Jake is our guest blogger this week. I am glad for his voice and presence in our body. I asked Jake to share his reflections of our recent MLK discussion. This event over the years has become an important shaping experience as we engage in MLK’s speeches and writings. Enjoy!

Reflections on The Drum Major’s Instinct
Jake Wiig

If you haven’t listened to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s sermon The Drum Major’s Instinct, please do. Dr. MLK gives a passionate sermon at his home church just months before he was assassinated. He concludes the sermon by speaking about what he’d want his eulogy to be, so chilling! But there is so much he jam packs into this 40 minute sermon.

The entire sermon is an exposition on the illustration of the Drum Major’s Instinct, which is essentially the human desire for notoriety, to be first, to be noticed, to be honored. He spends a lot of time explaining all the ways that the Drum Major’s Instinct can be dangerous and destructive, how it can bring out the worst parts of our humanity. BUT, Jesus shows us and tells us that we can refocus, reorient our Drum Major’s Instinct for God’s Kingdom, for the common good, to seek renewal and refreshment of our world! This is climax of Dr. MLK’s sermon. We are capable of incredible generosity and humility.

I find this so compelling from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of this sermon, he’s thirteen years into the Civil Rights Movement. He’s seen some of the worst parts of our humanity. His home had been firebombed by white supremesist terrorists. Our federal government, the FBI, had been threatening and blackmailing him. He had been arrested dozens of times for peaceful protests. Dr. King, more than most, had witnessed the worst of us.

Dr. King was convinced that Imago Dei could change the world. He was committed to working for us to see each other as sacred image bearers of our Creator.