“I have a dream…”
I would suspect that most of us only need to hear those four words to know that we’re talking about a very specific moment in history. A moment in 1963 when 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC to show their government and the world that the segregation of Black Americans had to end. A moment when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr would speak those four words and they would be cemented into our collective consciousnesses and would change the course of history.
But did you know that those words would never have been spoken in that moment to that enormous crowd if it were not for the actions, the passion, and the talents of another much less famous man – Bayard Rustin.
Bayard Rustin was a Quaker who grew up steeped in the values of peace, justice and equality for all people. As a young black man in America, however, he had experienced oppressive and violent racism. He knew he wanted, he needed, things to change. But he also knew that he needed to stay true to the core principle of his pacifist Quaker faith. So, he traveled to India to study non-violent resistance from Mahatmas Ghandi and his followers.
Ghandi’s decades long, non-violent campaign opposing colonial rule in India had finally succeeded with India and Pakistan gaining independence and Rustin wanted to learn how a nonviolent resistance could lead to the overthrowing of an Empire.
There are many of us that fall into thinking that nonviolence is the same as inaction, but friends, nothing could be farther from the truth. Inaction generally leads to apathy and the feeling that no one has the means to actually impact or change the powers that be. Non-violent resistance on the other hand, is the taking of intentional and deliberate peaceful action to bring about social and political change. This includes things like sit-ins, marches, hunger-strikes, boycotts, picketing…. The larger goal of non-violent resistance is to convince the people acting in violent, racist, oppressive ways that their actions are wrong and no longer being tolerated. The core concept roots itself in the truth that people aren’t the enemy in non-violent movements, rather the ignorance that leads to harmful acts, laws and mindsets is.
While he was in India, Rustin came to believe even more deeply that non-violent resistance was the only way to win true equality for Black Americans, and at the same time win over the hearts and minds of the majority of White Americans.
And then one day he had an epiphany… He came to understand that people who cared about changing unjust systems needed to become troublemakers for the higher good. “We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers,” Rustin said. “Our power is in our ability to make things unworkable. Not with any weapons because that is not our weapon. The only weapon we have is our bodies. And we need to tuck them into places so wheels don’t turn.”
Upon his return to the US, Rustin got involved in the civil rights movement and its leaders. He convinced Dr. King that non-violence was the philosophy that could guide the movement to success. Rustin became Dr. King’s most trusted advisor, because of his practical knowledge of non-violent techniques and also for his impressive organizational skills. The March On Washington, which Rustin planned in eight weeks, was a brilliant culmination of his decades of learning and work with non-violent resistance theory on behalf of racial reconciliation and equality. And he did this, an event that drew 250,000 people, without a single Facebook post, text message, or email!
It’s hard for me to imagine giving a sermon to hundreds of thousands of people, but Rev. King, a powerfully charismatic preacher was prepared for the moment. Backed by a text that had been recorded thousands of years earlier, a text that people of faith would have been deeply familiar with, one that we still hear when we gather together today – “I have a dream,” he said, “that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places shall be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” The words of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 40, verses 3-5.
Now, it helps to remember that one of the roles of a prophet is to speak God’s expectation and desires into a world that is hurting and broken, even when it makes people of power uncomfortable. This is not relegated just to the ‘ancient days of yore” but continue continues to happen in our day and time. Goodness, it happened just two weeks ago. You can generally tell that someone is a prophet who is speaking truth to power when the words they share, often direct quotes from scripture, cause the powerful, those with authority and privilege lose their minds. We mentioned this powerhouse of an Episcopalian bishop last week and we are going to revisit her in just a minute today.
In the case of Isaiah and his disciples, they were speaking to a people who were persecuted and exiled desperately looking for reasons to hope. They had been forcibly removed from their homeland when the Babylonian Empire conquered the nation of Judah. And for several generations the people lived as refugees. These three verses, the ones that Dr. King quoted and we heard read this morning, are just a snippet of what is in reality call after call for justice and peace to roll. Sixty-six chapters to be exact and they include some of the most beautiful imagery in all of scripture all proclaiming what God’s dream looks like in human terms.
God’s dream, of course, isn’t for a perfectly flat landscape. I meant he prairies are beautiful, and the joke about watching your dog run away for three days never gets old. But imagine a world without the Rocky Mountains, the grand canyon, Niagara Falls, without the cool hills you drive through on your way to Drumheller, imagining the dinosaurs there millions of years ago.
Of course, what the prophets are talking about here isn’t a new topography but rather a new and just society where God’s expectation for all people to be treated equally is realized. Where the poor will be lifted up out of poverty. Where the rich will share their wealth so that all people are fed, clothed, and safely housed. Where systems, laws, and barriers can be altered and lifted so that the gap between the 1% and the poor disappears.
Now I know there are some that say that you shouldn’t talk about sex, money or politics in church. But I remind you that the Bible is absolutely packed full of talk about sex, money and politics. I know, I know…. I don’t love it either. It can be painfully inconvenient. But if our holy scriptures are here to remind us that we are beloved and if we are to use them to guide our steps as we figure out how to be God’s people then we need to dig into those readings where things get really political. Or rather, where things hold politics and those in positions of power, authority and privilege accountable.
Last week we heard the words of Bishop Budde in relation to Paul’s call to be a community of faith. She spoke the word of God gently, calmly and faithfully, not only to a president but to a nation making it perfectly clear to one of the most powerful political forces in the world what God’s requirement of ALL people, including the government, is. “What does the Lord require of you, O Mortal, but to seek justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Naturally, her words drew swift ire from the powerful who took aim at her title, qualifications, gender, entertainment value, and her life. But in the words of Rev. Benjamin Cremer “If you are upset by a woman prophetically speaking truth to power, let me introduce you to Jesus’ mom: God has brough down the ruler from their thrones and has lifted up the humble. God has filled the hungry with good things and has sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1: 52-53)
While Bishop Budde may be our most recent Holy Troublemaker, she is not our first, and I know, by the work of the Spirit, she will not be the last. But it does feel timely and important to turn our eyes to some of the unconventional saints that God has sent us. God sent the prophets of generations long past – Isaiah and Micah, Joel and Jeremiah. God also sent Dr King and Bayard Rustin, along with Valarie Kaur, Rumi, Gustavo Gutiérrez, and Bishop Budde. And who knows, maybe we are raising a few prophets of our own, after all Rustin did say “We need in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.” He never mentioned their age…
So for the next three weeks let’s say we dig deep into God’s expectations of us as a people of faith, as people who happen to be living in a time of uncertainty and misinformation. Let us absorb our holy words of Scripture and find ways, using the examples of those who have gone before us, to live out our faith boldly.
Amen.
