God's Dream

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

January 15, 2017

Annual Meeting & Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

          One year ago this weekend, the weekend of your annual meeting and the country’s celebration of the life of Dr. King, Don and I made our first trip to Hudson to spend time with your search committee.  I have to admit that I was a bit surprised to realize that a whole year has passed since that weekend.  We had read your profile and I had met the search committee via a Skype interview.   We were impressed with the dedication of this parish, your love and care for each other, and the great welcoming atmosphere you foster here.  And you know the rest of the story.  Here we are, a year later on Annual Meeting Sunday, with the Bishop coming next Saturday to celebrate our ministry at Christ Church.

          There have been some delightful surprises along the way.  First, Christ Church is a larger parish with even more gifts for ministry than the profile described.  We don’t all make it to church every Sunday, which gives us a smaller feel than is accurate.  Secondly, as I have said before, our buildings are very extremely used with a variety of groups in and out on a regular basis.  Some days, the buildings practically shake with activity.  Thirdly, when there is a need, people step up and take ownership of whatever the challenge might be.  One of the reasons I came to Christ Church is because you had not waited for the arrival of a rector to be about the work of ministry here.  Your time in the wilderness has served you well in many ways.

          This weekend, our country celebrates the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and our lectionary provides specific readings from scripture for this celebration.   The reading from Genesis, in which Joseph’s brothers mock him as a dreamer, deliberately reminds us of Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech.  Dr. King quoted the prophet Isaiah when he said “I have a dream that one day every valley will be exalted, and every hill and mountain made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”  Dr. King’s dream was not without clear reference to his day, however.  This most quoted part of his speech follows a litany of dreams that are quite specific and spell out the meaning of the words “All men are created equal.”  His dream was that someday the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners would be able to sit down together.  That a day would come when his own four children would be judged by the strength of their character not the color of their skin.  That someday little black boys and girls would play hand in hand with little white boys and girls.  Dr. King had no fear in naming names and identifying places where injustice and oppression were considered acceptable.

           Dreams can be cheap.  Working to make those dreams a reality can be costly, as Dr. King’s life shows.  The reading from Ephesians reminds us of what is required for that work.  The whole armor of God is required for the struggle against the powers of darkness.  The description of the armor of God includes a belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes that will make us ready to proclaim the gospel of peace, the shield of faith.  While all of this equipment is spiritual, the physical way the equipment is described reminds us that our whole selves are required for the work of fighting injustice.  Thinking and praying about injustice is required but is not enough.  Talking about injustice and raising awareness is required, but not enough.  Thoughtful, prayerful action is also required.

          And yet, even with all the talk about armor in the reading from Ephesians, Jesus is clear, as was Dr. King, that the work of liberation from oppression is peaceful work.  Love your enemies.  Do good to those who hate you.  Pray for those who abuse you.  If the goal is to achieve the peaceful kingdom Isaiah describes, where the lion and lamb lie down together and swords can be turned into plowshares, if the goal is for children of all colors to be able to play together, that will not be achieved through violence.  One of my favorite Dr. King quotes is this: “(The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.

So it goes.) Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness:

only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

          During the season of Advent, when we wait for the coming of Jesus, we hear God’s “I have a dream speech.”  “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” We celebrate the work and sacrifice of Dr. King because his dream was God’s dream.  Here in Hudson, Ohio, in Summit County, where is Christ Church called to use our prayers, our conversation and our action to make God’s dream a more present reality?  Where are we called to work together to liberate people who are oppressed by the bondage of racism, or poverty, or discrimination because of one’s sexual orientation?  God’s dream through out scripture is liberation from oppression, from the physical liberation of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt, to the liberation from the oppression of sickness and disease in the gospels, to the liberation from sin and death through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.  How are we called to leverage the vast talent of this congregation, our physical resources, and our willingness to tackle a challenge in order to be part of God’s liberating work? As we celebrate our life together on the Annual Meeting Sunday, the question is not “What great things did we do last year?” The question is “What great things will we do this year to make God’s dream a more present reality?”

                                                                   Amen.