January 20, 2025 | Delivered by Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner during the 2025 Martin Luther King, Jr. Beloved Community Commemorative Service. Full service is available to view HERE.
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Having enjoyed a treasured friendship with the amazing Coretta Scott King, I am truly honored to celebrate with you, the life, legacy, and lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who courageously —challenged systems of oppression, spoke truth to power, and envisioned a world rooted in, love, justice, and equality.
Dr. King’s ministry was deeply grounded in three powerful themes from God's word and
human history—REPENTANCE, REDEMPTION, AND RESTITUTION.
These sacred themes are rooted in the reality that everyone is created in the image of God and deserves to be treated and live with dignity, respect, and the opportunity to thrive.
Dr. King believed in REPENTANCE or the acknowledgment to God of where we’ve gone wrong and a commitment to change. He once said, “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable...Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle.” As a nation, we must repent for the sins of slavery, segregation, and continued systemic racism. We must resist every attempt to turn back the clock on human progress and stand firmly against shameful economic disparities in our great nation.
Dr. King believed deeply in REDEMPTION —the idea that no person, system, or nation is beyond the power to change— when he said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” REDEMPTION means you and I have been forgiven of our sins by a loving and merciful God and must now extend that same love and mercy to those outside our comfort zone— as fellow members of God’s family. REDEMPTION calls each of us to the biblical command to “love our neighbor as ourselves, by treating our neighbor’s well-being as if it were our own. REDEMPTION is the belief —that people who have harbored hatred and indifference to human suffering can learn to love; that systems designed to oppress can be reimagined to uplift; and that communities fractured by division can be made whole.
So, the redemptive work of justice begins by asking, "Are we each actively pursuing justice in our homes, workplaces, and communities? Are we each extending grace to those in power we seek to change, even as we hold them accountable?"
Beyond REPENTANCE and REDEMPTION, Dr. King was also committed to RESTITUTION —to restore what was lost through centuries of injustice. He called for RESTITUTION in “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” where he argued for —the redistribution of wealth; access to affordable housing; and the elimination of poverty.
RESTITUTION is not about charity or punishing anyone for sins of the past. RESTITUTION is about justice and the first step toward healing our nation. God’s word speaks clearly of RESTITUTION in Exodus 22:1, which says, “If someone steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, they must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep.”
In the simplest terms, RESTITUTION means, “You pay back whatever or whoever was wrongfully taken." Dr. King would remind us today, that justice will not be achieved until the structures of oppression are dismantled and replaced with systems that promote equality and opportunity for everyone. RESTITUTION is about restoring the WHOLE society and might include—ensuring access to affordable housing for all; providing free or low-cost college education to communities historically excluded from higher learning; reforming the criminal justice system to restore rights to those disproportionately harmed by mass incarceration; closing the racial wealth gap by investing in businesses in underserved communities; or reforming education to ensure every child has access to quality schools.
REPENTANCE, REDEMPTION, AND RESTITUTION are not abstract ideas. They are commands from a holy and righteous God and the ONLY fitting tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
We honor Dr. King today with a national call to REPENTANCE, REDEMPTION, and RESTITUTION, so our children and their children can live together and thrive in a healed America.
Were he alive today, Dr. King would remind a younger generation that the divided state of our diverse nation is NOT their fault, but it IS their time. It’s their time to lead, as Dr. King's generation did over 60 years ago.
And, it’s their time to engage the radical practice of nonviolent resistance, rooted in agape love, against—every barrier raised; every unjust law passed; and every policy shaped to turn America backward, and not forward...toward Dr. King’s Beloved Community....to the glory of Almighty God!
