This is the anniversary of MLKJr's "I Have A Dream" speech. Hearing snippets this morning on the radio still gives me chills. I wasn't born yet in 1963, as he spoke that message to over 250,000 people in Washington, DC. But as I look around our little congregation - about one-third hispanic, one-third black and one-third white - I'm struck that there's so much still do, and that so much has already been done. As we reach out to more and more people to judge them "by the character of their heart and not the color of their skin", we are stronger for the diversity and honesty between all races.

I got this in my inbox this morning, a Daily Dig from Bruderhof. This is another speech from MLKJr, maybe more poignant for today's church:

Beyond the Dream
Martin Luther King Jr.

We are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be beaten and robbed as they make their journey through life. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it understands that an edifice that produces beggars needs restructuring.

Source: April 4, 1967 "Beyond Vietnam" address at the Riverside Church in New York.

It's not so much that we have attitudes of crime and violence - but we have definitely, within the culture and the church, developed "an edifice that produces beggars." My *dream* is that as the church changes, molded by God to partner with Him in the changing culture/society, we will restructure our foundations and our edifices to lift Him up.
- posted by Rick @ 08:50