It was in 1963 that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and told the world that he had a dream, a dream that his children would “one day live in nation where they would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Dr. King did not survive to see whether his dream would come true, but if he were alive today, he might well conclude that the day he dreamed of for his children had still not yet come.
Forty-five years after that historic speech and it is clear that we still do judge people by the color of their skin, by their country of origin, and by their ethnic background, long before we ever get to the content of their character, if we get there at all. The political campaign has often brought out the worst as racial epithets have become a disturbing part of the conversation. At times comments have been blatant and overt, but more frequently and more insidiously, they have been veneered in respectability. What would Jesus think?
Judea in Jesus’ time was the crossroads of the world that surrounded the Mediterranean Sea. Romans, Greeks, and Jews lived together, crowded into a small country, but the diversity in Judea was even richer and wider, with men and women coming from every point on the compass. And Jesus reached out in compassion to all, teaching us that there is no limitation on or boundaries around the word “neighbor”. Everyone is our neighbor, and we are called to love our neighbor.
In his 1964 acceptance speech for the Noble Prize for Peace Dr. King argued that humanity “must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.” For Dr. King, a follower of Jesus Christ just like you and me, that love is the love that Christ teaches us and calls us to share.
We have invited the Reverend Dr. Kenyatta Gilbert, assistant professor at Howard University’s Divinity School, to be our guest preacher in worship on November 9th to help us address these concerns. Professor Gilbert is an old friend from Princeton Seminary, where, in addition to his Master of Divinity degree, he also earned his Ph.D. I am delighted that he’ll be with us to help us explore such a persistently difficult issue.
When we look at a garden, we thank God for creating beauty in so many varieties. How dull a forest would be if all the trees were oaks. God has blessed us with richness in diversity in all life. In this time of year when the word “thanksgiving” is very much in our minds and on our lips, we should thank God for the diversity in all God’s creation, including humanity, and remember that in every face we see the image of God.
Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip
