Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963.

Photograph by History in HD via Unsplash

Since 1986, we’ve celebrated the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was born on January 15, 1929. This year, we will have celebrated Dr. King for as many years as he lived — 39. I find it to be a bit disheartening that though we’ve spent nearly four decades celebrating one of our nation’s greatest preachers and prophets, we aren’t as intimately acquainted with his teachings and preachings as we ought to be. “Paul’s Letter to American Christians” is just one example that beckons engagement for such a time as this.

In his imaginative letter, King, writing as Paul, suggests that America’s “moral and spiritual progress” has not kept pace with its scientific progress.

“You have allowed the material means by which you live to outdistance the spiritual ends for which you live. You have allowed your mentality to outrun your morality. You have allowed your civilization to outdistance your culture… America, I would urge you to bring your moral advances in line with your scientific advances.”

As soon as this year began, a violence-laden tragedy struck this nation — this time it was the loss of fourteen people bringing in the New Year in New Orleans. In the wake of yet another devastating loss and as the inauguration of a returning president-elect looms, King’s words, expressed through Paul, are unsettlingly salient.

“I understand that there are many Christians in America who give their ultimate allegiance to man-made systems and customs.”

To whom does your ultimate allegiance belong? Might it be the electoral college or a political party? Perhaps the Dow or Nasdaq? Maybe your pastor or denomination? Perhaps your spouse or your children? Or —? It’s rather ironic that in this nation’s Pledge of Allegiance, we profess one nation, under God and yet seem to be under the spell of something other than who God is — love.

Our ultimate allegiance, King asserts, must be to the “empire of eternity,” which is governed by love:

“Although you live in the colony of time your ultimate allegiance is to the empire of eternity. You have a dual citizenry…therefore, your ultimate allegiance is not to the government, not to the state, not to the nation, not to any man-made institution. The Christian owes his ultimate allegiance to God, and if any earthly institution conflicts with God’s will, it is your Christian duty to take a stand against it. You must never allow the transitory, evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God.”

I think if we took stock of which earthly institutions conflict with God’s will, the list would be numerous and perhaps even notorious in their expression of that conflict. If God sacrificed His only son so that we might have life and life more abundantly, why aren’t we holding our local, state, and federal governments accountable for egregious spending that leaves schools and social programs deeply underfunded, codifying homelessness and reproductive healthcare into criminality, and financing deadly wars, both at home and abroad? Abundance cannot be found where imposed limitations are rampant and unrepentant.

“Oh, America, how often have you taken necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes? God never intended for a group of people to live in superfluous, inordinate wealth while others live in abject, deadening poverty. God intends for all of His children to have the basic necessities of life.”

King cries out against the corruption of capitalism, warning that it can lead to “tragic exploitation.” In this country, 13.8 million children lived in households that experienced food insecurity in 2023. In this country, 36.8 million people lived in poverty in 2023. In this country, nearly one in every 500 people were without homes in 2023. In this country, an alleged sweet land of liberty.

In his Pauline letter, King takes heed to remind us Christians that the church is the body of Christ. “When the church is true to its nature, it knows neither division nor disunity,” King’s Paul said. He doesn’t hesitate to remind us who God isn’t, either.

“You must come to see that God is not a Baptist, God is not a Methodist, God is not a Presbyterian, God is not an Episcopalian. God is bigger than all of our denominations. You must come to see that, America… I must emphasize the fact that God is not a Roman Catholic and that the boundless sweep of his revelation cannot be limit to the Vatican.”

I have just watched the film “Conclave,” and the words of Cardinal Benítez reverberate in my mind — “The Church is not a tradition. The Church is not the past. The Church is what we do next.”

So, Church — what shall we do next? The we is imperative because if we are to truly be one nation under God, if we are to truly be incorporated in the body of Christ, if we are to truly embody our ultimate allegiance to the empire of eternity, our next moves must be different. We must interrogate why Sunday mornings remain “the most segregated hour of Christian America.” We must interrogate why, if we are all one in Christ Jesus, we incarcerate more of our people than any nation in the world. We must interrogate why our systems, from housing to healthcare to policing, discriminate against Black and brown people. We must interrogate why we claim to be a first-class nation and yet still have second-class citizens. We must interrogate how we’ve lost the true meaning of democracy and Christianity. We must put works behind our faith, lest we contribute to the death-dealing society engulfed by violence, power struggles, and oppression.

Any war that we fight, King’s Paul contends, must be fought with the “weapon of love” while moving with dignity and discipline as we pursue justice. In the last ten years, there were far too many undignified acts carried out in this nation but certainly not under God, though white Christian nationalists would likely claim otherwise. And in the last year, we’ve funded the state of Israel with billions of dollars to continue to wage a hateful war, subjecting over 45,000 Palestinians — and counting — to horrific deaths. If we are to believe, like King’s Paul did, that “love is the most durable power in all the world,” how ought we live out 2025 differently? Who will we pledge allegiance to? What empire shall we serve? Church, what will we do next?