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The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s impact on social justice and civil rights reverberated far beyond the United States, according to the Rev. Samuel Sumo Payne.

An immigrant from Liberia who will preach at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s regional Martin Luther King, Jr., Celebration tomorrow, Mr. Payne said he first heard of Dr. King when he was a teenager in Africa.

Mr. Payne was in junior high school when he spotted a book in his father’s office with a photo of Dr. King on the front. He said he asked his father, a Lutheran bishop, about the “gentleman on the cover” and was told that it was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a civil rights leader in America.

“It was just a casual conversation, but I started asking what a civil rights leader is. My Dad said he stood for unity and peace and that Dr. King was in some ways a bridge builder,” Mr. Payne recalled. “He said he wanted to help eliminate social injustice and to bring equality to everyone.”

Mr. Payne said he was inspired to study the life and works of Dr. King, who earned degrees from Crozer Theological Seminary and Boston University and served as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. The civil rights leader was slain on April 4, 1968.

“Dr. King’s stand for social justice and equality for all people in America, regardless of their race, had a tremendous impact on me,” he said. “For me, to come to this country and not be judged, being an African and being black in America, and being looked at for what I can do, I see that as the evidence of his impact.”

Liberia has a unique relationship with America because it is the only African nation that was colonized by the United States, Mr. Payne pointed out, and its political and governmental systems are modeled after those in the United States. Most Liberians are familiar with American history.

“In terms of what was taking place in America in the 1950s and 1960s [on civil rights], God used people and Dr. King was called during that time for God to use,” Mr. Payne said.

There are two biblical messages he will focus on tomorrow in tomorrow’s sermon that were inspired by Dr. King: forgiveness and divine calling.

“If we cannot learn to forgive, we cannot learn to move forward,” Mr. Payne said in an interview this week. He said he has been studying Chapters 37 to 50 in Genesis in which Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers, but later forgives them. In Chapter 50, verse 20, Joseph tells them: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done.”

“Jesus said the same thing on the cross,” Mr. Payne said. “He looked up at heaven and said, ‘Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.’ Dr. King emphasized love and forgiveness, unity and peace.”

In 1 Samuel, Chapter 3, the prophet Samuel hears a voice and thinks that it is Eli calling him, but it turns out to be the Lord’s voice.

“We must look at the call very closely. It is also our call,” Mr. Payne said. “What is God calling us to do? How are we going to carry on that responsibility in the likeness of God, making this nation a better place for everybody?”
Mr. Payne, 39, said he always wanted to be a minister.

“I really got that feeling, that sense of a calling, by observing my Dad. He was one of the leaders of the Lutheran church in Liberia and I observed him very closely and watched what he was doing. The turning point was the simple message of grace, which is the foundation of our faith. God has already made a way for us through Christ’s death on the cross. All we have to do is believe. That is what called me.”

He came to the United States in 1989 to study at Midland Lutheran College in Fremont, Neb., and earned a master of divinity degree at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. He was ordained at Notre Dame University in May, 1996.
Mr. Payne came to Lima after serving as a pastor in Gary, Ind., for 8 years.

The Northwest Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Celebration will be held at 4 p.m. tomorrow at Glenwood Lutheran Church, 2545 Monroe St. In addition to a sermon by the Rev. Samuel Sumo Payne, special music will be presented by the Lutheran Episcopal Multicultural Choir, the Chad Smith Trio, the Lutheran Community Children’s Choir, and St. Phillip’s Men’s Chorus.

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