Martin Luther King, Jr. made one quote very famous:
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Today is January 20, 2025.
This is a time when it is hard to find justice.
This is a time when that moral arc seems longer than ever. As the psalmist cries out, “How long?”
And there is a time for everything, as we are reminded in Ecclesiastes.
But this is not a time for Christians to be despondent. Not a time for Christians to despair. It is a time to remember that our final hope for justice is not to be placed in humanity but in God.
King’s quote comes from "Justice and the Conscience," a sermon written in 1852 by Unitarian minister Theodore Parker. When we see it in the context of the sermon, we can better understand the meaning of the famous phrase:
“God has made man with the instinctive love of justice in him, which gradually gets developed in the world. But in Himself justice is infinite….Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice….But we do not see that justice is always done on earth; many a knave is rich, sleek, and honored, while the just man is poor, hated, and in torment….
“Justice is the idea of God, the ideal of man, the rule of conduct writ in the nature of mankind. The ideal must become actual, God's thought a human thing, made real in a reign of righteousness, and a kingdom — no, a Commonwealth — of justice on the earth. You and I can help forward that work. God will not disdain to use our prayers, our self-denial, and the little atoms of justice that personally belong to us, to establish his mighty work, — the development of mankind.
“You and I may work with Him, and, as on the floor of the Pacific Sea little insects lay the foundation of firm islands, slowly uprising from the tropic wave, so you and I in our daily life, in house, or field, or shop, obscurely faithful, may prepare the way for the republic of righteousness, the democracy of justice that is to come. Our own morality shall bless us here; not in our outward life alone, but in the inward and majestic life of conscience. All the justice we mature shall bless us here, yea, and hereafter; but at our death we leave it added to the common store of humankind. Even the crumbs that fall from our table may save a brother's life. You and I may help deepen the channel of human morality in which God's justice runs, and the wrecks of evil, which now check the stream, be borne off the sooner by the strong, all-conquering tide of right, the river of God that is full of blessing.”
We contribute to God’s justice not by working it out ourselves. Only God can transform all injustice to justice. But we are called to live on earth as in heaven. To do justice. And we are called to do what we can.
We might wonder why Jesus didn’t heal all illnesses or provide enough food to wipe out hunger. We might wonder why he healed and fed in a piecemeal fashion. One at a time — sometimes thousands at a time, but not more than that.
Jesus, though fully God, was also fully human.
And like Jesus, we are called to do what we can do. We are called to witness against systems and structures that are unjust, proposing new ideas that would improve the lives of those most subject to injustice. But we cannot forget that we are first called to live out justice in our relationships with those we know. And to reach out in justice to those we don’t know but could know. These are the crumbs of justice falling from the table.
Last week, I heard an address given by Wab Kinew, Premier of Manitoba that reminded me of the meaning of King’s quote. Kinew is not a Christian, but he is not fearful to bring up a God bigger than ourselves, one to whom we are accountable. Here he speaks to what the Province of Manitoba will for two ill children from Gaza who have suffered innocently in war. Take it in. Ask yourself, what justice can I do amid the troubles that beset us?
