Dare to Dream

(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 1/15/12)

In the reading from the book of the prophet Joel, it is written, “And it shall come to pass, afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; and your sons and daughters shall prophesy; your old men (and women) shall dream dreams, your young men (and women) shall see visions.” (Joel 2:28)

How fitting it is that we hear these words this weekend as we celebrate the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. If Dr. King was anything, he was a dreamer and a visionary, a man chosen by God to be a prophet in our midst.

We recall that in our nation’s capital almost 49 years ago, at the urging of the great gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson, Dr. King told the world of his dreams and what he envisioned for our world. He dreamt, we recall, of a world where the descendants of former slaves and former slave-owners would be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood… a world where little children would someday live in a nation where they would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Dr. King envisioned a world where we would grow to see the face of Jesus in Blacks and Whites, Latinos and Native Americans, Asians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and all other racial, ethnic, social, cultural and religious groups. He dared to dream and envision:
• A world of peace and love among all women and men, girls and boys...
• A world where we would study war no more…
• A world where poverty, hunger, and homelessness would be eradicated…
• A world where violence and abuse would exist no longer.

Toward the conclusion of his life in 1968, Dr. King wondered out loud about the dream he had articulated for America and the world in 1963, and whether his dream had in turn become a “nightmare.”

It leads us to ask ourselves the questions today, “What has really happened to King’s dream, and our own ability to hope and love and envision and dream? Where are our dreams and visions today?

The word of hope is this. We can all be dreamers and visionaries. The prophet Joel offered words of encouragement to Judah amidst their despair and exile, “And it shall come to pass, afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; and your sons and daughters shall prophesy; your old men (and women) shall dream dreams, your young men (and women) shall see visions.” (Joel 2:28)

We can all dare to dream. Dr. King came not only to dream himself, but to prophetically challenge each of us to dare, in our heart of hearts, to dream and vision… knowing that through hope and faith, and steadfastness and courage, we could live a better tomorrow. He dared to dream, so that you and I could dream today.

We can dare to dream, and Dr. King’s dreams can come alive for us today:
• As we advocate and work to address poverty and oppression…
• As we continue to fight for healthcare for everybody…
• As we commit ourselves to peace and justice for all humanity.
• As we work for a nonviolent society…
• As we hold before ourselves the belief in the words etched in our Declaration of Independence, that “all people are created equal.”

Keep dreaming! Indeed, we are called today to dream dreams and see visions. Dare to dream of what our families (and our young people)… and our churches… and our communities… and our governments… and our world will be in the days to come.

In one of his poems, Langston Hughes encourages us to:

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

IN TRIBUTE TO DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

A TEN POINT ACTION PLAN
(by Dr. C. Anthony Hunt)


During his life, Dr. Martin Luther King believed that everyone could be great because everyone could serve. Making a sincere commitment to the King holiday and all it represents, as well as taking some appropriate action to serve the causes of equality, justice, freedom and peace, are ways in which individuals, churches, groups, organizations, institutions and even governments can act to continue Dr. King’s unfinished work, and to perpetuate the pursuit of his vision of the Beloved Community.

Here are ten ways that we can act to honor the dream and legacy of Dr. King in his life and death:

1. Support and develop community-wide plans aimed at expanding economic opportunities for racial-ethnic persons and women specifically in the areas of housing, banking and employment practices.

2. Plan to actively participate in an event that reaches out to those in the most need – the hungry, the homeless and the unemployed.

3. Adopt an inner-city school. Offer your skills where appropriate. Do your part to assure that every inner city young person can look forward to an adequate education.

4. Encourage schools, colleges and universities in your community to include Dr. King’s teachings in their curricula and programs.

5. Take specific actions to deal with the problems of drugs, alcohol dependency, teenage pregnancy, and family violence.

6. Become an advocate - and encourage church, political and community leaders to advocate - for the removal of all weapons from our streets, homes and schools.

7. Support causes that promote freedom, justice and peace abroad. Help extend human rights, dignity, health and economic well-being to all persons.

8. Take a stand, and encourage persons in your church and community to actively oppose those groups that promote hatred and violence. Actively and vigilantly oppose racism, homophobia and other forms of xenophobia in our communities.

9. Sponsor and participate in programs that encourage interracial and intercultural goodwill and unity.

10. Read the Social Principles of The United Methodist Church, and strive to make them an integral part of the faith and life of yourself and your church.

Press On!

(This is an abridged version of the New Year's Day sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 1/1/12)

Philippians 3:12-14

I think that all of us would agree that we want to grow in the various aspects of our lives – spiritually, emotionally, relationally and physically. If the truth is told, it is often not a matter of if we want to grow – but the issue for many of us is how we actually get from where we are to where we believe that God is leading us.

It is important for each of us to know that God has a divine plan for our lives. Yes, from the point of our conception, God has a blueprint – a road-map established for each of us. God has certain things that God intends for us to accomplish during our days here on earth. This is what the prophet Jeremiah meant when he said, “from the time that I was in my mother’s womb, God you knew me.”

God who knows all, and sees all, and is all, already knows what the plan is for each of us.

The problem then is not one of God not knowing, but of our not recognizing what God wants us to be and to do. The problem for many of us is a problem of lack of conformity. We encounter stunted growth in our lives because of a lack of conformity to God’s will and way for our lives. Many people wonder “why am I at the same point today as I was yesterday? Why do I have the same hang-ups? Why do I have the same problems? Why do the same people and places and things seem to be holding me back?

And if you know like I know, churches ponder the very same questions that we do in our individual and family lives. Why can’t we grow? Why are we dealing with the same mess this year that we were dealing with last year? Why are we in this rut? Why are we mired in the blues and the blahs, with no apparent way out?

What we need to realize is that God has a plan for taking every church to another level.

God has a plan for us. God does not want us to be at the same place in our lives tomorrow as we are today. In fact, God is willing and able to move some things and some people out of our way, in order for us to grow if we would just let the Lord take over, and really become the Lord of our lives.

In our Scripture text, Paul – the preacher and pastor – here uses his own life as an example of how God wants to transform us and take us to another level. We remember Paul had been a sinner who was saved by grace. Paul had sought to persecute those who followed Jesus, and Jesus met Paul one day, knocked him down and then picked him back up and used him as a servant for the newly emerging church.

Paul here seeks to use his life and what God had done for him, and how God was taking him to another level as an example for those in the Philippian church who needed to be encouraged.

Hear Paul’s words: “It is not that I have already obtained this, or reached my goal, but I press to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press toward the mark (goal) for the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

In other words, God had blessed Paul, but he knew that God was still taking him higher. And as God had blessed the church, God also desired to take the body of Christ to another level.

So how is it that we – you and I - might go to another level in our lives? How might our church go to another level? There are a few things that we will need to understand if we are to do to go to another level.

First in order to go to another level, we will need to realize that we have not yet reached our goal, we have not yet made it. Paul said it is not as though I have already obtained this, or have already reached my goal. Many people stop growing because they live under the false assumption that they already have it made (in the shade). They already have a good job, a few dollars in the bank, a house to live in, a spouse and a family. They are already an officer in the church. So they think they have it made.

Well, I have news for us, regardless of what our lot in life, whatever we may or may not have yet attained, God is not finished with any of us yet. We are all a work in progress. God wants to work on you and me, build us up, and make us new. God is not finished with is yet.

Second, we need to know that in order for God to take us to another level we are going to have to forget some things. Paul says, “Forgetting those things that are behind.” In other words, we are going to have to put some things, put some people, and put some situations behind us. We are going to have to forget some hurts, and forget some disappointments from our past.

How many of us still hold grudges and find it hard to let go of things that may have happened to us 5, 10, 20 years ago? Many folk are still mad, still upset, and still disgusted at people who we feel did us wrong a long time ago. Many times, these people don’t even remember what they did to hurt us.

We need to forget some things. It’s time for all of us to move on, from some things in life, and stop letting our old grudges and old hurts hold us back, and keep us from growing and fulfilling our potential in Christ. Church, it’s time to let some things go, give them to God, and let the Lord do the rest.

The third thing that we need to do is to press on. Once we forget some things and let go of some things, we need to start pressing, and moving to where God is leading us. One thing I’ve learned about getting to the places where God leads us, is that it takes a lot of persistence (importunity). But as tire as we might get, and discouraged as we might feel, we need to keep pressing, keep pushing (in the name of Jesus) to where God is leading us. Press on!.

Well, as we think on Paul and what he was saying to the Philippian church, we know that we must press on. Might we sing as the song-writer wrote: .

I’m pressing on
The upward way
New heights I’m gaining
Every day...

UNWRAP THE GIFT

(This is an abriged version of the Christmas sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 12/25/11.)

Luke 2:1-7

The reciprocal nature of the Christmas holiday season is found most vividly in the giving and receiving of gifts. The season has been termed by some the season for giving. And if the truth is told, it is also the season when many persons expect to receive.

This act of giving and receiving will be played out from house to house. On Christmas morning, children across the land will rush to the Christmas tree, look under the tree, find those gifts that have been placed there for them, and begin to unwrap their gifts. Young faces will be filled with joy, as they unwrap their gifts and discover what has been given to them.

These acts of gift-giving, while offering joy to some, also should lead us to reflect upon the very commercialism that has come to so permeate our sense of reality, the materialism that has come to consume so much of our collective conscious. This is the type of affluenza – that which Marion Wright Edelman describes in terms of us having too much that is worth too little – that in some ways has become even more pronounced in the economic down-turn that affects us all today.

That Jesus was born poor and homeless, that his earthly father was a working class man and his mother was single offers us a cause for pause and reflection in the light of the relative elaborateness of the season of Christmas for many. That Jesus was born in a manger, and that we have been offered images of him being wrapped not in fine clothing but is swaddling clothing, gives us cause for pausing yet again to reflect upon who it is that we worship, who it is that we follow, and who it is we seek to imitate, who it is that we celebrate during this season.

The gift that is Christ is one that if are to really unwrap it, we would find that he is for the poor among us – for he was poor. If we unwrap the gift that is Christ, we discover that he is for the immigrant and exile among us because he was born to travelers. If we unwrap the gift that is Christ, we see the unfolding of the reality that he is for the bound as he came to set at liberty those who were bound.

If we are to unwrap the gift that is Christ we find one who healed the sick and fed the hungry in his day. He ate with sinners and blessed untouchables – leopers and those demon- possessed.

I am reminded of the story of a little boy who one year decided that what he wanted for Christmas was a wagon. In the days leading up to Christmas, the little boy would boy would pass by a church where there was a statue of Jesus in front of the church. Everyday, the boy would pass by, and he would pray, Jesus if you give me a wagon for Christmas, I will give you a ride. Jesus, if you give me a wagon, I promise, that I will give you a ride. Well, on Christmas, the little boy went down-stares and under the tree… he found the wagon that he had prayed to Jesus for.

And so the boy went outside with this wagon… As he was riding, a police officer stopped the boy and said, we have a report that a statue of Jesus is missing from the church down the street, and we notice that you have one in your wagon. The boy said to the police officer, I’m just keeping the promise I made to give Jesus a ride. Some of us owe Jesus a ride for the gifts not only that he has given to us, but for the gift that he is to us.

And so it is that the real gift of Christmas is Christ. And when we unwrap this gift, we discover real peace amidst a warring world. We find real joy amidst joy that often feels vapid and false. We find hope in the face of the apparent insurmountabilities of life.

And ultimately, the gift of Christ is our redemption. In these days of uncertainty and fear, Christ makes real claims upon the church and the world. These are days when most stores offer instant rebates for many of the things that we buy. In days past, I can remember my grandmother collecting S&H green stamps for the things she would buy… As she collected enough green stamps, she would go to the store to cash in the stamps for something she had been waiting to buy.

Ultimately, that is what Christ has done for us. He came into the world, and has entered into our lives to be our redemption, to buy us back, and claim us for God. This is the gift that we unwrap during this season, Christ, our redeemer, Christ, the redeemer of the world. Unwrap the Gift!

"It may well be that the greatest tragedy of this period of social change is not the glaring noisiness of the so-called bad people, but the silence of the so-called good people." --Martin Luther King. Jr.

In 2012, God grant us the courage to speak up, stand up and act up.

"The ultimate measure of a person is not where one stands in moments of comfort and covenience, but where one stands in moments of challenge and controversy." (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)