Of Dream and Reality

This Wednesday August 28 marks to the day the fiftieth anniversary of the march on Washington led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Standing in the prophetic shadow of the Lincoln memorial he delivered his famous, “I have a dream speech” I’m sure we’ll get ample opportunity during the week to hear it and read it again. In my view it is nothing short of the very teachings of the gospels re-articulated for our own time, very different from what passes for gospel in our post modern, self-indulgent, self interested world; a world in which salvation is a highly personal matter; salvation meaning going to heaven after this life and not to hell; and if we follow Jesus as our “personal savior” then we reap prosperity along the way. This ethos is a far cry from what the gospel writers intended. And if we pay attention to what Dr. King is saying, I believe we get a renewed glimpse into the heart of the rhetoric of the gospels which speak urgently of salvation, salvation not in terms of the individual, but of society as a whole.

Dr. King states that he has a dream, and I would hold that the dream is a shared one with God’s dream for the world. This is a world in which all share in the freedom of well being and dignity, free from that which binds us, free from the bonds of what enslaves us….so salvation rightly defined is about shared freedom in a world of equals, a world in which we are our brother’s and our sister’s keeper. After all the human community comes from the same DNA, and we are duty bound to love, nurture and care for our blood kin. King had a clear vision of what the commonweal of God looks like, and he passionately proclaimed it in speech and action, prayerfully, as it were, and his dedication and passion for this vision for this dream about to take shape cost him his life.

Many advances have taken place since this vast gathering in Washington fifty years ago. Indeed one could say a new America was born that day, but now there is a renewed opposition to this vision. The Voting Rights Act has been compromised by the Supreme Court; voter suppression laws are proliferating; stop and frisk laws as well; funds are being cut that aid the poor and disenfranchised among us; schools are re-segregating; violence among us grows at a staggering pace. Where is the prophet among us who has the authoritative, moral voice to speak of this dream anew?

Now, with our highly advanced means of communication, the world has become smaller, much more connected, so much so that it is easy to see our interdependence…God’s dream for which Martin acted and spoke is for the world entire…a world that settles its issues with wisdom, empathy, compassion, and mutual respect; a world in which there is no hunger or thirst…a world in which all resources are shared…..a world in which we are free from that which binds us. May this glorious dream wake among us, take on flesh and blood, and be the reality, the true freedom that God intends for all of God’s people… at last.

 

 

3 Comments

  1. History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Martin Luther King, Jr.

  2. I have not posted this comment.

    History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Martin Luther King, Jr.

  3. We went to he Crescent last night to see King. What a saintly, charismatic leader! Not only did he refuse to combat violence with violence, he kept his supporters peaceful as well in spite of the violence against them.

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