A Dream Deferred

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

Like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore -

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over

Like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

Like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

James Mercer Langston Hughes 

 

Every year on the anniversary of Dr. King's birth commentators ask if we have fulfilled his dream. Of course not.

We have all come so far as a nation. African Americans have accomplished so much with judicial and legislative support. And we want recognition and commendation for that. And some want permission to stop working for change and don't want to hear anything about justice.

But there is still injustice in our world and in this nation: There is still bias against African Americans, bias against immigrants, particularly Latinos, bias against lesbian and gay folk. And there is still crushing poverty around the world and here in the US. 

The dream of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is the dream of God: The reign of God; the beloved community. We will get there. But we are not there yet.

There Will Never Be Another

There will never be another Rev. Dr. Martin (neé Michael) Luther King, Jr. Sometimes I think folk are looking for a successor, an Elisha to his Elijah. I see it in the media's obsession of identifying a Black American spokesman. And I see it in the King-era civil rights workmen (and I mean men) clamoring for that mantle. I see it in the struggles of Dr. King's children for his legacy and the not inconsiderable profits from that legacy.
There is no single successor, no single heir to his mantle. I believe that we are all heirs to his prophetic mantle just as we are all heirs to his legacy. I am reminded of the words from Numbers 11:29, "Would that all the people of God were prophets."
I ascribe to both the "priesthood of all believers" and to specific God-ordained clergy vocations. In the same way I believe that we are all called to prophetic speech and action and that there are some vocational prophets called and set apart by God.
The dreams and visions of Blessed Martin have not yet come to pass. He will not come back to give them birth. We who have inherited his legacy and mantle have also inherited the responsibility to midwife his dreams and visions. We have so much work to do. We should not pass his legacy, mantle and our responsibility on to the next generation with so much yet undone.