Deep Spirit: A Life That Matters

(Note: This is the last full sermon to be published to this blog. The Sermon Archive on the church website is operational again. The Sermon archive is found on the website at http://www.pocatelloumc.org.)

Deep Spirit: A Life That Matters

Sermon, February 12, 2012

Rev. Dr. Craig Strobel

Matthew 4:12-22

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 
‘Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
   on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— 
the people who sat in darkness
   have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
   light has dawned.’ 
From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.


Opening: Dinner Conversations
Story of Kiki and Mike– 2 friends from college who got married. After we all had gone to Graduate School, we got together again one night for dinner. I was just starting to serve my first church in Sheridan. During the course of dinner Mike asked me some serious questions concerning the Christian faith, Church and religion. I remember clearly at one point that he asked with great earnestness, “What I’m looking for is how to be a better person.”


How to be a better person. That is the center of the spiritual quest. It is what drives people after years of going their own way to find their way to the church. After all, isn’t that what we are all about? Sadly, however, it is also what drives many people away from church. 


I ran straight into this very critique of Christianity and the Bible at a party I attended one December a few years ago, in which I got into a conversation with a man from Switzerland who felt that the whole Old Testament should be thrown out, that it was full of barbarity. He acknowledged that Jesus taught many good things, but few people follow them. He even challenged me to come up with a set of my own 10 Commandments. He asked me, “If you could write your own 10 Commandments that you want to live by, what would they be?” A good challenge, eh? It reminds me of the famous quote by G. K Chesterton, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”


In another conversation, I was talking with a person who knew I had studied Buddhism as part of my doctoral work, and had some questions concerning Christianity and Buddhism. He had been raised Christian, at least nominally, and had turned to Buddhism because he perceived that Christianity was more concerned about believing things, and agreeing with certain doctrines than it was concerned with the actual spiritual transformation of people. Buddhism had spiritual practices that appealed to his deep desire to be changed, or to be, as my other friend expressed it, “to become a better person.” He was surprised to learn that Christianity has had a number of very well-defined and venerable spiritual practices that are as old as the faith itself. But few people are aware of them.
There is a longing, a hunger for a life that is personally transformative, morally integrated, ethically exacting, socially just, and intellectually fulfilling. But what often passes for Christianity in our society does not meet these cravings. 


I have been pondering these matters for some time. Can Christianity be intellectually satisfying, socially viable, and spiritually transformative in our contemporary situation? I believe that it can, and should and must be in order to be true to its divine mandate.
But where to begin? This brings us to this morning’s scripture. Jesus begins his ministry with  call to change directions. He calls out “Repent!” The Greek word we translate as “repent” is from metanoia, whch means to transform your mind. Not just feel sorry, but to allow your mind be transformed. Your way of thinkingm your attitudes, your assumptions about the world.


Take those fishermen, Simon, Andrew, James, and John. Think about wat their lives were like, plying their trade day in and day out, mending nets, taking their boat out each day, casting their nets into the water, hoping for a decent catch to sell to the roman fish buyers who came to purchase fish for salting and curing to take back to Rome. Along comes Jesus who tells them to leave everything they knew behind to follow him, and have their lives transformed. Metanoia indeed!


What does it mean for us to follow Jesus, each of us, in our own situations?
What do we need to leave behind in order to fulfill the Purpose of our church: the purpose of Pocatello First United Methodist Church is to build a caring community of Christians where we accept, renew and change lives by sharing God’s love in ways that make a difference in our world.


I’m wondering if we might need to leave behind the idea that Church is something we do only one hour once a week? Or maybe that someone else is called to build a caring community? Or that we can’t share God’s love because we have to be some sort of super spiritual person to do that? (Do you think those 4 fishermen were super spiritual?) So just what do we each need to leave behind, adn what do we need to bring along?


Issue the challenge.







   

Jesus' State of the Union Address

Sermon, February 5, 2012

Luke 4:14-21

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

   because he has anointed me

     to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

   and recovery of sight to the blind,

     to let the oppressed go free, 

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ 

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

I.   State of the Union Address

A.  Long history, rooted in the Constitution: Article II, Section. 3 of the Constitution: “(The president) shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient…”

II.   In many ways, today’s reading from Luke depicts Jesus giving what might be termed a combination Inaugural and State of the Union Address.

A.  Inaugural, because in the Gospel of Luke, this appearance in the synagogue in Nazareth marks the true beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.

B.   But it is also like a State of the Union address in that Jesus is both describing, in a fashion, the state of affairs in the world, and what his plan of action will be concerning these affairs. So let’s look at what he says once again.

III. Identifies with the message of Isaiah 61:1&2.

A.  Places himself within the prophetic tradition

            1.         Addressing corporate spirituality of the people of God

a.   Both corporate and individual at same time.

b.   Recall John Wesley: no Personal holiness without Social holiness, and no social holiness without personal holiness.

            2.         He proclaims that he is its fulfillment

B.   State of the world – look at four groups specifically addressed

            1.         Poor, captive, blind and oppressed

            2.         Must be careful about overly spiritualizing this – in both Isaiah and Luke they refer to identifiable social groups.  Not just the “poor in spirit,” not just those captive to sin, not just those who are spiritually blind, not just those oppressed spiritually.

            3.         “Both and.” Inner dimension and outer manifestation of same reality.

            4.         Later when the disciples of John the Baptist were uncertain as to whether Jesus was the Promised one or not, he said to them “go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me.” (Luke 7:22-23)

            5.         Jesus was concerned with the very real, physical and social circumstances of people.

C.  Story of John Wesley’s ministry to the poor. Wesley was what we would call an entrepreneur. These were the social conditions of his time, and a few examples of his creative responses:

            1.      During his time, the poor and laborers were shut out of the churches.

            2.         Cheap alcohol, especially gin, was readily available, even encouraged by business owners, even for the children. No health care was available, no education, no social services of any kind. People were routinely thrown into debtor’s prison, which only served to make their situation worse, and tore apart families, insuring that people remained in poverty.

            3.         John Wesley recognized, like Jesus, that you could not address the spiritual needs of people without addressing their physical needs, and he likewise recognized that the gospel was not only personal, but also deeply social.

            4.         Wesley and the early Methodists  set up schools for the poor.  Wesley set up a special loan fund in which the poor could take out a loan to start a small business of their own. And no interest was charged. Helped set up health care clinics for the poor and indigent.

            5.         These things all helped to transform English society.  In fact, many people credit the work of John Wesley and the Methodist movement with preventing the French Revolution from happening in England as well.

IV. The leaders and committee members of our own church who gathered a couple weeks ago and came up with our purpose statement also met as committee groups to identify projects and goals to help us achieve and live out our purpose. These are all designed to help us build a caring community of Christians where we accept,renew and change lives by sharing God’s love in ways that make a difference in the world. For example:

A.  We have several small groups and Lenten studies forming. Cheries has details. We also have a group forming that will study Methodism. There is a small group studying 10% Giving and Living. The Senior High youth will be having a special study of the book the Shack, and they are inviting adults in the church to join them. All of these are opportunities for each of us to grow as followers of Jesus Christ.

B.   There are several ways you can be in service to people in the community. If you have not taken a turn serving at the Community Breakfast, they are always welcoming servants to come assist and serve our neighbors. Contact Scott Jepsen or sign up through the office. The annual Feeding the 5000 Families food drive is starting later this month, there is an especially great need to collect food for the food bank. We need some people to help spearhead our efforts in tis church to collect money and food for this. We are also staritng a congregational care group who will coordinate visitations to persons in the hospitals, nursing homes and other times of crisis. We will need members of the congregation to help us with this.

V.   Closing 

A.  If Jesus came today, what would he consider to be the State of Our Union?  What would he look at in our world, and see in need of change?  Where would he direct the power of God’s grace, mercy and love? And whom would he enlist to help him?

B.     I recently heard the story of a hospice chaplain, who befriended an eighty-year-old woman named Mary who was a hospice patient. He visited her many times, and he was impressed by her faith. One day, he got a call that she had taken a turn for the worse. He was told, if he wanted to see her alive, he’d better go that day. Larry went to visit his friend, and found her in a very deep sleep. The nurse said she really needed to sleep, she’d been in a lot of pain, so Larry didn’t wake her up. But just as he turned to go, she opened her eyes wide and stared right at him. She looked intently and then said to him, "O for a minute, I thought you were Jesus."  They laughed about it for a moment. Larry said to her, "Mary I want you to do something." "What’s that?" she asked. He said, "When you arrive at the gates of heaven and finally do see Jesus, I want you to look at him for a moment and say, "Oh, I thought you were Pastor Larry!" Mary smiled and said she would. Two hours later, she died, and she had that opportunity. I believe we all ought to be mistaken for Jesus, every once in a while. God has given you a mission, just as God gave a mission to Jesus. If you’re living it out, if you’re showing his unconditional love, if you’re treating other people with caring and compassion, if you’re bringing good news to the poor, and healing to the sick, and freedom to those whose lives are being torn apart—then maybe someone will look at your life and say—at least inside, "oh, for a minute I thought you were Jesus."       (Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, Sermon: “What God Gives”).

The Challenge of Isaiah

The Challenge of Isaiah

Sermon, January 29, 2011

Rev. Dr. Craig S. Strobel

Isaiah 61:1-4


The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

   because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,

   to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
 
  and release to the prisoners; 
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,
 
  and the day of vengeance of our God;
 
  to comfort all who mourn; 
to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
 
  to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,

   the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
 
  the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. 
They shall build up the ancient ruins,

   they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,

   the devastations of many generations.




One week ago Saturday, a group of over 20 people gathered in the Fireside Room to engage in an extraordinary act. We gathered to receive a vision from God. Now I suppose that putting it that way may sound a bit grandiose or that we had an inflated sense of ourselves. But the fact of the matter is this: we are a community of followers of Jesus Christ, so it behooves us to get instructions from our boss. And I believe that we did.
This is what we did: We first gathered in worship. We read three scriptures in which we heard what Jesus said his mission in the world was all about; and that Jesus gave that mission to us after his ascension into heaven; and that we would do even greater things. Wow! That’s what Jesus is expecting of us. So we got down to it, asked God to guide us and to speak to us and through us and give us a vision for our church. We did a lot of talking and thinking and dreaming and planning. This is what we came up with:
Purpose: the purpose of Pocatello First United Methodist Church is to build a caring community of Christians where we accept, renew and change lives by sharing God’s love in ways that make a difference in our world.


Objectives of the church:
1. Develop experiences that strengthen our connection and communication with one another and with God;
2. Empower the laity to witness to and to be the difference God has made in their lives;
3. Identify significant needs in our community and develop projects that address these needs.


This planning and visioning time was very important. I have been aware of a sense of dissatisfaction and uncertainty here in the congregation for a while. I wrote about this in the Tower and in the State of the Church article that I handed out at the Charge Conference in November, and that I have made available to anyone who wants to read it. In that report I stressed the need for a congregation-wide strategic planning so that we could have a common vision and sense of direction. 


We are in a time of rebuilding. We are rebuilding our Education program and our youth ministries. We are rebuilding our small group ministries. We need to rebuild our congregational care ministries. We have been in this mode for the last several years. It is easy in this midst of all this rebuilding to get discouraged and to feel like we are not getting anywhere.


The prophet Isaiah’s words this morning are directed to another group of people who were faced with a colossal rebuilding task: the people of Judah who were returning from 50 years of captivity in Babylon. The city was in ruins. The temple was devastated. Things were actually better back in Babylon. These words are meant to instill a renewed vision and hope and even enthusiasm to carry them along for the long haul. Basically God says, “I am in your rebuilding. I am doing it with you.”


It is important to have just such vision in the midst of rebuilding. We are in the midst of rebuilding and reviving ourselves. We can receive these words of Isaiah as if they are spoken to us directly. What do they tell us?


1. It is going to get better. Setbacks are only temporary if we place our trust in God, and if we dedicate ourselves to God’s work.
2. God is going to unleash us from the negative thoughts, fears and even blindness that has held us back. 
3. God is going to release into the joy of fellowship and working together, and growing in the Spirit of Christ.


But this vision from Isaiah is also directing us outward and giving us a vision for what our greater vision is: rebuilding and reviving the greater community around us. How can we extend our ministries further and take them to their logical conclusions? If people are hungry, what are the causes of their poverty? 


(Look at the objectives again of the church.) 


I don’t have all the answers. In fact, my main role is to pose these questions and guide a process whereby all of our creative energy is focused and directed. 


Next week, Jesus gives us guidance when he gives his State of the Union Address. 

The Long Arc of Justice, Part 2

"The Long Arc of Justice: Part 2"

Sermon, January 22, 2012

Rev. Dr. Craig Strobel

Isaiah 58:1-9

Shout out, do not hold back!
   Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
   to the house of Jacob their sins. 
Yet day after day they seek me
   and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practised righteousness
   and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgements,
   they delight to draw near to God. 
‘Why do we fast, but you do not see?
   Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day,
   and oppress all your workers. 
Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
   and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
   will not make your voice heard on high. 
Is such the fast that I choose,
   a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
   and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
   a day acceptable to the Lord?


Is not this the fast that I choose:
   to loose the bonds of injustice,
   to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
   and to break every yoke? 
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
   and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
   and not to hide yourself from your own kin? 
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
   the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard. 
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
   you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

Biblical understanding of justice is rooted in the recognition that God is a God of justice – is a God who is justice. The people of God must therefore be just as God is just. For example:

Psalm 9:8, 16 - He will judge the world in righteousness; he will govern the peoples with justice.

        The LORD is known by his justice; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands

Psalm 11:7 - For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face.

Psalm 89:14 - Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.

Psalm 103:6 - The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

Psalm 106:3  - Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right.

Psalm 140:12 - I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.

God is justice. This is fundamental. If you want to get back to the fundamentals of Biblical faith – and there are many who claim to want to do this - justice is fundamental.

Intimately connected with the idea of aligning the inner spiritual reality with the outer physical reality is the notion that the means create the ends. That is, the way we go about doing something determines, in fact, what we get as an outcome. And for this reason Dr. King embraced the practice of nonviolence in the struggle to secure justice. Dr. King was fond of quoting the 18^th Century transcendentalist preacher Theodore Parker: “the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

From “Nonviolence and Racial Justice:” “Finally, the method of nonviolence is based on the conviction that the universe is on the side of justice. It is this deep faith in the future that causes the nonviolent resister to accept suffering without retaliation. He knows that in his struggle for justice he has cosmic companionship. This belief that God is on the side of truth and justice comes down to us from the long tradition of our Christian faith. There is something at the very center of our faith which reminds us that Good Friday may reign for a day, but ultimately it must give way to the triumphant beat of the Easter drums. Evil may so shape events that Caesar will occupy a palace and Christ a cross, but one day that same Christ will rise up and split history into A.D. and B.C., so that even the life of Caesar must be dated by his name.* So in Montgomery we can walk and never get weary, because we know that there will be a great camp meeting in the promised land of freedom and justice.”

Nonviolence drew its power from the fact that it is rooted in love – and because the Bible affirms that God is love, then nonviolence is rooted in the very nature of God. Violence is the antithesis of God, and could not be adopted in order to secure justice, which also reflects the nature of God.

(from ”Where Do We Go from Here?”): “Now, we got to get this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. And this is what we must see as we move on.”

There is much that we can learn concerning the Biblical and Christian understanding of justice from Dr. King. And even as much as I have stressed the idea that justice involves adjusting the outer material circumstances of life to more accurately reflect the inner spiritual reality – there is also a need to be maladjusted to some things. I quote from his 1957 address, "The Role of the Church in Facing the Nation's Chief Moral Dilemma:”

“There are certain technical words in the vocabulary of every academic discipline which tend to become stereotypes and cliches. Psychologists have a word which is probably used more frequently than any other word in modern psychology. It is the word "maladjusted." This word is the ringing cry of the new child psychology. Now in a sense all of us must live the well adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophemic personalities. But there are some things in our social system to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I suggest that you too ought to be maladjusted. I never intend to adjust myself to the viciousness of mob-rule. I never intend to adjust myself to the evils of segregation and the crippling effects of discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic inequalities of an economic system which take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I never intend to become adjusted to the madness of militarism and the self-defeating method of physical violence. I call upon you to be maladjusted. The challenge to you is to be maladjusted--as maladjusted as the prophet Amos, who in the midst of the injustices of his day, could cry out in words that echo across the centuries, "Let judgment run down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream;" as maladjusted as Lincoln, who had the vision to see that this nation could not survive half slave and half free; as maladjusted as Jefferson, who in the midst of an age amazingly adjusted to slavery could cry out, in words lifted to cosmic proportions, "All men are created equal, and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." As maladjusted as Jesus who dared to dream a dream of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men. The world is in desperate need of such maladjustment.”

Dr. King closed his address "The Role of the Church in Facing the Nation's Chief Moral Dilemma," with these words, and I close with them this morning:

In closing let me urge each of you to keep faith in the future. Let us realize that as we struggle for righteousness we do not struggle alone, but God struggles with us. The God that we worship is not some Aristotelian unmoved mover who contemplates merely upon himself; He is not merely a self-knowing God, but an other loving God. He is working through history for the establishment of his kingdom. … This is our hope. One day, by the grace of God, we will be able to sing, "the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!

The Long Arc of Justice, Part 1

Sunday, January 15, 2011

Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration

Rev. Dr. Craig S. Strobel

“Free at Last” – I’m going to begin this morning where Dr. King ended in his famous speech on August 28, 1963 outside of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

James Cone in his book, The Spirituals and the Blues, points out that many spirituals have double meanings – one is spiritual but also a particular political or material meaning, which was often the hidden or coded meaning.

E.g. today’s hymns:

“Over My Head” – “I see trouble in the air – there must be a God some where.” Or, “Wade in the Water” – “God’s gonna trouble the water.”

Reminds one of the story of the Pool of Siloam in Jesus’ time, where people with afflictions and ailments waited for an angel to “trouble the water.” The first person in the pool after it was troubled would be healed. Notice carefully that word “trouble.” When God troubles the water, healing occurs.

Recognition that this is often how God operates in establishing justice for God’s children in the world – by troubling the waters that have been kept artificially placid and stagnant by a status quo that favors the few and treats the rest with contempt.

“Free at Last” - this same double layer of meanings can be discerned:

“free at last, free at last, thank God a’mighty I’m free at last. /Surely been ‘buked and surely been scorned/ but still my soul is a heaven born. /If you don’t know that I been redeemed / Just follow me down to Jordan’s stream.”

Spiritual, inner level of meaning talks about salvation – being “heaven born” because of having been down to “Jordan’s stream.”

Relays a powerful truth – that regardless of my external circumstances – the rebukes and scorns of life – I partake of an inner reality that that is sealed in the power and reality of heaven – in the reality of God. You may put me down, lock me up, keep me in chains, beat my body and cause a thousand sufferings, but you can’t touch my soul. I am somebody – even when you call me less than nobody. I am somebody because God has made me somebody.

The second layer emerges as a result of reflecting upon this inner spiritual reality: If God has made me somebody; if I am indeed made in the image and likeness of God; if indeed God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, and I am part of that world, and if I do indeed believe in his name, and I therefore am indeed a child of God – then there is something that stirs up within my soul that compels me to see to it that the outer material circumstances of my life accurately reflect my inner state of being.

This is precisely the work of justice when viewed from a Biblical and Christian point of view.

There are over 130 references to the word “justice’ in the Bible, not counting “just”, “Justly,” or “judgment.” It is a significant concern in the Bible.

The concern of the Bible is to align the inner and outer realities, the spiritual and the material realities. Work of Justice is to align the external material conditions with the internal spiritual conditions. E.g. song “Free at Last” speaks of being redeemed by God – a term very specifically referring to slavery and being bought out of slavery. Paul uses this terminology to speak of our salvation. Thus when Black people came to understand their worth as persons redeemed by God in Jesus Christ, then the next step was to actualize that freedom in their material conditions. Dr. King illustrates this in his essay, “Nonviolence and Racial Justice:”

“Living under these conditions, many Negroes lost faith in themselves. They came to feel that perhaps they were less than human. So long as the Negro maintained this subservient attitude and accepted the "place" assigned him, a sort of racial peace existed. But it was an uneasy peace in which the Negro was forced patiently to submit to insult, injustice and exploitation. It was a negative peace. True peace is not merely the absence of some negative force--tension, confusion or war; it is the presence of some positive force--justice, good will and brotherhood…. A myriad of factors came together to cause the Negro to take a new look at himself. Individually and as a group, he began to re-evaluate himself. And so he came to feel that he was somebody. His religion revealed to him that God loves all his children and that the important thing about a man is "not his specificity but his fundamentum," not the texture of his hair or the color of his skin but the quality of his soul. This new self-respect and sense of dignity on the part of the Negro undermined the south's negative peace, since the white man refused to accept the change. The tension we are witnessing in race relations today can be explained in part by this revolutionary change in the Negro's evaluation of himself and his determination to struggle and sacrifice until the walls of segregation have been finally crushed by the battering rams of justice.”