Let Us Fulfill The Dream

Matthew 23:23

23Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin,

and have omitted the weightier matters of the law,

judgment, mercy, and faith:

these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

24Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

Today we have come together to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Across the United States of America people of all nationalities, of all genders, of many religions come to celebrate the greatness of a man who had a dream.

Dr. King said these words in the opening of his great, “I have A Dream,” speech:

“we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”

I submit to you today that these United States have come clean of it’s promissory note, for we as people of color enjoy the pursuits of happiness.

We have good jobs, whereas many men and women can climb the corporate ladder of success to become CEO’s and COO’s of many businesses across this great nation.

We are able to live just about anywhere in we want to live.

We can buy property, sell property and give property to our children and grandchildren.

We buy the cars that several decades we were not able to buy unless it was used.

The dream of equality has come true…for some.

As I look at those who have made it today I am disheartened.

Why?

Because those of us who have made it have forgotten where we have come from.

Where feel so good about our luxuries that we have forgotten those who live in the mountains of Virginia who wake up to hunger, the bowels of compassion that Dr. King spoke about have been shut up and tightly locked against the families in Alabama, Mississippi and even here in Virginia, for families have to go to an out-house to use the bathroom in a modern age where we can communicate a milli-second to anyone around the world.

We hear of the injustices done to the poor and turn our heads so that we cannot hear their cries of injustice.

Jesus stated in Matthew 23:23, the following:

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin,

and have omitted the weightier matters of the law,

judgment, mercy, and faith:

these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

Most of us gathered here today are believers in the most high God.

We have dedicated ourselves to live a Christ-like life, yet we as the Pharisees of times past pay our tithes and yet we have forgotten, in the words of Jesus Christ, the weightier matters of the law:

Jugement,

Mercy,

And faith.

Let us have a change of mind and extend our blessing to those who hands are empty.

Let us light the candle of enlightenment that those who stumble in the darkness of despair may see.

Let us prepare a banquet of wholeness that those who are starving in the hunger of un-fulfillment may be filled.

We must not remain in the confines of the dream for we are the generation of people that can complete the dream of a man who could not walk into the promise of the dream, as we have with the

1st black Miss America-Vanessa Williams

1st black Astronaut-Guy Bluford

1st black CEO of a Fortune 500 Company-Franklin Raines (Fannie Mae)

1st black President of the United States-Barach Obama

We have overcome much with much to overcome.

We must never forget the words of the Psalmist in the 82 division of the Book of Psalms,

“3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.

4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.”