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.”
And then Jesus says in Matthew 25:
“34Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
When we show compassion to those who are destitute of value; those who’s self worth does not even register on the rector scale of life we will truly complete the dream of Dr. and the command of Jesus Christ.
I conclude with this dissertation with the end of Dr. King’s ‘I Have A Dream,’ speech:
With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom 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 day 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 in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
