In Galatians we read:
“God’s word says, you are all sons & daughters of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
We live in a world that reams with inequality based on religion, race, gender and social status. The result is social injustice, racism, discrimination, wars and genocide. This is not God’s kingdom. In God’s Kingdom there is social justice and equality for all. It’s the dream that Martin Luther King Jr. saw and spoke so articulately. It’s the dream that like followers of Christ share.
Followers of Christ are not only praying for God’s Kingdom to come, but they are also living now for social justice and equality.
Every person in the world has an opportunity. It’s an opportunity that we must live and proclaim. It’s the opportunity of the cross that allows an individual to be born into God’s family regardless of who their parents are, where they are born, or their gender. This opportunity is not just for the rich or the poor; the educated or the uneducated. This opportunity is for all.
Christ died for all of us. The reason that Christ died for all of us is because God loves all of us. (John 3:16)
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Dr. King delivered a message titled “I have a Dream.” He concluded the message with the following words:
“And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing, Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”
The question is, but are we?
Today, Martin Luther King Jr. is no longer living by faith. He is now living around the throne of God. Through his eyes today, his dream still needs to become a reality.
We have a society that seems hell bent on the pursuit of wealth & things while others especially in some of our inner cities seem to be the forgotten people. A quote from Dr. King, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” We must demand justice with passion from our politicians of all parties. Now is time that we get off our knees in prayer and start working in practical ways for justice in our communities.
Now is the time we take the risk of rediscovering our prophetic voices and actually get out there and be salt, light & yeast. The problem is that it is always easier to just give a few pennies to charity and think we have done our bit. It is too easy to think that these are political questions that we need to leave to political people for we are people of faith.
I know that this is a challenging message. What we need is to be brave though with what God has given to us today. What we need to do it and ask God’s Spirit to continue to challenge us, to have faith to make the urgent changes in our lives.
Dr. King said,
“Cowardness asks the question, Is it safe?”
“Expediency asks the question, Is It Politics”
“Vanity asks the question, Is it popular”
“But conscience asks the question, Is it right?”
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor political, nor popular, but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.
I came across a quote from Dr. King saying,
“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.”
With God within you, live for social justice and equality now. As a member of the Body of Christ, continue the ministry of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did, YOU can make a difference. As our President said, as he was ending his farewell address Tuesday night, “YES WE CAN.” I ask the question again, will you? It is up to you and I.
