There is a baptism class at St. Richard's this evening and as I was thinking about what I would say I was struck by how appropriate it is to talk about baptism on the day that we reflect on the life, work and heritage of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. What unites Dr. King's work and legacy with the Christian rite of baptism is the idea of dignity.
Underlying much of Dr. King's thought is the idea that as human beings-- sons and daughters of God-- we have inherent dignity. A tape of Dr. King's speech on the 100th anniversary of the original Emancipation Proclamation was just discovered in New York, and if you listen to the speech you can hear Dr. King often refer to the idea of inherent human dignity, especially as set forth in the Declaration of Independence. If you read "A Letter from a Birmingham Jail" you will see Dr. King use that term in referring to Ms. Rosa Parks, the African-American woman who refused to give up her seat on the bus in what became the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott.
We talk about dignity in baptism as well. When the newly-baptized person receives his or her white garment after being baptized, we say: "See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity." Part of the idea of baptism is that we are cleansed from sin and restored, as much as awe can be, to that original state of our creation by God. So we have not just our "human" dignity, but now our dignity as well as members of the Body of Christ.
Dignity has both an inward-facing and an outward-facing dimension. As humans, and as Christians, dignity means that we respect ourselves, conduct ourselves in a manner consistent with our status as children of God. We are people of dignity-- dignified.
Dignity also means that we think about others, respect others, act toward others in a certain way, in a way that reflects the reality of their human dignity. For Dr. King that outward-facing dimension of dignity made racism a logical impossibility, although in his time (and ours) it was very much a reality.
In the 50 or so years that have passed since Dr. King was jailed in Birmingham we have heard a lot about racism, and somehow we have trouble getting excited about it-- even though the underlying social and economic divides that so troubled Dr. King and those of his generation are still very-much present. Just read the report the Minnesota Department of Health released a few days ago discussing structural racism in Minnesota. These days the closest thing to the energy which was in the civil rights movement in the 60's and 70's is present around issues relating to sexual orientation and gender, an area where the Church's struggles and divisions have been obvious.
As people possessing "Christian dignity" perhaps if we resolve to treat others with the dignity to which they are absolutely entitled-- regardless of what they think or do, or how they look-- we might find paths forward to resolving the issues raised by Dr. King, and our more modern issues as well.