificent ideas of the Renaissance think about what civilization Western has given to the world in terms of music given to the world the glow thunders and the gentle signs of a handle the Deus sweetness of the music of a base opens the enchanting melody the box and the entire prologue of the Industrial Revolution came through of Western civilization through The man of Western civilization began his march towards the city of material plenitude and material prosperity.

Western civilization is a great civilization, but I don't want you to forget this morning what lies behind its dying and tragic incomplete state behind that, but it is the fact that Western civilization has exploded. in the Chapel over millions of God's children through colonialism I stood again and again at Westminster Abbey in London, England Westminster Abbey is that great cathedral that stands with all its overwhelming aesthetic beauty and charm, one of the speed loaves that govern the Church of England always I am there, I have a kind of dual experience, on the one hand I am carried away by the captivating Gothic architecture and all the beauty of that cathedral, but on the other hand I have to stay there and think about the fact that for years, For centuries, the British Empire dominated, politically exploited, segregated and economically humiliated millions of God's children around the world and the Church of England never really took a stand against and in Westminster looks like all the kings and queens have been buried, but what was the church?

Speaking of when men were going through the process of colonialism, what was the church doing when men were careful about our time and feet of oppression? Western civilization is a great civilization, but yes, it trampled on the human personality, it has allowed the means by which it lives our distance the end by which it lives has ended by minimizing the maximum and maximizing the minimum has ended a lie of civilization to our cultural career she has a love a technology at our distance from theology she has allowed a mentality through our career of the morality of her Western civilization there is a great book of civilization behind it, but something tragic now wants you to know that States United is a great nation.

The United States is a great nation. We started the nation here back in 1776. There we talked about the basis on which it could be read about how beautiful the house was probably idealistically structured we consider these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are gifted by its creator of certain inalienable rights that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of sequoia only the universal aspect of the words abstract one did not say come in said all of me did not say well man is a long me and that includes the black men he didn't say all the Gentile stuff all the food which proves they are Jewish, he didn't say all Protestants have faith in me and he is Catholic, then he said something else that is beautiful, something that sets this nation apart of totalitarian forms of government, says that each individual has certain basic rights that are not derived. nor conferred by the State to discover where they came from it is necessary to go back behind the damned middle of eternity they are given by God Paris fell if ever in the history of the world has there been a socio-political document expressed in such profound eloquent language and unequivocal dignity in the West of human personality America is a great nation and then look at what we have done scientifically, scientifically and technologically yes, we build machines that think, instruments that look into the unfathomable ranges of interstellar space, just look at what we have done It is to build gigantic bridges, expand bees and gigantic buildings to kiss the sky.

Just look at what it's done through our spaceship. We have been able to call highways through the stratosphere. God Almighty. You can leave Seattle or Tokyo, Japan on Sunday morning. now and you arrive in Seattle, Washington, the previous Saturday night and when your friends arrive at the airport and ask you when you're leaving Tokyo, you'll have to say our left tomorrow, that's the kind of world with your flat weave distance and the place and time. and the same is not usual for a preacher to spill Bob Hope, but Bob Hope has talked about this very yes, there is a time when you can take a non-stop flight from New York City to Los Angeles, California, at a distance of approximately 3,000 miles and if when you take off in New York you develop trucks, you were leaving New York and up in Los Angeles which is moving quite fast is a great nation.

Jesus could not do anything mainly from the front, please, he died of certain illnesses just a few years ago, that wonderful jobs arose, the treatment now is the one that led men and women to be so brave many years ago, many armed can be treated in a few hours now because of the skills, discoveries and developments of medical science that everyone can talk and think about what they have done. America is a great nation, but this morning I cannot leave you without addressing what lies behind this tragic way that America is not addressing and I am convinced that God will bring down the curtain on this. nation, the presence of Doom and America is a great nation, but for 244 years it kept millions of God's black children asleep.

The great nation of America, but mind the taste, yes, millions, and this day continues to keep millions of God's children in poverty, desperation and hopelessness. You know there are times when you reap what you sow in history. America must solve this racial problem or this racial problem will expand. America, no, someone better come out until all the white bubbles on the board would get bored of seeing the end, but there is a way to deal with it, that's the magician in you, whatever quality or reality, it that a black knows the words, we, they have to learn to live together so simply that America is a great nation, but the man is great, you can think of a symphony and compose it. of a great civilization and go out and create it man his brief has a mind he has the memory to be able to hold on to the past he has imagination he can laugh loudly at the future man is a dreamer he cannot dream dream dog live that day lions live bad days, Tigers live, these foxes live bad days, but they all have it by instinct, they have no way of connecting to the future, therefore, you don't see them sitting around working on geometry and algebra.

I have never seen a group of God sitting around discussing philosophy because they are the Discourse Board the man has linguistic ability the man is great just look at him through his mind you can tone them down you just can't attract them you know where you can physically be in one city and another city at the same time time, you can't hold a man down, you say, listen to me, the man doesn't fit in Atlanta, Georgia, this morning and you're in New York City at the same time, you've got a mind that will go through walls, you can knock him down with a retro track so that he can barely walk and his enthusiasm is boring, but take his mind and imagine Betty here for an angel, sing her and return her mango name and scratch the pages of the story, you lose your chorus a lot, you say, hold him man and release to this man and look how brave the man is God, great creation, look what he has done and what he can do, but the tragedy is gamma, enter now and The man of faith thanks the fame in their minds for dedicating themselves to insightful science.

He loses his mind to make napalm and uses his hands to burn small children who can be trained in Vietnam. Amen and the same women who will use geometry to discover new knowledge. his plane to drop bombs on human beings and children the man is a bait but we know the truth and yet we live we know we must finish and we are not finished yet we know the knob of autumn and still we hate you you know that we do follow the role that is high and noble and yet we walk the low path, you know we should be pure, glad that we are impure, we are faithful, bow down, we should be faithful, we all, like sheep, have gone astray, the man is brilliant, but it's a Friend, that's where I want you to end with me this morning because God didn't call us for this, but this is where we are.

The man is great, but he is a sinner who needs God's divine grace and I don't know about you this morning. when I delve into the inner chamber a mouth to the life of men the gratitude is that of your brief I can be in the same situation through the prison I can go down alone but for your braids I would be on death row the man is great forgive the sinner not even this morning that is why I thought of all of us we must open our lives to him let him work through Jesus Christ in our being and he can take that away but from our lives one day men will be able to see that 15 foot man is a righteous man if he is an honest man if there is a man who is not in love because God is at work this is where I can sing it Amazing Grace how sweet is the sound that saved a wretch like me Once I was lost in your world I have nothing but I like free, it makes your heart feel, but somehow it soothes both of us.

Look and I want to tell you that the good cop implemented beans in my time. Now many of them are ahead, but it will be easy through tiny beans. I'm not worried about the boats off the coast. I know the grace of God. God's grace can transform the dog. Yesterday was too bright. The morning. God's grace can make you someone. The grace of God can transform a time and a fan into a Peter. rock, yes, the grace of God can transform a persecuted poem into an apostle Paul, the grace of God can make you love everyone, you begin to quicken your heart, I love in my heart, in my heart, you will rise this morning and be born of here with me. and decide in your heart if you do not ask God and ask Jesus Christ to make you a Christian the magazine and the bus will be taken away from behind you be a Christian in my heartLord I want to be more loving in my heart Laura I want to be like Jesus in my heart in everything Lord I just want to walk upright in my heart in my heart and when we believe that God will give us the power you have the face he has the pumpkin it is through this power that we can sing and live and believe in something that makes us truly great children of the Almighty God.