Allen Jackson - How MLK's Family Found Forgiveness
It’s a privilege to be with you today. I’ve had the honor of meeting and interviewing Dr. Alveda King a number of times, but recently she visited our congregation and we had such a remarkable conversation that I wanted to share it with you. I believe it will encourage you, it will remind you of the sacrifices that have been made so that we enjoy the freedom and liberty we know today, and I hope reminds you that God is moving in the earth. Enjoy the dialogue.
We have a guest today and I don’t wanna waste those moments, so I’m gonna push forward, but I’ve given you an invitation to begin this year, and a portion of it’s not new. I wanna revisit it just a moment. The Bible reading through the course of the year is a part of our community of faith. And we’re beginning our year with that again. So, if you never joined us before, I’m assuming that’s because you’re newer to the church. If you’ve been here for many years and you never read your Bible, you and the Lord work that out. If you’re newer to the church, about 10 or 15 minutes a day and you can read through your Bible in a year. It will change your life. I don’t know of any single thing that will do more to sustain your spiritual growth and to help you build the foundation for the world we’re currently walking through than that simple expression of discipline.
This is what’s new. We started the year with the Gospels and I wanna ask you to invite somebody to read it with you. There’s 3,000 of us probably in the room today, not counting those of you that are joining us in other places or other places on our campus. A group this size, we should recruit thousands and thousands of people to read their Bibles. One man told me he’d gotten 16 people who agreed to read it with him. Another woman stopped me and told me her sister lives in another state, but she’d agreed to do it. She has a long commute to work. And she said, «While she’s driving to work, I read the Bible to her. We’re doing it together». So you can figure out the details for yourself.
You know, some of you work in an environment where you start the new year and you do a little competition to see how many pounds you can lose in your work group. I’m not telling you to take your faith and force it on somebody else. You tell them how you’re beginning the year and invite them to join you. It’s like, «Let’s pray,» folks. People won’t consider it unless you extend the invitation. «Amen, Pastor Allen». I started with the Gospels because if you’ll take that same block of time, 10 or 15 minutes, we’ll read through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in about 60 days. And it’s an easier point to begin because we know many of the names.
You know Mary and Joseph and you’ve heard about the shepherds and the wise men and Bethlehem and probably Nazareth and Jerusalem. So, there’s some familiarity to it even if you’re just marginally aware of Christianity. And spoiler alert, I’m gonna invite you to go ahead after the 60 days and help… let’s just read the rest of the New Testament. By that time there’ll be a little momentum and we’ll see if we can build on it. If they don’t, they’ve read the Gospels, all right? But I don’t know a simpler way to begin than by reading through the Gospels together. It will bring the blessing of God.
So, don’t just do it at your house. If you’ve got younger children at home, read it together, sit down and read it out loud. If you don’t make it every day, suppose you only made it three days a week. «Well, we stopped, we were only getting about three days a week». Oh, so you eliminated it completely. Please, if you’ll make the effort, we will see God respond to us. And there is no path forward for us apart from the goodness and the blessing of God, amen. That’s our offertory prayer today. That we would change in such a way that God would be able to bless America again. We can’t continue on the path we’re on, folks. Stop being mad at politicians, whichever side of the aisle you’re on, and start telling the truth. The people of faith have abandoned our post. The reason they’ve looted America is we’ve been taking the loot.
«You know I don’t wanna talk about that, Pastor». Well again, we’re delighted you’re here or that you can join us from wherever you are. We have a very special guest this morning. I’ve had the privilege of interacting with Dr. King on a number of occasions and we wanted her to come be a part of our community of faith. So, you’re gonna get to meet in just a moment Dr. Alveda King, amen. But I discovered something as I was walking through these weeks to get ready for that. We invited some teenagers to some things to have an opportunity to hear her and we wanted our students to have some learning opportunities beyond just the sanctuary. You know, because of what’s happened in education, churches are gonna have to take a step forward. That’s another day. But what I learned in that was the civil rights movement of the '50s and '60s is really been lost a great deal.
Our young people didn’t know who Dr. Martin Luther King was. Many of them. I’m sure there were some exceptions to that. And so, we began doing some things to help them understand and to me it was tragic. I earned a degree in history, but I’m old enough now that I am history, so that’s like a different thing. That’s a very hard fact to reconcile. But that seems to have happened, and I’m grateful for that privilege. But you know, the authority of the civil rights movement was not political authority. It was biblical authority. And that’s been lost because we haven’t been willing to hold those lessons. It’s very important to remember that Scripture thunders against sin.
And what Dr. King did was hold out the authority of Scripture. And it brought conviction enough that meaningful change, significant change emerged in our nation. And if the church loses sight of the moral authority of Scripture, and imagine that that’s going to be exchanged with a policy or a party or an executive order, we have forfeited our assignment. You know, we have exchanged the Biblical presentation for a polite Jesus and a passive Scripture. And the result of that is an inept church. And we have to change. If we will change, we will see change in the culture.
You know, Dr. King was a flawed human being like all of us. And I’ve lived long enough to discover that when we get tired of someone’s message, we start finding the weaknesses in their lives and trying to promote those above the outcomes that their life brought. We’ve done it with founders, they’ve done it with Dr. King. What he did, and we all benefited from, was he held up the authority of Scripture. And in that mirror, with God’s grace, there were some very significant changes that took place. And so, I’m delighted to have Dr. King here. Alveda King: Hello, hi everybody. Hello. God bless you. Come on, sit down. Sit down. God bless you.
Allen Jackson: You’re in for a treat. We did an interview together just a few weeks ago and we were done and they’re in my ear saying, «You’re out of time, close, hush. Be quiet, Allen». And Alveda looked at me. It was a video. She was on a screen. She was actually in her car balancing her phone perfectly, and she said, «I wanna sing». And do you remember what you sang?
Dr. Alveda King: This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. That’s what I sang.
Allen Jackson: You did. And I don’t think she could see it because we cut right after that, but I had a tear coming down my face because that was so much like something my mom would have done. I’d be trying to get out of a conversation and she’d say, «Oh I just wanna sing one little song,» and off she’d go. So, welcome to World Outreach Church. We are honored to have you.
Dr. Alveda King: It’s an honor to be here. I know you’ve got some good questions, but talking about your mom and I’m 74. She was probably a little older, but a long time ago with television, they had musicals on TV and on films and you, «Singing in the Rain» or whatever, and we came up in that age, so we had songs in our hearts. And I imagine your mom did too. God bless you, yeah.
Allen Jackson: I called Alveda or we called Alveda about Wednesday and said they’re expecting snow. She had to travel to be here and I said, «We would release you from your commitment to come if it’s easier and safer for you,» and she said, «Absolutely not». And so, for all of you who stayed home, she traveled to be here. We hope you’re comfortable on your sofa, okay?
Allen Jackson: I wanna get into this, because I know our time has limits always. When I think of an overcomer, which in my opinion is really the story of the New Testament, Jesus overcame sin, he overcame death in the grave, and then he hands off the assignment to us, and the book of Revelation is written to people who will overcome at the end of Revelation. The ones welcomed into the kingdom of God are those who overcome. And when I think of overcoming, you were really very near the top of the list in my life experience. You have had some challenges. Your uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King, most of us know, was assassinated. Your father was killed. Your grandmother was killed. All really holding out the authority of Scripture in our nation. And yet you don’t seem to me to be filled with bitterness or anger or hatred. Can you tell us a little bit of how you managed to do that?
Dr. Alveda King: I will do that, but I want to tell another little secret first. Now I got to do something you all cannot do. I went to their house for dinner, right? I had the best cornbread I’ve ever had in my life. Maybe he can put it on his podcast. Kathy might can get on there and show you how to do it or something. But this is what happened because we worshiped and we sang and we talked about Scriptures and there’s an everyday or 365 day Bible reading plan that you have here, that’s available at this church. That is really how I overcome. I really read the Bible every day. That’s one of the things. I pray every day. And so, I get that strength because I will become very weak if I’m not reading the Bible. Jesus said, «In this world you’ll have tribulations, but take courage because I have overcome the world». So, we can’t be overcomers if that Word is not in us. And I admit, anybody here who’s under 30, can you raise your hands please? I’m not gonna make you stand up, I promise. Anybody under 30, raise your hands a little bigger. See that? They’re here, we’re here. So, if you’re reading the Bible on your phone every day, keep doing that. That’s okay. But try to get a paper Bible too, because one day this year, I guess it was the last, all the stuff crashed for a minute and nobody could go on their phone. So, we better have some Word in our hearts. We have to have the Word in our hearts, and I was so blessed by so many things, by meeting you, by being here, seeing that every day Bible reading plan, and so that’s how you overcome. There’s more to it, of course, than that, but it starts with having a relationship with God. And I was raised by Baptist preachers. I’m a non-denominational Christian, and I go to a non-denominational church. I’ve been there over almost 40 years. However, they read the Bible. They actually read the Bible. And I will tell this little story. So, this is what they told me. My granddaddy Martin Luther King Senior and his wife, and they were married and there would be dinner every day and all of that. So, he comes in from church or doing community work, she did too, fabulous musician and directed choirs and she was playing the Lord’s Prayer in Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1974 when they shot her. But anyway, when they were growing up, Dad would come in, wash his hands, they’d all sit, «Okay, let us have a scripture before dinner». So, my daddy and my uncle wanted the shortest scripture. Anybody know what the shortest scripture in the Bible is? It’s two words. What does it say? Jesus did what? «Jesus wept». So, they thought they would get to the chicken leg real quick. But here goes Granddaddy. «Wait a minute. Where did he weep? Why did he weep? What happened? What’s…» So, they begin to learn the Bible not only at church, but in their home because their dad and mother insisted that they know the Bible and put it in genuine context in their lives.
Allen Jackson: Amen. You know, I think it’s fashionable today to separate us as a people by hatred. To point out what makes us unique and then find a grievance in that. Biblically, we’re called to forgive. Jesus said that if we don’t forgive, we won’t be forgiven, but apart from that he said we just have to forgive because you have modeled that. You know, when Dr. King was assassinated, I was a boy, but it got a lot of media attention. When your father was killed, it was mostly overlooked and that had to be hurtful. I mean, to lose an uncle and then to lose your father, but to see the differences in that even to me would have been difficult. How have you managed to forgive?
Dr. Alveda King: I’m gonna look at Michael just for a minute, newsman. My father was killed on the day man walked on the moon. And it was connected to the death of his brother. They were brothers, almost like President John Kennedy and his brother Bobby. So, both were killed if you remember, because if you took away one but the other one was gonna do the same thing, you had to get both. So, daddy was overlooked because it happened on the day that man walked on the moon. And yes, it hurt and it was very difficult, but I remember when my uncle was killed, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, we called him Uncle ML and his children call my daddy Uncle AD. And so, when my uncle was killed, I remember Dad came home, we were living in Louisville, Kentucky. Our home had been bombed in 1963 in Louisville, Kentucky, okay? No, I’m sorry. Birmingham, Alabama. Excuse me. And so, I remember when the house was bombed, dad stood on the car and all the people wanted to riot in what was called the outside agitators. There were people who were hired to come into Birmingham and mingle among the people who lived there and cause riots. That happened on January 6 here in this century. So, they were there throwing maltese cocktails, you know, bottles with fluid, flammable fluid and all. They were throwing and the people who lived there were in the middle trying to see about our family. My daddy stood on that car. He says, «Listen, my family and I are okay. We go home and pray. If you have to hit somebody, hit me, but go home and pray». Well, the people who lived there went home and prayed, but the outside people were still there, and they were able to catch them because that had been designed. So, that was a lesson I learned from daddy in '63, when my uncle ML was killed in '68, my daddy was grieved. That was his brother. They preached together, worked together, grew up together, raised families together. He was so grieved, but I remember. I did write about this. So, I’ll say this to them, «Daddy, I hate white people. Oh, I hate white people, daddy. They killed Uncle ML. I’m mad. I have to blame somebody». Daddy said, «Wait, wait, wait. We are one blood,» Acts 17:26. That’s the favorite scripture in our family, «of one blood. God made all people. Uncle ML said we must,» yeah, that’s a good one. That’s good. And he said, «We must learn to live together as brothers and as sisters and not perish together as fools». He says, «White people live with us, white people pray with us, white people cry with us. Sometimes white people die with us. We’re one blood, one human family. White people did not kill my brother. The devil did». Now that’s what he told me. And he says, «You’re gonna have to forgive». And he put his arms around me, I write in one of my children’s book. I have a picture of him rocking, just rocking. «Alveda, you have to forgive. Alveda, you have to forgive, okay»? Uncle ML was killed and then 18 months later, daddy walked me down the aisle. I got married when I was 18. I was a grown woman. I wasn’t a baby. And when daddy was killed, my granddaddy at the eulogy said, «They killed my sons,» S-O-N-S, he wasn’t talking about skin color. We really are one blood. But it was an evil system that had taken both of his sons. And I got that. I’m not gonna take too long on this, but I wanna tie those three, the loss of Martin Luther King Junior, AD King, and Alberta King. My grandmother… and I was not living for the Lord at that time. I had first been divorced and had abortions and all those things. I repented of all that many years later. So, my grandmother called that morning. There were 30 people and younger, they didn’t have cell phones back then. She couldn’t call me on the cell phone. She called me, «Come to church. Please come to church. Please come to church». And I heard her and I went to church. I’m so glad I did. As I drove up to the church, I got dropped off. People were running out of the church. «What’s wrong? What’s wrong»? «They killed Mrs. King». Now there was a Coretta King, and Naomi King, my mother, and Mama King. I had no idea. A demented man had come in, a black man, and shot my grandmother while she was playing the Lord’s prayer. So, my brother apprehended him, wrestled him down, kind of fought with him and all that, they took him to jail. They later arrested him. My granddaddy went to the jail, asked to see the man who killed his wife. He says, «Son, man, you have taken away the most precious thing on this earth for me, but I forgive you». And he appealed to the court not to give that man the death sentence. I couldn’t understand it back then. I couldn’t. I didn’t understand it. I just, it didn’t make any sense. I was in my 20s, not living for the Lord. «Granddaddy, how can you forgive him»? And there’s a scripture. «Have faith in God,» Mark 11, «and when you pray, you can have what you say and believe». It says all that and that’s true. And when you pray, what’s that word? Yeah, it’s too quiet. And when you pray? Louder. And when you pray? Forgive. It’s hard for you to say the word, isn’t it? It’s hard for me to say it. I forgive you. It’s very, today it still is. I had to learn that. And things still happen today, and I still get angry, I still lose and I did do a thumbs down gesture to somebody in this century and it did go viral and I shouldn’t have done it. I should not have. I’m sorry. It is hard. I have a very good friend and he’s gonna be inaugurated. We’re not going political, I promise, but he’s gonna be inaugurated and he was at a prayer breakfast and I remember him standing in front of the crowd and he says, «I know y’all say I need to learn how to forgive, and I know you say that I should watch what I say». He said, «It’s hard». And a tear really did come in his eye, and I was like, «Amen, brother. Amen. Amen». So, can we say the word? It’s not a dirty word. One more time loud. Forgive. Oh, they did it.
Allen Jackson: They did do it.
Dr. Alveda King: So, maybe they can really do it. You think so?
Allen Jackson: I’m gonna give him a chance to practice. It’s not fair…
Dr. Alveda King: Okay.
Allen Jackson: To come listen to her and celebrate her courage and forgiveness if we don’t go away and live it out. And we all have things we have to overcome. They’re different. The devil tells us all the same lie, that whatever you suffered is unforgivable. And that you’re entitled to hold your hate and your anger and your resentment and your bitterness. It’s a lie. You’re not special and you’re not entitled. You’re not. And if you give in to that, it makes you a prisoner and you will forfeit the best that God has for you. And so, I want you, that’s a takeaway today and I’ll tell you how to find it. If you think of a name, an event, a person, an organization, and when the thought comes to mind, there’s a videotape that plays in your head or a digital image that plays in your head, «I’m old».
Dr. Alveda King: How did you know that?
Allen Jackson: Yeah, there’s an image that plays in your head and your emotions are triggered by it. if when you see that, if you will stop and say, «I choose to forgive. I release them. They don’t owe me anything. They don’t owe me an apology. They don’t owe me anything. I set them free,» it will change your life and bring a fruitfulness to you that only can come from the hand of God. God can’t make you forgive, you have to choose it. And I don’t know anybody that’s a better example of that than Alveda. So, thank you for sharing that. I will change directions a little bit. I’m gonna give you another challenge before you go though, you know that, right? So, don’t just be hearers of the Word. That’s crazy. It’s Christian entertainment if you do that. She didn’t come from Atlanta to entertain us, I promise.
There are powerful spiritual forces that have been at work to bring division to our nation. They’ll divide us about almost everything, including race. It’s not the Spirit of God, and we need the church to find our voice. I want you to join with me in a prayer.
Father, I thank you that you brought this nation into existence. That we have the privilege of standing equal before the law. May we live that with honor and respect towards one another. Deliver us from those who would bring hate and division, in Jesus’s name, amen.