The Reformed/Presbyterian tradition in which I work and was raised has long emphasized the idea of vocation, which is another term for call, for something we are meant to do. Yet even in my tradition it is common to think of faith as primarily about belief. And I think such notions have contributed mightily to a loss of vitality in the Mainline Church.
A faith that doesn't make any difference in how I live seems terrible disconnected from life. Such a faith implies that God isn't concerned with our life on earth. This despite the fact that Jesus came healing and caring for people, that he taught us to pray for the day when God's will is done here on earth, that he proclaimed God rule had drawn near. Jesus seemed remarkable interested in the shape and quality of our earthly lives.
I don't think it an overstatement to say that any Christian faith that does not call me to live in certain ways is a distortion of faith. Any Christian faith that does not manifest itself in the day to day is a distortion of faith.
I was just a young boy when Dr. King was assassinated, and so I don't have many vivid memories of his life. But I do recall hearing adults I knew criticize his actions. These adults were all church folk, and some of them were sympathetic to his goals. But they couldn't get past the fact that he seemed to be "a troublemaker." This, of course, is one of the nicer things they said about Jesus.
The idea that faith should be no threat to the status quo might be valid if we live in the Kingdom, in God's rule fully come. But short of God's rule, any faith that hears Jesus' call to take up the cross and follow him will often find itself ill at ease with the ways of the world. And any such faith will find itself having to make choices between the ways of the culture and the ways of Jesus. Martin Luther King could have been a very successful preacher and church pastor, could have kept to church matters and avoided causing trouble. But he lived out the call God placed on him. And many people caught a glimpse of God's coming Kingdom in the the hope Dr. King proclaimed and worked for.
"Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called." We each have our part to play in moving the world and history toward God's end. As Dr. King well knew, the arc of history eventually arrives at the destination God intends. So why wouldn't we want to become a part of that arc, whether or not the world around us sees its trajectory?
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