Showing posts with label Martin Luther King Jr.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Martin Luther King Jr.. Show all posts
My Redeemer Lives!
On this day, the happiest of the year, marking the rise of Jesus, I remember a man that also fought and today was killed. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed outside of his Memphis hotel.
Which reminds me of a line that sums up Dr. King so well, while drawing from the life of Jesus Christ as well.
"He who is greatest among you shall be your servant."
Today, remember the Drum Major Instinct. Remember the life and death of Jesus Christ.
See the entire sermon below.
[More]
On this day, the happiest of the year, marking the rise of Jesus, I remember a man that also fought and today was killed. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed outside of his Memphis hotel.
Which reminds me of a line that sums up Dr. King so well, while drawing from the life of Jesus Christ as well.
"He who is greatest among you shall be your servant."
Today, remember the Drum Major Instinct. Remember the life and death of Jesus Christ.
He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him. They called him a rabble-rouser. They called him a troublemaker. They said he was an agitator. (Glory to God) He practiced civil disobedience; he broke injunctions. And so he was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. And the irony of it all is that his friends turned him over to them. (Amen) One of his closest friends denied him. Another of his friends turned him over to his enemies. And while he was dying, the people who killed him gambled for his clothing, the only possession that he had in the world. (Lord help him) When he was dead he was buried in a borrowed tomb, through the pity of a friend."Say that I was a drum major for justice...I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter."
Nineteen centuries have come and gone and today he stands as the most influential figure that ever entered human history. All of the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned put together (Yes) have not affected the life of man on this earth (Amen) as much as that one solitary life. His name may be a familiar one. (Jesus) But today I can hear them talking about him. Every now and then somebody says, "He's King of Kings." (Yes) And again I can hear somebody saying, "He's Lord of Lords." Somewhere else I can hear somebody saying, "In Christ there is no East nor West." (Yes) And then they go on and talk about, "In Him there's no North and South, but one great Fellowship of Love throughout the whole wide world." He didn't have anything. (Amen) He just went around serving and doing good.
See the entire sermon below.
A few days ago Adam tagged me in a note on Facebook. He was making the very valid point that the reaction to September 11th should be more than a day. It should my a life undertaking. We should re-evaluate how we interact with each other, we should hold our lives to a standard 365 days a year. Not to diminish it in any way whatsoever, actually to highlight it, it is the argument we often make on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. That third Monday in January, an annual day of service, we say, "this should be more than one day." So I found it fitting when he closed his note by quoting Dr. King himself, saying that "we are confronted with the Fierce Urgency of Now."
Today, I was confronted with the Fierce Urgency of Now and with one of my callings that stabs at me everyday. A cause the success of which will be the measuring stick of my life. And I will define it with a number.
6,782. Six thousand, seven hundred, eighty-two.
That is how many, of the nearly 17,000 victims of homicide in 2008, were black.
For a race that represents just 13 percent of the U.S. population, roughly 40 percent of the victims of homicide were black.
The number of whites victims of homicide was 6,838, just 56 more than blacks.
Stated another way - a black man was six times more likely to be the victim of a homicide than a white man in 2008.
But that only tells half of the story.
Nearly 16,000 people were arrested for homicide in 2008.
5,943 of them were black. More than any other race.
And they continue.
According to the Bureau of Justice (a DOJ entity):
1 in 3 black males will go to prison in their lifetime.
94 percent of black homicides are committed by other blacks.
This is my Fierce Urgency of Now. It is not a battle for racial equality. It is a fight for racial preservation.
Those days when I need a calling, the ones when I wonder why I moved out here. The days that my friends, the majority of whom are white, make a crack about how I am only half black or went to white schools and studied in classes the level of which have been designed for whites, I think of the numbers.
1 in 3. 40 percent. I come from the more than half of blacks that grew up in a one parent home. I come from the 1 in 4 that grew up in poverty. The recipe for success is minimal.
My eighth grade basketball team that won the city championship had eight players. Three of us graduated from high school. One is dead. Three are in prison. One is a dropout. All but one was black or Hispanic.
The solution lies in a classroom. And the time has never been more urgent. The calling has never been so strong. The stakes never higher.
[More]
Today, I was confronted with the Fierce Urgency of Now and with one of my callings that stabs at me everyday. A cause the success of which will be the measuring stick of my life. And I will define it with a number.
6,782. Six thousand, seven hundred, eighty-two.
That is how many, of the nearly 17,000 victims of homicide in 2008, were black.
For a race that represents just 13 percent of the U.S. population, roughly 40 percent of the victims of homicide were black.
The number of whites victims of homicide was 6,838, just 56 more than blacks.
Stated another way - a black man was six times more likely to be the victim of a homicide than a white man in 2008.
But that only tells half of the story.
Nearly 16,000 people were arrested for homicide in 2008.
5,943 of them were black. More than any other race.
And they continue.
According to the Bureau of Justice (a DOJ entity):
1 in 3 black males will go to prison in their lifetime.
94 percent of black homicides are committed by other blacks.
This is my Fierce Urgency of Now. It is not a battle for racial equality. It is a fight for racial preservation.
Those days when I need a calling, the ones when I wonder why I moved out here. The days that my friends, the majority of whom are white, make a crack about how I am only half black or went to white schools and studied in classes the level of which have been designed for whites, I think of the numbers.
1 in 3. 40 percent. I come from the more than half of blacks that grew up in a one parent home. I come from the 1 in 4 that grew up in poverty. The recipe for success is minimal.
My eighth grade basketball team that won the city championship had eight players. Three of us graduated from high school. One is dead. Three are in prison. One is a dropout. All but one was black or Hispanic.
The solution lies in a classroom. And the time has never been more urgent. The calling has never been so strong. The stakes never higher.
Forty-six years ago a man had a dream today.
He had a dream that there would one day be an America where his children and your children could be children. Where they could grow up like children and not like slaves. Where they did not live in fear as they did on this day in 1955 when one of their children was taken and brutally murdered. He had a dream that one day America would stand up in the face of its own prejudice, that it would instead follow its own dream as a country.
Forty-six years ago a man stood on the Washington Mall, not one mile from my eighth-floor office in Washington, DC and he spoke of the fierce urgency of now. "We cannot be satisfied," he said. "We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."
Forty-five years later, a man lived that dream. He stood at the Invesco Field in Denver, Colorado and accepted the nomination of the Democratic party for the Presidency of the United States. In Denver, Colorado he stood on a mountaintop.
Yes we can, he shouted. Yes we can.
And while we stood there, millions of Americans and watched the first man of his color stand and tell us that work still needed to be done, we understood. We understand that he had a dream too. We understand that he had the same dream. Division still exists, whether it be by race, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation or religion. But he had a dream. The things that unite us are far greater than the things that divide us. Yes we can.
He had a dream that one day his two daughters will live in a country where they can do what he has done. That his two daughters can look at their father and say he was just another step in an enduring journey that led to America being the beacon of hope in the world. Just another step in the perfection of a country that stood on principle instead of monarchy. Yes, we can, he said.
One year later he has won that election and taken that post. By virtue of him standing there millions of people who never before believed they could lead are leading. Millions of children relegated to careers as NBA stars and entertainers now want to be President. Millions of young adults and college graduates are changing the world and not just dreaming.
Never underestimate the ability of a small group of dedicated people to change the world. It's the only thing that ever has. But there's still work to do. Imagine if there was a large group of dedicated people and then a larger one. Imagine if a country said, "we've had enough," and decided to change. Imagine if America looked at the Man in the Mirror. Now change the world.
He had a dream today. And he had a dream. And he did not die in vain.
"God of our weary years, God of our silent tears - Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream."
[More]
He had a dream that there would one day be an America where his children and your children could be children. Where they could grow up like children and not like slaves. Where they did not live in fear as they did on this day in 1955 when one of their children was taken and brutally murdered. He had a dream that one day America would stand up in the face of its own prejudice, that it would instead follow its own dream as a country.
Forty-six years ago a man stood on the Washington Mall, not one mile from my eighth-floor office in Washington, DC and he spoke of the fierce urgency of now. "We cannot be satisfied," he said. "We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."
Forty-five years later, a man lived that dream. He stood at the Invesco Field in Denver, Colorado and accepted the nomination of the Democratic party for the Presidency of the United States. In Denver, Colorado he stood on a mountaintop.
Yes we can, he shouted. Yes we can.
And while we stood there, millions of Americans and watched the first man of his color stand and tell us that work still needed to be done, we understood. We understand that he had a dream too. We understand that he had the same dream. Division still exists, whether it be by race, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation or religion. But he had a dream. The things that unite us are far greater than the things that divide us. Yes we can.
He had a dream that one day his two daughters will live in a country where they can do what he has done. That his two daughters can look at their father and say he was just another step in an enduring journey that led to America being the beacon of hope in the world. Just another step in the perfection of a country that stood on principle instead of monarchy. Yes, we can, he said.
One year later he has won that election and taken that post. By virtue of him standing there millions of people who never before believed they could lead are leading. Millions of children relegated to careers as NBA stars and entertainers now want to be President. Millions of young adults and college graduates are changing the world and not just dreaming.
Never underestimate the ability of a small group of dedicated people to change the world. It's the only thing that ever has. But there's still work to do. Imagine if there was a large group of dedicated people and then a larger one. Imagine if a country said, "we've had enough," and decided to change. Imagine if America looked at the Man in the Mirror. Now change the world.
He had a dream today. And he had a dream. And he did not die in vain.
"God of our weary years, God of our silent tears - Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream."