Changed by a Book: Malcolm X at 100

Sermons from Grace Cathedral

Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA 2F16

5 Easter (Year C) RCL 8:30 and 11:00 a.m. Eucharist

Sunday 18 May 2025 | Bay to Breakers

Acts 11:1-18

Psalm 148

Revelation 21:1-6

John 13:31-35

Most holy God, make all things new. Make all things new, beginning with us. Amen.

“People don’t realize how a [person’s] whole life can be changed by one book.” I came across this sentence at the age of twenty-two in a book that changed my life, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. I put on his worldview like a pair of reading glasses that suddenly brought the truth about our society into focus. Tomorrow we celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of his birth at a historical moment when his teachings could hardly be more important.

Our Acts passage concludes with Luke writing, “God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11). How can we too experience this “repentance that leads to life?” The Greek word for repentance is metanoia. It means a change in our nous, the very core of our being, in the very worldview that guides our decisions. All our readings today describe new life, a new pattern for human relationships, a new creation, even a new heaven and earth.