John and Martin

It's the Year of Calvin, and the Presbyterian Church has been posting quotes from Calvin every day. Here's today's:

Daily Meditations with Calvin August 12, 2009
"Conversely, we are God's: let us therefore live for him and die for him. We are God's: let his wisdom and will therefore rule all our actions. We are God's: let all the parts of our life accordingly strive toward him as our only lawful goal." (3.7.1.)




For some reason when I read that quote, I thought of this one:

"I have no other ambitions in life but to achieve excellence in the Christian ministry. I don't plan to run for any political office. I don't plan to do anything but remain a preacher" Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "Why Jesus Called a Man a Fool"

I guess the two quotes aren't entirely related, but when I read Calvin's thought "let us therefore live for him and die for him", I thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. who was loyal until death. Now I don't think there is any way John Calvin [1509-1564 CE] could have foreseen the establishment of any independent American nations much less the Christian pastors' involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. However, one of the wonderful things about having two thousand years of Christian leaders' wisdom is that through individual voices a might chorus of the Spirit builds. While we live in a linear world [we live from August 10, 2009 to August 11, 2009 to August 12, 2009], our faith doesn't exist linearly. Faith exists in communities and in the relationships between people both alive and dead. We speak of Christ being present to us through the Spirit, and through that same Spirit we are blessed with voices of wisdom like Calvin. No two people are going to agree whether they're arguing today or arguing across time... But I wonder how well John and Martin would get along if in some twist of the time stream they were to meet. Two brothers in Christ separated by hundreds of years who both believed in giving your life entirely over to God. We could spend all day naming other historical and contemporary figures who believe the same idea, but since it's Calvin's year and for my summer reading I had a book of MLK's sermons, I'm choosing these two.

I think they would have had more in common than in difference.