CSN - LightWing Messages - Rediscovering Lost Values - 1/14/2024
The Boy Jesus at the Temple
And his parents went every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up after the custom of the feast; and when they had fulfilled the days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and his parents knew it not; but supposing him to be in the company, they went a day's journey; and they sought for him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance: and when they found him not, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking for him. And it came to pass, after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both hearing them, and asking them questions: and all that heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when they saw him, they were astonished; and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? knew ye not that I must be in my Father's house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and he was subject unto them: and his mother kept all these' sayings in her heart.
And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. Luke 2:41-51
FOUNDER’S MESSAGE:
Tomorrow is the day Americans are set to celebrate the birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. For that reason we will honor Rev. King by offering one of his more spiritual sermons which is focused on the loss of the values we are witnessing in our nation in such a time as this, Those who read our newsletter from last week will become aware that the message from that edition,
CSN - LightWing Messages - Renewing Our Love for God - 1/7/2024 has a similar theme as a part of Rev. Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King’s message today, “Rediscovering Lost Values.” When he shares that “we’ve got to go back and rediscover the principle that there is a God behind the process,” it gets close to my point of renewing one’s relationship with God, although Dr. King is dealing with one’s belief in God, it guides us in the same direction.
As we begin 2024, and before we get along too far into the new year, we need to examine our own situation regarding our adherence to the lost values King is referring to in his sermon from 1954. This year promises, based upon recent activities in the nation and throughout the world, a serious transformative period of upheaval and restructuring of priorities. As mentioned last week
In the Founder’s Message, “the new year promises to be one in which great shaking will come, not only on the physical level, but also within the spiritual realms.” Without an anchor, several developments will show up in which traditional foundations will be shaken. This has already been happening to one extent or another. IMHO, it will only intensify in this new year.
Just the circumstances that will present themselves to people of faith in this year will force people to make new decisions that will affect their circumstances in a dramatic way. It may not turn out to be a year in which Christians can simply put their faith on the “back burner” of their priorities. In this Sunday edition, in honor of Dr. King, we hope to offer his message to launch readers onto a great start to 2024. This new year, as mentioned before, provides brand new opportunities for people to more deeply explore the essence or substance of their relationship with Christ or with God in a genuine way. And honestly, It is up to each individual to initiate or arrange such a relationship, or not. It is why God gave each of us Free Will.
It is hard to believe that our LightWing Zoom call project has been operating for over a year, but God has shown favor upon us and despite great odds, we’re still operating!
Regarding the Zoom call – our Zoom call successfully transitioned from Wednesdays to Mondays last week although we had a few people that did not “get across the bridge.” Yet, a good number were able to jump on the call. We will continue throughout 2024 to do our LightWing Message follow-up calls on Mondays. It will follow the same format of having a discussion or an interview linked to the topic covered in the preceding Sunday edition. We started off the new year with a provocative interview with author Michael J. Lewinski, who shared about his two books and a third one he is working on. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks, we’ll interview Michael Ortega, the founder of the Strike Force of Prayer.
So tomorrow, we will again have the LightWing Messages oriented Zoom call as indicated by the brief notice below. We invite our readers to call in and check in with other like-minded readers for mutual support in such turbulent times.
Those readers who join us this coming Monday evening can partake in this call and participate, or just listen in on our discussion of today’s messages. Readers just need to reach out if they’re not already on our list to receive a link to the Zoom call. Please send an email request to this address: d.jamzon@gmail.com We’ll add you to our mailing list.
CSN LightWing Mission – Zoom call Monday 1/15/24 at 5:00pm PST Previously Wednesdays, NOW Mondays at 5pm PST (6pm MST; 7pm CST; 8pm EST).
These words are being freely offered to you – intended to shine light unto our paths, as written: “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Proverbs 29:18 - KJV
May God bless our readers and all of their loved ones. May God bless All His Children!
May we, who are called by His name, humble ourselves in a time when the foundations of the Land of the Free are being shaken right before our eyes. May we seek His face as well as to seek to know His Will, and pray in sincere repentance as if our nation’s very existence depends on it (as it does), and turn from our corruption and wickedness - especially to promote His righteousness and to pursue the building of His Kingdom.
‘Rediscovering Lost Values’
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
February 28th, 1954
The following message from Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. contains substantial excerpts from a sermon entitled, ‘Rediscovering Lost Values’ delivered at the Second Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan on February 28th, 1954. However, it is not complete. A link to the sermon at Stanford University can be found at the end of this excerpt.
…I want you to think with me this morning from the subject: rediscovering lost values. Rediscovering lost values. There is something wrong with our world, something fundamentally and basically wrong. I don’t think we have to look too far to see that. I’m sure that most of you would agree with me in making that assertion. And when we stop to analyze the cause of our world’s ills, many things come to mind.
We begin to wonder if it is due to the fact that we don’t know enough. But it can’t be that. Because in terms of accumulated knowledge we know more today than men have known in any period of human history. We have the facts at our disposal. We know more about mathematics, about science, about social science, and philosophy, than we’ve ever known in any period of the world’s history. So it can’t be because we don’t know enough.
And then we wonder if it is due to the fact that our scientific genius lags behind. That is, if we have not made enough progress scientifically. Well then, it can’t be that. For our scientific progress over the past years has been amazing. Man through his scientific genius has been able to warp distance and place time in chains, so that today it’s possible to eat breakfast in New York City and supper in London, England. Back in about 1753, it took a letter three days to go from New York City to Washington, and today you can go from here to China in less time than that. It can’t be because man is stagnant in his scientific progress. Man’s scientific genius has been amazing.
I think we have to look much deeper than that if we are to find the real cause of man’s problems and the real cause of the world’s ills today. If we are to really find it I think we will have to look in the hearts and souls of men.
The trouble isn’t so much that we don’t know enough, but it’s as if we aren’t good enough. The trouble isn’t so much that our scientific genius lags behind, but our moral genius lags behind. The great problem facing modern man is that, that the means by which we live, have outdistanced the spiritual ends for which we live. So we find ourselves caught in a messed-up world. The problem is with man himself and man’s soul. We haven’t learned how to be just and honest and kind and true and loving. And that is the basis of our problem. The real problem is that through our scientific genius we’ve made of the world a neighborhood, but through our moral and spiritual genius we’ve failed to make of it a brotherhood…
My friends, all I’m trying to say is that if we are to go forward today, we’ve got to go back and rediscover some mighty precious values that we’ve left behind. That’s the only way that we would be able to make of our world a better world, and to make of this world what God wants it to be and the real purpose and meaning of it. The only way we can do it is to go back, and rediscover some mighty precious values that we’ve left behind.
Our situation in the world today reminds me of a very popular situation that took place in the life of Jesus. It was read in the Scripture for the morning, found over in the second chapter of Luke’s gospel.1 The story is very familiar, very popular, we all know it. You remember when Jesus was about twelve years old, there was the custom of the feast. Jesus’ parents took him up to Jerusalem. That was an annual occasion, the feast of the Passover, and they went up to Jerusalem and they took Jesus along with them. And they were there a few days, and then after being there, they decided to go back home, to Nazareth. And they started out, and I guess as it was the tradition in those days, the father probably traveled in front, and then the mother and the children behind. You see they didn’t have the modern conveniences that we have today. They didn’t have automobiles and subways and buses. They walked and traveled on donkeys and camels and what have you. So they traveled very slow, but it was usually the tradition for the father to lead the way.
And they left Jerusalem going on back to Nazareth, and I imagine they walked a little while and they didn’t look back to see if everybody was there. But then the Scripture says, they went about a day’s journey and they stopped, I imagine to check up, to see if everything was all right, and they discovered that something mighty precious was missing. They discovered that Jesus wasn’t with them. Jesus wasn’t in the midst. And so they, they paused there, and, and looked and they didn’t see him around, and they went on, and, and started looking among the kinsfolk, and they went on back to Jerusalem and found him there, in the temple with the doctors of the law.
Now, the real thing that is to be seen here is this, that the parents of Jesus realized that they had left, and that they had lost a mighty precious value. They had sense enough to know that before they could go forward to Nazareth, they had to go backward to Jerusalem to rediscover this value. They knew that. They knew that they couldn’t go home to Nazareth until they went back to Jerusalem.
And so that was the thing that Jesus’ parents realized, that, that they had to go back and, and, and find this mighty precious value that they had left behind, in order to go forward. They realized that. And so they went back to Jerusalem and discovered Jesus, rediscovered him so to speak, in order to go forward to Nazareth.
Now that’s what we’ve got to do in our world today. We’ve left a lot of precious values behind; we’ve lost a lot of precious values. And if we are to go forward, if we are to make this a better world in which to live, we’ve got to go back. We’ve got to rediscover these precious values that we’ve left behind.
I want to deal with one or two of these mighty precious values that we’ve left behind, that if we’re to go forward and to make this a better world, we must rediscover.
The first is this—the first principle of value that we need to rediscover is this—that all reality hinges on moral foundations. In other words, that this is a moral universe, and that there are moral laws of the universe, just as abiding as the physical laws. I’m not so sure we all believe that. We, we never doubt that there are physical laws of the universe that we must obey. We never doubt that. And so we just don’t jump out of airplanes or jump off of high buildings for the fun of it—we don’t do that. Because we… unconsciously know that there is a final law of gravitation, and if you disobey it you’ll suffer the consequences—we know that. Even if we don’t know it in its Newtonian formulation, we… know it intuitively, and so we just don’t jump off the highest building in Detroit for the fun of it—we... don’t do that. Because we know that there is a law of gravitation which is final in the universe. If we disobey it, we’ll suffer the consequences.
But, I’m not so sure if we know that there are… moral laws, just as abiding as the physical law. I’m not so sure about that. I’m not so sure we really believe that there is a law of love in this universe, and that if you disobey it you’ll suffer the consequences. I’m not so sure if we really believe that. Now, at least two things convince me that, that we don’t believe that, that we have strayed away from the principle that this is a moral universe.
The first thing is that we have adopted in the modern world a sort of a relativistic ethic. Now, I’m not trying to use a big word here. I’m trying to say something very concrete. And that is that… we have accepted the attitude that right and wrong are merely relative to our. . . . 2 Note: Remainder of sentence and an unknown number of additional sentences are missing from the audio tape.
Most people can’t stand up for their…convictions, because the majority of people might not be doing it. See, everybody’s not doing it, so it must be wrong. And… since everybody is doing it, it must be right. So, a sort of numerical interpretation of what’s right.
But I’m here to say to you this morning that some things are right and some things are wrong. Eternally so, absolutely so. It’s wrong to hate. It always has been wrong and it always will be wrong! It’s wrong in America, it’s wrong in Germany, it’s wrong in Russia, it’s wrong in China! It was wrong in two thousand B.C., and it’s wrong in nineteen fifty-four A.D.! It always has been wrong, and it always will be wrong! It’s wrong to throw our lives away in riotous living. No matter if everybody in Detroit is doing it. It’s wrong! It always will be wrong! And it always has been wrong. It’s wrong in every age, and it’s wrong in every nation. Some things are right and some things are wrong, no matter if everybody is doing the contrary. Some things in this universe are absolute. The God of the universe has made it so. And so long as we adopt this relative attitude toward right and wrong, we’re revolting against the very laws of God himself.
Now that isn’t the only thing that convinces me that we’ve strayed away from this attitude, this principle. The other thing is that we have adopted a sort of a pragmatic test for right and wrong—whatever works is right. If it works, it’s all right. Nothing is wrong but that which does not work. If you don’t get caught, it’s right. That’s the attitude, isn’t it? It’s all right to disobey the Ten Commandments, but just don’t disobey the Eleventh, Thou shall not get caught. That’s the attitude. That’s the prevailing attitude in, in our culture. No matter what you do, just do it with a, with a bit of finesse. You know, a sort of attitude of the survival of the slickest. Not the Darwinian survival of the fittest, but the survival of the slickest—who, whoever can be the slickest is, is the one who right. It’s all right to lie, but lie with dignity. It’s all right to steal and to rob and extort, but do it with a bit of finesse. It’s even all right to hate, but just dress your hate up in the garments of love and make it appear that you are loving when you are actually hating. Just get by! That’s the thing that’s right according to this new ethic.
My friends, that attitude is destroying the soul of our culture! It’s destroying our nation! The thing that we need in the world today, is a group of men and women who will stand up for right and be opposed to wrong, wherever it is. A group of people who have come to see that some things are wrong, whether they’re never caught up with. Some things are right, whether nobody sees you doing them or not.
All I’m trying to say is, our world hinges on moral foundations. God has made it so! God has made the universe to be based on a moral law. So long as man disobeys it he is revolting against God. That’s what we need in the world today—people who will stand for right and goodness. It’s not enough to know the intricacies of zoology and biology. But we must know the intricacies of law. It is not enough to know that two and two makes four. But we’ve got to know somehow that it’s right to be honest and just with our brothers. It’s not enough to know all about our philosophical and mathematical disciplines. But we’ve got to know the simple disciplines, of being honest and loving and just with all humanity. If we don’t learn it, we will destroy ourselves, by the misuse of our own powers.
This universe hinges on moral foundations. There is something in this universe that justifies Carlyle in saying, “No lie can live forever.” 3
There is something in this universe that justifies William Cullen Bryant in saying, “Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again.” 4
There is something in this universe that justifies James Russell Lowell in saying,
“Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne.
With that scaffold sways the future. (Lord help him)
Behind the dim unknown stands God,
Within the shadow keeping watch above his own.” 5
There is something in this universe that justifies the biblical writer in saying,
“You shall reap what you sow.” 6
This is a law-abiding universe. This is a moral universe. It hinges on moral foundations. If we are to make of this a better world, we’ve got to go back and rediscover that precious value that we’ve left behind.
And then there is a second thing, a second principle that we’ve got to go back and rediscover. And that is that all reality has spiritual control. In other words, we’ve got to go back and rediscover the principle that there is a God behind the process. Well, this you say, why is it that you raise that as a point in your sermon, in a church? The mere fact we are at church, we believe in God, we don’t need to go back and rediscover that. The mere fact that we are here, and the mere fact that we sing and pray, and come to church—we believe in God. Well, there’s some truth in that. But, we must remember that it’s possible to affirm the existence of God with your lips and deny his existence with your life. The most dangerous type of atheism is not theoretical atheism, but practical atheism— that’s the most dangerous type. And the world, even the church, is filled up with people who pay lip service to God and not life service. And there is always a danger that we will make it appear externally that we believe in God when internally we don’t. We say with our mouths that we believe in Him, but we live with our lives like He never existed. That is the ever-present danger confronting religion. That’s a dangerous type of atheism.
And I think, my friends, that that is the thing that has happened in America. That we have unconsciously left God behind. Now, we haven’t consciously done it, we… have unconsciously done it. You see, the text, you remember the text said, that Jesus’ parents went a whole day’s journey not knowing that he wasn’t with them. They didn’t consciously leave him behind. It was unconscious. Went a whole day and didn’t even know it. It wasn’t a conscious process. You see, we didn’t grow up and say, now, good-bye God, we’re going to leave you now. The materialism in America has been an unconscious thing. Since the rise of the Industrial Revolution in England, and then the invention of all of our gadgets and contrivances and all of the things and modern conveniences—we unconsciously left God behind. We didn’t mean to do it.
We just became so involved in.. getting our big bank accounts that we unconsciously forgot about God—we didn’t mean to do it.
We became so involved in getting our nice luxurious cars, and they’re very nice; but, we became so involved in it that it became much more convenient to ride out to the beach on Sunday afternoon than to… come to church that morning. It… was an unconscious thing—we didn’t mean to do it.
We became so involved and fascinated by the intricacies of television that we found it a little more convenient to stay at home than to come to church. It was an unconscious thing. We didn’t mean to do it. We didn’t just go up and say, now God, you’re gone. We had gone a whole day’s journey, and then we came to see that we had unconsciously ushered God out of the universe. A whole day’s journey-didn’t mean to do it. We just became so involved in things that we forgot about God.
And that is the danger confronting us, my friends. That in a nation as ours where we stress mass production, and that’s mighty important, where we have so many conveniences and luxuries and all of that, there is the danger that we will unconsciously forget about God. I’m not saying that these things aren’t important, we need them, we need cars, we need money, all of that’s important to live. But whenever they become substitutes for God, they become injurious.
And may I say to you this morning, that none of these things can ever be real substitutes for God. Automobiles and subways, televisions and radios, dollars and cents, can never be substitutes for God. For long before any of these came into existence, we needed God. And long after they will have passed away, we will still need God.
And I say to you this morning in conclusion that I’m not going to put my ultimate faith in things. I’m not going to put my ultimate faith in gadgets and contrivances. As a young man with most of my life ahead of me, I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute. Not to these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow. But to God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Not in the little gods that can be with us in a few moments of prosperity. But in the God who walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death, and causes us to fear no evil. That’s the God.
Not in the god that can give us a few Cadillac cars and Buick convertibles, as nice as they are, that are in style today and out of style three years from now. But the God who threw up the stars, to bedeck the heavens like swinging lanterns of eternity…
The God that I’m talking about this morning is the God of the universe and the God that will last through the ages. If we are to go forward this morning, we’ve got to go back and find that God. That is the God that demands and commands our ultimate allegiance.
If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover these precious values—that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control. God bless you.
The Lord bless thee and keep thee,
The Lord make His face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee,
The Lord lift up the light of his countenance unto thee,
And be with thee in thy going out and thy coming in,
In thy labor and in thy leisure,
In thy moments of joy and in thy moments of sorrow,
Until the day when there shall be no sunset and no dawning. 8
The preceding contains only excerpts from the full sermon delivered by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. A full transcript that includes Rev. King’s footnotes and references, can be found by using this link: Rediscovering Lost Values | The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute
Onward and Upward!
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