Good Morning Friends
Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day. And many will be quoting from his I have a dream speech, but a couple of months before his death he also gave a sermon entitled “Unfulfilled Dreams.” It is worth remembering for in some ways it is more accurate of the reality in which we live. His text was taken from the eighth chapter of First Kings. Sometimes it is overlooked. It is not one of the most familiar passages in the Old Testament. You can look it up if so inclined. It is about David having a mind and heart to build a great temple but being denied the outcome of seeing it finished. It was as if he was on a road to a shining city on a hill but never made it the full distance. Such is much of life. Some things must wait until Jesus makes everything perfect. So as I contemplate Martin Luther King’s letters, and sermons and speeches and life, and today’s lectionary selection I confess Dr. King was right about the need for a radical nonviolent departure from the status quo and that he was right about moderates being worthless to the cause of social change, and that Jesus was right about the need to create something new. So, we ask, How Are We To Balance Self Interest And Justice In An Attainable Dream?
Scripture: The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
John 1:29-34 (NRSV)
And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” And now the Lord says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God has become my strength— he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
Isaiah 49:3, 5-6 (NRSV)
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
Hebrews 11:1-3 (NRSV)
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:1-3 (NRSV)
Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:58 (NRSV)
Message: The thing is that we are uncomfortable with transparency when it comes to self-interest and the issue of justice. It is often a battle within and without us. We lament our addictions and weaknesses but too often suppress them instead of using them to form us for a purpose for the Kingdom. You see, Jesus never desired pain and suffering or the cross but knew and followed the will of the Father for our salvation anyway. We are to learn from Christ’s obedience to love with greater risk. We are to learn about the challenge and cost of social change. But we cannot just sit back and wait for the Prince of Peace to return either. We cannot just submit ourselves to the logic of a sinful, sick society. We cannot declare that we are preparing the way of the Lord, while accepting the status quo. So, let us not put our heads in the sand. The natural consequence of ingrained behavioral patterns that are passed down from one generation to the next poses a threat to our faith. Sorrow for what has happened is not enough. We must take personal responsibility where we can. Fear and self-protection are not the right motivators to be forgiven. Penance does not work. True repentance and lasting change are gifts from God that require more than a little mercy and a lot more love than we typically share. Healing can take more than a lifetime. Sometimes the only way to realize our dreams is through and with Christ who lives beyond time.
And So, much of life can be a series of shattered dreams. Martin Luther King points out that many of us in life start out building temples: temples of character, temples of justice, temples of peace but will never finish them. And so, we, like David, find ourselves in so many instances having to face the fact that our dreams are not fulfilled. It happened to Moses. It happened to David. It happened to the Apostle Paul. It happened to Mahatma Gandhi. The point King makes in his Unrealized Dreams sermon is that the work of social change can be dismal and trying, and tribulations will come. But if you have faith in God, it does not matter. For you can stand up amid the storms and the thunder and lightning, and Jesus will encourage you to fight on for He will never leave you alone. And when you get this faith, you can walk with your feet solid to the ground and your head to the air, and you have no fear of what comes before you. God is everywhere we turn and we find him. We can never escape him. And that is what matters most.
Pray we have hope in the face of dreams not yet realized. Pray we realize that to have a dream in our hearts is to achieve something very important in and of itself. Pray because of our deep hope in Christ we are set free to love in a way that helps the dream to be realized. Pray that our deep hope in Christ awakens us from our false sense of worldly comfort and prepares the way for social change and personal transformation. Pray we acknowledge that something has gone awry, and we have a responsibility to confront it by embracing a new way. Pray we choose not to live within the myth that there is always a direct correlation between a person’s social class and their personal character. Pray we find peace, but not a peace predicated upon tyranny and terrorizing others. Pray we not wait to love. Pray we not wait to extend God’s grace. Pray we not wait to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before God. Pray that we not wait to repent and prepare the way for the one who has and will give us perfect peace. Pray that we not deceive ourselves about the challenge of our society’s addictions. Pray we are honest and transparent in our expression of feelings of pain and suffering and sorrow. Pray that our feeling of pain and suffering can help us to know Christ. Pray we submit to a higher calling. Pray despite the pain and suffering in our lives we never feel that God is distant and never wonder if our prayers are heard. Pray that when we suffer, we immediately turn to prayer. Pray we realize that there is no escaping the presence and awareness of God if we choose to love beyond identity politics. Pray we pass on to the next generation an intimate life-giving relationship with God. Pray we genuinely love one another in a way that cannot be contained. Pray we have a dream that glorifies God.
Blessings,
Daily Devotionals 