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I’m trying to get a basic point over and that is—the fight not over.
“The moral arc is long but it bends toward justice”. We still have
work to do! I want you to see that the history our country is
related to, is a history of racial hatred and inequality. Perhaps
you are tired of hearing this? I know you want it to go away. I do
too! But the only way it will leave us is if we escort it out the
door expeditiously. We must make it go away! And this is what King
meant when he said we can “…speed up that day” and that “change does
not come on the whims of inevitability.” His evangelical liberalism
taught him that the power is in the human voice, human hands, and
our feet to make straight the path so that “justice can roll down
like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
And some of you may think racial problems are theoretical in our
modern times. Well, I invite you to turn on the news today. Outside
of these diverse doors, there is a world of segregation and hate in
many places. The hate mail flying through Charles County is one
example of this—you heard about that I’m sure? Some group is sending
flyers out about Hispanics and Blacks and it’s very offensive.
Whether it is in small or large pocket it does not matter. It is
there and must be addressed. But really, we have to do something
bigger than that. We have to be honest with ourselves and look in
the mirror, and look at the person directly in front of it and ask
that person to change their ways.
Change must occur at a micro and
macro level—privately and publicly. And when we can look at another
no matter their race or creed and see them suffering and say to
ourselves, “Can I see another’s woe and not be in sorrow too? Can I
see another’s grief and not seek for kind relief? Can I see a
falling tear and not feel my sorrows share? NO, NO never can it be
never; never, never can it be.” If we can say this and then put our
words into action, we are moving toward King’s Beloved Community and
dealing with the person in the mirror. That is our challenge this
morning. And this challenge from this great man who for me, saved
the soul of our nation, deserves a day to be reflected upon by every
American and really every person in our world.
And you know, our faith, our religion can help in this situation… We
can’t make somebody love another person who is different. They have
to want to. You cannot legislate love; you cannot create a creed and
force folk to embrace each other. But you can push people to think
differently at times. And so, movements like ours that believe in
the worth and dignity of ALL people; that raise the collective
consciousness of our culture. This is what will turn our country and
our world around!
I want to bring this message home if I can… When I look at this
church, where we are, how we are growing, I see us at a place in
time, continuing, in fact, King’s legacy, where our work here to be
a multiracial congregation can have a lasting impact on the legacy
of America and the religion we call Unitarian Universalism. The
church is a flower that has not fully bloomed. It’s interesting, in
the secular arena, for example in sports, we have had diversity for
quite some time. In varying sporting events there are many races
working together in a spirit of cooperation and mutuality. If you’ve
been in the military you know it’s quite diverse. If you’ve worked
for the Federal Government, you know it is also diverse. But then
you go to your hometown church and you realize that it is still
segregated like early America. And you wonder if anyone really cares
to change this fact. You wonder because the preacher does not talk
about it. You wonder because the congregants do not discuss it. You
wonder because they go there Sunday after Sunday and talk about love
and justice, compassion and giving and they never mention that the
secular world is more diverse than the spiritual world. There’s
something wrong with that! You wonder if the words preachers so
eloquently profess are merely things said to make parishioners feel
good and instead of doing good... You wonder if the church will ever
move beyond the tribal and trivial, toward its true mission to help
folk open their minds and hearts, freeing them from the programmed
foolishness that tells them or tells you to fear the other and only
love those who look like you. I am afraid the church has been judged
as null and void in many places because it has not lived up to what
it professes.
But, somewhere I read that faith without works is dead. Somewhere I
read that actions speak louder than words. Somewhere I read that we
must speak truth to power. Somewhere I read that a tree is known by
the fruit it bears. Somewhere I read that you shall know the truth
and the truth shall set you free. Yes, somewhere I read that all
people are created equal… If the churches of the world are a part of
this universalism, these eternal truths, that not only nurture our
spirits but enlighten us to work toward the higher aims of life,
then we must continue working toward the goal of creating a
community of peace, liberty and justice for all.
I want you to know, I am proud this morning. I am proud because we
are sincerely working toward practicing what we preach. So let us,
as a church and religion, continue on the path we’ve started to
create the Beloved Community, right here in this house, and honor
the lasting truth that Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his life for. It
is the truth that teaches that we must “learn to live together and
sisters and brothers or perish as fools.” And so, let us then
continue to be an example to this faith, to this community and to
our world—that one rock really does create many ripples; that one
good deed can change the world; and that King’s legacy is not dead.
As William Cullen Bryant said well, as I close—“Truth crushed to
earth rises again.” Oh, Dr. King, my friend, I hope I did you
justice this morning. Might your dream live on in me and in us all…
Amen.
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