Hope in Changing Times

Tomorrow, we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the birth of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the African-American Baptist preacher from Georgia who shook the foundations of American society. Dr. King’s faith in God is to be viewed as inseparable from his hope of Beloved Community – a hope that he perpetually sought to convey to all of humanity.

For King, Beloved Community was intricately connected with the notion of hope. Christian hope served as the foundation for his vision of Beloved Community. In one of his later sermons, "The Meaning of Hope," he defined hope as that quality which is "necessary for life."[i]

King asserted that hope was to be viewed as "animated and under girded by faith and love." In his mind, if you had hope, you had faith in something. Thus, hope shares the belief that "all reality hinges on moral foundations.”[ii]

For King, hope was the refusal to give up "despite overwhelming odds." This hope would beckon us to love everybody – both our enemies and allies. This hope would help us to see that we can resist giving up on one another because our lives together are animated by the belief that God is present in each and every one of us.

In his famous “I Have a Dream” speech delivered in our Nation’s Capital in the summer of 1963, King shared that a part of his dream was that would be able “to hew out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”

These are days of tremendous change and challenge in our society. From the collapse of the economy that has affected all of us – to the wars that are now being fought in at least three places in the Middle East – to the proliferation of violence that affects many of our urban communities- to the health care crisis that has resulted in over 40 million Americans living without health care today, these are days of unprecedented change and challenge.

In three days, our nation will share in the historic inauguration of Barak Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Certainly, Obama’s election as the first president of African descent has renewed the hope of many persons across the nation and the world. His vision for our nation and the world is not unlike King’s. Obama has offered us a framework for what he has termed an audacity of hope amidst the challenges we face. Fundamentally his is a hope grounded in our individual and collective willingness to become the change that we seek in the world.

Hope for a better future is ultimately grounded in our shared potential to change the world. Finally, Dr. King shared that everybody can be great because everybody can serve. He further shared that our service is the rent that we pay for the space that we occupy here on earth. Let us be hopeful that each of those who around this nation and the globe celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and the inauguration of Barak Obama will be committed to paying some rent.








[i] King, sermon delivered on December 10, 1967, see Garth Baker-Fletcher, Somebodyness: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Theory of Dignity, (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1993), 132.

[ii] Baker-Fletcher, 132.

Signs of Hope - A Call to End the Death Penalty

On Tuesday, January 13, 2009, dozens of religious leaders, clergy and laity gathered at First and Stephens United Church of Christ in Towson, Maryland to call for the repeal of the death penalty in Maryland. Those who gathered - under the auspices of the Interfaith Coalition to End the Death Penalty - represent well over 2.9 persons of faith, and included Christians, Jews and Muslims. We shared in a call to Governor Martin O’Malley and the Maryland General Assembly to end the state’s death penalty.

The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment recently released a report with recommendations calling for the end of the death penalty. The Commission’s findings point out that the state’s death penalty is rife with legal, fairness and cost issues. Each of the faith traditions represented in the Coalition share a belief in the sanctity of life that precludes the use of capital punishment.

The Coalition’s letter to Governor O’Malley states that “Common to all of our faiths is the belief in the sanctity of life and forgiveness.” Too often innocent people – often the poor who can’t afford adequate legal representation – are convicted and sentenced to death in our legal system. A disproportionate number of these are people of color – African Americans and Hispanics. May each of us be mindful of the prophet Micah’s words that we are to “do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with the Lord.”

Signs of Hope - Singing the Songs of Zion

As the sanctuary began to fill with people, we could sensed the spirit of the Lord in our midst. We came together from Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Africa to share in an experience of praise and worship with the Africa University Choir. As several hundred of us gathered at Ames Memorial United Methodist Church in West Baltimore on the evening of Sunday, January 11, 2009, the choir led us in songs of joy and celebration. The members of the choir were eleven students from 6 different African countries. They sang in several different languages, including Shona, Swahili, French and English. As we sang and danced, this was indeed an evening to celebrate – to celebrate the awesomeness of God, to celebrate our shared faith in God, to celebrate our diversity, and how only Christ can connect Christians from Africa and America to sing the songs of Zion. Signs of hope are in our midst as we worship God who ties us together amidst our differences.