One Dream

I Have a Dream Speech.

Of course, you know about this one, right?

Reverend Martin Luther King spoke to thousands at the 1963 March on Washington. We are typically reminded of his words on the MLK holiday in January of each year. A full transcript can be found here.

But about a month ago, the email subscription I have to the Center for Action and Contemplation introduced me to another speech that begins with the words, “I have a dream.”

“I have a dream,” God says. “Please help Me to realize it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts, when there will be more laughter, joy, and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing. I have a dream that swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, that My children will know that they are members of one family, the human family, God’s family, My family.” Desmond Tutu

Richard Rohr notes, “Tutu finds God’s dream for an inclusive community embodied in Jesus.” 

“We can look at the life of Jesus to see what God asks of us. Jesus came into a deeply divided and polarized society. There was a divide between the hated foreign oppressor and the citizens of the vassal state. Within Judaism, there were different religious groupings, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Zealots. There was a divide between the Jew, the Gentile, and the Samaritan. And then men were segregated from women. There were free persons and there were slaves. There were the rich; there were the poor. The world saw a veritable miracle unfolding before its very eyes as all sorts and conditions of women and men, rich and poor, slave and free, Jew and Gentile—all these came to belong in one fellowship, one communion. They did not regard one another just as equals. That in itself would have been a huge miracle…. No, they regarded one another not just as equals but as sisters and brothers, members of one family, God’s family.” Desmond Tutu

War, political strife, family division, and judgment can all turn to compassion, trust, happiness, joy, justice, and peace with the understanding that all are created equal, and we are one in Christ. 

This then, must be the hope for the world. I mean, everybody says so. Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, and Richard Rohr all proclaim this dream to be of God, Himself. Galatians 3 is good enough for me.

Note: I have enjoyed the daily messages from Richard Rohr - you might too.

Note: The title was derived from the musical mob that created "One Day" a few years ago. I've mentioned this one many times and now it's become an earworm once again amid this current Israeli/Palestinian war. 

"If you've ever prayed for a better world, place this song in your heart. Recorded in the city of Haifa, Israel, 3,000 strangers gathered together under one roof for one common purpose. Arab, Muslim, Jew, Christian, and secular people of every age became one voice."    From One Day, Sandals and a Stick.