Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
Fifty years ago today a quarter million people came to march on Washington demanding jobs and freedom. Some would say the same thing needs to happen again: the scourges of racism, militarism and corporate greed still plague us; the progress made since then has been mixed, and still easily erodes. That day violence was expected, but there was none. The marchers were peaceful and hopeful. They were not seething, they were dreaming; Martin’s dream was already theirs. It was a large and powerful event? but it began with only a few people who themselves had a dream. They acted on that dream, and the Spirit took it from there.
What they did is a little different from what we do on Sunday mornings, but not much. We lift up a dream? God’s dream of how we shall live together, a dream that Jesus called the Kingdom of God. And in our dreaming, in our devoting ourselves to that dream, we bring it a little closer. To fulfill that dream will take as much struggle as dreaming, as much sacrifice as believing, but it starts with the dream, the dream the Holy One gives us of a world of love and justice. We don’t gather in worship to “recharge our batteries:” we come to lift up God’s dream for the world and to be shaped by that dream and to devote ourselves to it and to renew our energy to work for it. The words of the prophets, the miracles of Christ, the vision of the Palms, the life embodied in the early church, all proclaim God’s vision for a new order. It’s radical, world-changing stuff.
This Sunday, watch and listen for the Gospel’s march on this world. If you don’t see it, well, maybe you need to march on your church.
Deep Blessings
Pastor Steve
______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail
write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com.