Monday was an important day in history. On August 28th, 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. during the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.”
We’ve come a long way since then and still have work to do. Amidst our collective stride toward freedom, we must pause a moment and, in the words of that ole song, “Look where He brought [us] from!”
As we experience today’s nagging systems of injustice and sustained hate and bigotry, we must not ignore the gigantic need for far more progress.
God did it. God is doing it. God will do it!
God uses human beings to advance God\’s mission in the world. The Church is the crucial mechanism for God’s work in the world.
For this reason, God summons the Church to fight the good fight of faith. Nothing flies in God’s face more than injustice and unrighteousness. We must engage in spiritual warfare to advance God’s mission for His world.
Scripture records God’s desire for our spiritual, personal, communal, and social wholeness. As we see this more clearly, we catch hold of the divine depth of Dr. King’s dream as delivered in 1963.
Let’s remind ourselves and others of Dr. King’s dream. Let’s try to help others to catch hold of it. Then, in Dr. King’s words, “We must remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.”
We must ask ourselves daily, “What can I do to help move the needle a little more to advance toward freedom and equality?”
Peace,
Dr. Antipas
